TCB June 17, 2015 — Common evil

Greensboro / Winston-Salem / High Point triad-city-beat.com June 17 – 23, 2015

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Common evil

FREEay

A little-known form of sex trafficking

Father’s D card inside

by Sayaka Matsuoka

PAGE 20

Bridge-building PAGE 11

Shark Week!

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The Society of Bacchus PAGE 27

June 17 — 23, 2015

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CONTENTS

Office: 336-256-9320

by Brian Clarey

Business

Publisher Allen Broach allen@triad-city-beat.com

Editorial

Editor in Chief Brian Clarey brian@triad-city-beat.com Senior Editor Jordan Green jordan@triad-city-beat.com Associate Editor Eric Ginsburg eric@triad-city-beat.com Editorial Interns Sayaka Matsuoka intern@triad-city-beat.com Investigative Reporting Intern Nicole Zelniker Photography Interns Amanda Salter Caleb Smallwood

Art

Art Director Jorge Maturino jorge@triad-city-beat.com

Sales

Sales Executive Lamar Gibson Sales Executive Dick Gray dick@triad-city-beat.com Sales Executive Cheryl Green cheryl@triad-city-beat.com Sales Executive Alex Klein

Contributors Carolyn de Berry Nicole Crews Anthony Harrison Matt Jones

Cover photography

by Caleb Smallwood Model Victoria Elaine Singleton depicts a victim of human trafficking in this week’s cover story by Sayaka Matsuoka.

Before and after

30 UP FRONT

MUSIC

3 Editor’s Notebook 4 City Life 7 Commentariat 7 The List 8 Barometer 8 Unsolicited Endorsement 9 Triad power Ranking 10 Heard

28 Dancing in the streets

NEWS

GOOD SPORT

11 Bridges so far 13 Cop shop talk 15 HPJ: Budget schmudget

34 Tying off the color line

OPINION

35 Jonesin’ Crossword

16 16

Editorial: The acrid smell of futility Citizen Green: We are all bigots

18

It Just Might Work: Surtax on fallow

now

properties 18 Fresh Eyes: A grammarian speaks

COVER 20 A common evil

FOOD 26 Pho in tobaccoland 27 Barstool: White guys and their wine

TCB IN A FLASH DAILY @ triad-city-beat.com First copy is free, all additional copies are $1.00. ©2015 Beat Media Inc.

ART 30 Artist finds her cup of tea

STAGE & SCREEN 32 An enemy of the b-ball

GAMES SHOT IN THE TRIAD 36 Oakland Avenue, Greensboro

ALL SHE WROTE 37 JoAnngela’s Ashes : Notes on a Funeral

The new barman at Hoots gave me the once-over and the up-and-down.

It was that point of caesura in the barroom on a Friday afternoon, after the happy-hour folks had drained their last pints but before the early-evening drinkers came in to claim their stools. For a moment there it was just him and me.

Middle-aged, afternoon soda drinkers like me are a huge red flag for any bartender. Usually we want something: to make a sale or dig for information or contract some black-market business. I was here to do none of these things, though, and eventually he decided I was okay.

It was his first day at Hoots, but he told me he’d been working the Winston-Salem bar circuit for a decade, pre-dating craft cocktails and indigenous beer. I told him about my gig as a nightlife columnist for Triad Style back then, what I used to look like, how I used to act. The words triggered a recognition.

The barman and I “I remember you,” he said. shared a moment “You were here before.”

Before. of wistful silence.

Before the Innovation Quarter and Restaurant Row, before the Hanesbrands Theatre and the art park and even the Arts District, before RiverRun and the Winston-Salem Open, before many of the things that define this city today had even been conceived and, incidentally, before City Manager Allen Joines became Mayor Joines.

My nightlife beat ran through Burke Street back then, Rubber Soul and the Black Bear and a couple other spots so popular that a pizza joint popped up to service them. Ziggy’s was like a hobo camp near the Joel. Downtown, it was easier to find a parking space than a drink after midnight.

Most of the people who lived downtown did so on its streets and alleys near the turn of the century, but there were some interesting things going on near Third Street by the tracks and an entrepreneur named Richard Emmett took a chance on a repurposed auto shop by turning it into a rock room called the Garage.

There in the stark light of the reclaimed West End Mill Works now beginning to come alive again following its afternoon nap, it was difficult to remember before.

The barman and I shared a moment of wistful silence then and there, but even through that gauzy lens of nostalgia the past did not seem nearly so auspicious as the future in Winston-Salem.

He slapped the bartop and moved to the register to ready for the next shift, early-evening regulars already trickling through the door. I finished my drink and made for the exit. I had half an hour before my next meeting downtown, and I’d have to allow extra time for parking.

triad-city-beat.com

1451 S. Elm-Eugene St. Greensboro, NC 27406

EDITOR’S NOTEBOOK

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June 17 — 23, 2015

CITY LIFE WEEKEND Chaplin Centennial @ Geeksboro (GSO) Generally speaking, comedy doesn’t age well. But Charlie Chaplin’s work in silent film holds up. Seriously, you can’t look at the guy without cracking up. Geeksboro begins an eight-week retrospective with The Kid, Chaplin’s first feature, beginning on Friday and running through June 25.

June 17 – 23

THURSDAY Jonathan Brilliant: On Site @ the Greenhill (GSO) Brilliant’s coffee-shop art goes up today, made of 30,000-50,000 stir-sticks “woven in place entirely with tension and compression with no adhesive” at the Greenhill, with a workshop by the artist on Monday. Greenhillnc.org has more.

City Market @ the Railyard (GSO) City Market hits the trifecta of food trucks, live music and vending beginning at 5 p.m. by the tracks. This month’s theme is Homebrew, which should take the edge off the heat. Find out more at gsocitymarket.com.

500 Strong Social @ Delurk (W-S) Join the Downtown Winston-Salem Partnership in shaping the future of the city. The goal is to get 500 people who give a damn about downtown Winston-Salem in the same room. It’s getting there. The fun begins at the subterranean gallery at 4 p.m.

Moneyball @ Bailey Park (W-S) The sunset screening of Moneyball, which combines math and baseball into something pretty cool, is part of the Innovation and Cinema series, presented by Inmar CEO David Mounts.

FRIDAY Robot Fun Run @ Biotech Place (W-S) The robots do the running in this event, which pairs kids and adults to build Lego robots and make them do their bidding. It begins at 12:30 p.m. Innovationquarter.com has more.

WEDNESDAY

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Roots Revival: Snyder Family Band @ Centenary United Methodist Church (W-S) The Roots Revival is “worship service grounded in Americana/ roots-based music,” featuring the Lexington-based family group.

Service begins at 7:30 p.m., with more info at rootsrevivalws.com.

Summer Solstice Party @ Weatherspoon Art Museum (GSO) WAM’s annual fete, running from 7 to 9 p.m. has food trucks and music, and also a whole building full of art.

See weatherspoon.uncg.edu for more info.

Holy Ghost Tent Revival @ the High Point depot (HP) High Point’s Whistle Stop series is the place to be in the Third City every Friday at 7 p.m. HGTR does the honors this week.

triad-city-beat.com

SATURDAY Blueberry Pancake Day @ Greensboro Farmers Curb Market (GSO) The action starts at 8 a.m., with live music and a limited breakfast menu.

Tiny House Expedition on the Green @ Sixth and Liberty streets (W-S) This pop-up park and party beginning at 11:30 a.m. serves to demonstrate how these tiny home could change the lives of millions of homeless nationwide.

Sexual Chocolate vertical tasting @ Foothills Brewing (W-S) Foothills has been making Sexual Chocolate stout for nine years, and they’ve held onto kegs from each brewing. They’re tapping the whole lot at noon and giving tastes of all of them for $5. It tastes so fine, don’t you agree?

108 Sun Salutations for Nepal @ Bailey Park (W-S) The Breathing Room gathers yogis from across the Triad to send positive energy to earthquake-ravaged Nepal at 5 p.m. No charge.

Dex Romweber Duo/ 1970s Film Stock @ the Garage (W-S) See why Jack White claims to have stolen his whole act form Dex Romweber, the NC treasure who’s been keeping the flame alive since the 1980s, when he starred in a strange short film on MTV. A dangerous level of rock from Eddie Garcia of 1970s Film Stock comes with admission.

SUNDAY The Baseball Project @ BB&T Ballpark (W-S) SECCA’s Crossroads series ventures off campus for the first time with a 90-minute set by the Baseball Project, featuring former members of REM, Young Fresh Fellows and the Dream Syndicate. The show starts at 3 p.m., before the 5 p.m. Dash game against the Salem Red Sox. See thebaseballproject.net for more.

Scott McCaughey

Steve Wynn

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Photography by Sara Lyn

June 17 — 23, 2015

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The Merit Pit Bull Foundation strives for a compassionate world where pit bull type dogs live in responsible homes and where owner education, training and anti-cruelty legislation support all pet owners regardless of breed. www.themeritpitbullfoundation.com

(336)618-PITS

7. The feeding frenzy As always, the surge in shark news has inspired a raft of nonsensical media coverage that attempts to capitalize on the action by stitching together anything shark-related they can get their hands on and promoting it as news.

Music Art

8. The celebrity tie-in Jenelle Evans, star of the MTV show “Teen Mom 2,” tweeted a bikini pic of herself just hours before her son was at a beach near where the North Carolina attacks occurred, according to US Weekly.

Food

4. Shark: The app In May, the SharkBytes app, which keeps a database of all shark-related attacks worldwide since 1865, added a new GPS function so that you can see how many people have

6. The shark high-five A years-old video of a diver in Mexico leaving his underwater safety cage to give a monstrously enormous great white shark a high-five (or push) on the fin, surfaced last week. The video went viral almost immediately upon being posted.

Cover Story

3. Bethany’s baby In 2003, professional surfer Bethany Hamilton lost her left arm in a shark attack in Hawaii — the incident was recounted in Soul Surfer, her autobiography and the 2011 film based on the book. Earlier this month, Hamilton and her husband Adam Dirks had their first child, Tobias.

5. Shark sighting Shark activity off the coast of Florida on Monday prompted the closing of all the beaches in St. Lucie County. They reopened on Tuesday.

Opinion Stage & Screen Good Sport Games Shot in the Triad All She Wrote

On what planet was this money pit a good idea [“Work nearing completion on troubled restaurant project”; by Jordan Green; June 10, 2015]? Almost 1.2 MILLION TAXPAYER DOLLARS for this sure-to-fail business? And people wonder why some others feel their taxes are too high. Anyone want to bet the city never gets a dime of their money back?

Mike Brown, via triad-city-beat.com

2. The North Carolina attacks Three separate shark attacks took place off the Brunswick Coast of North Carolina in the last week, two of them within hours of each other on Sunday when a 16-year-old boy and a 12-year-old girl both lost arms in attacks off Oak Island. A third attack happened a few days earlier when a 13-year-old was bitten off Ocean Isle Beach.

been attacked by sharks wherever you may be.

News

Restaurant woes

by Brian Clarey 1. Jaws anniversary This summer marks the 40th anniversary of the film Jaws, largely credited with being first summer blockbuster when it hit theaters in June 1975. I remember that summer we were all afraid to go in the ocean, a phobia that carried on for many of my generation.

Up Front

Saving the Cascade is an imperative, not a choice [“Saving the saloon”; by Marsh Prouse; May 14, 2014]. All too often, the path of least resistance, is the path taken and forever removes another link joining the past to the future. Like the Gate City, the Cascade stands at the crossroads of the city, linking Southside with Old Greensboro and Hamburger Square. The Cascade stands in defiance of time and expediency. The Cascade stands athwart a railroad empire that itself links us to our past and future even as the rumbling vibrations of heavy commerce and swift passenger Pullmans have tested the resolve of its earthquake bolts and heavy walls for more than a century. Failure to stabilize and ultimately rehabilitate this unique treasure would be a failure of vision and leadership. The leadership needed is not only that of the council, but all those that care about the past and future of Greensboro. At its heart, Greensboro is a working-class city of entrepreneurs and a blue-collar backbone, visionaries that built one of the most diverse cities in the state.

A diverse economy and a diverse citizenry that continue to thrive and strive through thick and thin, cooperation and conflict.

The city is woven of many threads yielding a tough fabric just like the durable denim of the Cone brothers. The Cascade is one of these threads and deserves its place in our future.

Garland McCollum, via triad-city-beat. com

8 recent shark-related events

triad-city-beat.com

Saloon talk

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June 17 — 23, 2015

Up Front News Opinion Cover Story Food Music Art Stage & Screen Good Sport Games Shot in the Triad All She Wrote

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Best Triad baseball team?

It’s a summer showdown between the three Triad baseball teams.

There’s one for each city, and even though they never play each other, we want to know which one you prefer.

Brian Clarey: What can I say? I’m a Grasshoppers guy, and not just because I live in Greensboro. For one, they started out as a farm team for the NY Yankees back when I was a huge fan of the team and followed every game. Don Mattingly played here. Enough said. But also I was a big proponent of the new stadium back when it was still in the discussion phase and a highly divisive issue — basically between people who read the Rhino, which was against the stadium at the time — and people who didn’t. These days it’s almost impossible to find anyone in Greensboro who thinks the ballpark was a bad idea, but I’m sure there are a few out there.

Jordan Green: I’m totally unqualified to respond to this. I have never attended a Winston-Salem Dash game, much less a Hi-Toms game. I’ve heard that BB&T Ballpark, the Dash’s home stadium, is nicer than NewBridge Bank Park, where the Greensboro Grasshoppers play. And that’s really the main criteria. People don’t really care whether their minor-league team wins or loses; by nature of the farm-team system, the players are transitory. So the real attachment from the fans has almost everything to do with the ballpark. I’ve seen at least a handful of Grasshoppers games since NewBridge Bank Park opened in 2005, so my minor-league baseball impressions and experiences naturally create a sense of loyalty in Greensboro. I’ve drank with a young man at Westerwood Tavern who was so crazy about the team that he wore a Grasshoppers uniform. I met a Peruvian visitor to a Greensboro Truth & Reconciliation Commission event who took his 4-year-old son to a game and bought him a Grasshoppers hat. I even

attended a “double-header” concert with Bob Dylan and Willie Nelson at the Grasshoppers’ ballpark and heard a story about a woman had Willie’s face tattooed on her abdomen just above her pubes. Who could forget that?

