Greensboro / Winston-Salem / High Point May 3 – 9, 2017 triad-city-beat.com
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KU KLUX KRIMINALS How a felon and habitual drunk set up one of the nation’s most extreme and prominent Klan groups outside the Triad
Police problems PAGES 6 & 9
OG Spliff spits PAGE 18
PAGE 11
Firesheets guest stars PAGE 23
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BARKER, CHRIS Caswell County Jail
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May 3 – 9, 2017
Every dog has its day There was a time when the neighborhood near the corner of Fourth and Patterson streets in downtown Winston-Salem by Brian Clarey had nothing to offer besides an authentic slice of urban decay and a safe space for open-air crack-smoking. Good luck trying to find a parking spot here now. Krankies still anchors the corner as the Innovation Quarter rises around it, and what was once a gravelly parking lot bejeweled with broken glass now contains the expanse of Bailey Park. Even the old Bailey Power Plant is coming into play here, soon to be another exemplar of the three Rs of gentrification: retail, restaurants and residential. Already, more people live in this neighborhood than have in generations. “There’s a new dog out here every day,” says Blake Tesh, coolly drawing on a cigarette outside Mesmerizer Records, the latest in his ongoing entrepreneurial efforts pegged to this part of the city. “I never forget a dog.” Mesmerizer is new, filling out the slim corner storefront next to the Black
Lodge bar that Tesh opened as a sort of covert clubhouse for the city’s creative underclass. This block serves as a cultural stronghold amid the towers of innovation, a key placement in the arms race between arts and innovation that has transformed this city dramatically over the last five years. Tesh waves his cigarette towards the south, where a railroad spur slowly transforms into a public walkway not unlike the High Line in New York City. “It’s pretty cool,” he says. “They light it up at night.” Across Third Street, along the fannedout brickwork of the old Nissen wagonworks — now the Black Horse artists’ studio and event space — the path climbs to the new Long Branch Trail, which will eventually merge with the bike path along Business 40 and wind around this southeast corner of downtown to join with new development along the center city’s eastern flank. Now, wood boards lay in a stack along the unfinished deck of the trail, but the railing is up and the space is open to the public. Leaning against the rail, onlookers can take in the skyline jutted with water towers and smokestacks. And if they squint just a bit, they can see Tesh monitoring the sidewalk from a bench outside his store, looking for new pups.
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EDITOR’S NOTEBOOK
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
He had these blue, blue eyes that looked even bluer against weathered skin, tanned and creased from smoking way too many Winston cigarettes and long hours of working under the sun. — Tina Firesheets in her guest column, page 23 1451 S. Elm-Eugene St. Box 24, Greensboro, NC 27406 Office: 336-256-9320 BUSINESS PUBLISHER/EXECUTIVE EDITOR Brian Clarey
ART ART DIRECTOR Jorge Maturino
PUBLISHER EMERITUS Allen Broach
SALES DIRECTOR OF ADVERTISING Dick Gray
EDITORIAL MANAGING EDITOR Eric Ginsburg
SALES/DIGITAL MARKETING SPECIALIST Regina Curry
eric@triad-city-beat.com
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SENIOR EDITOR Jordan Green
SALES EXECUTIVE Cheryl Green cheryl@triad-city-beat.com
brian@triad-city-beat.com allen@triad-city-beat.com
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CONTRIBUTORS Carolyn de Berry Kat Bodrie Spencer KM Brown
Jelisa Castrodale Stallone Frazier Matt Jones
The artist doesn’t want recognition for this.
EDITORIAL INTERN Joel Sronce intern@triad-city-beat.com
TCB IN A FLASH DAILY @ triad-city-beat.com First copy is free, all additional copies are $1.00. ©2017 Beat Media Inc.
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May 3 – 9, 2017
CITY LIFE May 3 – 9 by Joel Sronce
Playing May 4 – 6 Friday Night Standup Presents
Micah Hanner
Stand-Up Comedian. Writer. Social Vigilante. 8:30 p.m. Friday, May 5th. Tickets $10.
OTHER SHOWS Open Mic 8:30 p.m. Thurs., May 4th. $5 tickets! Friday Late Night Stand-Up Presents Eric Trundy 10 p.m. Fri., May 5th. $10 tickets! Family Friendly Improv 10 p.m. Sat., May 6th Saturday Night Improv 8:30 p.m. & 10 pm. Sat., May 6th. $10 tickets! Discount tickets available @ Ibcomedy.yapsody.com
2134 Lawndale Drive, Greensboro idiotboxers.com • 336-274-2699
WEDNESDAY Community conversation @ the Barn at Reynolda Village (W-S), 6 p.m. Local radio station 88.5 WFDD and the Wake Forest University provost’s office host a community conversation on how to improve access to mental health care. The event employs the World Café Method — a discussion process that uses different rounds of community conversation to share insight and ideas. Resources on mental health care are available after the event for those who wish to further their engagement. To complete the required registration and find more info, visit cvent.com/d/h5qpnp.
THURSDAY
FRIDAY
Dance on the Roof @ Rooftop of Krankies and Wherehouse Art Hotel (W-S), 7 p.m. As part of Helen Simoneau Danse’s On Site/In Sight: A Downtown Winston-Salem Dance Festival, free dance performances take place at 7 p.m. and 8 p.m. on the roof of the Wherehouse Art Hotel. Artists Blakeney Bullock, Julianne Harper, Jessie Laurita-Spanglet, Caitlyn Swett and Helen Simoneau organize the festival that runs from Wednesday to Saturday. More info at helensimoneau.com.
Put Your Money Where the Art Is @ Urban Grinders (GSO), 7 p.m. Put Your Money Where the Art Is — a benefit show featuring more than 20 artists from around the world — donates its proceeds to Southerners On New Ground and the Lakota People’s Law Project. The event includes live music from SunQueen Kelcey, a local R&B and soul artist. More info on the Facebook event page.
SATURDAY Playing May 5 – 8 FREE TOURNAMENT
“Mario Kart 8 Deluxe” (Nintendo Switch)
5 PM Saturday, May 6th. Free Entry With Drink Purchase! $50 Cash Prize! --OTHER EVENTS & SCREENINGS--
Board Game Night
7 p.m. Friday, May 5th. More than 100 board games -- FREE TO PLAY!
Saturday Morning Cartoons
Great Cartoons! Free Admission! 10 a.m. & 12 p.m. Every Saturday! TV Club presents “Samurai Jack” NEW EPISODE! 11 p.m. Saturday, May 6th
Geeksboro Anime Club Free Admission. 1 p.m. Saturday, May 6th. TV CLUB: American Gods NEW EPISODE 9 p.m. Sunday, May 7th. Free Admission with Drink Purchase!
TV CLUB: Better Call Saul NEW EPISODE 10 p.m. Monday, May 8th. Free Admission With Drink Purchase!
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Beer! Wine! Amazing Coffee! 2134 Lawndale Drive, Greensboro geeksboro.com •
336-355-7180
“Unity In The Pet Community: Antique and Classic Motor Show” @ Greensboro Coliseum (GSO), 11 a.m. The Humane Society of the Piedmont, an organization working to prevent animal cruelty and overpopulation, presents an event featuring an antique car and truck show, pet contests and prizes, a raffle, live music and family friendly games and activities. Food trucks and Natty Greene’s beer are available. The rain or shine event costs $2 per human and $1 per pet. More info at hspiedmont.org. Free Comic Book Day and GRAWL Brawl V @ Elm Street Center (GSO), 8 p.m. During regular business hours, Greensboro’s Acme Comics, Comic Dimension, Parts Unknown and Ssalefish Greensboro provide thousands of free comic books to children and adults as part of the nationwide Free Comic Book Day festivities. In the evening, these stores team up to participate in We Can Be Heroes, a Greensboro Arm-Wrestling League (GRAWL) superhero-themed ladies arm-wrestling event. Net proceeds go to the I Am a Queen Foundation — a mentorship program for young women who live in Greensboro and High Point. More info at geeksboro.com.
ALL WEEKEND Disney’s Beauty and the Beast @ High Point Theatre (HP), Thursday-Saturday at 7:30 p.m., Saturday and Sunday at 2 p.m. High Point Community Theatre presents the modern Broadway musical that tells the tale of Belle, a young woman from a provincial town, and the Beast, a young prince under the spell of an enchantress. (Thursday’s performance includes an American Sign Language presentation.) More info at highpointtheatre.com.
FOR LEASE
Up Front News
Greensboro Mayor Nancy Vaughan speaks at the Tanger Performing Arts Center groundbreaking, but we’re calling BS.
2021 Maywood Unit E Greensboro, NC 27403 2 BR, 1 BA, $525
Culture
the mayor, the governor, the director of the Greensboro Coliseum and other key stakeholders — made their speeches and worked their gold-plated shovels into the ceremonial sand. Still no final budget has been approved by council, no work permits have been secured, no construction contract is in place and no date has been set to begin construction of Phase I. It made for a nice photo op. But sand wasn’t the only thing they were shoveling.
2 BR, 2 BA, $795
Cover Story
derfully. But the site for the entertainment complex has never evolved beyond the scratched patch of dirt that we’ve been looking at for four years. People were talking. Investors were having doubts. The News & Record sealed it with a couple stories by Margaret Banks back in March listing the unanswered questions generated by the project. The groundbreaking was announced within a week. So last week a dais full of luminaries —
ZACK MATHENY’S TWITTER
3005 Holden Road Unit C Greensboro, NC 27407
Opinion
Groundbreakings are generally ceremonial: It’s a photo op for the players, an opportunity to fill a dais, the creation of a spectacle sometimes involving golden shovels or custom hard hats. But— again, generally — these symbolic groundbreakings actually symbolize something, usually the beginning of construction on a significant project. But the groundbreaking for the Tanger Performing Arts Center in downtown Greensboro, which will occupy a dirt lot near LeBauer Park, symbolized nothing so much as the participants’ willingness to commit a farce. We can’t blame them for trying. The project has been moving forward on its own steam since then-Mayor Robbie Perkins started soft-selling it in February 2012, a couple weeks after he won an election during which he had not once said a word about a downtown performing arts center. Money was raised, plans were drawn, land was purchased. Boston’s House of Jazz moved out and the building was razed. LeBauer Park came together won-
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by Brian Clarey
The Tanger Center groundbreaking
Local 22 224 Mendenhall Apt. 5 Greensboro, NC 27401 1 BR, 1 BA, $425
3998 Pelham Dr. Greensboro, NC 27406 3 BR, 2 BA, $950
yourhometriad.com
Triaditude Adjustment
white opponent for elected office in the South for the first time since the turn of the century. However, when another strike took place in 1947, the Reynolds company used ties between Local 22 and the Communist Party to unsettle the union’s supporters, particularly Southern liberals. The Red Scare that grew during the Cold War provided a political weapon that the ruling class wielded to repress the workers’ movement, Korstad explains. The forces behind the economic inequality that impoverished African Americans and other members of the working class — the same forces and inequality that Local 22 strove to address — endure today.
