YES! Weekly - September 23, 2020

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SEPTEMBER 23-29, 2020 VOLUME 16, NUMBER 39

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SEPTEMBER 23-29, 2020

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

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Publisher CHARLES A. WOMACK III publisher@yesweekly.com

A NEW MURAL has popped up on the edge of downtown and North Winston, and it’s enough to catch the eye of drivers passing by, but the artist hopes its message will stick with them further down the road. “We are where we belong,” said artist Georgie Nakima of her mural, “Synergy.”

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

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KATEI CRANFORD

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PAM COOK

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

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Last Tuesday, the Greensboro City Council did what the Greensboro Police Officers Association recommended, and voted 5-4 against requiring signed written consent for police searches. It looked like it would go the other way, until District 1’s SHARON HIGHTOWER changed her mind.

6 The seventh annual OUT AT THE MOVIES International Film Festival will proceed according to plan, opening Oct. 1 and running through Oct. 4, coinciding – as previous festivals also have – with LGBTQ History Month.

7 When Senators Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders came out in favor of free COLLEGE for every eligible student, a lot of conservative politicians suggested that such a program is impractical. And so, the Warren/Sanders plan sits on the shelf, while young people continue to rack up mounds of debt.

12 Most wives aren’t asked to write about their husband, but then, most husbands aren’t celebrating a half-century in broadcasting either, so I’m honored to oblige. I’m also glad that I can bring some

attention to the accomplishments of a man who never brags about himself. In addition to producing and hosting a long running television program, JIM LONGWORTH is also an author, columnist, public speaker, and moderator, and hardly a day goes by that he’s not on the phone with a high-level politician, CEO, or Hollywood A-lister. Of course, he hasn’t always been so well connected and accomplished, but he was always willing to try.

13 Greensboro’s SCUPPERNONG BOOKS, which opened seven years ago at 304 S. Elm St., isn’t going anywhere in the real world but is leaving a major part of the virtual one. Steve Mitchell recently told YES! Weekly that he and co-owner Brian Lampkin are largely done with Facebook.

14 Mixing elements of heritage and genre, in tune with body and space, the third record from QUILLA— the artistic persona from Montreal-born Anna Luisa Daigneault— serves as a vessel for expression and empowerment in a time of dystopia, laid amongst dance floor beats.

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

DISTRIBUTION JANICE GANTT KYLE MUNRO SHANE MERRIMAN 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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September 23-29, 2020

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Greensboro City Council votes against written consent

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Ian McDowell

Contributor

ast Tuesday, the Greensboro City Council did what the Greensboro Police Officers Association recommended, and voted 5-4 against requiring signed written consent for police searches. It looked like it would go the other way, until District 1’s Sharon Hightower changed

her mind.

The motion to require written consent was made by District 5’s Tammi Thurm and seconded by At-Large Representative Michelle Kennedy, based on a recommendation from the Greensboro Criminal Justice Advisory Committee (GCJAC).

District 3’s Justin Outling and Mayor Pro Tem Yvonne Johnson also voted for it.

Reversing their positions at the Aug. 11 work session, Mayor Nancy Vaughan and District 4’s Nancy Hoffman voted against it. So did District 2’s Goldie Wells, and AtLarge Representative Marikay Abuzuaiter.

The latter was no surprise. Abuzuaiter has vehemently opposed the recommendation. In February, she angrily stated that the idea of “micro-managing” the GPD gave her “heartburn.” At Tuesday’s meeting, she condemned the idea of telling the police “how to run their department” and stated that “Chief James has only been police chief for six months; let him do his job.”

Abuzuaiter’s progressive critics have long accused her of being not only a GPD defender but a “police spy.” In 2013, Eric Ginsburg reported for YES! Weekly that email correspondence between Abuzuaiter and the GPD indicated she was acting as a Confidential Informant while serving on city council.

Both Abuzuaiter and Wells have been criticized for their responses to the fatal GPD hogtying of Marcus Deon Smith, of which Abuzuaiter stated that the restraint may have been necessary because drugs had given him “superman strength” and Wells said, “maybe it was just his time to die” (a remark she has subsequently apologized for making). But Hightower, a frequent critic of the GPD, both in that incident and others, joined Abuzuaiter and Wells in voting against written consent, although she expressed much more YES! WEEKLY

SEPTEMBER 23-29, 2020

Screenshots of District 2 Representative Goldie Wells (above) and At-Large Representative Marikay Abuzuaiter (right) during the Greensboro City Council Zoom meeting on Sept. 15 ambivalence. She stated she believed the GPD has a fundamental problem with racial disparity in searches, but that she did not feel this would do anything to correct it.

On Aug. 14, three days after the work session determined that the resolution would be formally brought before council on Sept. 16, Amiel Rossabi sent an open letter to the mayor and city council.

Rossabi is the attorney for the attorney for the Greensboro Police Officers Association (GPOA). In the letter Rossabi stated, “the City Council chose a politically motivated and harmful gesture in order to cater to a relatively small, but vocal, group of antipolice activists.”

Greensboro police officers are required to tell citizens that, in the absence of probable cause, they can refuse a police search, and to record the interaction in which they make that statement on their body-worn cameras. Currently, there is no standard-

ized language for conveying that information. As Chief Brian James acknowledged at last Tuesday’s meeting, officers are not required to tell citizens that they can withdraw consent at any time, even though the law states they can.

A written consent form would not only standardize the language and explicitly state that consent can be withdrawn at any time, but would allow the person searched acknowledge that they had been so instructed. Councilmember Thurm and Kennedy argued this would remove any ambiguity from the encounter and increase transparency.

At last Tuesday’s meeting, Greensboro Police Chief Brian James stated that, if written consent were required, officers

would have to “go back to the car, get the form and read it to the person,” a process he called both “convoluted and difficult.”

Wells repeatedly stated that, because all interactions are recorded on body-worn cameras, such a form is not necessary.

She said “there’s no need to put another burden on these police,” whom she called “stellar.” She criticized what she called the “grilling of our new chief” and accused council of “nitpicking one thing after another.”

“Rely on the body cameras,” Wells said.

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“That piece of paper doesn’t mean a whole lot. When you see, it is better!”

Wells did not mention how difficult it can be in Greensboro to get body cam footage seen, or how council members can be forbidden to discuss such footage even when they are allowed to see it. This happened with the videos that allegedly depict multiple GPD officers conspiring to falsely arrest Zared Jones, which council members have refused to view because they cannot discuss that footage without possibly being jailed.

Mayor Vaughan stated that she felt that requiring written consent would be “a step backward” from recording consent on body-worn cameras, to which Kennedy responded that it was not an either/or proposition.