Eric Ginsburg: It’s a hard choice, and not because of anything to do with baseball specifically. I disagree with Jordan — it’s not about the stadium, it’s about the promotions. The Dash, a team with a much funnier name playing off of the city’s spelling, have all-you-can-eat hot dogs and burgers for Tuesday games. The Grasshoppers, with a way better logo, have $1 off tickets and dollar dogs, beers and snocones for Monday games. I think that might give the Hoppers the edge. If it were about baseball, the Dash are in the highest division, and basically have the same record as the Grasshoppers. The Hi-Toms are practically irrelevant, and play in Thomasville so should almost be disqualified. But at every Grasshoppers game, the team dogs poop on the field, so I’m going to give the Hoppers the “W.” Readers: In a last-minute surge, the Winston-Salem Dash pulled away with a win in the bottom of the ninth, winning 58 percent to the Greensboro Grasshoppers’ 42. It had been tied ‘til almost the bitter end, and nobody even considered voting for the High Point/Thomasville Hi-Toms, it appears. Don Moore wrote: “By default, Winston-Salem has the highest league rating (High Single-A). Greensboro is Low Single-A and the Hi-Toms are an amateur team. So the Dash players have the most experience. The Dash is more dedicated towards baseball play, whereas the Grasshoppers promote the entertainment.”

New question: Plans for Summer Solstice? Visit triad-city-beat. com to vote.

58% 42% 0%

Greensboro Winston-Salem High Point/ Grasshoppers Dash Thomasville Hi-Toms

Direct patronage

by Anthony Harrison

For centuries, artists supported themselves on the gracious gifts the wealthy bestowed upon them.

The Borgias, murderous bastards though they were, encouraged artistic development during the Renaissance.

Mozart relied for some time on the aegis of the Habsburg Empire. Beethoven wrote some of his best work on the backing of aristocratic families. Even as recent as the mid20th Century, the Baroness Pannonica de Koenigswarter — a member of the Rothschild family — supported such bebop luminaries as Charlie Parker and Thelonious Monk; Monk even wrote a song named for her. Even in the Triad, Betty and Ella Cone were known patrons of the arts.

Then again, we’re living in a different time, I suppose.

The planned Tanger Performing Arts Center in Greensboro may gesture towards “supporting the arts.”

But tickets for off-Broadway shows costing $120 won’t

help the local arts community; until it’s clear all art will be welcome, despite ticket sales, it will simply stand as a bourgeois monument for which donors can pat themselves on the back.

And mowing over a venue generations old — the former home of Solaris and later Boston’s House of Jazz & Blues — certainly won’t warm you up to local artists.

Again, if you want to truly help the arts, give money to the people actually creating art in your community instead of building a complex meant to bring temporary talent from abroad.

Some in the Triad understand this concept already.

The Arts Council of Winston-Salem and Forsyth County gives small arts grants to artists in need. Their total grant pool draws from $10,000. One example includes when Winston-Salem playwright Suzana McCalley

received $500 in support of her play, A Goddess Tale.

That’s patronage. That’s directly allowing artists to exercise their craft.

It stands in the way of our capitalist, wealth-obsessed society. But that’s really giving supporting the arts.

And it could go even further.

Instead of funding arts programs and councils and having donations funnel through into a pool, patrons can support artists they enjoy even more directly. Naturally, patrons could buy paintings or sculptures from their favorite artists. Patrons could fund studio time for musicians or bands. If a patron felt especially generous, they could set up some kind of artists’ community and housing.

Give money to the arts no matter what, I implore you.

However, the point I’m attempting to drive home is this: If you want to support the arts, support an artist.

triad-city-beat.com

Cake for the co-op

Up Front News Opinion Cover Story Food Music Art

AMANDA SALTER

Stage & Screen

A volunteer with the Renaissance Community Cooperative cuts pieces of cake on Monday to celebrate the groundbreaking of the Renaissance Shopping Center in northeast Greensboro the following day.

Good Sport

2. Greensboro

Our policy is to keep our interns for six months, long enough to get some real experience and a ton of clips, but not so long that we’re taking advantage. Our short intern list so far is heavy with Greensboro folks — all of our editorial interns have so far been Greensboroans.

But so far there’s just one among this term’s applicants.

1. Winston-Salem

We haven’t taken on a Winston-Salem intern yet, but this season’s crop has three who call the Camel City home: students from both Wake Forest University and Winston-Salem State, and a lifelong resident of the city. There’s still time — we’ll take application by Friday.

But if you’re just hearing about this now, perhaps a newspaper internship is not for you.

All She Wrote

We take interns here at Triad City Beat, part of our desire to pay forward what we’ve learned in the newspaper business, and also because we need them. We’re towards the end of our most recent intern search right now, and as of yet we have had no applicants from High Point. We’ve had just one in our short history, Zack Astran , who took on an investigative internship while a student at High Point University.

Shot in the Triad

3. High Point

Games

The Unpaid Internship Edition

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June 17 — 23, 2015

Up Front News

HEARD “I do not want to be driving down these roads in 10 years, and be asked the question: ‘Weren’t you here when they made these decisions? Weren’t you a part of this community? Didn’t you try?’”

— Lee French, chairman of the board of the Creative Corridors Coalition, on the group’s efforts to incorporate iconic design elements into the renovation of Business 40 through downtown Winston-Salem, page 11

“For some this was a cultural shock, seeing me fishing on a professional level. Most assume that African Americans are afraid of the water, that we don’t swim and we don’t get into or own boats — I had someone say this to me once. I found it to be quite funny because we, as a culture, do all of these things.”

All She Wrote

Shot in the Triad

Games

Good Sport

Stage & Screen

Art

Music

Food

Cover Story

Opinion

— Sabrina Thompson, in Good Sport, page 34

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“Sometimes I would wake up naked on the kitchen floor with no recollection of how I had gotten there. He would just say, ‘Oh, you were sleepwalking.’ I literally believed every word he said. I never sleepwalked in my life; he was completely lying to me. He would either drug me or something.”

— Anna Malika, on her experience as a human-trafficking, page 20

“Really the stall I would say, if you want to use that word, would be in Raleigh instead of the local municipality in this case. Right now, with the current temperature in Raleigh, that is a tough situation.”

— Allen Hunt, a Greensboro human relations supervisor, on efforts to reform the complaint review process, page 13

“It’s a fine revenue source, but remember your math class. You’re moving the funding of government from the largest holders to the smallest holders. And it’s fine if that’s what you want to do, but you’re moving it down the line.”

— Councilman Latimer Alexander, explaining High Point’s annual budget, page 15

“Everyone’s got a ritual, and I got mine. Don’t ever change. I go for a run ev’ry mornin’. Don’t push it. Just wake up my body so it’s alive.”

— Ricky Oliver, a character in Preston Lane’s new play, Common Enemy, page 32

“Salud, mi gente. Don’t worry; I’m drinking water, too.”

— Rei Alvarez, frontman for Bio Ritmo, in downtown Winston-Salem on Sunday, page 28

The planned Tanger Performing Arts Center in Greensboro may gesture towards “supporting the arts.”

But tickets for off-Broadway shows costing $120 won’t help the local arts community; until it’s clear all art will be welcome, despite ticket sales, it will simply stand as a bourgeois monument for which donors can pat themselves on the back.

— Anthony Harrison, in Unsolicited Endorsement, page 8

Most of the people who lived downtown did so on its streets and alleys near the turn of the century, but there were some interesting things going on near Third Street by the tracks and an entrepreneur named Richard Emmett took a chance on a repurposed auto shop by turning it into a rock room called the Garage.

— Brian Clarey, in Editor’s Notebook, page 3

triad-city-beat.com

NEWS

Designers unveil renderings of iconic downtown bridges

by Jordan Green

News Opinion Cover Story Food Music Art Stage & Screen

Designer Donald McDonald discussed his design for the Green Street pedestrian bridge during a press conference in Winston-Salem on Monday.

All She Wrote

Larry Kirkland, a public-art designer whose work is installed at Penn Station in New York City and the American Red Cross headquarters, unveiled a design for the Peters Creek Parkway bridge, which will serve as a western gateway to downtown. The bridge design features a glass barrier wall and plinths, or columns that flank the path at either end.

“Like Donald [McDonald], I was inspired by the original beginnings of this community, which is the Moravians,” Kirkland said. “And I took the shape of the Moravian star and pulled it up so it’s like a spire…. So I wanted this to talk about the history of the city but to also be about aspiration, so it is a spire. So by taking this and pulling it up

Shot in the Triad

for pedestrians, cyclists and mass transit.

McDonald also contributed the design for the Green Street bridge, a pedestrian crossing that will be built near BB&T Park in Winston-Salem. Tiered arches connected with radial cables reinforce an idea that replicates the design of Moravian arches and the Wells Fargo building, along with the silhouettes of trees. McDonald said he got the idea for the bridge during a visit earlier this year.

“I came to the city and I saw the trees without the leaves on them,” he recalled. “I saw the Wells Fargo building and I said, ‘I’m going to reinforce that idea.’” The arches represent the silhouettes of trees, overlaid to suggest one after another receding into the horizon, while the cables represent the branches.

Games

the day presenting their designs and answering questions.

McDonald, who also helped put together the Creative Corridors master plan, designed a dome-like set of twin arches over the interchange at Highway 52 and the new Research Parkway, which will function as a key gateway into downtown while the renovation of Business 40 takes place from 2016 through 2020. The arches take visual cues from the Wells Fargo building, which was designed by architect César Pelli.

McDonald is responsible for the design of the Cooper River Bridge in Charleston, SC, the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge and Tilikum Crossing, a new bridge in Portland, Ore. designed

JORDAN GREEN

Good Sport

With work expected to begin on the renovation of Business 40 through downtown Winston-Salem next summer, the Creative Corridors Coalition is making a concerted effort to promote iconic design features for four bridges that will provide pedestrian and automotive connectivity.

“It was our turn finally to get a redo on this aging infrastructure that was constructed in the 1950s,” said Lee French, chairman of the group’s board of directors. “Given that, we asked ourselves the question: What would it take to do something special, something that would not only symbolize our aspirations, but would actually be a bona fide and tangible strategic development to support the capital investment that has been made?”

Noting that more than $1.2 billion has been invested by the private sector in Winston-Salem’s revitalization over the past 15 years and that almost $200 million is being spent on new highways, streets and bridges, French said it’s important to leverage and protect those investments.

“It’s not just about beautiful designs and beautiful architecture,” he said. “It’s about truly connecting or reconnecting our city in a way that we haven’t been able to since those roadways were built in the 1950s, literally dividing parts of our community.”

French said the iconic design features will complement ongoing real-estate investment while acting as an asset to attract additional tourism and workforce talent.

Creative Corridors announced on Monday that two foundations associated with the Hanes family along with an anonymous donor have contributed a total of $550,000 in part to pay three renowned designers to develop concepts for the four bridges. Donald McDonald, Larry Kirkland and Walter Hood spent

Up Front

Three world-renowned designers unveiled concepts for bridges in downtown Winston-Salem on Monday as Creative Corridors made a push to include iconic features, part of the renovation of Business 40.

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June 17 — 23, 2015 Up Front

News Opinion Cover Story Food Music Art Stage & Screen Good Sport Games Shot in the Triad All She Wrote

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and making it a glass, stainless steel and million, adding that Creative Corridors LED plinth, these elements are about is modifying its design and materials to 25 feet tall.” bring the cost down closer to $1 million.

Walter Hood, who studied at NC Ivey said the department of transA&T University in Greensboro and portation is on board with many of went on to create the landscape design Creative Corridors’ design concepts, at the MH deYoung Museum in San including glass barrier walls at the Francisco, presented a plan for the Peters Creek Parkway bridge and the Strollway. Currently a tunnel near the use of a brick motif, if not the actual BB&T Building, Hood’s plan converts material lining the walls of the freeway. the transit point to a “land bridge” with Much depends, he said, on what the city natural features. of Winston-Salem is willing to contrib“On the north side, coming from ute or Creative Corridors is able to raise downtown, we actually have the opporprivately. tunity to make a park experience before “We have been working very closely you get to the bridge,” he said. “Once with the city and Creative Corridors you get on the bridge you actually have from the start,” Ivey said. “We’re going the vegetation coming all the way in. to be on board with whatever recomAnd our early examples show that we mendation the city makes to include in were trying to bring big trees as far out the project.” as possible, so we’re actually using them Remarks by representatives of the as buttresses. But we don’t think this is parties involved in the project indipossible with DOT. So the larger trees cate a new spirit of cooperation. The will stop [at the edge] but we’ll be able relationship between the NC Departto have medium sized, flowering trees ment of Transportation and Creative — dogwoods, redbuds, Corridors hasn’t always those type of trees.” been smooth, with the ‘I came to the city French said the NC state agency in the past Department of Transpor- and I saw the trees insisting that it is legaltation is currently putting ly required to hold its without the leaves the designs “through a own public process, and on them. I saw the local architects tasked rigorous set of engineerWells Fargo building and costing reviews,” with establishing design ing and I said, ‘I’m guidelines complaining adding that he believes they can be constructthat DOT ignored their going to reinforce ed within budget. He input. that idea.’’ said about $10 million “We are optimistic in public funds and $5 that [DOT’s] recommillion in private money — to be raised mendations back [to the city] will not

by Creative Corridors — will be needed only resemble but will be exactly what to complete the project. the designs are,” Creative Corridors Winston-Salem Assistant City ManagChairman French said on Monday. er Greg Turner said there is $3 million “We’re realistic in understanding that available for enhancements on the DOT works with certain practical reBusiness 40 renovation project from two alities. We’re hopeful that if they make different types of bonds, or public debt recommendations for the designs at all instruments. Turner said staff plans to they will be for reasons that allow us to bring cost estimates and design proget them done.” posals for the bridges before the public The alignment of agendas between works and finance committees of city the state transportation agency, the city council sometime next month. and Creative Corridors suggests many Pat Ivey, a division engineer with the of the details were hashed out in adNC Department of Transportation, vance of Monday’s public presentation. confirmed that the state agency has “I do not want to be driving down $700,000 in contingency funds availthese roads in 10 years,” French said, able for the twin arches at the Highway “and be asked the question: ‘Weren’t 52-Research Parkway interchange. you here when they made these deciHe said the contractor responsible for sions? Weren’t you a part of this combuilding the interchange and the new munity? Didn’t you try?’” roadway originally bid the arches at $3

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by Eric Ginsburg

Greensboro Police Chief Wayne Scott explains how policy changes have recently impacted his department as more reform around bias and accountability are on the horizon.