Shot in the Triad
Robert Korstad’s Civil Rights Unionism: Tobacco Workers and the Struggle for Democracy in the Mid-Twentieth-Century South recounts the events of June 17, 1943, when a group of black women refused to continue work on the factory floor. Their courage inspired others in the factory to join, and word of the strike spread throughout the different plants. Ultimately, the workers shut down Reynolds operations during a six-day strike. They later voted to establish a union, which successfully gained higher wages, paid holidays and seniority rights for the workers. According to a Stephen Martin article in Duke Magazine that reviews Korstad’s book, Local 22’s influence swept throughout Winston-Salem. The union registered thousands of black voters and helped a black candidate defeat a
Crossword
On Monday, activists in the Triad and around the world held strikes, marches and rallies to commemorate International Workers’ Day. Their actions and the enduring struggle of the working class call for a look at one of the most important and influential labor unions in the American South: Winston-Salem’s Local 22. Throughout the early 20th Century, the industrial giant RJ Reynolds Tobacco Co. ruled Winston-Salem. It dominated the economy and decision-making in the Camel City — a name derivative of Reynolds’ Camel cigarettes — including a familiar development of working and ruling classes. Workers labored in terrible conditions for little money, while Reynolds and other stockholders amassed enormous fortunes.
Sportsball
by Joel Sronce
info@yourhometriad.com
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336.298.8289
May 3 – 9, 2017 Up Front News Opinion Cover Story Culture Sportsball Crossword Shot in the Triad Triaditude Adjustment
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NEWS
Police skip NAACP forum on high homicide rate by Jordan Green
As homicides mount in High Point, the NAACP tries to pull the community and police together to address the problem. But the police didn’t show. While two city council members and the city’s director of communications showed up for a Friday-evening community meeting of the High Point NAACP, several members noted two conspicuous absences: police Chief Kenneth Shultz and City Manager Greg Demko. The police chief had notified the organizers that he would be out of town for a training, but no one from the department attended the meeting at Gethsemane Baptist Church in which the NAACP called “upon our police department and city officials to meet us there and help us forge a concerted effort to stop the violence now.” Patricia Johnson voiced frustration about the police’s absence, contending that the chief should be replaced “when the one we got right now don’t respect us enough to be here or have somebody here.” Johnson’s son was recently shot seven times in the living room of his Southside home as assailants attempted to batter down his front door. The city of 104,371 has experienced eight homicides since the beginning of 2017 — more than occurred during the entire year of 2016. In two of eight homicides this year, police have yet to make an arrest. “You can’t keep brushing us off,” Johnson said. “You can’t keep telling us that our sons aren’t cooperating, the victims aren’t cooperating. You [are] hired to do a job. You trained to do a job. Do it without our help. Let us know you’re protecting us, not what you’re finding wrong in what we don’t do.” While Johnson directed her frustration at city officials, she also called on parents to exercise greater personal responsibility, to recognize that they can’t be their children’s friends and they have no business partying with them. She shared that she quit a high-paying banking job while her son was in high school so she could attend his football games. She said her son wasn’t perfect, but he
Patricia Johnson, whose son was recently shot in his living room, said city officials haven’t been responsive to violence in High Point.
JORDAN GREEN
worked hard. He worked at a company what High Point has become, it’s nurin Greensboro until it closed and then tured that kind of a behavior, and we’ve started his own business cleaning cars. got to do something about it.” “I told my son, ‘If you were out here Bruce Davis asked at-large Councilselling drugs, I’m gonna tell,’” Johnson woman Cynthia Davis (no relation) and said. “I’d rather see you in a cell than Ward 2 Councilman Chris Williams to see you in a grave. I can visit you in a stop making excuses for the police chief cell.” and city manager after Cynthia Davis Bruce Davis, a former Guilford suggested residents request a meeting County commissioner who made an with the city manager if they are disunsuccessful bid for Congress last year, satisfied with the police response to the said the issue of violence is personal for homicides. him. “Stop giving the manager, stop giving “I’m hurting,” he said. “I’ve got two the chief a pass,” Bruce Davis said. nephews that should be here, but they’re “Stop giving these folks who work for us in the grave, killed in the streets of High [a pass]. And you are our representaPoint. And one in prison. One in the tives. Don’t put it back on us. The peograve because he ple voted for you to was gonna tell what go and speak and say, happened, what went A prayer vigil to honor ‘If you can’t be there, down. I’m not just the mothers of homicide chief ’ — yeah, he’s talking to be talking. got to be in Fayettevictims followed by a I’m talking from ville, but he’s got an what I know bothers assistant, and he’s got cookout will be held at me, hurts my family, an assistant. And we Washington Terrace hurts you, hurts your pay all of them. And Park (HP) on Saturday family. somebody should “I’m not talking have been here.” from noon to 3 p.m. about little boys Participants that didn’t have a focused on a wide father or mother,” Davis added. “I’m range of factors that cause community talking about little nephews that I have violence, from material challenges like lifted up, that we put in a van and took underemployment and poor housing to to Carowinds. Uncles, fathers, black culture and personal responsibility. men took those boys to places, and “We’ve got a lot of drugs in this showed them, and talked to them, and area,” said Orveter McLean, the mentored them. What happened is our president of the High Point NAACP. culture, what has been perpetrated, it’s “We’ve got a lot of boarded-up housing
that allows people to do what they do. We need to make sure we get all these homeowners that have boarded-up houses and [get people] jobs.” McLean said there’s a popular perception that jobs are not available, but argued that’s not correct, citing agencies like NCWorks Career Center, High Point Community Against Violence and Welfare Reform Liaison that train and place ex-offenders in jobs. Avis Robinson, a former facilitator and trainer at Welfare Reform Liaison, said it’s vital to teach children at a young age that just because someone scuffs their shoes doesn’t mean they need to wait after school to fight the other child who disrespected them. “We’ve got to get to the heart of the value system of the individuals that we’re teaching because we know what the issue is,” Robinson said. “It’s manifested in violence, drug sales and so many other things that we find distasteful. But they happen because of value system…. A lot of our community is so destitute and so disappointed by life as a whole, it’s very, very difficult for them to progress to the level that we would like to see them progress to.” In response to the spate of shootings, the High Point NAACP has begun holding meetings every fourth Friday of the month at different churches around the city with the intention that community members and the police can work together to solve the problem of violence. Pastor Brad Lilley, the community coordinator for the NAACP, said at the last meeting in March a young man in Asheboro texted a girl attending the meeting about one of the homicides. He added that when the girl’s mother saw the text she persuaded her daughter to share the information with the police. “We want to make it be known that our lives matter,” Lilley said. “Our community matters. Our concerns matter…. We need them to be with us, especially if the police chief is saying, ‘Help us solve these crimes,’ and we’re telling the community: ‘Let’s work with them to make the community safe.’ I would expect that somebody would be here.”
triad-city-beat.com Up Front News Opinion
Saturday, May 6th at the International Civil Rights Center & Museum 134 South Elm Street, Greensboro, NC
Raising Funds and Awareness for HIV/AIDS Care, Education and Prevention Community Party and Dessert Finale at 6:00 PM with Dancing and Live Music by Low Key Register at www.triadhealthproject.com For information call 336-275-1654
Presenting Sponsor Replacements LTD. Signature Dessert Sponsor Cheescakes by Alex
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DINING FOR FRIENDS 2017
Culture Sportsball Crossword Shot in the Triad Triaditude Adjustment
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May 3 – 9, 2017 Up Front News Opinion Cover Story Culture Sportsball Crossword Shot in the Triad Triaditude Adjustment
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Alston returns to county commission, brokers uneasy peace by Jordan Green
Veteran politician Skip Alston will return to the Guilford County Commission for at least 19 months, but the resolution of a brutal intramural squabble with rival April Parker legitimizes the Black Lives Matter activist as a future contender. Guilford County Democrats selected political veteran Skip Alston to return to Guilford County Commission after a nearly four-year hiatus, with elected officials past and present lining up to support him against an insurgent campaign by Black Lives Matter activist April Parker. The vote by a 19-member panel of party executive committee members who live in county commission District 8 narrowly returned in Alston’s favor. The complex system, which weighted the power of electors by the Democratic voting strength in their precincts, resulted in 39.5 out of 75 points for Alston, and 35.5 points for Parker. The relatively close outcome reinforced a pledge of cooperation between the two candidates after a week of brutal division within the party. After the results were announced, Alston said he’s committed to cultivating new leadership in the party, while contending that he agreed to a request from other commissioners and community leaders to finish out the term of his protégé, Ray Trapp, because it’s important for the Democrats to have a strong budget negotiator. Trapp replaced Alston when the latter announced his retirement from the commission in 2012. Trapp resigned earlier this month to take a job at NC A&T University. “I served 20 years in the position and I thought it was time for another generation of leaders to step forward,” said Alston, who proudly held up his first grandchild for a television news crew. “That’s why I mentored Ray Trapp. I hope to mentor April Parker and others like her because the next generation, they have the energy, they have the excitement, they have the desire to serve. So it’s up to my generation to make sure we give them that opportunity.” After the vote, Parker sought Alston out to shake his hand. “I think me even running was a catalyst to us really building inter-genera-
Commissioner Carlvena Foster (left) congratulates Skip Alston on his appointment to fill a seat vacated by Ray Trapp.