Hightower said she feared “unintended consequences for Black people” if written consent was required, and expressed concern that it would result in police finding more excuses for probable cause. Mayor Vaughan and Wells both stated that, after written consent was required in Durham, probable cause searches increased.

Kennedy had addressed this very concern at the Aug. 11 work session, at which she said that, in Durham, “their total searches of cars have fallen by 44% comprehensively. There was a transition period as everyone adjusted to that change, but ultimately, the number of searches in Durham is down dramatically.”

At the Sept. 15 meeting, Wells said she did not believe that enacting written consent would “result in having less Black people stopped by the police.” Chief James contradicted this at another point in the conversation, in which he stated that, based on his conversation with officers, “they would be less likely to try to search the vehicle if we layer in a consent form.”

Unlike Wells and Hightower, he did not appear to regard that prospect as a good thing, stating, as he has in the past, “the majority of crime is in Black neighborhoods.”

Despite her ambivalence and skepticism, Hightower stated she intended to vote in favor of written consent, as like District 3’s Justin Outling, she believed it would at least increase transparency.

But this intention changed after Mayor Vaughan said that, instead of a written consent form, she would propose a policy of “informed documented consent—” with the documentation coming, as it does now, from the body-worn cameras.

“We should be training our police officers to make sure that people know they have the right to refuse,” Vaughan said, “and that they have the right to withdraw consent.” She also said “we have to have standardized language. That’s what we should be saying we want our police department WWW.YESWEEKLY.COM

to have, not written consent.”

The mayor’s proposal appeared to sway Hightower back to her original opposition. If Hightower had voted according to her previously stated intention, written consent would have passed 5 to 4.

After council voted 5 to 4 against requiring written consent, Mayor Vaughan immediately made her own motion for what she called Informed Documented Consent.

After Hoffman seconded it, Abuzuaiter argued against the idea of standardized language, stating her belief that officers should be allowed to express it in their own personalized way.

Outling said that he did not see the “prospective utility” in this, at it did not have the transparency of written consent, and he did not support it— Kennedy and Thurm also voting against it.

On Wednesday, Mayor Vaughan gave YES! Weekly the following statement.

“GCJAC took this issue up at the request of council. It was an issue that Tammi Thurm wanted more information on. It is the only recommendation that council has received, so far, from GCJAC. We did take their suggestion of standardized language.

The Chief committed to changing the GPD directive and communicating clear expectations to the entire GPD. Body-

worn camera footage will be retained for a minimum of three years.”

Thurm and Kennedy also sent statements.

“It is difficult to watch the hard work of data compilation and best practice assessment completed by GCJAC be pushed aside,” Kennedy wrote in an email. “A core purpose of GCJAC is to provide recommendations to Council for improved police policies and protocols. If we have no intention of accepting those recommendations, then we should stop acting as though we’re interested in what the data, and the people, are telling us.”

“I was terribly disappointed with tonight’s vote,” Thurm noted. “As a council, we missed an opportunity to take a small step towards building trust between the GPD and our residents. While written consent failed, I am glad officers will at least be required to tell people they have the right to say ‘No’ to a search request or that they can stop a search in progress.”

On social media, Black organizers expressed not only disappointment but anger.

“City Council failed us” was the title of a Facebook livestream by Casey Thomas, Tyler Walker and Kay Brown of Greensboro Rising.

“I am so furious,” were Thomas’s first

words. “That was bullshit, start to finish” were Walker’s.

In other Facebook post, young Black activist posted variations of the statement “our Black elders have failed us once again.”

Kay Brown, who is also a member of Guilford For All, gave YES! Weekly the following statement: “There are times in this country where we have face challenges that we think are insurmountable. There are times where progress feels uncomfortable. I hope that the next time we face an opportunity to move toward progress and equity as a city that we take it and embrace it. I was very disappointed that written consent did not pass and extremely disappointed. Black people in this city deserve a Greensboro that doesn’t feed into bias, fear and inequity. This fight will continue and we will never give up on moving this community forward and not back. What the mayor did was an overstep felt like a slap in the face to the over 6,000 people that engaged on this issue and the 2,500 people that have protested in the streets.” !

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.

SEPTEMBER 23-29, 2020

YES! WEEKLY

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he seventh annual OUT at the Movies International Film Festival will proceed according to plan, opening Oct. 1 and running through Oct. 4, coinciding – Mark Burger as previous festivals also have with LGBTQ History Month.

Contributor There are 28 films scheduled for this year’s event, which kicks off with the Shorts Program at Winston-Salem’s Marketplace Cinemas drive-in facility (2095 Peters Creek Pkwy.) on Oct. 1, followed by the lakeside showing of the feature documentary Surviving the Silence at the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art (750 Marguerite Dr., in Winston-Salem) on Oct. 2.

These would be the only “in-person” screenings of this year’s festival, and the remainder of this year’s films would be available online beginning Oct. 2. Many include bonus interviews with the filmmakers.

“I am really happy with the quality of this year’s line-up,” said co-founder and director of OUT at the Movies, Rex Welton. “Although due to COVID-19 we received fewer submissions, we had a really difficult time selecting the 28 films in the festival, (but) we have some terrific feature and short films, both narratives and documentaries. Our audience and documentary and narrative jurors are going to have some tough decisions to make when selecting their favorites. There are many terrific films and some powerhouse performances.”

That the festival would actually take place may surprise some, given the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Welton said the decision was made after careful deliberation, with the safety and health of the audience of paramount concern.

“The OUT at the Movies board did discuss the possibility of skipping this year’s festival,” he said. “However, after talking with folks from across the country, we decided to forge ahead with the seventh annual OUT at the Movies International Film Festival and our first, mostly-digital festival.”

But even if the festival had been canceled, it would not have meant its end.

“Had we made the decision to cancel this year’s festival, we would most certainly have survived. We are a 501(c)(3) organization with no overhead or staffing exYES! WEEKLY

SEPTEMBER 23-29, 2020

‘OUT’ is on: Let the festival begin

pense, (and) we have loyal and supportive sponsors, donors, audience members, and volunteers.”

Nevertheless, Welton confessed to a mixture of gratitude and relief that this year’s event is going forward.

“It would be very safe to say that,” he said. “As far as our future, I believe that virtual and outdoor screenings will be an important part of our ‘new normal.’”

Earlier this year, OUT at the Movies enjoyed success with its virtual screenings of Circus of Books and For They Know Not What They Do, as well as last month’s screening of The Birdcage (1996) at Marketplace Drive-In, so the signs were encouraging that OUT audiences were willing to adapt to a new format.