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Greensboro police Chief Wayne Scott explains the context behind recent data about police performance.

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unsure of why.

Scott said the overall increase in external complaints, from 48 to 64, can partially be attributed to the department making it easier for the public to file grievances with the department. Those changes were brought about thanks to organizing by residents, who have also pushed for a considerable overhaul in the complaint and review process.

Scott said the department does not drive down the number of complaints by re-categorizing them as “inquiries,” — something is an inquiry only if the allegation in the complaint is entirely impossible, such as the officer accused didn’t work on the day in question, he said. Inquiries are still investigated, he said. Occasionally a complainant is deemed non-credible, but there is significant signoff required for someone to meet that threshold, such as filing incessant, false complaints, and there have only been three non-credible complain-

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the most frequent allegation from the public.

Even though external complaints rose from 2013 to 2014, allegations of excessive use of force dropped by 21 percent.

Likewise, the use of non-deadly force fell slightly from 289 incidents to 274, and Taser use dropped by 17 percent, according to the report.

Chief Scott said a change in policy about vehicle pursuits caused a marked decline in the number of chases — a 46 percent drop from the previous year.

The department raised the threshold for when to break off a chase in minor cases, sometimes choosing to mail people tickets rather than engage in a possibly costly pursuit, he said. The estimated property damage from collisions stemming from chases was also almost cut in half.

Meanwhile the number of people injured more than doubled, jumping from eight to 19, and Scott said he is

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particularly for not adhering to the department’s discourtesy rules.

“We have a generation where profanity comes a little easier to them,” Scott said, “and we won’t allow it.”

In the past, if a member of the public didn’t complain about the interaction, the department wouldn’t review it, and even if it did, video evidence was rare.

But the cameras provide a tool for an unbiased review of what occurred between an officer and a civilian, allowing the department to hold its officers to a higher standard of conduct, Scott said.

“We’ve raised the bar every year on the expectations on our officers,” Scott said.

In that sense, he added, more internal complaints show a department that holds its officers to a rigorous standard, which is a good thing.

Courtesy violations were also big for external complaints; the report shows that courtesy violations continued to be

ERIC GINSBURG

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Even though the Greensboro Police Department won’t release footage from police-worn body cameras to the public, Chief Wayne Scott said the devices are leading to greater internal accountability. And the proof, he said, is in the 2014 Professional Standards Annual Report.

The 43-page report, which came out earlier this month, states that 104 of the 168 complaints last year came from inside the department — as opposed to a member of the public — and of those, 88 percent of the allegations in the internal complaints were proven. It’s the first time since the department began releasing the annual reports four years ago that internal complaints outpaced external ones, even though the number of residents’ complaints climbed from 48 to 64.

Even though the report groups external and internal complaints together, that categorization can be misleading, Scott said; internal complaints may more accurately be understood as investigations into whether employees followed protocol, and don’t necessarily suggest subordinates filing workplace grievances, he said. Instead, a significant portion of the increase in internal investigations, or complaints, stems from body-worn cameras, Scott said.

The department began with a yearlong trial period, warning officers that the department would begin enforcing rules about when cameras needed to be turned on for interactions with the public. Once the trial period expired, officers started being hit with internal complaints for violating policy.

Scott did not have specifics for the exact number of complaints that arose from body-camera issues, but also said a considerable segment of the internal complaints occurred upon review of footage from the cameras. The department always watches the body-camera footage from an interaction if there is an administrative investigation or complaint such as use of force or a pursuit. That additional “opportunity for review” led to more internal complaints,

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Body cameras, policy changes and reform have impact on policing

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ants in the department’s history.

And as the CRC enhancement subGreensboro is one of the only police committee of city council reconvenes departments in the country that docuthis month, just ahead of when filing ments inquiries at all, he said, and more starts for this year’s city council election, importantly, any bias-based complaint Chief Scott is planning to re-implement cannot be categorized as an inquiry a reform-oriented committee of his regardless of whether the department own. deems it impossible.

He’s pulling a bias-based policing Responding to calls for greater accommittee back together. The initiative countability through the city’s complaint was launched under former chief Ken review committee, or CRC, which Miller to address real and perceived disindependently reviews complaints about parities in policing, particularly around police conduct, the current city council race. approved changes recommended by a Like the data from the professionCRC enhancement subcommittee of al-standards report, Scott said the comcouncil. The enhancement subcommitmittee would provide valuable insight tee, chaired by Mayor Nancy Vaughan, for the department and transparency last met on April 9, 2014. It didn’t go to the public. In his eyes, it’s part of a far enough in its recomtrend towards accountmended reforms, accordability and higher staning to local police-acdards, one that includes After a year hicountability advocates innovative approaches atus, council re- like mediation between and activists like the Revs. Cardes Brown and external complainants booted its CRC Nelson Johnson. and officers and one that enhancement And now, after a long disciplines its officers hiatus, the council comcommittee, one for misconduct even if mittee is rebooting with a there’s no external commonth before meeting on June 22. plaint. election filing.

Human Relations That’s a sharp contrast Supervisor Allen Hunt, from the characterization who works with the complaint review of local clergy with the Greensboro committee, said several of the previousPulpit Forum and many other advoly-approved changes have been or will cates of greater accountability, some of be implemented — like additional comwhom have created their own, indepenmittee training likely from the ACLU — dent and unauthorized police complaint but others stalled due to required state review board. law changes that appear unlikely.

But Scott says the data, particularly “Really the stall I would say, if you the steady rate of sustained external want to use that word, would be in Racomplaints and the decline in use of leigh instead of the local municipality in force and related complaints, tell a this case,” Hunt said. “Right now, with different story. the current temperature in Raleigh, that is a tough situation.”

The legal and legislative components of the desired changes turned out to be more complicated than council Crawford Photography anticipated, Hunt said, and there will Unique customized shooting... be new changes to consider as well. A Samples by request bill that would’ve allowed Greensboro Bill Crawford to create a civilian review board with Combat Photo-Journalist Photo-Journalism Fashion subpoena power and some quasi-judiArchitecture cial powers over the police department bcraw44@gmail.com Real Estate stalled in committee, Hunt said. A Sports: youth/action possible restructuring of city council, Landscape/Nature pushed in the NC General Assembly Product/PR by state Sen. Trudy Wade, would also Portraits affect the composition of the complaint Still Life review committee, whose members are And more... appointed by council, Hunt said.

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HIGH POINT JOURNAL

Budget swaps garbage collection fees for taxes

by Jordan Green

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Councilman Latimer Alexander (hand raised) makes a point during High Point City Council’s final budget negotiation on Monday.

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to attract people into the city, to bring retail into the city, that they come here and they say, ‘This city cares. Let’s find out more. Let’s do something.’”

The budget proposed by Demko attempts to address what the city manager characterizes as a “a decline in the appearance of the city” through a number of different approaches. The budget adds funds for four full-time code-enforcement officers to tackle dilapidated and substandard housing.

“These additional resources will give us the staffing to go from a complaint-driven system to a system where we have the ability to self-initiate action on many code enforcement violations throughout the city,” Demko wrote.

Other strategies including additional funds for mowing, litter collection and street sweeping, along with an additional $500,000 for redevelopment, including purchasing properties in targeted communities for land banking and accelerating the efforts to tear down substandard housing.

“I cannot overstate: If we want to get better, if we want to raise the values in our community,” Demko said on Monday, “we’ve got to step up and be the leader.”

Art

and increases stormwater fees from $2 to $3 per month.

Staff will present council with a budget ordinance for adoption on Thursday at 9:30 a.m.

Before voting to finalize the budget during a city manager’s briefing on Monday, council members considered a request by at-large Councilwoman Cynthia Davis to eliminate $13,500 from the human relations department’s budget for a youth white privilege conference. The motion failed on a split 4-4 vote, with Cynthia Davis, Jim Davis, Jason Ewing and Jay Wagner in support and Latimer Alexander, Jeff Golden, Chris Williams and Alyce Hill opposed.

Mayor Bill Bencini was not present for the vote.

Golden also fended off cuts to code enforcement and street sweeping, warning that if they didn’t stay in the budget he wouldn’t be able to support the ordinance.

Demko argued that street cleaning and other public stewardship efforts need to go beyond federal mandates.

“The cleaning up of the community with code enforcement, with street sweeping, with higher maintenance of our landscaped medians is more intended for how do we grow our property values,” he said. “As we do these programs

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or $15 more to the city, depending on the number of cars they own.

Davis expressed a different perspective.

“Yeah, but see, I look at that different because we’ve increased our tax base,” he said. “We’ve got jobs. Those people are going to spend money in our community.”

The total assessed valuation of combined real estate and personal property in the city rose from $8.9 billion in fiscal year 2013-14 to $9.1 billion in fiscal year 2014-15.

In the deal hammered out between Alexander and Davis on Monday afternoon, the 1.4-cent tax decrease stays and the plan to impose additional vehicle fees is scrapped, while the city retains $1.9 million in the budget for street resurfacing and $500,000 for demolition of condemned houses.

Meanwhile, the budget would increase an appropriation from the previous-year fund balance from $2.5 million to $2.7 million while reducing the city’s contribution to a consolidated economic development fund — a partnership with Greensboro and Guilford County — from $300,000 to $100,000 to free up additional funds.

The proposed budget also increases the water and sewer rate by 3.5 percent,

JORDAN GREEN

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An annual budget to be adopted by High Point City Council on Thursday reduces the tax rate while increasing garbage collection fees commensurately to offset the loss of revenue.

The 1.4-cent tax decrease slated for approval by High Point City Council on Thursday morning is a fiscal sleight of hand that is spelled out plainly in City Manager Greg Demko’s budget message.

“This tax rate decrease is the second year of a three-year decrease which is anticipated due to moving the environmental service division from the general fund to the solid waste enterprise fund,” Demko wrote in the May 18 document.

The cut to the tax rate costs the city $1.3 million in revenue for the general fund, according to budget message.

Meanwhile, an increase in garbage collection fees from $8 to $11 per month per household to support the solid waste enterprise fund generates a roughly commensurate $1.5 million.

Mayor Pro Tem Jim Davis and other conservatives on council insisted on sticking to the 1.4-cent tax cut, while atlarge Councilman Latimer Alexander, representing a more moderate tendency, proposed a more modest 1.2-cent decrease to retain funding for street resurfacing and other needs. One option presented to council by Demko on June 10 was imposing a new $5 annual fee on motor vehicles. Councilman Jason Ewing, a conservative, indicated he would prefer a vehicle fee over compromise on the tax rate.

The comment prompted a lecture from Alexander that alluded to the regressive impact of offsetting revenue losses from property tax cuts through fee increases.

“It’s a fine revenue source, but remember your math class,” he said.

“You’re moving the funding of government from the largest holders to the smallest holders. And it’s fine if that’s what you want to do, but you’re moving it down the line.”

He illustrated his point by noting that the 1.4-cent tax decrease will result in a $16,000 tax cut to Ralph Lauren for its new $14 million facility on Highway 68, while ordinary residents will pay $5, $10

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OPINION EDITORIAL

The acrid smell of futility Anyone caught flatfooted by the reintroduction of Senate Bill 36 — the ham-fisted attempt to exact revenge and settle petty scores by completely redrawing the city council districts in Greensboro and recalibrating the council itself — must have not been paying attention.

For one, just two of nine sitting councilmembers have announced an intention to run for re-election —District 4’s Nancy Hoffmann, who opened her candidacy earlier this month, and Jamal Fox, who is,campaigning quietly but openly, though just for council in general.

The filing date is just weeks away.

Zack Matheny, a powerhouse in District 3, jumped ship before the end of his term, preferring his chances to land the gig as executive director of Downtown Greensboro Inc. more than the odds of winning his election in a district that could be stacked with incumbents.

The DGI job pays a lot better, too.

Mayor Nancy Vaughan needs to know if she’ll be able to vote before deciding whether to run again for mayor.

And because the new configuration does away with all citywide seats except for the mayor’s, we’ve heard no campaign announcements from the at-large representatives on council either.

Facing pushback from the House, Sen. Trudy Wade Tucked SB 36 into another bill — HB 263, which initially set out to reduce Trinity City Council from eight members to five, one for each ward plus a single citywide position, and reduce terms from four years to two. It sailed through the Senate and as of press time needs only a House concurrence vote to become law, which despite last-minute heroics from Rep. Jon Hardister and Rep. John Blust, looks like it’s probably going to happen.

It’s a sleazy ploy of political gamesmanship and leveraged power, the only tools open to those who do not have the will of the people behind their actions.

The caper fits neatly into Wade’s general modus operandi, which seems to involve using her elected office not to help those she represents, but to smite her perceived enemies and reward her malevolent benefactors.

And through it all she shuns reporters and constituents, leaving us to figure out her motives for ourselves.

It’s toxic behavior from anyone, let alone an elected official, the sort of trifling one might expect from a rogue member of a homeowners’ association or a mean-girls’ prom committee.