tionally in our community, really valuing mentorship,” Parker said. “Ray and Skip have already committed to lifting me up in that mentorship and running a righteous campaign in 2018.” As a result of Trapp resigning before the midpoint of his term, a special election will be held in 2018 in District 8, followed by a regular election in 2020. As Alston joined Parker to pose for a photo, the victorious candidate remained noncommittal about whether he would back Parker’s candidacy the next time the seat comes up for election. “I’m going to mentor her starting tomorrow,” he said. Alston hasn’t decided whether he’ll run himself in the next election, he said, adding that he also wanted to leave the door open to support another up-andcoming candidate. Democratic Commissioner Carolyn Coleman made the motion at the meeting to nominate Alston to fill the vacancy, as fellow Democratic Commissioners Kay Cashion and Carlvena Foster stood at her side. Former Democratic Commissioners Kirk Perkins and Bruce Davis joined them, along with Byron Gladden, an activist who has worked with Parker to promote LGBTQ rights and was elected to the Guilford County School Board last year. “I can tell you that this is an especially difficult time for Democrats on
JORDAN GREEN
[the county commission],” Coleman said. “We are in the minority. And as a result we need someone who can hit the ground running, someone who knows how the board of commissioners’ work, someone who knows how Guilford County works, someone who knows the budget. It is so important to know how the budget is prepared, where the bones are hidden in the budget. Skips Alston knows that, and perhaps knows it better than anyone else in this party.” Alston’s nomination received a second from Lisa Johnson-Tonkins, who serves as Guilford County clerk of superior court. Parker was nominated by Elizabeth Keathley, a county executive committee member who is a fellow Glenwood resident and associate professor of historical musicology and women’s and gender studies. Sylvia Neal seconded the motion, acting as a proxy for Carrie Archer, another Glenwood resident. The panel of electors also included former state lawmaker and Equality NC Executive Director Chris Sgro and his husband, Ryan Butler, who backed Parker, and Guilford County School Board member Deena Hayes-Greene, who backed Alston. Leading up to the vote, party leaders acknowledged that only six out of 20 precincts in District 8 had been organized, effectively limiting a channel of
representation for registered Democrats to participate in the appointment vote. Alston and his supporters charged that the sequence of events surrounding precinct organization and a successful motion one week ago to delay the appointment amounted to white people attempting to dictate the leadership of the black community. As a result of the precinct organization, 50 percent of the electors are white while 67.8 percent of registered voters in the district are African American. Alston said he regrets that over the course of his 20 years on the county commission from 1992 to 2012, “I didn’t get more involved in making sure that the Democrats were energized to address not only issues on a local level but on a state level and a national level.” He said he intends to immediately begin organizing the 14 moribund precincts in District 8. “It’s shameful that out of 20 precincts we only had six precincts that was organized,” he said. “I haven’t been involved in the past four years. When I was there we made sure that most of our precincts were organized. So my commitment is within the next 120 days that’s what I’m going to be focused on — organizing our precincts.” Buoyed by her respectable showing in the balloting and a multiracial contingent of supporters carrying signs reading, “Black lives matter” and “Parker 4 commissioner,” Parker was looking ahead to the next election. “I think we can’t talk about race without also talking about class,” she said. “Queer-phobia and transphobia is real. If we develop policies that hold up the most marginalized of us, then we all advance.” Meanwhile, Parker indicated she intends to leverage the relationship she’s built with Alston over the past several days to bring about more transparent governance. “I think he needs the youth close to him so he can move away from some of that wheeling and dealing that hasn’t really benefited the black community,” she said. “I do not believe the black community is monolithic. I think we’re diverse and vast.”
EDITORIAL
Cover Story Culture Sportsball Crossword Shot in the Triad Triaditude Adjustment
will only further undermine citizens’ trust in the city. Meanwhile, the process in place for handling citizen complaints against the police has slow-walked the matter. City council viewed the footage of the violent encounter between the police and Jose Charles in closed session on Monday night with City Attorney Tom Carruthers. According to Figueroa, City Manager Jim Westmoreland has officially backed the police department’s position that officers did nothing wrong. “I’m not surprised, but I am extremely disappointed,” Garnette said at a press conference at the Beloved Community Center on Monday. “If this case can’t make it, then I don’t know what it will take in our city for city leaders to understand that there’s a problem. This was not a grown man who was in the midst of criminal activity; this was a young man who was with his family at a city-sanctioned event. He wasn’t even in his neighborhood with a group of boys. He was in a downtown city park. And if this can happen to him it can happen to anybody. And we should all be concerned about that. And for the city manager to not see that is pretty distressful.” Further undermining trust in the city’s mechanism for citizen oversight of the police department, two additional members of the police complaint review committee, Jacqueline King and Leslie Summers, have resigned in addition to Garnette. City council members met in closed session for three and a half hours on Monday evening to review the video and deliberate before recessing at 8:30 p.m., reconvening at 2:30 p.m. the following day. Council members who left the meeting early on Monday evening said they couldn’t comment without violating state law. While allowing the release of the video to Carruthers to show to city council in closed session, Superior Court Judge David L. Hall issued an order on April 20 stipulating that “the members of the Greensboro City Council may review and discuss the body-worn camera recordings in closed session. No council member shall discuss, comment on, or disseminate any comment or depiction contained in the body-worn camera recordings in open session of council meetings or to any member of the public.” Regardless of whether the council members are muzzled by the court order and the state law that undergirds it, the Rev. Nelson Johnson argued at the Beloved Community Center press conference that the citizens’ elected representatives have the power to solve the problem by bringing a motion at tonight’s meeting. “Say that ‘we side with the PCRB and all of these charges [against Jose Charles] should be withdrawn,’” Johnson said. “And somebody needs to make a motion… and say, ‘Our motion is that the city manager is instructed to go to the district attorney and say, ‘On behalf of this city, these charges ought to be dropped.’”
Opinion
Jose Charles, a 15-year-old child, had been beaten up by a group of boys at the Fun Fourth Festival in downtown Greensboro last year. He was bleeding from his head when a Greensboro police officer approached him. Jose was by Jordan Green agitated when the officer, SA Alvarez, asked him what was wrong and responded with a racial slur often used as a colloquialism among people of color. According to Tamara Figueroa, who as Jose’s mother has reviewed the police video of the incident, the officer picked up her son, who is slight in stature, and slammed him on the ground. By the police’s own account, the officer’s action resulted in Jose’s pre-existing lacerations above his right eye “bleeding rapidly.” The violent encounter began to attract attention among the hundreds of people at Center City Park celebrating the Fourth of July, and the police moved Jose across the street to an alley near the Davie Street Parking Deck. At some point, as officers attempted to restrain Jose, they allege that he cursed another officer and spit blood and saliva in his “facial area.” Figueroa contends that the blood from her son’s head had flowed into his mouth and he was merely trying to clear his mouth to breathe. Now, a former member of the police complaint review board who was forced to resign from the board is calling the bluff of the city manager’s decision to back the police department. Jose was later treated for his injuries at Cone Hospital, and received multiple charges related to the incident. In subsequent months, he would receive additional, unrelated charges for antisocial behavior that is likely related to mental health challenges that both pre-dated the July 4 incident and were aggravated by the trauma he experienced. Now, he faces a court date on May 11 that, if found guilty, will likely result in him being sentenced to what his mother describes as a “juvenile prison.” To put it bluntly, people are getting frustrated and angry with what they view as system that is rigged against the victims of police abuse. A state law put into effect last year prevents the public from viewing the police video, but perversely worsens citizen distrust of the police because the victim’s family is free to present their narrative of what happened. In this case, a member of the police community review board has corroborated the narrative by characterizing what she saw in the video as “distressing.” Former committee member and YWCA Greensboro CEO Lindy Garnette was forced to resign by the city attorney and chair of the human relations commission on April 28 for what must be considered a technicality. City officials might have calculated that forcing Garnette’s resignation would discredit a whistleblower, but it’s more likely that the action
News
News of the death of veteran North Carolina journalist Mark Binker could not have come at a worse time. He was far too young — just 43, with no health issues to speak of, and a loving family who will feel his absence keenly. And he was far too good. For many of us who follow North Carolina politics, Binker’s take was an indispensable key to understanding the workings of the state. Journalists from every publication in the state have been weighing in on his remarkable career, which wended from the News & Record to WRAL and, for a short while, the News & Observer. But we will save our accolades for the bar and instead give some reminders as to the state of the North Carolina legislature. A three-judge panel last week struck down the legislature’s attempt at creating a new elections entity by merging elections and ethics functions within state government, citing numerous other laws passed by this bunch that have already been overturned, designed, the opinion read, to restrict voting access and thereby “rig elections.” Right now, our representatives are considering legislation that allows citizens to sue municipal law enforcement for not protecting them against immigrants; a budget that cuts $1 billion over two years by blowing holes in education, environmental issues and disaster relief; and another law outlawing same-sex marriage even though the last one they passed was overturned by a federal court. And let’s not forget that a third federal court ruled 28 of our state congressional and senate districts to be illegal in 2016, but a lawsuit by Republican leaders has put any special elections on hold until the US Supreme Court weighs in — which could still happen in time for a late-summer primary. Still alive after the “crossover deadline,” where bills either move on or move out, is legislation protecting drivers from civil liability if they run over protestors blocking the street, and another that seems designed specifically to prevent Gov. Roy Cooper from appointing a new US senator should one of our sitting ones retire on his watch. In other words, it’s a mess. And we could surely use Mark Binker’s reporting to light the way.
Police accountability comes to a head in Greensboro
Up Front
Mark Binker would have wanted it this way
CITIZEN GREEN
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OPINION
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Catty about the cat house Seems a bit mean-spirited and catty [“Fresh Eyes: Aunt Bee’s Siler City cat house”; by Billy Ingram; May 28, 2014]. I’m not sure why the writer couldn’t tell a more sympathetic story about Ms. Bavier. She was well educated, talented and apparently generous. She died somewhat lonely, which is definitely sad. Who knows what effect that loneliness had on her? Overall, I think the tone and content of this piece are shameful. Drew Neal, via triad-city-beat.com
May 3 – 9, 2017 Sportsball
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Selling the High Country I hope your young charges decide on Appalachian! [“Editor’s Notebook: Alone, on the mountaintop,” by Brian Clarey; April 26, 2017] I moved up from Miami 17 years ago and started work at Appalachian almost at that time. I drive over every morning from Ashe County, the next county over, and still enjoy the beautiful drive to work. I wouldn’t even call it work — it’s going to my next home. We are a tight community, a family. I wouldn’t trade the green drive with the now pink and white blooms of spring to seeing nothing but concrete driving to work in Miami. I’ll always have my Florida blood, it was a great place to grow up, but the High Country is great for slowing down some! Tammy McCullars, via triad-city-beat. com
Credit due to the dudes Mike [Wallace]’s a dope dude and all, and did a great job with Greensboro Fest when he was organizing it, but it was John Rash and Zach Mull that started Greensboro Fest years before Mike started doing it [“Resurrected from the dead, GSO Fest returns”; by Spencer KM Brown; April 26, 2017]. Also, thanks to Joe and everybody else for resurrecting the idea and making it happen. Scott Trent, Greensboro
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KU KLUX KRIMINALS How a felon and habitual drunk set up one of the nation’s most extreme and prominent Klan groups outside the Triad by Jordan Green
A US magistrate concluded last June that Imperial Wizard Chris Barker’s substance abuse and involvement in the Ku Klux Klan is a “danger to the community.” So why is he organizing a cross burning outside of Asheboro on Saturday instead of sitting in jail?
I.