“Combined ticket sales of our screening of The Birdcage were among the most sold at any of their screenings this summer,” Welton said. “It was certainly as successful as any of our in-person, in-theater screenings of the past and, hopefully, future.

We are thrilled to have a new partner in Marketplace Cinemas. (Manager) Zack Fox and his team made our first drive-in screening a breeze. All we had to do was select the movie and promote it. They did the rest!”

Fox, whose own short film Sea Salt Wind will be screened in the Shorts Program, reciprocates the sentiment.

“Rex and his team are wonderful to work with,” he said. “We first partnered with OUT for The Birdcage at our drive-in, and the turn-out was splendid. One of the few highlights this summer has been working with local festivals such as RiverRun, Wreak Havoc Horror Festival, OUT at the Movies — and bringing them to our drivein, offering much-needed entertainment and joy that only their festivals can bring to the Triad.”

“It’s been a tough summer for all of us, but our business relationships and friendships have strengthened during COVID and 2020,” Fox continued. “I truly look forward to what 2021 brings for us and working with these festivals again and again.”

Tickets for the drive-in Shorts Program are available online at https://mpcwsdrivein.simpletix.com/.

“We will be selling individual tickets ($10) for each feature film and each shorts package,” Welton said. “This year’s festival will include 14 features and 14 shorts, including two shorts – Sea Salt Wind and The Surprise – which were filmed entirely or partly in WinstonSalem. The Surprise will precede our screening of Surviving the Silence Oct. 2, lakeside at SECCA.” That screening will feature filmmaker Cindy L. Abel in person, as well as a prerecorded Q&A session featuring three of the film’s subjects, Col. Margarethe Cammermeyer, Barbara Brass, and Col. Patsy Thompson, following the screening.

There will also be a reception for Abel at a nearby private residence following the event, with complimentary hors d’oeuvres and a cash bar. Attendance will be limited, so reservations are required.

Surviving the Silence is Abel’s followup to her much-acclaimed 2013 feature documentary debut Breaking Through, which focused on openly gay politicians as they candidly discussed their lives and political careers.

In Surviving the Silence, Abel turns her cameras on members of the United States Armed Forces who put their careers and reputations at risk by coming out.

“It is a great documentary,” Welton remarked.

Cammermeyer’s story was dramatized in the 1995 NBC-T.V. film Sworn to Silence: The Margarethe Cammermeyer Story, for which Glenn Close (as Cammermeyer) and Judy Davis (as her partner, Diane Divelbess) won Emmy Awards.

Abel enjoyed the film but wanted to bring audiences up to date, not just with Cammermeyer but also with the larger issue of LGBTQ people serving in the military, which remains a topic of controversy, and how opinion has changed – or not – over the years.

It is, as Abel calls it, “the story behind

the story, (and) we are the first to reveal this story on film.” Abel had been invited to screen Breaking Through at Sierra College in California and, during the postscreening reception, was introduced to Col. Thompson and her partner, Barbara Brass.

“I was both impressed and intrigued at how two people – especially when pretending at times not to be together – stay in love and together for 30 years.

How does love grow when it has to be hidden? How does it survive when the phones connecting them during long separations are tapped, and their mail might be read,” Abel said. “The more I learned about Patsy, Barbara, and Grethe’s individual backgrounds, the more I understood how they developed their strength ad drew upon that to meet the moment when their worlds collided and history asked them to make an impossible choice.”

The subjects of the film were willing to revisit painful times in their past in order for the viewer to gain a better understanding of their experiences.

“Amazingly, Thompson, Brass, and Cammermeyer were all very open in sharing their anger, their pain, their joy, and their determination to helping fulfill the promise of America,” Abel said. “I say ‘amazingly’ because there is a psychic toll – a price paid emotionally – by those bearing the burden of LGBTQ conditioning, forced to hide, mask, conceal, and constantly look over one’s shoulder. To go through what each of these women did, to create their own path to freedom and healing, and emerge from the shadows to be of service is really remarkable.”

“The main things I would like audiences to gain from the film are its core themes,” Abel added. “Love can win, and we can ‘find a way to make a way out of no way,’ as Congressman John Lewis said, just as Col. Patsy Thompson did, quietly and behind the scenes, and ended up playing a part in changing military policy. I also hope that it provides honor and respect for those who lived similar stories, and provides some healing that their sacrifice is no longer ignored.” !

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

WANNA

go?

For more information, call (336)918-0902 or email rex@outatthemovies.org. For a complete schedule of events and ticket information, visit the official OUT at the Movies website, https:// outatthemovies.org/.

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voices‘College Guarantee’

program in full swing

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hen Senators Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders came out in favor of free college for every eligible student, a lot of conservative politicians suggested that Jim Longworth such a program is impractical. And so, the Warren/Sanders Longworth plan sits on the shelf, at Large while young people continue to rack up mounds of debt.

Meanwhile, as the pandemic dictates remote learning for many college students, some parents are lobbying for a partial tuition refund to help ease their financial burden. Hopefully, the debate over the cost of higher education will eventually be resolved, but in the meantime, one Triad-area partnership is proactively removing barriers to college and career for thousands of young people.

Last week, Forsyth Tech President Janet Spriggs and Winston-Salem Mayor Allen Joines appeared on Triad Today to talk about the “College Guarantee” program they created, and the “Hope and Opportunity” scholarships available through that program.

JL: Allen, what is the College Guarantee program all about, and why was it developed?

AJ: Jim, we’ve got a comprehensive effort to reduce poverty in our community, and we felt like one of the best ways to break that cycle is to help disadvantaged young people be able to go to college.

And so we put together this program where any young person who graduates from high school in Forsyth County, and wants to go to Forsyth Tech, but can’t afford it, can go absolutely free – tuition, books, fees, even some money in there for transportation and child care, so Dr. Spriggs can take them for two years, turn them around, and get a great career going.

JL: Janet, what’s the criteria for students to be selected for the program?

JS: Well, the first criteria is that they graduate from a Forsyth County high school, and the next criteria is based on income. We have them fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), and that tells us what their WWW.YESWEEKLY.COM

estimated family contribution will be. We then base their award on that estimated family contribution. It’s also important to note that this is a last dollar scholarship, so we use that FAFSA data to determine if there’s federal or other scholarship aid available to the student before the College Guarantee money is applied, in order to make their money go further. If we can use federal aid to cover tuition and maybe books, then we can apply the Hope and Opportunity scholarship to help them stay in school, by helping with transportation and childcare as the Mayor mentioned.

JL: How’s that been working thus far?

JS: We had almost 1,100 students that qualified this year who we reached out to and recruited. As of yesterday, we had 696 of them who registered at Forsyth Tech.