But this is the North Carolina General Assembly we’re talking about, an operation now embroiled in a race to the bottom — culturally, politically and economically — while currying favor with gun nuts, power brokers and religious zealots.

It’s happening just as the Triad’s cities are starting to emerge, this strong push against enlightenment, this rejection of progress, this thumb in the eye of good people across the state.

These changes to Greensboro from on high will be here to stay until 2020, when the law sunsets, by which time no one will care anymore.

And once again, the acrid smell of futility fills the collective nose of Greensboro voters.

CITIZEN GREEN

We are all bigots now The ratification of Senate Bill 2, allowing magistrates to opt out of marrying same-sex couples for reasons of conscience, throttles North Carolina back into the dark ages of

by Jordan Green social inequality.

Prior to June 11, the day the state House joined the Senate in overriding Gov. Pat McCrory’s veto, only Utah had passed such a law.

The opt-out law has ugly echoes of an incident in 1976 when two magistrates in Forsyth County refused to officiate the marriage of Thomas Person and Carol Ann Figueroa, an interracial couple, because they said it violated their religious beliefs against a black man marrying a white woman.

There is a straight ideological throughline from segregationist positions against equal opportunity and interracial marriage that lingered into the 1970s in North Carolina, and efforts today to stymie equal rights for gays. Adherents in both cases have turned to arguments about moral values, tradition and social custom to support their positions, but allowing civil servants to deny services to citizens, whether they are in a samesex union or an interracial marriage, is bigotry plain and simple. The only difference is that racial bigotry has been forced into the shadows, while anti-gay bigotry is still socially acceptable in the state, albeit increasingly less so.

The gradual dismantling of Jim Crow opened North Carolina and other parts of the South to significant economic development as corporations determined that, with the stain of legally sanctioned segregation lifted, they could invest.

It’s telling that Gov. McCrory came to Jamestown from Columbus, Ohio with his parents in the mid1960s, as part of the north-south migration that answered North Carolina’s reintegration into the national fold.

And now, just as North Carolina cities are beginning to receive recognition as centers of cultural vibrancy, social inclusion and economic innovation — racing to catch up with national leaders like Austin, Tex., San Francisco and Seattle — the conservative Republican leadership in Raleigh is confirming our state’s national stereotype for backwardness.

It’s to North Carolina’s shame that the General Assembly overrode the governor’s veto on this

law. The governor, unlike members of the General Assembly, must face all the voters of North Carolina when he comes up for reelection next year. His position on the issue represents the best interest all of the state’s citizens.

“I recognize that for many North Carolinians, including myself, opinions on same-sex marriage come from sincerely held religious beliefs that marriage is between a man and a woman,” he said. “However, we are a nation and a state of laws. Whether it is the president, governor, mayor, a law enforcement officer, or magistrate, no public official who voluntarily swears to support and defend the Constitution and to discharge all duties of their office should be exempt from upholding that oath.”

Unlike the governor, the lawmakers who enacted SB 2 into law are not accountable. The extreme gerrymandering in the way their districts were drawn ensures that no sitting lawmaker has to worry about being unseated by a member of the opposing party in the general election. Thus while support for same-sex equality runs strong in Greensboro, Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger and Sen. Trudy Wade, who are part of the Guilford County delegation, could sponsor the bill without fear of political repercussions.

Whether any of us personally voted for Berger or Wade, we all carry the shame of this decision.

How can any of us tell our friends in Washington DC or Philadelphia with a straight face and in good conscience that they should overlook our retrograde policies and move here to enjoy our brewpubs, accessible arts scenes and copacetic weather?

While the Senate vote contained few surprises, the House vote on June 11 was a profile in betrayal and cowardice.

From the Guilford and Forsyth delegations, Reps. Cecil Brockman, Ed Hanes, Pricey Harrison and Ralph Johnson — all Democrats — deserve our thanks for voting against the opt-out provision for magistrates who refuse to perform gay marriages. Reps. John Blust, Debra Conrad, John Faircloth and Donny Lambeth — all Republicans — stood with bigotry. Duly noted.

Ten House members — six Republicans and four Democrats — took a walk, in the parlance of state lawmaking, claiming excused absences to avoid voting on the bill. Votes to oppose the bill by any six of them would have denied the Republican leadership the 3/5 majority needed to override the governor’s veto. Three lawmakers

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from our local delegations failed to take a stand: Jon Hardister, Republican of Guilford; Julia Howard, Republican of Forsyth; and Evelyn Terry, Democrat of Forsyth.

Where were you?

The ratification of SB 2 into law marks a historic development with national significance for North Carolina. Sadly, it’s a part of history about which none of us will boast to our children and grandchildren.

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IT JUST MIGHT WORK

Surtax on fallow properties

by Jordan Green

We’ve all seen the weed-choked lot cordoned off by a chain to prevent people from parking, or the vacant, dormant building in the midst of otherwise flourishing downtowns.

The owners of these properties are free riders and speculators who would rather let others lead the way on reinvestment. Instead, they want to wait until the market reaches its peak and sell at maximum profit, or alternately develop vacant lots and renovate old buildings only when they know they can lease their space to small businesses at a premium.

That’s not to say every property owner with vacant lots or dormant buildings is a deadbeat. The old Traders Chevrolet next for NewBridge Bank Park in Greensboro was slated to be redeveloped as a mixed-use project around 2007-08, but the recession undercut the market. The Jones brothers, who own the property, have since constructed the impressive Greenway at Fisher Park and Greenway at Stadium Park apartments, filling out a key area of downtown’s northwest corner, adding tax revenue and bringing more residents downtown who create additional demand for dining, entertainment and other services.

So maybe we need a cap on property speculation, say 15 or 20 years; the exact number can be negotiated. In any case, it’s time for a rational tax policy that balances private property rights with public welfare. Properties in the central business district that remain unutilized are a drag on the local economy. Hoarding by speculators suppresses entrepreneurial creativity, prevents new businesses from opening and puts the brakes on local hiring.

The appropriate public-policy tool to incentivize redevelopment would be a surtax on properties that remain unutilized. If, after a certain period of time, no building permits have been issued for a particular unutilized property or there is no record in the county tax office of improvements, then the surtax would kick in. Wishing to avoid the added tax liability, the investor would be incentivized to either sell the property to someone with vision and moxie who can make the adequate investment to return the property to active use.

As a historical parallel, consider the land-reform debates during North Carolina’s Reconstruction period after the Civil War: Deprived of slave labor, plantation owners could no longer afford to cultivate vast tracts of land. Meanwhile, the multitude of black freed slaves and poor whites were eager to till the soil to gain self-sufficiency and full participation as citizens. A surtax on fallow agricultural land would have incentivized plantation owners to sell off their holdings. The era saw the birth of black colleges to train freed people in agricultural and technical trades (NC A&T, for example) across the South.

As it turned out, the post-slavery period was succeeded by an exploitative sharecropping system. Had their been adequate reparations to give ex-slaves the capital to invest in land and had the racial terror of the Ku Klux Klan been held in check by the federal government, things might have turned out differently.

Today, we’re in a new period, in which agribusiness as a driver of the state economy has been replaced by knowledge-based industries in our cities. We can’t afford for our cities to not be operating at their maximum potential.

Free the land!

FRESH EYES

The hyphen, language and Winston(-)Salem People love to talk to me about language change when they learn I’m a linguist. This week, it happened at a bookstore. The clerk ringing up my purchases paused. With trepidaby Laura Louise Aull tion, he said, “I hear that the English language is getting worse all the time. Is this true?”

Often, the questions are framed as laments rather than inquiries, but the sentiment is the same: Is the English language, to use one of my father’s expressions, going to hell in a handbasket?

The short answer is no. English is just as structurally sound, linguistically adaptive and widely used as ever.

But language is embedded into the fabric of who we are: how we represent ourselves, how we view the world. And as with anything that pervasive and moving and fraught, the answer to a question about its status is complex.

Take the slow decline of the hyphen in the English language. What does that mean for a place like Winston-Salem, whose history — not to mention, ostensibly, the name of the minor league baseball team — is captured in this typographical feature?

In case this is news, a bit more detail: The hyphen, with us since at least 17th Century English, is likely on its way out, at least with words (not numbers). Because many people do not feel confident about its use, the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary no longer uses the hyphen in compound nouns. In a local example, the Wellbeing initiative at Wake Forest has removed it from a word commonly hyphenated in the past.

Two traditional rules for hyphenating English words are as follows. First, if the combination of an adjective plus noun functions as a single concept, then it loses the hyphen. Think overtime or threadbare. Second, a hyphen indicates that two words are meant as a single word (or lexical item). In the case of a phrase like “a well-deserved win,” for example, the intended meaning is a single adjective, meaning deserved thoroughly.

It is important to note, however, that as with many English rules (such as no split infinitives, based on hopes to Latinize English and not based on the inherent structure of English), this rule dates back only to 18th- and 19th Century grammar and usage guides. So the unregulated use of the hyphen in English has clear historical precedent; furthermore, hyphen rules are not widely known or even wholly consistent today (is it on-line or online?). But that does not mean that its decline is not of interest. In

the case of Winston-Salem, people have told me, the hyphen tells a history.

The real question, then, is whether we understand the aforesaid meanings without the hyphen (or despite the language change). Can we understand the history of our city if it is not typographically represented? Do we understand a well deserved win?

How about in the second paragraph: Did you understand that I meant English is structurally-sound, without the hyphen?

Language change behooves us to ask these kinds of questions. Not because people do not have strong feelings about language change; they do.

But because regardless of how individuals feel about it, ultimately, the English language is changing, and some exciting and productive questions that follow are how and why it is changing, and implications for the same.

There are the obvious answers to why English is changing: the internet is arguably the most revolutionary language-based technology since the printing press (which was considered “the devil” by writers like Victor Hugo, just to put lamentations about language change into perspective). Some online forms only allow me to select “Winston Salem” sans hyphen. But there are many causes for language change. Some road signs for the city do not include the hyphen. Print materials across Winston-Salem do not all agree: Some use the hyphen, and some do not. Finally (as with many examples of linguistic change) one cannot hear the hyphen when WinstonSalem is spoken. A classic language-change lament is that this kind of unregulated use is precisely the stuff of anarchy. But then, there is also evidence that everything is okay.

We know where we live. We can visit Old Salem and new Winston; we can ride our bikes across the blurred lines between them. We can name our city and be understood. We can find our way home.

And maybe, the absence of the hyphen reminds us that there are good reasons to consider the towns together, as one entity: reasons to reach across parts of Winston Salem in ways we haven’t yet.

In this way, the case of Winston(-)Salem’s hyphen reminds us that language change is an opportunity to appreciate — in the sense of contemplate and, I think, be grateful for — language change. Not as progress or decay, but as something that is a reality, and one that comes with both loss and possibility.

Laura Louise Aull is an assistant professor of English and linguistics at Wake Forest University who studies patterns in written language. Her recent book, First-Year University Writing, explores distinctions between student and published argumentative writing.

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PHOTOS BY CALEB SMALLWOOD

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June 17 — 23, 2015

A common evil One woman’s harrowing experience with a little-known form of sex trafficking

Cover Story

by Sayaka Matsuoka • Photography by Caleb Smallwood

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The box measured a foot across by a foot wide.

It was worn, made of cardboard, like the ones people use for moving, and it weighed what felt like several pounds. It was not what Anna Malika had expected.

Photographs of all different sizes, shot from varying angles in both color and in black and white filled the box.

And the model staring back at her in each of the images was a younger, more vulnerable version of herself.

They reflected a dark time in Malika’s life. It was the early 2000s; she had been young, in high school, and had been manipulated, coerced and “brainwashed” by a man more than twice her age who she thought loved her, and whom she had been convinced she loved in turn. Shocked, disgusted and heartbroken, Malika eventually realized that she had been a victim of sexual exploitation and human trafficking. That moment, standing there with the open box, was a turning point, and now she’s telling her story to help others avoid the same situation.

Malika, who is Indian, was adopted as a 10-week-old by a white family and raised in Greensboro. At a young age, while she was still a toddler, she was targeted by someone close to her and sexually abused, a common enough story.

In the years that followed, she grew up in relative normalcy among her adopted family, going to school and playing with neighborhood kids, but life took another dark turn as she approached her eighth birthday.

“That was when the abuse started again,” Malika said.

This time it was both emotional and physical, perpetrated by yet another person to whom she had been close.

Today, at this point in her healing, Malika doesn’t feel comfortable disclosing who either of these people are.

In addition to the harrowing experience of the abuse, Malika always felt a lingering disconnect from her family because of their racial differences.

“I had struggled with being Indian my whole life,” Malika said. “All of the kids at school, including my friends, were white and it taught me from a young age that I needed to look and feel a certain way to be beautiful.”

The years that followed proved hard for Malika. Her family life became unstable as her parents divorced — opting for joint custody and leading her to divide her time between her mother and father. Her life was spiraling out of control; by the time she was in middle school, she had developed an eating disorder, propelled by her low selfesteem and self-hatred.

“I was always wanting to be a stick figure and be white,” Malika said. “And I was neither.”

During her junior year of high school at Grimsley, she began working at the concession stand and as an usher at a movie theater in Greensboro. Malika requested that the name of the theater not be published because she still knows people who used to work there.

There, she made friends with other girls who were in their late teens and early twenties. Life seemed to be back on track.

She said she was 16 or 17 when she crossed paths with the 40-year-old white projectionist of the movie theater, whom she refers to as “Chris” out of respect for the sensitivities of his family, who live in the Triad. Looking back, she said she’s not sure whether it’s the trauma she experienced or the 10 years that have passed that account for her lack of certainty about her age.

“I was first introduced to him by another girl who worked there,” Malika said. “He began complimenting me and we eventually made a connection through conversations about music. He offered me free guitar lessons and later we started a romantic and physical relationship.”

Not long after, Malika’s strained relationship with her mother reached a breaking point as she was kicked out of the house for bad behavior, causing her to move in with this man more than twice her age.