Richard Dillon, a member of the Loyal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, and his friend, David Winebrenner, both from Hammond, Ind., arrived at the home of Chris Barker, the imperial wizard — or national leader — outside Yanceyville, NC around midnight on Dec. 2. The living room was crowded with people who had traveled from out of state to attend a “victory” parade the following day to celebrate the election of Donald Trump. Many of them were drinking. As the night progressed, an old argument between Dillon and William Hagen, the California grand dragon — or state leader — resurfaced regarding Hagen’s handling of a violent confrontation between the Loyal White Knights and protesters in Anaheim, Calif. earlier in 2016. At that point, Winebrenner had gone out to their vehicle to fetch a beer for Dillon, and when he returned to the house he “noticed that the environment seemed hectic,” according to an affidavit filed by John T. Ray III, an investigator with the neighboring Person County Sheriff’s Office. Dillon told Winebrenner to load up their vehicle and get ready to leave. “Dillon stated that Hagen and Barker began to show aggressive behaviors and that Barker was encouraging Hagen to fight Dillon,” Ray wrote in the affidavit. “Dillon advised that Barker continued this behavior and that Hagen eventually stood up and unsheathed a fixed-blade knife. Dillon stated that at this point he stood up and was stabbed by Hagen — two stab wounds to the upper chest area and one stab wound to the right thumb. Dillon advised that after being stabbed, he was able to fight off Hagen [and then] was struck by Barker’s fist.” Dillon
said he was confronted by someone he didn’t know as he tried to fight his way towards the front door. COURTESY PHOTO COURTESY PHOTO Chris Barker William Hagen Still outside, Winebrenner started to worry, and Hagen was charged with felony assault with a deadly began to text his friend to see why he hadn’t come out weapon with intent to kill inflicting serious injury — essenyet. Not long after that, Winebrenner said, Chris Barker tially attempted murder — while Barker was charged with came out of the house. felony aiding and abetting assault with a deadly weapon “According to Winebrenner, Barker attempted to with intent to kill inflicting serious injury. Hagen, the imgain entry to the vehicle and later advised Winebrenner perial wizard and California grand dragon, would wind up that Dillon was dead,” Ray wrote. “Barker also advised sitting in jail on the day the Loyal White Knights — one of Winebrenner that he would drive him to the ATM and the most feared Klan groups in the country — was expectwithdraw $2,000 in order for Winebrenner to leave. ed to lead a triumphal parade to capitalize on the surge of Winebrenner stated that he denied the offer and took the white, Christian nationalism that had swept Donald Trump keys out of the ignition [and] noticed Dillon exiting the into office. residence and still being confronted The whereabouts of the parade by other unknown subjects.” In the spring of 2012, the FBI had always been a matter of specuThe two Indiana men fled to lation and confusion, mostly by the learned of a plot by Glendon Danville Regional Medical Center Loyal White Knights’ design. The Scott Crawford, an industrial across the state line in Virginia, night before Barker had indicatwhere Dillon was treated for his mechanic at General Eleced to a reporter at the Burlington stab wounds. When Dillon came to tric’s Schenectady plant and a Times-News that the parade would grips with the gravity of the assault, self-identified member of the take place at 9 a.m. in Pelham, an he decided he would press charges. unincorporated village in the northUnited Northern & Southern Dillon and Winebrenner showed up west corner of the county where the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan in in the lobby of the Caswell County Loyal White Knights maintained a Sheriff’s Office and swore out a upstate New York, to build a Post Office box. warrant for Hagen and Barker’s death-ray-type weapon of mass That’s when carloads of left-wing arrest. destruction to kill Muslims. antifascists dressed in black, many It looked a lot like a setup to wearing facemasks, began arriving Dillon. He told Ray that Chris at a local rest area on Highway 29, joined by an internaBarker had called him numerous times to ask if he was still tional corps of reporters. The protesters and the press coming to the Klan gathering in North Carolina despite knew nothing about the violent drama that had transpired a verbal argument in recent months over how Hagen at Barkers’ house, and rumors flew as the antifascists sent was operating his KKK group in California. Dillon said it out scouts on a reconnaissance mission in a vain effort to was odd for Chris Barker to contact him because usually find the Klan. Eventually they tired of waiting and, armed when he received a call from the Barkers’ phone number it with metal baseball bats, about 150 antifascists marched would be from Amanda. from a community center around a 1.2-mile loop carrying
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May 3 – 9, 2017
a banner reading “Against white supremacy” bearing an anarchy symbol and a logo that riffed on the Ghostbusters movie. With Caswell County sheriff deputies and state highway troopers watching, the antifascists wound back around to the community center, and then piled into cars to Danville looking for the opportunity to confront the Klan. Again, they marched through the streets without encountering their adversaries. When the Loyal White Knights did make an appearance, it was 3 p.m. and not in Pelham or Danville, but in Roxboro, the county seat 22 miles to the east of Yanceyville. As Barker and Hagen sat in jail, a caravan of 20-30 vehicles sped through Roxboro as the occupants yelled, “White power!”
Law Center — which monitors extremist groups — estimated that the number of all white supremacists at the protest totaled only 60, while more than 1,000 anti-racists came out to oppose the Klan. Whatever the group’s propensity for self-aggrandizement and exaggeration, the razzle-dazzle-ready-for-battle image projected by the Loyal White Knights appeared to pay dividends. The Southern Poverty Law Center reported that the group grew from 16 klaverns — local chapters — in 2012 to 52 in 2013, making it the largest in the country, challenged only by the rival Traditionalist American Knights in Missouri. And judging by flier drops, which are often coordinated to happen simultaneously in different cities around the country through regular national conference calls, the Southern Poverty Law Center judged the Loyal White Knights to be the most visible Klan group in the country. “They Loyal White Knights is the largest, most extremist Before he founded the Loyal White Knights, Chris and Klan group in the country,” said Nate Thayer, a veteran his wife, Amanda, had been expelled from the Original journalist. Renowned for interviewing Cambodian dictator Knight Riders Knights of the Ku Klux Klan in West Virginia Pol Pot shortly before his death, Thayer has been tracking for, among other offenses, “excessive or habitual drunkenwhite supremacist groups for the past two years. ness.” On an affidavit of indigency after his Dec. 3, 2016 “They are a serious group with serious members,” Thayer arrest, Chris Barker indicated that his only employment was said of the Loyal White Knights. “They attract the most ex“landscape for side jobs in summer.” tremist and unstable types of people in the white nationalist The inception of the Loyal White Knights in early 2012 movement. Of the people who flock to white nationalism, did not seem particularly auspicious at the time. Fliers their membership is disproportionately filled with people tossed in the driveways of residents across the northern who are a real problem…. There’s a lot of meth-heads and Piedmont region of North Carolina invited people to a people who are still pissed off at their mothers. These are “rally and cross lighting” for “white people only” on May people with long criminal histories.” 26 in the town of Harmony in Iredell County. Opponents The Loyal White Knights group has periodically joined drawn from a recent campaign against the May 2012 ballot forces with the neo-Nazi National Socialist Movement at referendum to limit marriage to a man and a woman, along the most extreme end of the hard-right spectrum since with immigrant rights activists from the Dreamers move2012, but the Detroit-based National Socialist Movement ment, mustered about 25 people for a couple hours to hold distanced itself from the Loyal White Knights last year. a rain-drenched “Hatred Not Welcome Here” counter-rally When the National Socialist Movement joined with the Train Harmony, but the Klan met on private property and ditionalist Worker Party for a rally in Pikeville, Ky. on April remained invisible to outsiders. 29 as part of an effort to form a National Front to organize Barker’s group wouldn’t make much of a national impreswhite working people frustrated by globalization and opioid sion until the next year, when they went to Memphis, Tenn. addiction, the Loyal White Knights to protest the city’s decision to remove were not included in the new coalition. the name of Nathan Bedford Forrest, “We’re going to see a racial As a virulently white separatist, a former Confederate officer and the war; a lot of us pray for it. We anti-Semitic and homophobic orgafirst national Klan leader, from a local would love to see another civil nization, the Loyal White Knights has park. war, and if it was to happen we positioned itself at the crux of almost A post on the Loyal White Knights’ every major flashpoint of racial tension believe we would win.” website reflects how the group used in the United States over the past five — Imperial Wizard Chris Barker the Memphis protest to assert primacy years, focusing on Mexican immigraas the most extreme and aggressive tion in 2014, rallying on the steps of group in the Klan universe. the South Carolina State House in July 2015 in the wake of “We do not hide behind a mask,” reads the post, which the murder of nine black parishioners at Emanuel African is presumably written by Barker. “While all the other Klans Methodist Episcopal Church by Dylann Roof, and clashing hid in a field with their hands out scared of street action, we with counter-protesters in southern California during the were at the front lines wanting a fight. I myself reached out presidential primary in February 2016. to the imperial wizards asking to stand for our first wizard In a 2014 interview with Triad City Beat, Imperial Wizard Nathan Forrest. They all said they were scared and we Chris Barker described the situation on the United States’ would be in their prayers. They truthfully should throw their southern border as a “land war.” (At the time he identified robes into the fire and walk away with their tails between himself as Grand Dragon Robert Jones — a pseudonym their legs.” likely inspired by another Robert Jones, who organized one While the Loyal White Knights assert that they had 150 the largest statewide Klan networks in the country in North members at the protest, a report by the Southern Poverty Carolina from 1963 to 1969.
Cover Story
II.
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Antifascists, most of them anarchists, wielded baseball bats wh NC after Donald Trump’s election.
“I think we should have our troops there with a shootto-kill policy,” Barker said. “These people are obviously not getting the picture.” In that interview, he advocated for a race war. “We want to see America stay for Americans,” he said. “You can’t put too many races together on one continent. It’s like the melting pot has soured, and it’s about to explode. We’re going to see a racial war; a lot of us pray for it. We would love to see another civil war, and if it was to happen we believe we would win.”
III.
The Caswell County Courthouse, a squat, utilitarian building near the main highway in Yanceyville — about 40 miles northeast of Greensboro — houses the case files for Imperial Wizard Chris Barker and Grand Dragon William Hagen’s pending charges related to the attempted murder of their fellow Klansmen Richard Dillon. Barker, who was released from jail on Feb. 14 after posting a $75,000 bond, is due back in court on June 26. Hagen’s next court date is on the same day, but he’s already in jail awaiting sentencing in Orange County, Calif. for a conviction related to the 2015 beating of a homeless man outside of a bar, according to a report in the Orange County Register. Meanwhile, in Caswell County, the justice system has experienced serious challenges. The combined Person/Caswell and Rockingham County district attorney offices have been under investigation since last July for possible theft of state funds related to a scheme in which the two district attorneys hired each others’ wives, according to reporting by the News & Record. Rockingham County District Attorney Craig Blitzer resigned on March 10, but Wallace Bradsher, his counterpart in Person and Caswell counties, has resisted
IV.