JL: How is this program being funded?

AJ: Well Janet and I sat down and figured out what it would take to run this for six years, because we didn’t want it to just be a drop in the bucket, so we came up with a number. I then went to Kelly King, the CEO with BB&T (now Truist) and made a pitch to Kelly. He’s very interested in addressing poverty, and Truist gave us a grant that covers the program for a full six-year period.

JL: Janet, What role will community colleges play in bringing us out of this Pandemic-related economic downturn?

JS: I think we’re going to be a critical player in that regard. We always are whenever we’ve been in a recessionary period. The community college system in North Carolina has been a driver for economic recovery, with the workforce preparedness and workforce development required to rebuild and re-stimulate the economy, and to prepare workers for the new jobs that always come out of any recessionary economic time.

JL: And Allen, this program is also going to bode well for our future economy if these kids go to college, right?

AJ: Absolutely, we estimate these kids will be making $40,000 or $50,000 a year, and if you think about the fact that we’re going to help 2,600 to 3,000 of these young people, so that’s going to have a major impact on our economy.

For more information about the “Hope and Opportunity” scholarships, visit www. forsythtech.edu/hope !

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JIM LONGWORTH is the host of Triad Today, airing on Saturdays at 7:30 a.m. on ABC45 (cable channel 7) and Sundays at 11 a.m. on WMYV (cable channel 15).

SEPTEMBER 23-29, 2020

YES! WEEKLY

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hot pour PRESENTS

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

BARTENDER: Kathryn “Kat” Vale; pretty much everyone calls me Kat. BAR: Camel City BBQ Factory, located in Downtown Winston Salem in the Arts District.

AGE: 24 WHERE ARE YOU FROM? I was born and raised here in the Dash City.

HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN BARTENDING? I have been bartending roughly for a little over two years; it’s given me some of the best memories and friends of my life, honestly.

HOW DID YOU BECOME A BARTENDER? I started to bartend when I was working as a server and occasionally lent a hand to help if one of the other bartenders needed a shift covered. It only took a few bartending shifts before I fell in love, and I decided I wanted to go to bartending school. For those that are interested in becoming a bartender or just getting their official bartenders license, I went to the ABC school in Greensboro — they come highly recommended.

WHAT DO YOU ENJOY ABOUT BARTENDING? I think that what I enjoy most are the conversations that I get to hear and be apart of. They vary from all sorts of conversations such as sports, best bars for a certain type of vibe/style, your typical everyday conversations to helping settle “bets” of the legal variety of course ha.

This is really the only time in my life where I like to be surprised because you never really know what you are going to hear or see in a shift.

WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE DRINK TO MAKE? It really depends how much time I have on my hands, but most recently, I love making a Devil’s margarita.

The recipe for it is 1.5 oz Blanco tequila, 1 oz fresh lime juice, ¾ oz simple syrup, 0.5 oz red wine (ideally it will be fruitymedium bodied – I like to put mine with a cabernet), garnished with a lime. Don’t forget to layer the wine on top. The other drink that is really my favorite to make is a Spiced Apple Old Fashioned. The ingredients are 2 oz bourbon (I prefer rye bourbon, but it can be made with either. The rye just gives it a more intensified flavor), 1 oz apple syrup, 2-3 dashes cinnamon bitters, freshly squeezed lemon (one lemon is ideal), apple chip to garnish.

YES! WEEKLY

SEPTEMBER 23-29, 2020

leisure [NEWS OF THE WEIRD] AWESOME!

Florida real estate agent Kristen Kearney was inundated with interest in a condo she listed in Lake Worth after photos of the $100,000 property and its Budweiser beer can Chuck Shepherd decor went viral. The former owner, now deceased, made it “his life’s mission to wallpaper his home in beer cans, and he did it,” Kearney said. “He even created a crown molding look with the cans.” United Press International reported every wall and ceiling in the condo is covered with actual beer cans, except the bathroom.

Kearney said the property is under contract with a backup offer.

WHAT WOULD YOU RECOMMEND AS AN AFTER-DINNER DRINK? That really depends on what you had for dinner; in my opinion, normally I would recommend a nice glass of red wine or bourbon. This is one of those occasions where I like to keep it short and sweet. I like to keep it as dry as I can, but I know a lot of people who like to go for those “dessert wines”.

WHAT’S THE CRAZIEST THING YOU’VE SEEN WHILE BARTENDING? You really can’t ask me to pick what the craziest thing I’ve seen is because they are all out there. But I will have to go with what I guess is the most recent. **Fair warning this is a little gross for those who have a weaker stomach** I saw a girl try and take a tequila shot; this did not end well for her. She took half of it then started to throw up into the glass then take the rest of the shot, which had a bit of her spit-up in it— she told me that she doesn’t waste any alcohol, more power to her, ha!

WHAT’S THE BEST TIP YOU’VE EVER GOTTEN? The biggest tip that I have ever gotten was when the popular ‘movement’ of tip the bill challenge was going around, their bill was $200, and they left me $200. I went back to them to make sure that they wanted to tip this much, even though they added the #tipthebill. This really took my breath away because they always say its when you least expect things in life that they come to you with great wealth or prosperity.

Cheers to all my fellow bartenders out there!

INEXPLICABLE

A man identifying himself as Jesus Christ appeared before Rickergate court in Carlisle, England, on Sept. 15 after being arrested by British Transport Police on suspicion that he did not buy a ticket to ride a train from Edinburgh to Carlisle. When asked to state a plea, the man replied, “There is a not guilty plea; I don’t need to plead,” the News & Star reported. In response to a request for his address, he said: “No fixed abode, or Yellow House, Albion, Mauritius.”

The bearded defendant wore a hood and a green blindfold throughout his hearing; he was returned to custody as prosecutors considered his case.

Jimmy Senda of Racine, Wisconsin, takes a walk along the beach on Lake Michigan every morning, where he collects “sea glass and random stuff — because I like to do artwork at home with the stuff that I find,” he told FOX6. On Sept. 15, he came across a curious package, “wrapped in aluminum foil, and around it, it had a pink rubber band,” he said. “Curiosity got to me, so I popped it open and it looked like a chicken breast,” but on closer inspection, he determined, “it was a brain.” The package also contained flowers and paper with what appear to be Mandarin characters printed on it. Senda called police, who turned the package over to the Racine County Medical Examiner’s Office and later announced the brain was “not consistent with a human brain,” although they were still trying to determine what kind of animal it came from.

THE PASSING PARADE

GOVERNMENT IN ACTION

COME AGAIN?

WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE DRINK TO DRINK? Tequila with a splash of fresh lime juice over ice.

physical evidence and Rotter’s electronics over the following weeks, they came to identify Rotter as a suspect, leading to his arrest on Sept. 14, reported NBC5. According to the arrest affidavit, the deputy had been active in a chat room called Discord that night, where he posted that he had “just sent a 9 millie in this ... hippie,” and phone and computer records showed the two had been arguing about the shooting of a milk carton in the backyard before the alleged murder. Rotter was charged with murder and tampering with evidence and is being held on $1.15 million bond in the Denton City Jail.

Windermere, Florida, fifth-grader Ian Golba, 11, visited the principal’s office on Sept. 15 after his teacher asked him to remove his Hooters face mask. “She said it was not appropriate for school and I asked her why and she said if you really want to know why go ask the principal,” Ian told WESH. The principal at Sunset Park Elementary School backed up the teacher, asking Ian three times to remove the mask, which he did. But Greg Golba, Ian’s dad, wants to know what the problem was. “I don’t think it’s offensive at all. It’s just a restaurant,” Greg said.

COMPELLING EXPLANATION

Tarrant County, Texas, Sheriff’s Deputy Jay Allen Rotter, 36, called 911 on Aug. 26 to report that his girlfriend, Leslie Lynn Hartman, 46, had shot herself in the head with his duty weapon as they shared a hug in their bedroom, telling the dispatcher “she is done” and he “would have stopped her if he could have,” according to Denton police. But as police investigators analyzed

Ocean Township, New Jersey, listed the home of 89-year-old Glen Kristi Goldenthal for sale on Sept. 9, foreclosing on the property because Goldenthal owed 6 cents on back taxes from 2019. The tax shortfall had accrued to more than $300, triggering the sale, which alerted Goldenthal’s daughter, Lisa Suhay, in Virginia. NBC New York reported the outraged Suhay began calling everyone in the township’s office to explain that her mother suffers from Alzheimer’s and probably forgot about the bill. Suhay took care of the debt, but for her mother, “(T)his isn’t over ... She’s called me dozens of times in the last 24 hours,” asking about her house and where she’s going to live.

Mayor Christopher Siciliano was apologetic, but Suhay remained incensed: “Shame on anybody who can’t think far outside the box enough to come up with six cents in an office full of people.” !

© 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]

LIVING A LIFE OF E’s

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To ‘Synergy’ and beyond Winston-Salem mural project unveils first masterpiece

A

new mural has popped up on the edge of downtown and North Winston, and it’s enough to catch the eye of drivers passing by— but the artist Katie Murawski hopes its message will stick with them further down the Editor road.

“We are where we belong,” said artist Georgie Nakima of her mural, “Synergy.”

“We are all here. We have something to bring forward and something positive — it gets so easy to get wrapped up in all the negative news and things that are happening, but I guess we wanted to do something that was a positive thought piece so that people could feel togetherness.”

Nakima is a Winston-Salem State University alumna who is now a mural artist based in Charlotte.

“It is really an amazing feeling because I went to school here, and the city has changed so much since I graduated in 2012. It is like a full-circle moment— starting my career here and seeing it evolve into what it is, and seeing other people embracing connectedness is YES! WEEKLY

SEPTEMBER 23-29, 2020

really cool,” she said. “When Max and I were first coordinating, we were both very inspired by what was happening in the world right now, politically. People are charged up from the Black Lives Matter murals that have been popping up all over. A lot of people have had time to think about what is happening and how art can be a unifying tool in it, so we wanted to do something that embraced what this city is, and the personality of it.”

Mural organizers Max Dubinsky and his wife, Lauren, moved to the City of Arts and Innovation three years ago. Max is a screenwriter, editor, and now, a “local mural consultant,” and Lauren is a photographer and the head of social media at The Variable, a Winston-Salem-based creative agency.

“If you don’t live here, it can be difficult to figure out what this city looks like,” said Lauren Dubinsky of WinstonSalem.

Max said they spent the last year and a half taking pictures of places that inspired them around town. The Dubinskys then started the Instagram page, @yestowinstonsalem, and filled it with their pictures to help others moving there navigate the city more easily.

“There is so much cool stuff, so many people are moving here as Winston grows, and we wanted to create an account that viewed Winston through

the eyes of outsiders to help others who might be moving here as well,” Lauren added.

After developing an online following, Max said he used that platform as a springboard to get the mural project started. During their escapades photographing the city, the Dubinskys said they were inspired by the numerous blank walls downtown to start the mural project that brought Nakima’s masterpiece to fruition.

“I saw all the blank walls, so I started calling around to business owners, and I said, ‘are you interested in a mural on the wall,’” Max said. “One of the owners here in Industry Hill responded well to it, and he said he’d actually been in contact with Georgie previously—when I saw her art, I fell in love with it and reached out.”

Max said he believes that street art is a big part of neighborhood revitalization and connecting people together.

“It’s no secret that Winston is divided between downtown and East Winston,” he said. “I think Industry Hill could be a much-needed and inclusive bridge between these two neighborhoods. You should be able to feel and see and celebrate the diversity of our city no matter where you are.”

Nakima and the Dubinskys sent out surveys to Industry Hill’s residents to get an idea of what they would want to see in a mural for their neighborhood.

“From that, I gathered what some of the shared thoughts were, and I feel like a lot of people feel the weight of gentrification,” Nakima said. “A lot of people don’t necessarily see themselves within the growth. So, I wanted to have these three people from three different walks of life that are kind of at three different angles, but they are looking forward.”

Nakima described her mural “Synergy,” located at 901 N. Trade St. on the Winston Junction Market building, as Afro-futuristic and composed of bright, bold colors and geometric patterns.

“The breadth of my work highlights the African diaspora and the Indigenous diaspora— I like for my murals to be a visual narrative so that we see highlighted forms of people who are often seen in negative lights, that is what the subject matter behind my work is,” she said. “It is very futuristic as in, we want to see the changes that we are imagining, but it is also inspired by the present moment and taking all those factors and coming up with something eclectic, colorful and whimsical.”

Max noted that when Nakima was working on the mural, many passers-by would stop and compliment her “showstopping” work of art.

“The amount of people who have driven by here, stopped their car and gotten out and thanked Georgie for what she is doing— it has been so

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amazing to see,” he said. “We knew that there was a good city response when I saw people donating and when I was knocking on doors, and that was cool and affirming. But to see the amount of people driving by every day and stop— I don’t even know how she is getting this far with the amount of people that stop to talk to her.”

Nakima said she prefers for others to interpret her work and is much more interested in what they get from it, instead of explaining it herself.