After years of being abused by people close to her, lacking the emotional connection to her family and battling with self-esteem issues, Malika found what she considered to be solace in Chris, whom she thought of as her boyfriend.

“He always told me that I was beautiful and that he loved me,” she said. “And I believed every word of it. It was like I had been brainwashed.”

That’s why when Chris asked her to participate in a personal “art project,” she didn’t second-guess his motives.

“I wanted more than anything to be his No. 1 model so I said yes,” she said. “I didn’t realize what I was getting into.”

He took pictures of Malika nude, in various provocative poses.

At times she didn’t even remember being photographed.

“Sometimes I would wake up naked on the kitchen floor with no recollection of how I had gotten there,” she recounted. “He would just say, ‘Oh, you were sleepwalking.’

I literally believed every word he said. I never sleepwalked in my life; he was completely lying to me. He would either drug me or something.”

And while suspicion set in at times, it was never enough

Model Victoria Elaine Singleton and photographer Caleb S

triad-city-beat.com

Smallwood re-created photos that our cover subject Anna Malika was coerced into posing for by a man twice her age. “It was like I had been brainwashed,� Malika said.

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June 17 — 23, 2015

Cover Story

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to prompt Malika to leave.

“I just wanted him to keep loving me,” she explained.

At such a young age, Malika had never been in a serious relationship before and given her past, she had no idea what a healthy relationship looked or felt like. Instead, she longed for the missing affection and love many people receive through family, and accepted Chris’ attention and what she thought was love. In reality, Malika says now that she had become a victim of human trafficking.

There are two branches of human trafficking: labor and sex trafficking, the latter of which Malika says she had found herself a victim. The Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000 defines sex trafficking as “the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for the purpose of a commercial sex act.”

Additionally, a commercial sex act is defined as “any sex act on account of which anything of value is given to or received by any person.”

Malika said that the more she posed for his pictures, the more food he fed her.

Sandra Johnson, president and founder of Triad Ladder of Hope, said rewarding a person with food to induce their cooperation fulfills the definition of sex trafficking.

“That is coercing her to perform an act and to be fed in return is definitely sex trafficking,” she said.

He exerted complete control over her life, even insisting she not to tell anyone about their relationship. Malika said Chris forced her to sell her car and started cashing her paychecks from the theater for her. He started driving her to and from school and made sure he knew where she was at all times.

“He followed me everywhere,” Malika said.

“When we would go to the grocery stores and I would try to go to another aisle, he would make such a big deal out of it. He would say things like ‘Don’t go!’ and, ‘I love you so much, don’t ever leave me.’”

A major misconception about sex trafficking is that it only pertains to forced prostitution or sex slavery involving foreign women, but the phenomenon is actually much broader. The crime is much more variable and prevalent in the United States and even in North Carolina than most people realize, according to the Human Trafficking and Smuggling Center, a branch of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Although friends and family thought her relationship with Chris was strange, they didn’t say anything because of how happy she seemed. She was hiding in plain sight.

Once when she and Chris visited a doctor’s office because he had gotten sick, Malika noticed the strange stares the couple would receive.

“I guess they thought it was weird that this 40-year-old guy came in with this young Indian girl,” Malika said. “But they didn’t say anything because they didn’t want to be rude.”

Anna Malika looks at one of the four that she kept; it exposes just a bit of her thigh, giving viewers a glimpse into her situation.

“He usually found me when I was alone and in a dark theater with no one else around,” Carr said. “It started out as an innocent project but his requests became increasingly more provocative and revealing.”

What began as suggestions that she pose shirtless escalated to asking her to model with nothing but black velvet gloves on. Among the seven or so girls that worked there, at least three had been approached by Chris, Carr said. As far as she knew, he had been a longtime employee of the company and was friends with one of the managers.

“I never reported him because he never did anything overt,” said Carr, who never posed for photos and still avoids the theater almost 10 years later.

“But we always talked about how strange he was.”

After leaving for a better job in 2008, Carr kept in touch with Malika through Facebook.

“I always thought that it was strange that she was with him,” Carr said. “He didn’t seem like he was good for her.”

Shortly after discovering Chris’ true character, Malika became heavily depressed and turned to self-harm, cutting her arms.

Then, in 2009, Chris re-entered her life through his death.

“When I heard that he had died of colon cancer, my first thought was that I needed to get those pictures back,” she said.

Malika managed to contact Chris’ sister, who was then working at the same theater. The two met privately after the funeral, in an alley behind the theater. Malika expected to be handed an envelope or maybe just a handful of photographs, but what she received instead was a vast collection that Chris had secretly stashed in that cardboard box. She realized that he had been mass-producing images of her by creating multiple copies of different shots, but never found proof that he had sold them. A few weeks later, Malika reconnected with Carr and they met up to talk about Chris’ death and the photographs.

“We cried together and I reassured

Anna that her feelings of horror and shock were valid,” Carr said. “He was disgusting.”

Malika tore up the majority of the pictures in March 2011 after finally coming to terms with her anger and accepting Chris’ true nature. She kept just four.

“I wanted people to believe me, but also it was part of me knowing that my pain is valid and it was real,” she said.

Creases and water stains blemish one of the photos that displays an almost unrecognizable image of her.

“I look dead,” she said. “I look like I’ve been drugged.”

In the image, blankets of different colors and sizes cover the beige, dingy couch upon which a strange and more broken version of her sits, left leg crossed over the right. She’s naked and only barely covered by a blanket, with locks of her straight black hair falling over her breasts and genitals.

Her shoulders and thighs are exposed, but there’s nothing sexy or seductive about the image. Her face looks sunken in and she wears an expression of lost innocence as she gazes up with unfocused eyes.

Her makeup is smudged; she looks exhausted. The whole scene complete with the flowery blankets and stuffed animals in the background has a lewd aura about it.

It serves as a grim reminder of what Malika has been through, but now it helps tell her story.

The same year she retrieved the photographs, Malika enrolled in a Christian counseling program in St. Louis for women with self-controlling issues called Mercy Ministries.

The program helps girls who have experienced traumatic events. They learn coping skills, how to make good life choices and how to form positive body images. Ranging in age from 13 to 28, the women participate in group-counseling and at the end of the program share their stories with each other. Malika graduated from the ministry in 2012.

Now, she uses her past to raise awareness locally and internationally about human trafficking, prostitution and sexual exploitation.

‘When I heard that he had died of colon cancer, my first thought was that I needed to get those pictures back,’ she said.

She’s spoken to several lawenforcement groups, including the Greensboro Police Department, informing officers about what to look for in trafficking victims and how to treat them.

“A lot of times they will seem like they have no control over their lives,” Malika said. “Traffickers are smart and they often pick victims with troubled pasts and rough home lives. You have to treat them like people.”

At one particular talk in Raleigh, Malika recalled that her words moved a police officer to tears.

“I never knew how to approach these women,” he told Malika. “Now I know how to help them.”

According to the Human Trafficking and Smuggling Center, many traffickers rename their girls as another method of control, and tattoo the new names or even barcodes on their bodies to take away their identities. More often than not, perpetrators employ a “grooming process” to recruit their victims through flattery and material items. They then entice them to engage in sexual conduct, which can lead to forcing them to have sex with more men and, ultimately, to prostitution.

The quieter, lesser known form of sex trafficking experienced by Malika is not unusual, according to Dawn Hawkins, who is the executive director of the National Center for Sexual Exploitation.

“The kind of trafficking that happened to Anna is one of the most common but the least known about,” she said. “Even the victims don’t know it’s happening to them sometimes.”

The relationships usually start with older men approaching young girls in their mid to late teenage years because of different vulnerabilities, Hawkins said.

What happens next varies from girl to girl. While some traffickers employ photography, others use sexting or revenge porn — the distribution of sexually explicit media without consent of the individuals involved. And it happens to all demographics.

Despite the problem being widespread, there is little recourse for victims of sex trafficking, Hawkins said.

While it is difficult to know the exact number of human trafficking cases because of the discreet nature of the crime, a 2014 report by the National Human Trafficking Resource Center ranked North Carolina in the Top 10 of the worst human trafficking states

triad-city-beat.com

He also kept track of the number of times they had sex.

“I noticed one day that he had been tallying something on his calendar,” Malika said. She realized later that it was the number of times he had taken advantage of her.

“Most people think trafficking happens in urban areas, but we lived out in the country,” said Malika, who lived with Chris in Summerfield. “I was so isolated; I was so alone.”

While it may seem strange that Malika stayed in such a bizarre relationship, to her it seemed normal.

Chris never beat her or physically assaulted her. His control over her was much more discreet.

Eventually, Chris started talking seriously about marriage, and more often than she was comfortable with.

“That’s when I left him,” she recalled.

“I was about to graduate high school and I realized that I didn’t want to stay with him.”

She quietly escaped and started living with a friend who worked at the movie theater. The months that followed included nights of partying and dating other people who were closer in age.

Chris tried to find her through friends and phone calls from time to time but Malika managed to avoid him because she no longer worked at the theater.

For the second time, her life seemed to return to normal.

It wasn’t until a couple of months later when she ran into a few of her former coworkers at the theater that her life fell apart again. She found out that Chris had been approaching some of the other girls at the theater for his “art project.” Shock and embarrassment overwhelmed her.

“I thought the project was our special thing,” Malika said. “I was so confused.”

Katherine Carr was among the girls with whom Malika had reunited.

Carr had worked at the theater in her early twenties and had become friends with Malika during her time there around 2004. She remembers Chris well.

“He was known to be a photographer around the theater,” Carr said. “But everyone thought he was creepy. It always seemed like he had ulterior motives.”

Over the course of the two years that Carr worked at the theater, she remembers the projectionist approaching her at least five times.

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June 17 — 23, 2015

Cover Story

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Looking forward, Malika hopes to work for a nonprofit organization and keep advocating for victims of trafficking all over the world.

two speaking tours in California and New York, the latter of which helped her realize her dream of starting a fashion line. Partnering with a clothing manufacturer called Elegantees, Malika designed a line that employs Nepalese sex-trafficking survivors through the Nepali Rescue Project. She donates a majority of the proceeds to the organization. She even showed her line in February in the esteemed New York Fashion Week at the Andaz Hotel and is currently working on a fall collection.

She also garnered a lot of national attention through radio interviews on stations like KLOVE and organizations like the Ashton and Demi Moore Foundation.

Looking forward, Malika hopes to continue advocacy and wants to eventually work for a nonprofit that helps rehabilitate at-risk youth.

Whatever she does, she can’t imagine a time when she won’t be advocating for women who experience exploitation.

“Human trafficking has so many faces,” Malika said.

And she plans to reveal them all.

triad-city-beat.com

in the nation based on hotline calls — California, Texas and New York top the list.

“Charlotte is a big one because of its size but Greensboro is also pretty big because of its central location and its highways,” Malika said. “So many people have no idea it’s here. I’ve had cops be so surprised when I mention it to them.”

In addition to speaking to law enforcement, Malika has helped pass legislation tightening laws around human trafficking. In 2013, she spoke in support of the Safe Harbor Bill in the North Carolina Senate. The bill was passed in July 2013 and became law that October. It increased criminal charges against traffickers, expunged records of those charged with prostitution and increased the age of protection from 16 to 18, so that anyone under 18 would be considered a minor. Malika hopes to eventually raise the age of protection to 21 to cover potential victims in college.

Since graduating from Mercy Ministries in 2012, Malika has been busy.

She studied abroad in Malta through UNCG’s study abroad program, where she met with the European nation’s president, and embarked on

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Food Music Art Stage & Screen

Walla Walla wine Pacific Northwest Wine Dinner @ 1618 Seafood Grille (GSO), Wednesday Make your reservation ASAP for this five-course sampler at 1618 Seafood Grille.

A wine from either Washington or Oregon pairs with each course from the amusebouche to the dessert. The menu includes curried sea scallop over a petit blackbean cake paired with Domaine Serene couer blanc, pan-seared Alaskan halibut with Colene Clemens pinot noir, blackened lobster over duck confit with Leonetti sangiovese, pan-seared beef tenderloin with Mark Ryan Dissident red-and white-chocolate and banana-bread pudding paired with your choice. Dinner is served at 6:30 p.m.

Whiskey river, take my mind Jaycees June Social @ 913 Whiskey Bar (GSO), Wednesday 913 Whiskey Bar and Southern Kitchen hosts a summer social for the Greensboro Jaycees. The Jaycees hold a monthly mixer to help young professionals network. Mix it up with some mixed drinks, unless you take your whiskey neat, as all good people should, especially if we’re talking about some single-malt Scotch whisky. Rocks and a splash of water is acceptable for good bourbons. Anyway, the social starts at 6:30 p.m.

Homegrown city market The City Market: Homebrew @ 106 Barnhardt St. (GSO), Thursday The second iteration of Greensboro’s City Market launches this week. The theme is Homebrew; in keeping with the theme, Gibb’s Hundred Brewing Co. will make the short trek across the street to set up shop. Topo Distillery, LaRue Restaurant, the Forge, Elsewhere, Mindful Supply and dozens more vendors will also be there.

Dalton Village, a local soul/hip-hop act, will provide some live tunes. Proceeds go towards Interactive Resource Center. The market opens at 5:30 p.m.

Shot in the Triad All She Wrote

ary’s

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FOOD

by Anthony Harrison

Games

Good Sport

Banquet

Gourmet Diner

(336) 723-7239

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ERIC GINSBURG Thai peanut noodles, an enormous appetizer, comes cold and refreshing. Xia Asian Bistro serves several Vietnamese dishes too, and is one of the only places in Winston-Salem to do so. See more photos at triad-city-beat.com

Winston’s Xia changes the equation

by Eric Ginsburg

text came a day after I sent Winston-Salem painter Laura Lashley and a carful of her people to Pho Hien Vuong for dinner on their way out of Greensboro.

“The restaurant was the best thing ever!” she wrote. “It inspired me to take my cooking in a whole new direction — I think I could live off of noodles!”