hile looking for a Klan caravan in Pelham,
JORDAN GREEN
pressure to follow suit. A couple blocks up the hill from the current court stands the old Caswell Courthouse, an ornate building that now houses county government. A historical marker outside the old courthouse references a colorful history that is likely familiar to Chris Barker: “Erected about 1861. Murder of JW Stephens here in 1870 led to martial law and Kirk-Holden ‘War.’” Caswell, along with Alamance, its neighbor to the south, held a reputation as being Ku Klux Klan strongholds in the years after the Civil War as the secretive paramilitary group attempted to terrorize free blacks into submission while also intimidating the white radical Republicans who upheld the cause of interracial cooperation. In 1870, Gov. William Woods Holden declared the two counties to be in a state of insurrection when local leaders refused to control violence against blacks and white sympathizers, according to a June 2006 article in This Month in North Carolina. Holden declared martial law in Alamance on March 7, 1870, a couple weeks after white vigilantes lynched Wyatt Outlaw, a black member of the Graham Town Commission. State Sen. John W. Stephens, a member of the Republican Party and Union League, was lured into a secure room in the Caswell Courthouse while a meeting of the white supremacist Democratic Party was taking place upstairs on May 21. There he found eight white Ku Klux Klan members and a black man. According to an 1873 account in the New York Times, after Stephens refused to renounce his Republican principles while asserting that his black constituents depended on him, he “was thrown down on a table, two of the Kuklux holding his arms. The rope was ordered to be drawn tighter, and the negro was ordered to get a bucket to catch the blood. This done, one of the crowd severed the jugular vein, the negro caught the blood in the bucket, and
At the time Imperial Wizard Chris Barker allegedly participated in the brutal assault against Richard Dillon, he was on supervised release after pleading guilty to federal charges of possession of a firearm by a felon. Among the conditions of Barker’s release, his federal sentence stipulated that he not commit another crime and that he refrain from excessive alcohol use. Additionally, the conditions required that Barker “not associate or be in the company of any gang member/security threat group member, including but not limited to the Ku Klux Klan. “The defendant shall not frequent any locations where gangs/security threat groups congregate or meet,” it went on to say. “The defendant shall not wear, display, use or possess any clothing or accessories which has any gang or security threat group significance.” Barker’s two-month sentence after pleading guilty to the charge was lenient by almost any standard, to begin with. In comparison, Randolph Kilfoil, a member of the North Carolina Latin Kings, received a sentence of seven years in federal prison after pleading guilty to possession of a firearm by a felon in the same court in 2010. When Barker was released from his two-month stint in custody in October 2013, he seemed to routinely violate the terms of his supervised release without consequence. The prohibition against associating with the Klan posed a particular problem. James W. Long, Chris Barker’s federal probation officer, met with him and his wife, Amanda, at their home in Eden, where they lived at the time, on Oct. 30, three days after his release. “Mr. Barker reported that he understood the conditions of his supervision and advised that his wife, Amanda Barker, remained an active member of the Loyal White Knights of the KKK which has presented to be a challenge for our office and Mr. Barker’s supervision,” Long wrote in a report to the court. The probation office investigated numerous allegations throughout Barker’s supervision that he was an active advocate and spokesman for the Loyal White Knights through media interviews. One was an August 2014 story on the Al-Jazeera news website involving a reporter who met two
KKK members wearing robes and hoods at the post office in Pelham. The reporter followed the two Klansmen to a location beside a pond and a tobacco field. “In the interview the lead KKK member expressed his displeasure with the immigration of individuals from other countries to the United States,” Long reported. “He voiced that if some of the illegal aliens were killed that it may send a message to others. “It should be noted that the vehicle which appeared in the video appeared to be a Chevrolet sedan, which was dark blue in color with a Tri City license tag on the front bumper. The vehicle is a car known to have belonged to Mr. Barker at that time. The probation officer identified Mr. Barker as the KKK member in the video by the sound of his voice and by a circular tattoo which appears on his wrist.” In August 2015, a state highway patrolman arrested Barker twice in one day before noon for driving while impaired, along with an open container violation. “Mr. Barker reported on the day of his arrest he and his wife had been drinking with friends at his residence,” Long wrote. “Mr. Barker reported that he was driving to the ABC Store to purchase more alcohol when he was stopped by law enforcement. Mr. Barker reported that he had a bottle of alcohol that he tried to drink as the officer approached his truck. Mr. Barker reported that he was arrested and taken to the Caswell County Jail. Mr. Barker was offered the opportunity to attend substance abuse treatment, but showed no motivation to attend.” The state charges wound up getting dropped because the state highway patrolman resigned from his position due to his own driving while impaired charge, according to federal court records. After a meeting with the Barkers at the McDonald’s in Yanceyville in February 2016, Long also observed a bumper sticker displaying the KKK symbol and the words “100% American” on the rear window of the couple’s Dodge Durango. In yet another violation in March of that year, Long ascertained that the Barkers visited a printer in Yanceyville to have a Loyal White Knights banner made. Chris Barker reportedly produced a Loyal White Knights business card and asked the store associate to duplicate the image on the banner. Long said when confronted with accusations about his ongoing involvement in the Loyal White Knights, Barker typically denied it or passed responsibility to his wife. “For example, when confronted with the Al-Jazeera interview in August of 2014, Mr. Barker denied being the person interviewed, but did not deny that their personal vehicle was seen in the video,” Long wrote. “Mr. Barker stated that his wife allowed other people to use their car. As Amanda Barker is known to be active with the KKK, this creates difficulties with supervising Mr. Barker. We’ve not enforced the association condition with his wife as they reside together with their two children.” While Long argued that Barker was in violation of the conditions of his supervised release, he noted to the court that the probation office found itself at odds with federal prosecutors. “We’ve had ongoing discussions with the Assistant United States Attorney in this case and have had some differ-
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Stephens was dead. His body was laid on a pile of wood in the room, and the murderers went upstairs, took part in the meeting, and stamped and applauded Democratic speeches.” As a result, Gov. Holden declared martial law in Caswell on July 8. According to Tomberlin’s account, General George W. Kirk led a state militia into Alamance and Caswell counties, and arrested more than 100 people, who were jailed in Caswell County to await trial before a special military court. Yet the balance of power was to be reversed in short order: Under President Ulysses Grant, the federal government declined to support Gov. Holden’s actions, and the prisoners were released in late August. The white supremacist backlash against Holden would lead to his impeachment in December and removal from office early in 1871.
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May 3 – 9, 2017 Cover Story
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ence of opinion regarding the interpretation of the special condition wording and what is a violation,” Long wrote. On June 23, US Magistrate Patrick Auld found probable cause to support the revocation of Barker’s probation. “The defendant’s family acknowledged during his original sentencing that substance abuse and negative associations have caused the defendant problems throughout his life,” Auld wrote. “Further, the defendant has three prior convictions for driving under the influence, and while on supervised release, he evidently again drove intoxicated, thus endangering the community. Moreover, the record reveals that the defendant has re-associated himself with gang members/security threat group members, and worn, displayed, used and/or possessed clothing and accessories signifying those associations. In sum, when the defendant abuses substances and pursues affiliation with security threat groups, he can quickly become involved in behavior that poses a danger to the community. Under these circumstances, the court lacks a clear and convincing basis to conclude that, if released, the defendant would not pose a danger to the community in the form of substance abuse and negative associations.” Based on Auld’s finding, US District Court Judge James A. Beaty ordered that Barker to receive three months of home detention and that his supervised release, originally set to expire on Oct. 26, 2016, be extended an additional year. Up to the time of the alleged assault on Richard Dillon, Long reported that Barker was making good progress. Court documents acknowledge that Barker violated two separate conditions — not committing a crime and not associating with the Ku Klux Klan — through his involvement in Dillon’s stabbing. Yet in a remarkable piece
A Loyal White Knights flier disparages Black Lives Matter while promising white supremacists they will no longer be alone.
COURTESY
of legal gymnastics, Barker’s probation officer argued that wanted to make sure his scheme went forward. A July his probation should be retroactively terminated so that 27 email message from Crawford to an undercover FBI the Dec. 3 violations wouldn’t apply. Long wrote that prior employee, although redacted, leaves little doubt about to the original expiration date on Oct. 26, he had realized who he thought he could count on to execute the plan. that Barker had already served the maximum amount of “Further, once you have my computer and phone, get supervised release under federal statute. Judge James ahold of ------------, of the loyal white knights, 1-336-xxxA. Beaty agreed to the recommendation despite the fact xxxx. To make certain this happens, I will have a friend that, as he had written in his Aug. 25, 2016 order, “The names [sic] — working my end to reach you and get this court considered the applicable sentencing guidelines polstuff to you. The knights may have the resources to invest icy range, along with the nature and circumstances of the and bring the project to fulfillment. That is, if you wish to offense, the history and characteristics of the defendant, continue. If not, let me know and I will make arrangements any pertinent policy statements issued by the sentencing for others to shoulder your load in this.” commission, the need to provide restitution to victims of Three days later, on July 30, Barker was indicted on the offense, and Congress’ objective in avoiding sentenctwo counts of possession of a firearm by a felon. Thayer ing disparities.” alleges that in August he agreed to act as an informant The federal courts’ apparent reluctance to bring the for the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force and assist in making hammer down on Chris Barker makes a little more sense the case against Crawford. in light of an allegation published by journalist Nate ThayKent wrote that on Aug. 23, the FBI JTTF’s confidential er in July 2015, on the eve of the Loyal White Knights’ witness, “a high-ranking member of the Ku Klux Klan,” rally on the steps of the South Carolina State House, that met Crawford “in a small town in North Carolina” and Barker is an undercover agent for the FBI Joint Terrorism Crawford “described the radiation emitting device he Task Force. wanted to acquire.” In the late spring or early summer of 2012, the FBI And on Oct. 4, Crawford met the confidential witness learned of a plot by Glendon Scott Crawford, an inagain in Greensboro, along with two FBI undercover dustrial mechanic at General agents posing as “KKK affiliates Electric’s Schenectady plant and ‘Mr. Barker reported that he under- and part of a commercial mining a self-identified member of the operation that had significant stood the conditions of his superUnited Northern & Southern financial resources.” vision and advised that his wife, Knights of the Ku Klux Klan in Barker did not respond to Amanda Barker, remained an active upstate New York, to build a multiple requests for comment member of the Loyal White Knights death-ray-type weapon of mass for this story. In response to a destruction to kill Muslims. request for comment, Shelley of the KKK which has presented to “The essence of Crawford’s Lynch, an FBI spokesperson in be a challenge for our office and Mr. scheme is the creation of a Charlotte, said the agency “does Barker’s supervision.’ mobile, remotely operated, radinot comment on the identities of — US Probation Officer James W. Long ation-emitting device capable of informants.” killing human targets silently and The use of informants by the from a distance with lethal doses of radiation,” FBI Special FBI and other law enforcement agencies is tricky. George Agent Jeffrey Kent wrote in a July 2013 affidavit. “A cenDorsett, the chaplain of the United Klans of America, tral feature of Crawford’s weaponized radiation device is acted as a paid informant under the control of the late the target(s), and those around them, would not immeFBI Agent Dargan Frierson in Greensboro throughout diately be aware that they had absorbed lethal doses of the 1960s. Dorsett’s speeches discouraging violence radiation, and the harmful effects of that radiation would are widely viewed as helping North Carolina avoid the not become apparent until days after the exposure.” extreme racial violence that plagued Deep South states at Kent wrote that through monitoring conversations the height of the Civil Rights Movement. between Crawford and a confidential human source and But the protection that extremist informants receive undercover employee, “agents have heard Crawford from law enforcement agencies can also promote a sense state that he harbors animosity towards individuals and of invincibility that emboldens them to commit criminal groups that he perceives as hostile to the interests of the acts and terrorize people with impunity. As an example, United States — individuals he refers to as ‘medical waste.’ Klansman Edward Dawson acted as a paid informant for Crawford has specifically identified Muslims as belonging the FBI from 1969 to 1976, according to the Greensboro to this group.” Truth & Reconciliation Commission. Later, as a paid After unsuccessfully soliciting assistance to build the informant under the control of Greensboro police Dedeath ray, Crawford eventually found two separate groups tective Jerry Cooper, Dawson led a 1979 caravan of Klan with the apparent means and ability to obtain the type of and Nazis into the Morningside Homes public housing X-ray systems he needed to make his scheme operationcommunity, where they fatally shot five communist labor al. Both groups, as Kent noted, were controlled by law organizers. enforcement. Yet it might make a certain kind of sense for the FBI In late July 2012, Crawford prepared to undergo Joint Terrorism Task Force to have its thumb on one of surgery. He was concerned that he might not survive, and the biggest, most dangerous Klan groups in the nation
V.