“The other day, a lady came up to me, and she was like, ‘you have these three different people who are three different ethnicities, but because they are painted in different colors, you can see how they are connected,’” she said. “I want to get people to feel that we are not just seeing our world as black and white; we are seeing it as the full array of the spectrum that it is, and people can kind of still see themselves in it no matter how they look.”

The Dubinskys and Nakima ended up raising $9,000 through grassroots fund-

raising efforts, and the whole process took about four months from start to finish. The mural itself only took three weeks to fully complete.

“I think it was important to get the community to buy in, and I also think that the fundraiser gave the opportunity to see this was happening,” Nakima said.

“You vote with your dollar.”

“I wanted Winston to feel like it owned this mural while being a part of it from start to finish,” Max added.

The goal for this initiative is to make Winston-Salem a public art hub, he said, and that more public art installations could drive national and international artists to Winston-Salem as well as more tourism to the area.

“There is an opportunity for a Wynwood Walls in Winston,” said Max of the outdoor museum in Miami that has become a popular destination for artists. “There is still so much empty space in town— private and public— to invite artists to come and paint on.”

Max said that there is already amazing street art in Winston-Salem, but in his

opinion, it is too spread out, making it hidden to tourists.

“If you are not a local, I feel like you don’t see it when you arrive— you really have to seek it out,” he added. “I am speaking as someone who arrived here, and it took me a long time to actually find the art— you should not be able to miss it in the city that calls itself ‘The City of Arts and Innovation.’”

“The project is for the city to live up to its name, “ Nakima added. “There are some amazing things happening in the midst of all the chaos like I was saying, we want to continue to have more opportunities for artists to express and for creative people, in general, to come together and paint the city.”

Max said the next mural is still to be determined, but he said they already have some artists in mind.

“We are actively looking for partnerships for future projects,” Nakima added.

“I think the goal would be to have other property owners to contact me,” Max said. “There’s so much work that goes into a successful mural behind the

scenes from fundraising to surveying the neighborhood to problem-solving certain unexpected issues like locating scaffolding or re-directing traffic. And most importantly, making sure the artist feels welcomed and supported. Now that we know about these things, the next one will happen faster and be even more successful.” !

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 self-proclaimed King of Glamp.

WANNA

go?

Check out more of Georgie Nakima’s artwork on Instagram, @gardenofjourney and on her website, www.gardenofjourney.com. “Synergy” is now on display at 901 N. Trade St. in Winston-Salem. Check out Max and Lauren Dubinsky’s Instagram account, @yestowinstonsalem for more information about their mural project and to see some of their photography of the City of Arts and Innovation.

Artist and Winston-Salem State University alumna Georgie Nakima (@gardenofjourney) painting “Synergy” on 901 N. Trade St. in Winston-Salem WWW.YESWEEKLY.COM

SEPTEMBER 23-29, 2020

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Jim Longworth marks 50 years on-air

BY PAM COOK Most wives aren’t asked to write about their husband, but then, most husbands aren’t celebrating a half-century in broadcasting either, so I’m honored to oblige. I’m also glad that I can bring some attention to the accomplishments of a man who never brags about himself. In addition to producing and hosting a long running television program, Jim Longworth is also an author, columnist, public speaker, and moderator, and hardly a day goes by that he’s not on the phone with a high-level politician, CEO, or Hollywood A-lister. Of course, he hasn’t always been so well connected and accomplished, but he was always willing to try.

“I was just 2 years old, and my favorite show was The Adventures of Superman,” Jim recalled. “On one episode, the Man of Steel lifted a car up off the ground, so I attempted to lift our sofa up off the ground.

The doctor said I was the youngest hernia patient he’d ever had.”

Gradually, Jim learned how to watch T.V. without it leading to surgery. He also learned how to be on T.V., and he’s been on air somewhere every week for the past 50 years.

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“The late Gene Overby, then sports anchor for WSJS-T.V. (now WXII), gave me my first break by letting me do high school football reports,” Jim explained. “Then, he got me a job as ballpark announcer for the Winston-Salem Red Sox, and weekend host on WSJS radio. After that I produced a weekly radio show for the UNCG News Bureau, while also working at the campus T.V. station.”

That led to a full time job at WFMYT.V. where Jim did late night weather, interviewed visiting celebrities like Bob Hope and Elizabeth Taylor, and produced a variety of programs, ranging from a documentary about the Constitution, to a half hour special with Red Skelton.

“WFMY was a great place to hone my craft because I was allowed the opportunity to try different things and find my niche,” he noted.

After a brief stint as a children’s show host at WSOC-T.V. in Charlotte, Jim landed a live, daily talk show on WXEX-T.V. (now WRIC) in Richmond.

“It was called the ‘FYI’ show,” he said.

“I had a live audience each morning and some pretty good guests, but we were on opposite Donohue, so I got killed in the ratings. That’s why I hate Phil Donohue.”

Jim then started a T.V. production company where he produced and syndicated public affairs television programming, and helped to shape a number of public policy initiatives, including the first major handgun legislation in the nation. During that time he also authored a series of books about prime time television, began serving as a judge for the annual Emmy awards, and was called on to moderate a number of special events in Hollywood for the Television Academy, featuring stars like Dick Van Dyke, Angela Lansbury, Bryan Cranston, Angie Harmon, Charlie Sheen, and many more.

After moving back to the Triad, Jim noticed that all of the public affairs programs had disappeared from local T.V. stations, so he launched Triad Today, which is about to begin its 18th season. Triad Today has featured movers and shakers from throughout the Piedmont, from Governors, to sports legends, to the front line workers who make a difference in the lives of so many folks every day. Along the way, Jim received the prestigious Spectrum of Democracy Award, and has been recognized by Congress for his use of television to serve the public good. Not surprisingly, he is often asked to name his most memo-

rable guests and favorite moments.

“That’s a tough one because we’ve had over 10,000 guests, but there are a few shows that remain particularly special to me,” he said. “One was the half-hour we did with the Rev. Jesse Jackson who warned of voter suppression long before it became a hot topic in the news. Another was the show we did with Elaine Riddick, who, at age 14, was sterilized against her will. Thanks to Elaine and my friend the late Larry Womble, the state finally paid reparations to victims of that horrible Eugenics era. Of course, there were some fun shows along the way too, like the one we did honoring Richard Petty on his 80th birthday, and another we aired with actor Ed Asner, who flirted with my wife in a most unusual way.”

Jim recently broadcast his 800th episode of Triad Today, and he gives no indication of slowing down any time soon.

“I plan to do the show until I’m 90, then I’ll retire, watch some television, and try not to get a hernia.”

Triad Today airs every Saturday at 7:30 a.m. on abc45, and Sundays at 11 a.m. on MY48. For more information, visit www. triadtoday.comand www.jimlongworth. com. !