Pho Hien Vuong is easily the most popular Vietnamese restaurant in Greensboro, as evidenced by its recent expansion into the adjacent storefront, and Lashley isn’t the only Camel City resident who wishes there was more Vietnamese cuisine closer to home. My friend Tony makes a point to stop at Banh Mi Saigon for cheap, French-influenced sandwiches when he’s in Greensboro, and I rank the bountiful Vietnamese options as a title the Gate City holds over Winston-Salem’s head.

Xia Asian Bistro & Sushi Bar is totally messing up my calculations.

Pho isn’t technically on the menu at this peripheral downtown restaurant, though it is mentioned on a chalkboard outside a side door to the venue. But if you ask, it’s available, like the meatball and rare beef pho special on Monday night. The dish, or pho tai bo vien, is on

The

the menu at I Love Pho and Van Loi II in Several of the sushi rolls sport playful Greensboro, and a similar item is availnames, like the Gucci roll, Tiger Woods able at Pho Hien Vuong. But there are a Y’all and the Japanese bagel roll with handful of things that set Xia apart. salmon and cream cheese. There’s even Besides the fact that it’s in Wina Greensboro roll with crab and cucumston-Salem, Xia Asian Bistro is the ber wrapped in avocado and topped nicest place serving Vietnamese food I with baked scallops. know about around here. It’s beautiful, But I’m more interested in the other painted in stark, bright red and black, choices, and if the pho hadn’t been with high ceilings, an expansive dining available, I would’ve ordered the Sinarea, simple gapore street decorations and noodles, which a long bar. But comes with stirVisit Xia Asian Bistro & Sushi despite tradifried shrimp and Bar at 102 W. Third St. #110 tional Vietnamchicken cooked (W-S) or at xiarestaurant.com. ese chicken salad in a spicy curry and Vietnamese sauce. And if it black-pepper had been lunch, shrimp and chicken on the menu, Xia is I would’ve had to choose between the multinational. $6 chicken pad Thai lunch special or the The main reason my friends Kristin — vermicelli salad with spring rolls and who clued me in on the criminally overchicken skewers. looked restaurant — comes here is the Instead I started with the Thai peanut sushi. When she joined me for dinner noodles, a dish that proved to be large a few days ago, she ordered the $8 Mt. enough to share with Andrew, Kristin Fuji Roll, which comes with shrimp temand her husband, Camilo. The cool pura, crab and eel sauce, among other appetizer was tasty and a little tangy, things. Our friend Andrew ordered the working best without the hot sauce put Lava Drops, a crab and cream cheese out with it and an ideal beginning to a roll that is fried, for the same price, meal on a blisteringly hot June day. though we all favored the Mt. Fuji.

The pho, with halved meatballs and

serving Vietnamese food in Winston-Salem — in fact there are two other places nearby, Wen Hwa and Downtown Thai & Sushi, that sell pho. But nobody seems to be talking about any of them.

Kristin and Camilo say they’ve never had to wait for a table at Xia Asian Bistro, which is located close to the corner of Third and Liberty streets near the heart of the city, even on a Saturday night during what should be a dinner rush. Parking couldn’t be easier for dinner, as a line of free curbside parking

remains vacant after 6 p.m., and there’s a parking deck next door.

Centrally located, great décor, no waiting and delicious food that’s hard to come by. Did I mention there’s air conditioning?

Some Winston-Salem residents may find it is still worth the trek to Greensboro for a heap of pho and Vietnamese options, but the point is, there’s a choice. Because as far as Lashley and I are concerned, suddenly there is worthy competition.

Up Front

the chase, ordering a small pho special to go.

In fact, the couple, who try to come to Xia regularly, say takeout may be the best option at this restaurant between Restaurant Row and the Government District downtown. For some reason pho always tastes better to me later the same night or the next day — maybe it’s the soup steeping or maybe it’s the anticipation — and with somewhat spotty service here, it’s hard to disagree.

It’s not that Xia is the only place

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thin cuts of beef, comes with more rice noodles than several other restaurants in the Triad offer. Appropriately accompanied by a side dish with Thai basil, bean sprouts, cilantro, jalpeño slices and a lime, the pho arrives with bits of green stems and onion that add to the depth of the flavorful broth.

The medium size bowl is too much for one person, at least if there’s any sort of appetizer involved. While I was pouring much of the soup into a to-go container for lunch the next day, Camilo cut to

News

Food

ELSEWHERE The Society of Bacchus held a 2012 dinner at Elsewhere. The photos are one of the only things that comes up when searching the group online.

Good Sport Games Shot in the Triad All She Wrote

The Society of Bacchus, of course, has no Facebook page or website.

Stage & Screen

saying they wish more people who love wine could come but that it would create a logistical problem for the size of the restaurants as well as acquiring enough of the often-rare wine. And as for being only men?

“It’s just a men’s group, that’s all,” Vanstory said. “It’s not intended to be anything else at all. There’s got to be somewhere in the world that women can be women and me can go be men.”

“We do take our wives once a year,” he continued. “We used to do it at Christmas, and now we do it at Valentines.”

This year’s Valentines excursion was held at the Greensboro Country Club, he said, a fantastic meal paired with French wines from a shop in New York, owned by someone that Signature Property Group CEO and Bacchus member Frank Auman met while traveling.

Because the group has reached its capacity, there is a waiting list, Vanstory said.

Existing members said they were invited to join — Ken Mayer of Moser Mayer Phoenix invited Vaughan to join, the mayor’s husband said. But guests are occasionally allowed, Vaughan said, and when the meetings resume in September, he offered to try and extend an invitation.

Art

lot of interest in participating in that.”

Bill Daisy joined Bacchus because he doesn’t have a big budget to spend on wine: “I very seldom buy bottles that cost more than $20 a bottle,” he said. He attended his very first meeting at Bentley’s, a steakhouse that probably closed before I was born, he said. Even though he hasn’t been that active for the last few years, Daisy was anxious to taste the Burgundy wines accompanying a dinner at B. Christoper’s several months ago, and is glad he showed up.

“The group became almost as much a gourmet club as a wine club,” he said. “I prefer my dues and my monthly meeting fees to go to wine and keep it simple, but on the other hand we’ve had some good meals too, so I’m not complaining.”

Bacchus men will sometimes go on trips together, Vaughan said, adding that there have been treks to western North Carolina as well as Napa Valley. And one event was held at the Angus Barn in Raleigh. But for the most part, Bacchus meets at Greensboro’s esteemed restaurants; members reminisced about meals at 1618 Wine Lounge, Undercurrent, the Painted Plate and several others.

Before he left town, Glover attended the April gathering at Osteria.

Several members agreed that the cap on the group’s size is unfortunate but necessary,

Music

than 30 years and reaching more than 50 members, the maximum that several said the organization could handle for its monthly food and wine dinners at local restaurants.

“I think that over the years, the trend was that the meetings were getting better,” Glover said. He, like several other Bacchus men, described one appeal of the group before even mentioning wine: the camaraderie.

Steven Tanger said he didn’t have much to say as a new member, but he did add: “It’s good fellowship with a lot of men in the community who are just good people, and I enjoy the camaraderie.”

Richard Vanstory, of RL Vanstory Co., brought up fellowship first. He’s been a member for about 30 years, though he took a two-year sabbatical before returning this year, making him one of the first members of the Society of Bacchus. Since his friend Denny Bailey — who has since passed away — started the group, it has grown more sophisticated, Vanstory said.

“So many of our meetings were sitting on the picnic tables at Twin Oaks Golf Course and eating cheese and drinking our wines,” he said. “As we matured, we stepped it up a little bit.”

Bacchus — the name of a white wine grape as well as the Roman god of wine — morphed into a paired dinner, usually held for several hours on the first Monday of the month, Don Vaughan said. Restaurants are generally closed that night, but it makes sense to open for a large group to eat who also bring their own wine and pay a corkage fee. Each gathering is organized by two or three members, who put a great deal of effort and thought into the wine pairings.

“We frequently start with Champagne, chardonnay or rosé and then move on in, getting bigger and bolder,” Vanstory said.

“The guys are taking a lot of pride in the pairings of the wines, and chefs are taking a

Cover Story

There are already two things, in the few short weeks since he retired to Florida, that Joe Glover misses about Greensboro — the lower North Carolina insurance rates and the Society of Bacchus.

In more than three decades of operating behind the scenes, the monthly wine club has grown dramatically both in size and scope.

These days, the roster of about 50 members reads like a Who’s Who of powerful men in Greensboro. Normally a list of local power brokers would name Mayor Nancy Vaughan and former US senator Kay Hagan, but the women show up by first name only, under “spouse” to lawyer and former state senator Don Vaughan and Chip Hagan of Hagan Davis respectively.

Far from everyone on the 2014-15 roster is a household name, but there are several on there, including Cone Health CEO Tim Rice, developer Milton Kern and Steven Tanger, for whom the downtown performing-arts center will be named. Notes by other members’ names frequently mention that someone is the owner or president of an organization, like Metal Works of High Point president and owner Cam Hall, Bankers Financial Corp. CEO John Strong, Painted Plate owner Brad Semon and BB&T Managing Director of Debt Capital Markets Albert Newsome, Jr. Some Society of Bacchus members were reluctant to talk about the organization — several directed questions to current President Ted Tewkesbury, who as politely as possible declined to comment.

“We’re a little flattered by the attention, but we’re going to pass,” Tewkesbury, who works at Tewkesbury Law Offices, wrote via email, adding, “Outside the club, we’re a bunch of pretty regular guys who just like wine with the dinner meal.”

But the Society of Bacchus is much more than that, having remained intact for more

Opinion

by Eric Ginsburg

The Society of Bacchus

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June 17 — 23, 2015 Up Front News Opinion Cover Story Food

Music Art Stage & Screen Good Sport Games Shot in the Triad All She Wrote

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Setlist

MUSIC

by Jordan Green

Speak easy Dark Prophet Tongueless Monk @ the Garage (W-S), Friday Fresh from a run of well-received shows as Must Be the Holy Ghost, the indefatigable Jared Draughon returns with Dark Prophet Tongueless Monk, a project with drummers Brian Doub. Somewhat more conventional than his work with MBTHG, Dark Prophet’s music has a pleasing sonic texture and earnest, spirited vocals. Their new single, “Lost Community” — posted on Bandcamp — is scarcely two weeks old, whetting appetites for the forthcoming record, The Path.

Preach greasy Holy Ghost Tent Revival @ the Depot (HP), Friday Holy Ghost Tent Revival has burned up some road since the Greensboro College alumni created a minor sensation at venues like the Clubhouse back in 2007. Their latest album, Right State of Mind, synthesizes many of their stylistic phases, including Band-style roots-rock hootenannies, 1920s ragtime and New Orleans brass music, while venturing even further afield into Motown soul and Beatlesque pop. They have the honor of closing out the Ignite High Point Whistlestop Concert Series. Show starts at 7 p.m.

Experimental pilgrimage Chamber Crawl @ various downtown locations (GSO), Saturday There was a time when the Eastern Music Festival’s Fringe Series showcased American roots music, some great some not so much. It’s hard to define Americana as “fringe” these days, and so the festival is probably in the right groove here highlighting avant-garde chamber music. Several ensembles, including Collapss, Railyard Quartet, Chad Eby Quartet and Battleground Bassoon Quartet hit up a string of rooms along South Elm Street from 1 to 5 p.m. Contact John Davis at 336/681-5362 or john@mamclothing.com for details.

Play ball!

The Baseball Project @ BB&T Ballpark (WS), June 21 What could be a more perfect way to celebrate Father’s Day than a concert by the jangle-pop supergroup the Baseball Project at BB&T Ballpark? Formed by members of Dream Syndicate, Young Fresh Fellows and REM, with guitarist Peter Buck and bassist Mike Mills from that latter most iconic of bands represented, the Baseball Project will play songs inspired by the greats, like “Jackie’s Lament,” before singing the National Anthem and setting the stage for the opening pitch of the Dash’s matchup against the Salem Red Sox. Show starts at 3:05 p.m.

Rei Alvarez (left) leads Bio Ritmo during a Sunday afternoon concert at Second Sundays on Fourth.

JORDAN GREEN

Bio Ritmo’s salsa is as Southern as barbecue

by Jordan Green

heavy humidity and broiling With sun beating down on West Fourth Street that was ventilated by only an occasional breeze, it felt like summer in the South on the second installment of Second Sundays on Fourth, the monthly free street festival on what local business owners like to call “our little block of awesome.”

The stage was literally and figuratively set for Bio Ritmo, a classic salsa band, whose most recent album is entitled Puerta del Sur. Translated into English, it means “gateway to the South” — which could allude to the band’s homebase in Richmond, Va. or the function of

the music as an entrée to the musical culture of the global South.

The Enrichment Center Percussion Ensemble opened the block party with a set of dreamy instrumentals that suggested a soundtrack to a pensive indie film. Elderly visitors with portable chairs gradually migrated to the side of the street for refuge under the tree shade as the sun became more oppressive. The short block, bookended with the stage at Cherry Street and bounce castle at Marshall Street, was equipped with a concession by Camino Bakery selling poor-man’s $2 PBRs and more expensive craft beers by the plastic cup — conveniently placed to quench the thirst of a

relatively small and intimate crowd.

When Bio Ritmo took the stage about an hour later the heat had begun to break and a racially diverse crowd materialized in the dance area in front of the stage, responding immediately to the irresistible groove. Couples and parents with small children, young and old, they took to the steps of salsa dancing with natural ease, whether they knew what a clave rhythm was or not. And if they weren’t perfect no one seemed to notice or care.

Bio Ritmo proved themselves on Sunday in Winston-Salem to be musicians of supreme ability, an unstoppable rhythm force, and it must be said,

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“Coco” Barez, the band almost effortlessly shifted into tightly arranged blasts of brass, represented Sunday

by Toby Whitaker on trombone, John Lilley on sax and Bob Miller on trumpet.