The Klan today and in history
The imagery of hooded Klansmen deliberately invokes fear through collective memory of
COURTESY
The underwhelming nature of the group’s history of racial terror as a secret society after the Civil War. the Loyal White Knights’ “victoeverywhere,’” she said. “They’re very vocal about it.” ry” caravan through Roxboro on Dec. 3 wasn’t caused by any decisive Pippin worked with a group of churches in Asheboro to organize a show of force by their anti-fascist opponents. The damage was self-inresponse to the Klan rally. Then, in early April she discovered that the flicted. After the stabbing of Richard Dillon, “Most of them literally got churches had pulled out of the event without informing her. back in their cars and went home,” said Nate Thayer, who maintains “They had come to the conclusion, along with the mayor and other numerous contacts with former Loyal White Knights and other white religious leaders, that they felt that by having an event they were going supremacists. “That’s why the rally was delayed. It had nothing to do with to be giving more publicity to the Klan,” Pippin said. “The words given the antifascists. to me by a contact were, ‘Ignore it, and they’ll disappear.’ Of course, I “They’ve lost every single state leader and every single member of believe that logic is flawed.” their imperial board, which is like a national board of directors, except for Separately, a group based in neighboring Davidson County called [William] Hagen, who’s now in jail in California,” he added. “They got a Silver Valley Redneck Revolt began organizing a response to the Klan spike of new members after the stabbing because of the publicity.” around the same time. An outgoing message recorded by Amanda Barker on the Loyal Anarchist in political orientation, Redneck Revolt is a national network White Knights’ hotline promotes a “private rally for members and people of gun clubs that organizes in white cultural spaces while extending supwho want to join” and cross lighting on the outskirts of Asheboro on port to immigrants, Muslims, people of color and LGBTQ people. Saturday. A post on the Loyal White Knights’ website announces: “Rally “The Klan is a material threat to the community,” said Mitch Maden starts at 1 p.m. EST. No drinking. No drugs. No weapons. We are having (not their real last name), an organizer with Silver Valley Redneck Revolt klavern meeting, speeches, dinner, Klan items and the most important: who aspires to be a sustainable farmer. “The goal of Redneck Revolt is to the cross lighting at dark!” say, ‘We’re here, and if you come out of your enclaves we’ll respond.’ The purpose of publicizing the event on the group’s website, Thayer “To the community, we’re saying that we have the willingness to train said, is to generate media coverage, which in turn drives inquiries from people in self-defense, de-escalation and solutions to racist violence that prospective members to the hotline. Far from being a liability, Thayer don’t rely on approval from the government,” Maden added. “We’re not said denunciations from Asheboro Mayor David Smith and US Rep. getting a permit. We don’t have to ask permission to defend ourselves Mark Walker only serve to drive more media coverage and interest in the and to come out against this racist drivel. We’re ready to work with group. people and train with people and to have solidarity with people that are The knowledge that the Ku Klux Klan is holding a rally and cross lighttargeted by the Klan.” ing near Asheboro triggers a tangible fear among local residents, said Aimee Pippin said her resolve to take a stand against the racism that is Aimee Pippin, who is organizing a “Unity Walk” at Memorial Park from exemplified by the Klan was steeled by a recent experience in which her 10 a.m. to noon in downtown Asheboro. She said her daughter, Mia, two biracial children were not greeted at a local diner and observed staff a criminal justice major at UNC Charlotte who was galvanized by the seating a white party who came in after them as they waited. protests against the police killing of Keith Lamont Scott last year, urged “My daughter said, ‘Mom, it’s okay, I’m used to it,’” Pippin said. “The her to organize the counter-event. fact that my children are used to people treating them differently, that A native of southern California with Spanish, Italian and Native Amerthey’re used to other children making racial comments or saying derogaican heritage, Aimee Pippin experienced racism in a direct manner when tory comments at school — that’s a problem. she moved with her family to Randolph County as a high school student. “I think it’s just been a long time coming,” she added. “I felt I needed She said she recently spoke with a neighbor, who showed her a family to do something, say something. I needed to show my children that you history book with photos of family members who were Klan members. need to stand up. I can’t tell them and raise them to stand up for what “I had a friend whose grandparents had land out in the country,” they believe in and to find joy in diversity, and then not do anything.” Pippin recalled of her high school years. “I was not allowed to go there because I was ‘too tan.’” The Klan’s presence in Randolph County is a barely concealed secret today, Pippin said. “If you ask about the Klan, people will say, ‘They’re here and there and
Splintered into an ever-metastasizing kaleidoscope of rival groups, the Klan is a shadow of its former self, with a total membership estimated by the Southern Poverty Law Center to be between 5,000 and 8,000. In comparison, the original Klan operated as a paramilitary arm of the white supremacist Democratic Party in the South until around 1898, when the institution of Jim Crow segregation made it largely redundant. The second Klan reemerged in the 1920s with as many as 4 million members. During a third resurgence in the 1960s, the Klan was energized by resistance in the South to desegregation, with as many as 3,000 people attending rallies in North Carolina, according to the Greensboro Truth & Reconciliation Commission. Beginning in the 1980s, neo-Nazi groups began to vie for position in the white supremacist movement, and starting in the 1990s, libertarian-oriented patriot militias began to occupy an increasingly prominent position on the hard right. And with the election of Donald Trump, a new generation of upscale “alt-right” groups like Richard Spencer’s National Policy Institute and the Proud Boys have inaugurated yet another iteration of right-wing extremism.
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— an outfit that acts as a magnet for unstable and extreme characters. How better to monitor the white nationalists who pose the most significant security threat? If the Loyal White Knights falls apart, where will its members go? The people who are most dangerous are often those who flit around the fringes of extremist groups, or, like Dylann Roof, imbibe their hateful propaganda and act alone.
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CULTURE Put a bird on it: New spot serves hearty avian-based cuisine
by Eric Ginsburg
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arden & Gun would eat this place up. The first thing you notice when you walk into Four Flocks & Larder is the single-file line of birds marching south behind the host’s stand in the entryway of the restaurant. The relatively new restaurant along Greensboro’s Downtown Greenway takes its name from the four birds — chicken, duck, turkey and quail — that are solemnly marching in formation. Follow their beaks around the corner and you’ll see a massive black-andwhite image of a river, with small birds flying right to left on the top and liquor bottles stacked behind the bar punctuating the bottom. Dramatic, high ceilings accompanied by white tables and chairs as well as sharp, apron-wearing servers add to the upscale yet casual Southern feel. It’s one of the few places in town where you can genuinely forget you’re in Greensboro, a welcome sort of staycation just a few blocks from the heart of the city. If the new Katharine Brasserie & Bar in downtown Winston-Salem were less French and more hearty Southern, it would be Four Flocks & Larder. It’s almost surprising there isn’t a hunting rifle mounted above a crackling fireplace in the modern waiting area. But there’s an entire mint julep menu featured prominently on the drinks list and there’s an accompanying “larder,” or store, beneath a high-lofted portion of the dining area filled with hip home items befitting of a new South household.
Pick of the Week Women in craft beer tap takeover @ Craft City Sip In (GSO), Saturday, 4 p.m. Craft City Sip In hosts a tap takeover showcasing women who brew beer or who own breweries. Local charities that support women, including Planned Parenthood and the Women’s Resource Center of Greensboro, receive a portion of the day’s beer sales. The event includes live music, a food truck and a raffle for special-release craft beers and special brewery items, as well as restaurant and bottle shop gift cards. More info at craftcitysipin.com.
The pan-fried duck breast with cheddar grits, Brussels sprouts and dried cherries looks great, but the whole quail stuffed with country sausage and served with collard and black-eyed peas tastes even better.
ERIC GINSBURG
Four Flocks is part of the massive, multi-million dollar wood-fired meat-and-three options and almost picked the Morehead Foundry complex, erected by the Iron Hen’s Lee spaghetti with duck meatballs. Comer and featuring several venues including a burger joint, Thee more colorful presentation of the duck made it more a coffeeshop and Hush — the city’s only “speakeasy.” And it’s visually appealing, but the marriage of sausage and quail arguably the best of the bunch. turned my entrée into the clear winner. The thick, orange-colThe price range puts Four Flocks on the more expensive end ored and mustard-based sauce poured on top took the dish to of the spectrum in the city — a shared appetizer, two averagethe next level. ly priced entrees, two cocktails and a shared dessert rang in Neither of us particularly loved our julep cocktails though, at $100 (before tip, obviously). That left some leftover food, making the initial comparison to the Katharine a clumsy one. despite my girlfriend and I eating our But the apple cider-glazed sweet-potato fill, but that still places the restaudoughnuts and bourbon poppyseed ice rant in the upper echelon. If that’s cream we ended with made us forget any Visit Four Flocks & Larder at too rich for your blood, there are complaints. weeknight blue-plate specials as well I heard some initial criticism of Four 433 Spring Garden St. (GSO) as more lunch and brunch menus. Flocks when it first opened, and had decidor at freshlocalfoodgroup. We dug into the smoky, wood-fired ed to give the restaurant a chance to come com/four-flocks-and-larder. chicken wings slathered in a thick into its own before showing up. We arrived ‘Carolina’ barbecue sauce, though the on a busy Saturday night, waiting just a seared pork belly, jalapeño poppers couple minutes for a table, slightly too and pulled pork nacho apps also tempted us. If Garden & Gun long for our drinks and not at all for our food. The friendliness staff showed up though, they’d probably insist on trying the and attentiveness of our server enhanced the evening, and cornbread skillet, chicken livers and the potato skins with duck despite being the last couple in the place as staff prepped to bacon, manchego cheese, scallions and jalapeños. close, we never felt rushed. Given the restaurant’s raison d’etre, we opted for quail And we loved the food. I wouldn’t say that Four Flocks is our and duck entrees. Nothing against turkey, but it’s a little too new favorite restaurant or anything that excessively effusive, pedestrian when you can order a whole quail stuffed with and even if it were, the price point would put it out of our country sausage and served atop collards and black-eyed peas. range. But we’ll put it in rotation for special occasions, and I We snagged the pan-fried duck breast too, which comes with recommend you do the same. cheddar grits, Brussels sprouts and dried cherries. And we ogled the duck tortellini with seared scallops, considered the
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Sara Sloan Stine, lead metalsmith instructor at Sawtooth School, fits a Shepherd’s hook onto a beer bottlecap to make earrings at the school’s Arts & Craft Beer event on April 28.
year we’ll give ourselves plenty of time to try all of the beer and crafts, as the healthy crowd on April 28 seemed to do. Kat loves red wine, Milan Kundera, and the Shins. She wears scarves at katbodrie.com.