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Scuppernong Books is leaving Facebook Greensboro’s Scuppernong Books, which opened seven years ago at 304 S. Elm St., isn’t going anywhere in the real world but is leaving a major part of the virtual one. Steve Mitchell Ian McDowell recently told YES! Weekly that he and Contributor co-owner Brian Lampkin are largely done with Facebook.

“There wasn’t a particular incident which precipitated the decision,” Mitchell said. “The problem two-fold.

Facebook seems to be getting more and more cluttered with noise and shrieking, and it’s been difficult even to go on and scroll through. And it’s become increasingly less useful, as it seems to favor muckraking posts over more normal ones, and our posts do not get much spread or reach, even though we have over 10,000 followers unless we post something in that mode.”

Mitchell told YES! Weekly he was unaware of any other bookstores abandoning the popular platform “unless they became the targets of some kind of harassment campaign.” He emphasized that was not the case with Scuppernong.

The announcement was made on Facebook itself, in email, and on the bookstore’s website. “Scup and Social Media,” was the title of the formal declaration on the website, which stated the store would “transition away from using the platform as a primary form of communication with our customers,” but would “maintain our social media presence on Twitter and Instagram.”

The statement acknowledged that those platforms were not perfect (and that Facebook owns Instagram), but explained that Instagram “allows for less dissemination of disinformation, and Twitter has instituted some policies (though not enough) to fight the rising wave of propaganda which is now a function of both sides of the political divide.”

Since it opened in December 2013, Scuppernong has acquired not only an enviable local reputation but a regional and even a national one, having been cited in Time and Publisher’s Weekly. Southern Living featured it on a listicle of the South’s Best Bookstores.

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The store has won ArtsGreensboro’s Art in Business Award and the Friends of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro Libraries Literary Award. Due to its loyal customer base, Scuppernong has so far weathered the pandemic. During the time it was closed, Mitchell and Lampkin were forced to lay-off most of their staff.

“We’ve only three full-timers,” Mitchell said, “Brian, Shannon Jones and myself, and that’s remained. The others were part-timers with full-time jobs, and their full-times are still there. We currently have two part-timers still employed at reduced hours, but we’re considering expanding our hours in the next few weeks, so we’ll have more for them.”

He acknowledged that this year has been difficult, but said he was more worried about what the next will bring.

Mitchell, Lampkin, and Jones have also started a weekly magazine, but the first issue of which has already been released. “It includes the kind of content we built our social media with. Reviews, new releases, book and author-related articles from all around, the occasional link to a short story or podcast. We see this as replacing the social media content, and people can subscribe. We’ll make the transition slowly to give our customers time to shift. We won’t take the page down, and we might post to it occasionally, but we’ll pin something to it, alerting people that we don’t check it.”

For “further reading” on concerns about Facebook, the Scuppernong webpage links to The New York Times and NPR. The Sept. 14 New York Times article “Facebook Is Failing in Global Disinformation Fight, Says Former Worker” described how Sophie Zhang left the company because, “In the three years I’ve spent at Facebook, I’ve found multiple blatant attempts by foreign national governments to abuse our platform on vast scales to mislead their own citizenry,” Zhang stated.

Zhang worked on a team charged with discovering and eliminating “fake news,” but accused Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his executives of consistently ignoring the team’s find-

ings. The June 11 NPR article, “Critics Slam Facebook But Zuckerberg Resists Blocking Trump’s Posts,” quoted a letter from Democrats on the House Committee on Homeland Security blasting Zuckerberg for Facebook’s lack of action on Donald Trump’s “violent, harassing, and dangerous” posts.

“There is a difference,” wrote the committee members, “between being a

platform that facilitates public discourse and one that peddles incendiary, race-baiting innuendo guised as political speech for profit.” !

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.

Triad Coloring Book

25

$

ORDER TODAY! To support local participating artists and order your Triad Coloring Book, email publisher@yesweekly.com SEPTEMBER 23-29, 2020

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HEAR IT!

Quilla’s ‘Handbook of Vivid Moments’

M

ixing ele-

ments of heritage and genre in tune with body and space, The Handbook of Vivid Moments, the third record from Katei Cranford Greensboro electroartist, Quilla— the artistic persona from Contributor Montreal-born Anna Luisa Daigneault— serves as a vessel for expression and empowerment in a time of dystopia, laid amongst dance floor beats.

“I want to expand the palette of topics explored in dance music,” Quilla explained of her intentions with the record, which covers themes related to peril, migration, climate change, and personal transformation. “I’ve always thought that dance music is very accessible and that people are receptive to new ideas when they’re dancing.”

The result is an ethereal jammer of harsh realities over hopping beats.

“Each song is a chapter representing a different personal feeling or emotional experience of a moment,” Quilla explained of the work presented, “to remember the lessons I learned on a personal level.”

For Quilla, those lessons incubate between juggling a career, staying creative, rearing a human, and above all (in its own way) producing an album— topics she explored in a recent episode of Bit Rosie, a web series dedicated to women and gender-nonconforming music producers and engineers. Filmed in January, the segment glimpses into the production of the record and workshops for women she’d intended to continue hosting over the summer.

“They were awesome while they lasted,” she said of the series cut-short by COVID-19, noting plans of its return once the pandemic subsides.

Like most everyone, Quilla’s summer activities went online, including virtual live readings for PEN America, Siembra NC’s Telethon to Benefit Immigrant Families Facing Detention, and a TEDxGreensboro talk dedicate to protecting language diversity, for which she wore a “Language Dress,” (emblazoned with hand-written sentences in Quechua, Ishir, French, Spanish and English) designed by Triad textile artist, Ann Tilley.

Quilla describes her work at the Living YES! WEEKLY

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Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages and her role as a musician, as two sides of the same coin through which she explores the human condition.

“It’s about finding an application for the art itself, so that is useful in the social context,” she explained of her focus on humanitarian issues blending art and science. “It’s not only to elevate important causes, but to let people feel the rollercoaster of emotions related to that cause, and maybe even heal a tiny bit in the process.”

The pursuit of that condition extends onto the album. “Each song helps me reach a certain type of understanding or emotion related to all the huge changes going on in the world today.”

As coronavirus changed the world, its effects were felt mid-way into production.

“Recording was super fun because I love each song so dearly, but logistically it was a nightmare,” Quilla noted candidly, “I definitely shed tears in the process.”

“The timeline got delayed a few months given all of the ongoing upheavals,” she continued, relaying the difficulty of navigating production in the absence of childcare, crediting the album’s existence to her husband and mother-in-law.