Marlysse Simmons, who also manages the band, is Bio Ritmo’s primary keyboardist, providing esoteric flourishes of piano along with the occasional burst of synth. Miller also doubles on keyboards, helping Simmons fill out one of the band’s three primary zones of instrumentation.

The band moved smoothly from the laidback swing of “Tu No Sabes” to the multi-part “Perdido,” with traditional Puerto Rican balladry giving way to psychedelic and jazz textures, and on to “Pajaro Pio Pio,” a nod to 1960s Colombian merengue.

The irrepressible Alvarez displayed an endearing habit of warmly greeting the audience repeatedly between songs.

“Mucho gracias,” he would say, followed by, “Jazz jazz.”

Enjoying his libations, he held up a plastic cup of craft beer. “Salud, mi gente,” he said, adding, “Don’t worry; I’m drinking water, too.”

The band tried out a new number described by Alvarez as a “new little something we cooked up,” and then closed with “La Vía” a signature from their recent album full of lamentations about setbacks and difficulties, blasts of trombone, eruptions of timbales and cowbell, and Simmons’ singular keyboard playing.

Then it was time to break down and prepare for the journey to the Old World.

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confident enough in their abilities and their position after two decades in the business to relax and have fun. They appeared to be psyched for an appearance at a world music festival in France coming up on Saturday, and a block party in Winston-Salem must have felt like a low-pressure gig in comparison.

“This is our very last show before we fly to Europe, so thanks for the good energy,” frontman Rei Alvarez told the crowd after the first song. “Such a beautiful day.”

Dressed nattily in a pink guayabera, straight-leg pants and sharp loafers with a full beard and aviator glasses, Alvarez owned the role of frontman, breaking into a little dance that looked like a tai chi stretch, pumping the energy with call-and-response vocals and displaying a smooth and powerful singing voice.

Bio Ritmo performs an eclectic stew of Afro-Caribbean music, whose primary reference point is the classic salsa sound that emerged in New York City in the early 1970s. But the musical backgrounds of the individual members of Bio Ritmo range from dub-reggae to punk, classical and jazz, and the band has made forays into everything from Brazilian psychedelia to Egyptian classical as it has evolved.

Live, the band, to put it simply, swings, with an unshakable rhythm section, tight horn arrangements and counterintuitive keyboard textures that pivot around a bass groove courtesy of Edward Prendergast that seems to slink around and pop up right where it’s needed. Built around the percussive interplay between Giustino Riccio, whose standing posture on timbales delivers a highly articulated and forward-leaning style — also possessing a sartorial gift to match bandmate Alvarez — and the more organic conga playing of Hector

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30

ART

by Anthony Harrison

I don’t like James Taylor Annual Meeting and You’ve Got a Friend Auction @ Greenhill (GSO), Thursday Following Greenhill’s annual meeting, featuring Jonathan Brilliant and the launch of his installation, the gallery throws their second biennial You’ve Got a Friend auction. Friends of Greenhill offer their insight, knowledge or talent to teach you how to throw artful parties, garden at home, do some cool yoga or make a super-secret dish. Light refreshments and a cash bar are provided. The meeting begins at 5 p.m., and meeting attendees receive free admission to the auction, which starts at 6:45 p.m.

Little boxes Tiny House Expedition on the Green @ Sixth and Liberty St. (W-S), Saturday This event runs the gamut from food to music, but the real focus is architecture.

Tiny House Expedition debuts its three completed tiny houses, all available for a cute little tour. There’s gonna be beer from Hoots Beer Co., produce from the Farm at the Children’s Home, samples from Black Mountain Chocolate, food trucks galore, community yoga sessions, live music from the Genuine and Emily Stewart and more.

The pop-up park opens at 11:30 a.m.

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Painter finds her cup of tea

by Sayaka Matsuoka McKinnon’s eyes focus sharply on her canvas as she carefully applies layers of paint to the delicate face of the slowly forming hawk in front of her. She’s set up in her usual spot, nestled in the right window of Vida Pour Tea on State Street in Greensboro, which proves to be a prime spot for painting as light from the powerful summer sun pours in.

Waves of blue cover the background of the canvas in the form of a moonlit sky with a scraggly tree off to the right.

She gingerly dabs excess paint off of the head of the bird of prey, smudging areas of gray and brown ever so gently to create the softness of feathers. Mouth slightly open, McKinnon’s attention never breaks as customers straggle in off the street outside. She’s in her element here.

McKinnon is usually the first one in Vida Pour Tea every Wednesday, and has been for the past year.

“It’s almost our one-year anniversary,” McKinnon laughs, referring to Sarah Chapman, the owner of the tea shop. “We’re kindred spirits.”

The two best friends met almost a year ago before the shop opened in August when McKinnon came looking for work. She had been doing chalk lettering for the now closed Grass Fed burger bar in downtown Greensboro and had been referred to Sarah’s shop.

Now, it serves as her second home.

“This is pretty much my studio space,” McKinnon says. “I had been coming here to sketch from time to time and I don’t know how it came up but one day [Chapman] asked, ‘Why don’t you set up artist hours here?’”

Now she comes to the quiet haven to paint at least once a week. But McKinnon has her own work space at home that she retreats to when she needs to be reclusive.

Painting in jeans and a T-shirt, McKinnon’s easel is surrounded by materials essential to her craft. A large box not unlike one a fisherman uses sits in the corner, filled with a variety of paints and brushes. Along the walls of the shop hang many of her creations including a golden seahorse, a bright red cardinal, a goldfish and some moths. It’s apparent her passion lies in the natural realm. ”Nature to me is the most perfect

Liz

Liz McKinnon sets up every Wednesday in the right window of Vida Pour Tea on State Street in Greensboro.

SAYAKA MATSUOKA

creation,” McKinnon says. “Man is not.” depicts colorful Russian buildings.

Her paintings don’t just realistically “Paintings, to me, have personalities,” depict the McKinnon says. animals in their “When I saw the natural element; picture of the Find Liz McKinnon’s art on they exhibit a seahorse he was her Facebook page, Heart secondary essence this beautiful Shine Studios. that McKinnon golden thing. The brings out in her structure of his own way, many body reminded times by painting scenes in the animals’ me of St. Basil’s cathedral in Russia and bellies. Her seahorse for example, I thought, He’s royal and he would live

McKinnon, who has been a resident of the Gate City for only three years after moving to the area from Randleman.

She expresses her enthusiasm for the growing arts and food scene in Greensboro and her excitement to be a part of it all. And finding a home at Vida Pour Tea has contributed to that.

She cites the relaxing music, the comforting decor and the friendly faces she has come to know as reasons for why she comes back every week.

“You can tell [Chapman] has put a lot

into the store,” McKinnon says. “And you get to know people; you know who they are and they know you.”

She talks about regulars she has connected with including a man named Bob and his dog Dylan, and later chats with a regular named Steve.

“It’s friendly without being intrusive or forced,” McKinnon says.

And that relaxed atmosphere will likely be the reason McKinnon keeps returning.

Up Front

She teaches painting to adults with mental disabilities and works to make art more inclusive and therapeutic.

She’s also been expanding her work into the community, entering exhibits and calls for artists. This year, at the 100 for 100 show at the Center for Visual Artists in Greensboro, McKinnon sold a painting of a bluebird. As an introvert, she expresses that branching out has been a journey for her.

“It’s been a really interesting progression to this point,” said

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there.”

Some of McKinnon’s other artistic touches adorn the space as well. White magnolia and dogwood flowers are drawn onto the windows. Strings of cranes hanging from a rod decorate the entrance. Hand-painted ceramic mugs that sit in front of the register on the counter sold within the first hour of the shop being open.

When she’s not creating in her free time, McKinnon works at the Arc of High Point as a creative-arts director.

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McKinnon comes prepared with a variety of paints and brushes every week.

SAYAKA MATSUOKA

Hand-folded cranes and hand-drawn birch trees adorn the windows of the tea shop.

SAYAKA MATSUOKA

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June 17 — 23, 2015 Up Front News Opinion Cover Story Food Music Art

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32

Episodes

STAGE & SCREEN

by Anthony Harrison

You ain’t a beauty but, hey, you’re all right Thunder Road @ SECCA (W-S), Thursday I’m ashamed I missed this last week.

SECCA started their Going Dark Film Noir Screening Series last Thursday with Double Indemnity. Sorry, everyone. This week, SECCA shows cult classic Thunder Road, starring Robert Mitchum as a bootlegger running whiskey for his father, played by Trevor Bardette. He’s under pressure from both law and outlaws, but he’s gunning on one final run. Seems pretty neat, yeah? Then again, I just have a soft spot for film noir. The show starts at 8 p.m.

Stats upon stats Moneyball @ Bailey Park (W-S), Thursday I like baseball quite a bit, but I still have trouble remembering what sabermetric stats mean. VORP? NERD? PECOTA? What these things even stand for, I don’t know. But the Oakland Athletics figured it out, and that led them to a 20-game winning streak back in 2002, an American League record. Moneyball tells the story of Billy Beane, the As’ general manager, and the rag-tag team he built around on-base percentage and other underappreciated statistics. The film starts after a talk on statistical analysis delivered by Inmar CEO David Mounts at 8:30 p.m.

The Great Tramp Chaplin: 100 Years of a Matinee Idol @ Geeksboro Coffeehouse Cinema (GSO), Friday Technically, it’s been 101 years since Charlie Chaplin made his screen debut in the mostly forgotten film Making a Living, but who am I to split hairs? Geeksboro kicks off a film festival sprawling from this weekend into early August celebrating one of cinema’s most recognizable icons.

His breakthrough classic, The Kid, starring Chaplin and a young Uncle Fester (Jackie Coogan), begins the festivities at 2:30 p.m.

Ricky Oliver (Adam Barrie) stands triumphant after clinching the win for Zebulon College in their conference championship. But controversy sullies the win.

TAMARA IZLAR

An enemy of the b-ball

by Anthony Harrison

it wasn’t for theism, college basketball would reign as religion in North Carolina. People around the nation — if not the world — know about the Carolina-Duke rivalry.

Commercials immortalize Jim Valvano’s mad search for an embrace following NC State’s Cinderella win at the 1983 national championship. Even schools as small as Davidson College produce talent like Stephen Curry.

But now, UNC-Chapel Hill finds itself embroiled in the fallout of an enormous

If

scholar-athlete scandal, one perpetuatCommon Enemy, at the Pyrle Theatre in downtown Greensboro. ed largely by collusion between advisors Lane blends and the basketball and football players William Faulkner Common Enemy runs at they were supposed and Henrik Ibsen Triad Stage’s Pyrle Theatre to lead on their in the play. From in Greensboro until June Faulkner, Lane academic journey. creates a fictional What a perfect 28. Visit triadstage.org for time — especially town reminiscent showtimes and ticket sales. with the NBA Finals of Oxford, Miss.: at full, dramatic Hawboro, NC, and tilt — for Triad Stage to premiere PresHawboro’s up-and-coming school, Zebton Lane’s original basketball drama, ulon College. Lane then modernizes the

Hurry, hurry, hurry!

The Sideshow Saturdays Project @ Goldenflower Tai Chi Studio (W-S), Saturday Dance, visual art and film all meld together in the Sideshow Saturdays Project. The project grants the audience the option of participating in the performance itself. If you want to become part of the installation, you can. I personally wouldn’t, because I can barely dance. Or, at least, not at the level of art. It’s more like comedy.

The show begins at 8:30 p.m.

Stage & Screen

Food Music Art Good Sport Games Shot in the Triad All She Wrote

nance when watching Common Ground.

You empathize with Lee’s fight for the truth and for integrity, but you also understand the struggle of an overlooked community and the hardships of a town in decline.

The brilliant thing about Lane’s script is that everything is ambiguous, since nearly every viewpoint presents itself so starkly. There’s academia. There’s business. There’s entitlement. There’s poverty. There’s potential. There’s pragmatism.

However, personal integrity reigns supreme.

Or does it?

Lee’s peers and others keep saying, “You ain’t from around here, are you?”

Despite the interrogative framing, it’s not something asked — it’s something told.

Lee, seeking truth and justice in the face of corruption, stands martyred as an atheist against basketball, a lesser version of the way Jews were massacred

by Catholics in the Spanish Inquisition — if you don’t believe in us fully, we will smite you.

As an early whistleblower, Esther Steeds (Cassandra Lowe Williams), states in the play’s epilogue, “This was never about basketball.”

Common Enemy is and isn’t about basketball. It’s about pride. It’s about integrity. It’s about tradition. But it’s also about the evils of xenophobia, racism and resistance to change.

Basketball broke some barriers in North Carolina. But Common Enemy proves even the most revered structures possess insidious motives.

Cover Story

entrance into the college.

People who loved and admired Lee and his efforts eventually turn against him once Zebulon’s reputation comes into severe question.

And therein is the rub: Who could blame them?

Common Enemy doesn’t just look at basketball. It focuses on Ricky Oliver and his community. Oliver — practically illiterate — has no other opportunity outside of basketball; in a wider sense, neither does Zebulon College or Hawboro. They do what they must to survive.

But at what cost?

When confronted, Lee constantly rails about ideals of integrity and truth and what’s right for his students, the community and even the entire academic world.

And no one cares.

All that matters for Zebulon College is basketball — and, following the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement which led to the off-shoring of many manufacturing jobs, Zebulon College is everything for Hawboro, the same as it affected real towns in the state.

Dr. Abernathy grills Lee’s teaching assistant, Amira (Mari Vial-Golden), threatening her to the point of turning her back on her educator. Lee’s professorial friend Jim Vance (Ben Baker), already a conservative inflamed by Lee’s muckraking, has some of the best lines in the play in defense of basketball, including, “NCAA is nothing more than indentured servitude…. We know this, Patrick, and we don’t care.”

You feel the pull of cognitive disso-

Opinion

devolving plot of Ibsen’s An Enemy of the People, focused around town baths, through the analogue of basketball.