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included Wicked Weed and Burial Beer of Asheville, Devils Backbone of Roseland, Va. and Birdsong Brewing of Charlotte. Birdsong, a brewery that’s new to us, poured a fantastic jalapeño pale ale, which smelled and tasted of fresh peppers without a lot of spice. Apparently a couple of breweries left before we arrived within the last hour of the event, and many packed up before the event end time. That’s why next
KAT BODRIE
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he idea was simple: Sample craft beer and try a couple crafts in the studios and rooms where art is made. Sawtooth — which is known for its adult art classes for those who want to sharpen their skills or learn a new craft by Kat Bodrie for the first time — used the beer-themed event on April 28 as an open house of sorts. When my husband and I arrived at the Milton Rhodes Arts Center that night, soft, acoustic guitar music wafted down the hallway, and we quickly felt relaxed in a place we’d never been before. People roamed the halls or gathered in groups in studio classrooms, giving the event a casual vibe. Outside each room, placards designated the space’s usual purpose as well as the craft beer being poured that night. In a painting room, someone from Stella Brew bottleshop was pouring a Belgian quadrupel that made a great first drink of the night, with its high gravity and aromatic punch. They also poured a couple of cans from Appalachian Mountain Brewing and Ponysaurus, as well as two ciders and an oak aged sour. We wandered to the metalsmithing room, where two instructors showed participants how to hammer out bottle caps and make them into earrings (also known as “beerings”) for free. After much searching through the bottle cap inventory, I chose one from Natty Greene’s and another from Sierra Nevada. I joined two other event goers at the table to hammer out the caps. We had three options to shape them: regular, flattened completely, or domed like a shallow bowl. I liked the regular bottle cap shape, so one of the instructors showed me how to hold a short metal stick in one hand and hit a small mallet against it with the other, a simple motion that ironed out the distortions made from bottle openers. At another table, Sara Sloan Stine, lead metalsmith instructor at Sawtooth, completed the craft Visit Sawtooth School by punching holes in the metal and for Visual Art at 251 N. threading ShepSpruce St. (W-S) or at herd’s hooks sawtooth.org. through them, so they become dangling earrings I wore immediately. I would’ve preferred if this had been more hands-on, but in the absence of waiver forms, I can understand the need to punch holes for people who have been drinking. In the printmaking room, participants paid $5 to screen print their own tote bags using red-orange paint, but having arrived late, we used our remaining time to circulate among the other breweries. Foothills, Four Saints and Hoots represented the Triad; outsiders
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Mixing art and craft beer at Sawtooth School
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May 3 – 9, 2017 Up Front News Opinion
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he crowd stood in the center of the room and turned as the lights came on, shining down on the bone-white horns. Wearing a red leather bull mask, complete with a disturbing complexion and horns bending out from the sides, Philadelphia rapper Torito’s preprogrammed beats billowed through the speakers as he laid into his fast-paced rhymes. The mask, complex lyrics and experimental beats are what make up Torito’s self-described live performance: a deluge of multi-syllabic wit, absurdist imagery, personal musing and societal reflection. As the one song finished, the lights were killed and the crowd turned again, facing another performer as the lights came on. This was the beauty of the show; eight acts who played one song each, rotating from stage to stage as the crowd gathered in the center, unknowing of where the music would be coming from next. Delurk Gallery in Winston-Salem hosted the Rap Round Robin on April 28. Put on by local hip-hop duo Speak
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CULTURE Rap round robin satisfies Triad’s need for hip hop
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N’ Eye, the show featured three rappers on tour from Philadelphia and five based in the Triad. The unique concept and show formula of the round robin — where each performer plays one song and then the stage shifts to the next act — was originated by Dan “Height” Keech, and has its origins in Baltimore. “It all started when the Wham City collective (Dan Deacon, Keech, Nuclear Power Pants, etc.) wanted to do an interactive show that focused on audience participation,” Aaron Brookshire, who raps under the moniker Emceein’ Eye, said in an email to Triad City Beat. “The idea was for several bands to set up their own sound systems around a room in a circle, and do one song at a time complete with lights and all. After taking it on a tour and doing it for a few years, Height became overwhelmed with the time, energy and preparation it took to do it with full bands. So in 2008 he decided to start doing an all rap round robin every year instead.” Brookshire said he helped Keech take the show on tour, specifically with shows in North Carolina. After 10 years of performances and tours, the torch was passed to Brookshire, who now holds the event annually in the SPENCER KM BROWN OG Spliff raises his cup to the crowd at Delurk. Triad. Brookshire and his brother perform under the name Speak N’ Eye. The two mix a unique, experimental style excited to be helping him along and taking him under our wing into their rap. With their opening song for the night, the duo for the moment.” brought a wild explosion of energy to the small underground Other acts for the night included Philadelphia rap duo art gallery, drawing the audience closer and closer. But as the Darko the Super & ialive as well as VISITOR10, an experimental act ended, the lights dimmed over Speak N’ Eye and suddenly hip-hop artist whose occult-themed performance and tightly illuminated OG Spliff as the audience turned around. woven lyrics give a dark twist to the genre. Charlotte hip-hop Based in Winston-Salem, Clifford Owens’ (aka OG Spliff) artist Dallas Thrasher opened the night, followed by Greensremarkable stage presence and boro rapper Grant Livesay, a member smooth rapping blend R&B-styled of the collective called Fella. Livesay beats and instruments with a vocal performed with his latest project, For more info about Speak N’ style reminiscent of Mos Def and Earl Thin Product Shun. Eye and OG Spliff follow them on Sweatshirt. Wearing a red-and-white The crowd cheered for more as striped bandana under his hat, Owens social media at soundcloud.com/ attention shifted from artist to artist, stunned fans with a grooving vibe to ogspath and speakneye.bandand their thirst was quenched as somewhat mellow mini-sets for the the night wore on. The show format camp.com. night. allowed for small bursts of music and “We had him play at last year’s Rap amazing performances, bringing hip Round Robin,” Brookshire said via hop into the limelight of the Triad email. “At that point, that was his very first show ever. We’ve music scene. had him on three shows this year and every single one he’s “The plan is to do one show every year in Winston from been 75 percent responsible for the crowds there. Spliff is the now into eternity, granted I can keep doing it for that long,” future of this Winston-Salem rap game, and I couldn’t be more Brookshire said, laughing. “I might have to pass the torch on to someone else in the future. And as you could see from the Pick of the Week show, it’s something truly magical.” Jim Lauderdale Bluegrass Trio @ Winston Square Park (W-S), Sunday, 5 p.m. Two-time Grammy-winning singer and songwriter Jim Lauderdale brings country, rock, folk and bluegrass music to the first Summer Park Series performance of the year. Kelley & the Cowboys — a four-piece old-time band led by female vocalist Kelley Breiding — opens the concert. Refreshments including beer and wine are available with proceeds supporting the Arts Council of Winston-Salem and Forsyth County. More info at intothearts.org.
CORRECTION
An article, “Resurrected from the dead, GSO Fest returns,” published in the April 26 issue of Triad City Beat, reported in error that the festival was launched by Mike Wallace. In fact, the first Greensboro Fest was organized by John Rash and Zachary Mull in 2001. The pair eventually handed the festival off to Kemp Stroble before he, in turn, relinquished it to Wallace.
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CULTURE New bookstores provide synchronicity over competition
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Up Front News Opinion JOEL SRONCE
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by Joel Sronce ormally it’s laborers, contractors or inspectors who don hardhats to examine a dark, damp building filled with bare steel frames and puddles of blow-in rain. But on April 29 in Winston-Salem, community members, eager children and anyone else equipped with close-toed shoes toured the construction at 634 W. Fourth St. No. 110, safety hats and all. The site hosts the development of a new independent bookstore and gathering space for Bookmarks, a literary arts nonprofit that strives to foster a love of reading and connect readers and authors around the Triad. Those on the tour enjoyed witnessing the sodden skeleton of a building that will soon teem with book buyers, conferences, cafe-goers and authors such as John Grisham, Daniel Wallace and many others already booked for readings. Before the tours began, more than 100 people packed into the breezeway outside — a wide entry that leads from the street to No. 110. They’d arrived for Bookmarks’ groundbreaking ceremony ahead of its official opening and ribbon-cutting, which are scheduled for July 8. After speeches and introductions, several members of the Bookmarks staff and board hoisted up shovelfuls of Samuel Puliafito works from his newly opened Bright Leaf Books. mulch in the ceremonial groundbreaking act. Beth Seufer Buss — Bookmarks’ community outreach these types of literary fiction,” Puliafito explained, describing and facilities manager — led tours of nine people at a his collection of scholarly titles. time through the new space. She pointed out corners and Though it wasn’t necessarily a used bookstore that Puliafito future rooms that will hold checkout counters, bleachers for dreamed of starting up, he feels that used books provide a storytime, conference rooms, storage areas and a small Footfundamentally strong business. hills Brewing café. “It’s easy for used [books] to beat online prices,” Puliafito “It’s an exciting addition to support our mission,” she prosaid. “I sell new ones from 20 percent claimed. off, and I still can’t beat the downThe aged, industrial facade of ward price pressure from Amazon.” the building, as well as the impresBookmarks hosts a summer readPuliafito estimated the room’s sive scope of the breezeway and ing program kick-off party for square footage at only about 1,100, the scores of attendees suggested kids, parents and teachers at the but plenty of patrons browsed its successful and energetic times on the shelves and came to Puliafito with William G. White Family YMCA horizon for Bookmarks. inquiries and purchases. Less than half a mile from the non(W-S) on May 11 at 5:30 p.m. Despite the geographic proximity profit’s new location is another bookand the closely timed openings, both store, Bright Leaf Books, which has Buss and Puliafito envision a harmonious synchronicity. only been open for about a month. Unlike the new Bookmarks “The more bookstores downtown, the better for both of location, Bright Leaf carries mostly used books. Compared us,” Puliafito said. to the jubilee at No. 110 not far away, Bright Leaf is small and He and Buss both believe the dissimilar stores will encourquiet. Though bookcases line the room’s interior, nothing age residents to explore each location for different reasons, hangs from its walls save one set of shelves that holds writing rather than frequent just one. They’ll find out if they’re right notebooks and greeting cards. The bookcases are unpainted, soon enough. and some nails shine prominently from their wooden edges. But the unfussy aesthetic fits the store. Though Bookmarks Pick of the Week will likely surpass Bright Leaf in terms of the events it holds and its pomp and flare, there are other requirements for patrons looking to spend an afternoon perusing the shelves. The Made 4 Market @ Greensboro Farmers Curb Market, stores’ environments differ in ways that make sense. May 7, 11 a.m. Samuel Puliafito, Bright Leaf’s owner, opened the shop beGet your Mother’s Day gifts at the Greensboro Farmers cause he wanted to start a book business, and he chose WinCurb Market’s arts, crafts and pottery show. The market ston-Salem after considering several other cities in the region showcases more than 100 artists, featuring fiber art & due to its downtown revitalization and the city’s institutions accessories, pottery, bath & body, jewelry, woodworking, of higher education. garden décor and culinary products. More info at gsofarm“You need to be near at least one major university to carry ersmarket.org.