While COVID-19 added particular gravity to already-heavy material, the Latinx rhythms running throughout shoulder the weight, producing a record of overall uplifting jams. For Quilla, whose mother is Peruvian (of Spanish and Indigenous

Quechua and Aymara descent), those rhythms symbolize vivid moments of childhood.

“My parents held parties where people danced salsa; we’d hang out in the basement, playing games and watching movies, while all the adults danced upstairs.

I wanted to bring some of those stomps and claps into my music. Those carefree sounds are among my favorite memories.”

The power of dance to defy feelings of powerlessness, and the paralyzing nature of the shutdown, are especially felt on tracks like “As the Sea Rises,” which carries lessons of wrangling grief and acceptance amid climate change.

“I wanted to feel like crying while dancing,” Quilla noted of the song, inspired by hurricane damage, and ultimately, celebrates earth.

Heritage holds the key in “Un alma del Norte y del Sur (The North-South Soul),” the “half-cosmic, half-love story,” sung in Spanish, to relay lessons of cultural hybridity, while combining relations of past and present. The song, written during the COVID shutdown, weaves elements of Quilla’s Andean ancestry with a modern focus around her parents becoming a couple.

Modernity rings in “Algorithms with Benefits,” written as a theme song for “Embodied,” a WUNC podcast hosted

by Anita Rao. “It’s the lesson of nature as the source of our true power and resilience and beauty,” Quilla explained.

“The patterns (or algorithms) in nature shaped humanity over millennia, while the algorithms we worry about on social media can be a distraction.”

On “Boom Bada,” a disco-worthy earworm written for UNC-T.V., Quilla transmits ideas of beauty in different heritages.

“We can all be proud of our own heritage and ancestry while respecting everyone else’s heritage. It’s also a song that aims to destroy the ego and selflessly tell others that you love them.”

Hopes to fuel uprisings surge in the anthemic “Bow to the Rebel Queen,” while lessons of balance reign in “Sagittarius,” the first single and Quilla’s astrological sign. Choreographed and directed by the production-duo s/n (Jennida Chase and Hassan Pitts from the UNCG in the Media Studies Department), the “Sagittarius” video screened at five film festivals in 2019. The team is currently working on lyric videos for other tracks.

While celebrating the release of her latest record seems strange without a show, Quilla’s already focused on a collaborative single with Molly McGinn. Her next appearance is as part of Scuppernong’s “Writers Read” literary event, live over Zoom and Instagram, on Oct. 15.

The Handbook of Vivid Moments is out now across streaming platforms. !

KATEI CRANFORD is a Triad music nerd who hosts the Tuesday Tour Report, a radio show on hiatus until Tours return.

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last call

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

KICK THE HOBBIT

My 23-year-old nephew is a nice guy, a college grad with a good job who’s a loving pet owner.

The women in the family love his ironic mustache, his tattoos, and his way of Amy Alkon making people laugh, but the men, includAdvice ing my husband, tend to see him in a negaGoddess tive light. I struggle to understand why they think so little of him. But maybe that’s it: My nephew’s not a big guy. He’s maybe 5-foot-6, and while that’s not terribly short, my family skews tall, with all the other men 6-foot-3 and over. From reading evolutionary theory in your books and columns, I’m wondering, might these men subconsciously dislike him because he’s small? If so, is there any way to get them to see him in a better light? —Concerned Aunt Your nephew sounds like a good guy who’ll eventually be some lucky woman’s three-fourths and only.

You’re on to something about height affecting our evaluation of other people.

Evolutionary researchers Gert Stulp and Abraham “Bram” Buunk observe that, across cultures, “taller stature” is linked with higher social status, and historically, “The term ‘big man’ has been used to denote an individual of both high social status and physical stature.”

In fact, the researchers explain, because physical dominance was the primary path

to power for much of human evolutionary history, “it seems likely that ‘big men’ experienced increased social status” because of their “physical superiority in competition with others.” In other words, though taller doesn’t always equal stronger, in general, the bigger the bro, the bigger the beatdown he could dispense.

Today, physical dominance is still the currency of power in really scary neighborhoods (including scary cellblocks).

However, a garden gnome-sized man can make up in stacks of thousand-dollar bills the leverage he’d have from physical stature. And recall that would-be duel from “Raiders of the Lost Ark” with some huge creep brandishing a giant scimitar at Harrison Ford — who simply draws his gun and shoots the guy. Likewise, the local Goliath might be no match for a well-armed Mr. Stubby.

However, though we’re living in modern times, the psychology currently driving our behavior is seriously antique, calibrated for the hunter-gatherer way back when. In our modern world, it often leads us to behave in unnecessary and even counterproductive ways. Our psychological response is typically subconscious, so, for example, we might sometimes think less of somebody less-than-towering without understanding why.

This could explain some of the findings Stulp and Buunk cited. Even in “contemporary, industrialized society,” tall people rule, achieving “greater levels of upward social mobility.” This is seen even when a taller person and a shorter one are siblings with a shared environment (researcher-speak for growing up in the same home). Additionally, from childhood on, “Height may also

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affect how people perceive themselves, and so influence behavior” (in turn influencing how other people perceive and treat them).

Though prior research finds perceptions of a person’s dominance and high status are related to height, Stulp and Buunk’s team explored the influence of height on people’s behavior. For example, in a narrow pedestrian passageway, they observed that both taller men and taller women were more likely to storm forward unyieldingly, forcing shorter pedestrians to give way and let them pass. Likewise, on a crowded shopping street, when a shortie was coming from the opposite direction, people were less likely to step aside, which resulted in the shorties having more collisions.

After I had you do “homework,” asking your male relatives whether they dislike your nephew, and if so, why, you came back on a positive note. They told you they don’t dislike him; in fact, they say they like him.

They just seem to talk trash about him over his attitudes about money. For example, your husband goes “on and on” about how the nephew’s paying too big a monthly nut for his new truck.

Maybe this triggers fears in your husband that he’ll be asked for money if the guy loses his job, and he’s just venting. And going back to the evolutionary well, gossip is sometimes used as a form of signaling.

Perhaps your husband and other men in the family OMG-ing about the big bucks for the truck are ultimately promoting themselves as fiscally wiser.

You do say the older dudes in the family don’t have such a harsh attitude about other (taller) young nephews who are less responsible and together than the travel-sized one. So, maybe there is diminished respect for him because of his shorter stature. It’s really impossible to do more than loosely speculate. All in all, you probably don’t need to worry about your nephew, because he sounds happy and well-adjusted. Over time, I suspect the men in your family will come to realize that some stories just aren’t complete without the little guys. (Consider: “Snow White and the Seven Los Angeles Lakers.”) !

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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