But unlike Ibsen’s work, Common Enemy completely absorbs the audience into the action of the play. The Pyrle Theatre transforms itself into a half court, including the basket, key and three-point line, with jumbotrons to boot.

The play opens with Ricky Oliver (Adam Barrie), Zebulon’s simpleton star point guard, giving an impassioned monologue, the beginning of a fantastic performance.

“Everyone’s got a ritual, and I got mine,” Ricky says. “Don’t ever change. I go for a run ev’ry mornin’. Don’t push it.

Just wake up my body so it’s alive.”

As the first character introduced, Ricky inspires sympathy. And you feel even more sympathy when you realize he leads the Zebulon Zebras to the conference championship, and thus, an unprecedented berth in the NCAA Tournament.

Then, Dr. Bonnie Abernathy (Elizabeth Flax) gives a rowdy pep talk about how much Zebulon’s athletic program achieved.

You’re pumped up. You’re excited. You want Zebulon to go to the big dance.

You practically want to yell, “Hell yeah!” for this non-existent team.

But reality sets in.

Patrick Lee (Kurt Uy), a well-meaning educator at Zebulon, uncovers a world of conspiracy concerning the school’s recent athletic growth, mainly revolving around cheating on tests and essays given even before a scholar-athlete’s

TAMARA IZLAR

But soft! What play through yonder theater breaks?

Romeo and Juliet @ Greensboro Cultural Center (GSO), Thursday I’m going to set the record straight — “wherefore” means “why.” She isn’t looking for him. She doesn’t know he’s out there. It’s a soliloquy — a monologue delivered to no one. Only the audience knows he can hear her; that’s called dramatic irony. So, now that’s established, look at the line in question: “Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou, Romeo?” If you divorce yourself from the idea that she’s wondering where he is, just sub in the modern wording: “Romeo, Romeo, why are you Romeo?”

She’s pondering his existence as a Montague. That make sense? Cool.

For tickets and showtimes, visit greensboro-nc.gov.

News

The Zebra faithful sing the school’s alma mater. All but the zebra embroil themselves in the athletic department’s collusion.

Up Front

Yoknapatawpha Co. in NC Common Enemy @ Triad Stage (GSO), Wednesday This is the play some devastatingly handsome cub reporter covered for this week’s Stage and Screen story. According to him, it’s a stellar, complex drama with some fine performances and interesting staging ideas, breaking the mold for the Pyrle Theatre. For showtimes and tickets, visit triadstage.org.

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Now Playing by Anthony Harrison

Got a show coming up? Send your theater info to brian@triad-city-beat.com.

33

June 17 — 23, 2015 Up Front News Opinion Cover Story Food Music Art Stage & Screen

by Anthony Harrison

Ladies’ summer hoops Asheville Lady Jaguars @ USA Elite (GSO), Saturday I was unaware of the existence of a women’s semi-professional basketball league until our art director, Jorge, let me know about it.

Seems pretty neat. The Women’s Blue Chip Basketball League has 38 teams spread around the nation, and Greensboro houses the USA Elite. Unfortunately, they’re not doing that great — 1-4 out of eight games.

The Asheville Lady Jaguars (3-3) come to the Triad Math and Science Academy to try and improve their 50 percent win rate. The game starts at 2 p.m.

Dad rock The Baseball Project @ BB&T Ballpark (WS), June 21 The Winston-Salem Dash are 27-35 as I write this, and they’re capping off a long, long week of baseball with a concert and ballgame. They’ve played the Myrtle Beach Pelicans (36-26) since Monday with that series ending on Wednesday at 7 p.m., and the Salem Red Sox (33-29) come down to take on the Dash starting Thursday. That homestand ends on June 21, but not before the Baseball Project, a supergroup founded by members of REM and the Dream Syndicate, plays a show at 3:05 p.m. Gates open at 2:30 p.m.

Rollin’ and tumblin’ 2015 USA Gymnastics Competition @ Greensboro Coliseum (GSO), June 23 More than 900 gymnasts go for the gold at the 2015 USA Gymnastics Competition at the Greensboro Coliseum. Eight returning champs — including Stewart Pritchard of Greensboro, a senior men’s double mini-trampoline champion — return to vie for a shot to prove themselves at the top of their craft. Rhythmic and acrobatic gymnastics, tumbling and trampoline are all on the roster. This seems absolutely nuts.

The competition starts at 1:30 p.m., with events running through June 28.

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GOOD SPORT

Cutting the color line

by Anthony Harrison Sabrina Thompson, the first African-American woman to fish the Bassmaster Opens, came to Greensboro to participate in a pro-am bass tournament at Lake Higgins on June 12. I had the good fortune to meet and interview her.

Triad City Beat: You’ve never been to Lake Higgins. Did you enjoy it?

Sabrina Thompson: I did enjoy the lake very much. It was a little difficult to exercise my normal routine, because I didn’t have my own boat or equipment.

The city of Greensboro set it up so that I would be a co-angler. Although [my co-angler, Todd] Wilson was so very friendly and gracious, and I am very grateful to him for having me on his boat; it just was not the same as being in control of my own boat!

TCB: What’s your favorite tackle setup to use?

ST: I honestly enjoy using a Texas rig on medium-heavy, fast-action rod using a baitcaster. My favorites are soft baits, mostly creature type softbaits, although I do enjoy using spinnerbaits and crankbaits when the time calls for those types of lures.

TCB: How long have you been fishing, and how did you get into it?

ST: I’ve been fishing for over 30 years.

I started fishing because my children wanted to go fishing with their dad. My first husband said that if they wanted to learn I had to learn with them so that I could be the one to watch them. But I was so afraid of everything. Worms, bugs, fish... everything. My first fishing experience was very scary, but I overcame my fears and found that I really enjoyed it.

TCB: Bass fishing still is something of a boys’ club. When did you begin fishing professionally?

ST: I started my professional career in 2007. I fished the Woman’s Bassmasters Tour until Bassmasters cancelled the program in 2010. In February 2011, I became the first African-American woman to fish the Bassmasters Central Open in Lewisville, Texas.

Fishing with an all-women’s tour and then fishing on a man’s tour is like night and day. I found that women are more

TCB: Do you do any outreach to welcoming and more accepting of me young, women and/or minority anthan the men were. You don’t see many glers?

African-American women fishing on a ST: I have been an advocate of getting professional level, although there are women, children and minorities out quite a few of us out there. fishing for years now. My husband and TCB: How does it feel to be an AfI host derbies all over the country with rican-American woman entering the the purpose of introducing fishing to sport? those who wouldn’t otherwise have ST: For some this was a cultural anyone to take them out and show shock, seeing me fishing on a profesthem how much fun it really is. We sional level. Most assume that African always leave them with fishing tackle so Americans are afraid of the water, that they can continue to enjoy it after we’re we don’t swim and we don’t get into gone. or own boats — I had someone say this TCB: Any additional comments? to me once. I found it to be quite funny ST: I think it’s real important to because we, as a culture, do all of these get some of the mothers out fishing, things. because they will bring the kids out to It’s a daily struggle trying to mainenjoy the outdoors. The kids just think tain on the professional tours. Most they are out there fishing and having have sponsors that help them continue fun when, in fact, they are learning to to fish the tours. But being African become future scientists.

American and a woman, it’s like pulling When they learn about fish identifiteeth to get a sponsorship from any cations and organisms in the water, this of the major product companies. They is the beginnings of a marine biologist. are under the assumption that I’m only They study the weather to know how marketable to other African Americans, the fish are biting — meteorologists. which is not the case. I have all cultures They have to determine weight and reaching out to me as an angler. I have growth patterns — mathematicians. one sponsor that truly believes in me as If they like fly-fishing, they will learn a professional angler, Tuscaroran Lures; to identify different bugs that hit the they have been my major sponsor for water that the fish like to eat — entoyears. mologists. They learn how important it I have reached out to the some of is to keep the lakes and rivers cleans — the same companies that I purchase conservationists. product from, including my boat So there’s much more to it than just dealership — we’ve purchased two fishing, and I want everyone to know it, boats from Triton — and the only thing love it and enjoy it as much as I do. they want to do is send me a couple of T-shirts with their name on it and say thanks. I was even told that they didn’t do sponsorships, only to see this company’s logo all over other male boaters when I’m fishing the major circuits.

This is a big problem with a lot of the African-American professional anglers.

The industry needs to see we are an untapped demographic and they could do a lot better with minority dollars if they just step into ANTHONY HARRISON Sabrina Thompson fishes on the 21st Century.

Lake Higgins.

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GAMES ‘F Plus Plus’ that’s a lot of Fs.

by Matt Jones

Across

Down

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©2015 Jonesin’ Crosswords (editor@jonesincrosswords.com)

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Gate City Vineyard is a modern, Christian church that exists to serve the community around us. Our desire is to help people of all ages and backgrounds grow in their understanding of God.

Answers from last issue.

Art

1 “Pow!” reaction 2 2018 Super Bowl number 3 “The Santaland Diaries” occupation 4 Get the best of 5 Surveil 6 Hilarious joke 7 “___ walks into a bar ...”

8 Bullfight beasts 9 Words after an insult 10 Indira Gandhi’s garment 11 Kills an enemy, in gaming slang 12 “___ people ...”

16 Some police dept. employees 18 No longer burdened by 21 Spin stat 22 “Mazes and Monsters” author Rona 23 Australian gems 24 “Seinfeld” surname 29 Woofers’ output 30 “___ Frutti” (Little Richard hit) 32 “Can’t be” 34 They may be bear markets 35 “I’ll have what ___ having” 37 Biblical genealogy word 38 “Drab” color 39 Again and again 41 Portrayed 42 Assuming 47 Field arbiter 49 Brownie ingredient 50 “Based on that ...”

51 Concise 52 18 or 21, usually 54 “The Hunger Games” chaperone 56 Words before Cologne 58 Real estate measurement 59 Some birth control options 60 Tech news site 63 “Whatevs” 64 4x4 vehicle, for short 65 Neither fish ___ fowl

Up Front

1 Bread spreads 6 Squeal (on) 9 Office-inappropriate, in web shorthand 13 Get ready for a bodybuilding competition 14 “Here ___ Again” (1987 #1 hit) 15 Moved a rowboat 17 With 20-Across, 1840s slogan in the Oregon border dispute 19 Address a crowd 20 See 17-Across 22 Business priority 25 Abbr. on a lotion bottle 26 Parisian pronoun 27 Topmost point 28 “Dig in!”

31 Game pieces 33 Circulation improver 34 Doughnut shape 36 “Star Wars” home of Jar Jar Binks 40 Sold extremely quickly 43 College applicant’s creation 44 Carell of “The Office” 45 “Go on, scat!”

46 Abbr. on old Eurasian maps 48 Real ending in London?

49 Signal “Hello!”

50 2012 Facebook event 53 Ball bearer 55 Declutter 57 Sports figure in a 2015 sports scandal 61 “Help!” actor Ringo 62 Repetitive Beach Boys hit 66 “Golly!”

67 Cyan finish?

68 As a result of 69 Affirmative votes 70 Setting for Christmas in NYC 71 Air beyond the clouds

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All She Wrote

Whatever your thoughts about church, whatever your beliefs about God … you are welcome here.

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36

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June 17 — 23, 2015

SHOT IN THE TRIAD

Oakland Avenue, Greensboro

Art lurks in surprising places.

PHOTO BY CAROLYN DE BERRY

Up Front

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Shot in the Triad All She Wrote

37

JoAnngela’s Ashes : notes on a funeral Me: Mother, what am I going to do when you go? I won’t have any material.

Mother: Nicole you’ve got enough material for a few lifetimes.

It’s hotter than Hades when my mother’s Thomasville neighbor and rockstar florist John Herron rolls up with an overflowing centerpiece of refined rustic flowers, a wreath and eight empty gallon-bottles of mom’s Gallo crammed with wildflowers.

“John that’s perfect. Mother would think that’s hilarious,” I say.

by Nicole Crews

SAM FROELICH

“Do you like the ribbon? It’s Lily Pulitzer,” he asks.

“Mom would say, ‘Lose the ribbon.’”

Maria Salakovich Fangman of Maria’s Catering in Greensboro is on his heels with a truckload of Greek food plated pleasingly on platters. Mother’s caretaker, Tracy Whitley, and I have been Greek-slaving it all week to get the house up to snuff, so the floors are gleaming and the linens are crisp. FrankenBrad have supplied a keg of Sierra Nevada and there’s enough champagne, wine and hootch to float your molars.

It’s a garden party, you see, the perfect way to send off my mama whose ashes reside amidst the fray in a beloved Saltine tin. Ladies in hate begin arriving aside men in seersucker and folks from as far away as New York City and Atlanta have made the pilgrimage. I think mama would have been proud.

Frank Slate Brooks and Nicole have known each other since childhood. Their daddies went to Davidson College together, and now they are both members of the Dead Parents Society.

Top: Matt Obst — aka the Viking — was on hand along with his parents Dottie and Don, who drove in from Hickory for the gathering.

Bottom: Tahe Zalal is often confused with an early JoAnn Crews.

Top: Diedre and Clay Grubb (whose mother was a dear friend and JoAnn’s partner in design) made it from Charlotte. Bottom: Kay Kay Lambeth, whose mother Kay founded Erwin-Lambeth Furniture, and was responsible for bringing JoAnn south from New York, joined in the revelry.

David Williams, John Whisnant and Todd Garcia trucked it from Greensboro for the Cocktail Wake.

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Beth Alexander, Lori Lovell Bryant, Katrina Lindquest, Janna Myers Grant, Sarah Hubbard, Cindy Everhart Collins, Cindi Osborne McCorquodale and Hillery Rink are all childhood friends.

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A

B

To all the

HAppy

father’s

and

Sa PPY

. May the force be with you to

day!

triad-city-beat.com

Illustration by Jorge Maturino

1. Fold back so that A meets B 2. Cut dotted lines 3. Present to father

A

B