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As a spouse and a spectator, Faye t high noon Dick Rosen Benjamin has witnessed this competistooped in the hot sun, a tiveness firsthand. brief pause before tossing “[Marty] started out playing three a tennis ball into the air to events [each year],” Faye explained. attempt his third serve of the “Now it’s up to 20.” point. Rosen had just served a For Dick Rosen — a retired physician let, then a fault. The tempera— the games’ month-long events are ture had climbed through the by Joel Sronce an important opportunity to remain mid-80s, and the humidity simactive. mered over 50 percent. Sweat poured from his body. “We’re proving [tennis is] a lifetime He could have been any tennis player confronting sport,” he said. “[And] it’s nice to be the tiring court conditions as April closes into May, but vertical.” there was something unique in Dick Rosen’s case. It JOEL SRONCE Dick Rosen prepares for a second serve as the others Though the games don’t end until wasn’t lingering exhaustion from his track events two look on. Friday, Rosen has already tallied more days prior, or the toll of mental preparation for the 10K than 10 gold medals. But often he was two days away. ka described it in a humorous light. the only participant in his 85-89 age group for track Rosen is 86 years old. “As the younger guys come in, I’m on the way down,” events such as the various meter dashes and the 5K. On April 28, he sided with Bruce Haldeman as they he lamented. Rosen pointed out that he has technically finished first faced Marty Benjamin and Bill Wladyka in a gold medal This year, at age 73, he has endured his third consecand last in several of the events. match of men’s doubles tennis in Greensboro’s Latham utive wave of competitive new 70-year-olds, while he Doubles partners Rosen and Haldeman — both in Park Tennis Center. has aged toward the older end of the group. their eighties — have played tennis together for more The Greater Greensboro Senior Games, which celIn 2017, the Senior Games have seen evidence of old than 15 years, and they try to play at Latham Park every ebrated its 30th anniversary this year, provides Olymtraditions and new feats. Haefner said the torchbearer week. While many relationships in the Senior Games pic-style athletic events to promote healthy mental for this year’s ceremony participated in Greensboro’s are based on similar history and support, their oppoand physical lifestyles for those over 50 years old. Men first Senior Games 30 years ago. Haefner also revealed nents — Marty Benjamin and Bill and women in five-year groups — that a woman in her fifties ran a mile in under six minWladyka — have had a more contenbeginning at 50-54 and advancing utes earlier in the competition. The Awards Luncheon tious dimension to their partnership up to 90-94 — compete in events For Wladyka, despite the spritely new 70-year-olds over the years. including track & field, swimming, for the Senior Games each year, it seems he has at least one event down pat. 2016, Wladyka lost to Benjamin cornhole, bocce and others. This “Croquet — that’s my forté,” he proclaimed. takes place in the Smith in In bocce by only an eighth of an inch year, more than 250 participants For the third year in a row, Wladyka took gold in the Senior Center (GSO) on — a contest in which Faye Benjamin competed — the most to date. event. played a role, too. As Rosen and Haldeman battled May 18 at 12 p.m. “I think I was talking more trash against Benjamin and Wladyka, Pick of the Week to Faye than to Marty,” Wladyka Event Director Marya Haefner sat recalled. “She kept blessing his ball with Faye Benjamin, Marty’s wife, and kissing it, and I kept trying to throw dirt on it.” cheering the players on. Haefner has been involved Wake Forest University baseball vs. Boston ColFrom how Wladyka and Benjamin put it, trash with the games for 15 years, and each spring she works lege @ David F. Couch Ballpark (W-S), Friday at 6 talking seems an integral part of their Senior Games — with seniors who find purpose, accomplish goals and p.m., Saturday at 4 p.m., Sunday at 1 p.m. at least as long as the players are up for it. make new social relationships through the contests. Come out to see the Demon Deacons take on “We’re too tired to talk trash on the tennis court,” Triumphs in spirit are often as valuable as the physiBoston College in a three-game series. The Deacs’ Benjamin explained after the doubles match ended. cal achievements. 17-4 home record has helped them to reach 30-13 A relative exhaustion frequents his doubles partner “It’s an opportunity to bring back a competitiveness, overall. They ride a two-game win streak into Frimuch as it would an athlete of any age, though Wladyor to find it,” Haefner said. day’s contest. More info at wakeforestsports.com.
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Senior Games provide healthy opportunities, trash talk
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Across 1 Contrary to 8 Bear or hare, e.g. 14 Having divisions 15 Meadow Soprano’s mom 16 Big-name celeb 17 Quechua dish served in corn husks 18 Adult Swim programming block 19 They create spots, slangily 20 Bone, in Italian dishes 21 Andy’s sitcom boy 22 Mail submission accompaniment, briefly 23 Flavor in the juice aisle 27 Dutch scientist for whom an astronomical “cloud” is named 28 1998 British Open win©2017 Jonesin’ Crosswords (editor@jonesincrosswords.com) ner Mark 29 “All-American” Rockne 30 In a shadowy way 33 Person pulling out 35 Hero of “Cold Mountain” 36 Beer belly 38 Light horse-drawn carriage 39 Place to belt and belt 43 G, in the key of C 44 Benedict of “The A-Team” 45 Top pick 46 Unable to follow up with action, it’s said 48 Displayed derision 51 Napoleon’s hat, e.g. 52 Moderately sweet, as champagne 53 More like a sieve 54 Sashimi staple 55 Going to the post office, e.g. Answers from previous publication. 56 Compilation album series with cleaned-up lyrics 26 Singer of the movie theme song that hit #1 on August 11, 1984 Down 27 Busted 1 Director of “The 40-Year-Old 29 It comes with a high proof Virgin” 30 Ripe for the insulting 2 Half of a rainy-day pair 31 More wicked 3 Melodic passages 32 Division for Road & Track, maybe 4 “Objection!” 34 Skip-Bo relative 5 1920s leading lady ___ Naldi 37 Double-occupancy ship? 6 Place for a wine charm 39 Baked in an oven, like bricks 7 Actress Hatcher 40 Name for Bruce Wayne’s underwa8 2017 Irish-Canadian film with Sally ter vehicle Hawkins and Ethan Hawke 41 Nivea competitor 9 French military force 42 Railroad station porter 10 2009, in the credits 44 “Beyond the Sea” subject Bobby 11 Apportions 47 Plum variety also called bubblegum 12 Individually, on a menu plum 13 Pixar Chief Creative Officer John 48 Badlands Natl. Park site 15 Westchester County town where 49 Nostalgic soft drink brand the Clintons have lived since 1999 50 Actor/comedian Djalili of 21 Paddle kin “The Mummy” 24 Key of Dvorak’s “New World” Symphony (abbr.) 25 Pomade relative
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’m about to do something I promised my father I’d never consider. I’m getting ready to put our last piece of family land up for sale. It’s a mostly hilly 4.25-acre parcel about five miles from the by Tina Firesheets Cherokee Indian Reservation in western North Carolina. It has a beautiful view of the surrounding mountains and the small town of Whittier below. I think a cousin told me once that land has been in our family since the 1800s. Letting it go is practical. I rarely visit the area. And although it would be cool, we don’t have the money to build a hipster tiny-house Airbnb on the property. But letting go doesn’t come without some remorse and a tinge of sadness. I was a little girl when my father told me that the land would be mine some day. “But you can never, ever sell it,” he told me. He had these blue, blue eyes that looked even bluer against weathered skin, tanned and creased from smoking way too many Winston cigarettes and long hours of working under the sun. “You promise, right?” The intensity of those eyes on mine forced me to promise something I didn’t even really understand. “I won’t,” I promised solemnly, and I really meant it. My father eventually broke his own promise, but my heart was a bit broken before that. Our land was inherited from my grandparents. One of my aunts inherited their home on a neighboring parcel when they died. I felt like a piece of my childhood had been given away when she sold it. I spent a lot of time with them in their little house on the hill. I watched my grandmother bake biscuits and skillet cornbread in a wood stove. In the summer, I helped her can vegetables and make blackberry jelly. Their water came from a spring in the yard, and they had a smokehouse I liked to explore.
I read my grandmother’s Grace Livingston Hill and Readers Digest condensed books on their front porch because there wasn’t anything else to do on long, hot summer afternoons. We all sat on that porch, waiting for something to happen. Or someone to drop by. Occasionally, we saw people float past on inner tubes in the Tuckasegee River below. My father sold the first parcel of land on the Tuckasegee River after my mother was diagnosed with lung cancer. I guess they needed the money. Years later, my father built a small garage and car repair shop on the other piece of riverfront property. He eventually sold that, too. All that’s left is the tract of land between my grandparents‘ old home and my cousin’s, who lives above. While I never doubted my intent to sell our property, there’s a part of me that wishes I could hold on to just a little part of it. While I consider Jamestown and Greensboro my home, I also say I’m “going home” when I return to the mountains. I had no desire to remain in western North Carolina after I graduated high school. I wanted to be somewhere more urban and sophisticated. I wanted to be around more people who looked like me. But a funny thing happened when I moved to Greensboro. I’d go home, and I’d step out onto my parents’ porch at night and look up at the stars. There are no street or city lights to dim the view of a million glittery stars on a backdrop of pure black
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velvet sky. I’d take deep breaths and just gaze upward for as long as I could. The air felt so crisp and cool on my skin. It smelled clean. And I felt closer to God. The road leading to their place is steep, windy and uneven. There isn’t enough room for two cars to pass at once. If someone is coming up the hill when you are going down, one of you better back up and pull over. I learned to drive on roads like that. I scoff at people who can only drive on flat, straight, two-lane roads. I worry that by selling this last remnant of my childhood, that I will feel it like the loss of a limb. The last time I drove through Cherokee, it had changed so much that I didn’t recognize any of the old landmarks or streets. There was absolutely no sign of the campground that my parents ran. It was as if my entire childhood had been erased. As if it hadn’t happened because there wasn’t any physical evidence of this place where we had spent so much of our lives. Sure, home is where the heart is. But the disappearance of the actual physical structure of a home can also break your heart. Tina Firesheets is a freelance writer and editor and former editor of 1808: Greensboro’s Magazine. Reach her at tinafiresheets@gmail.com.
Photo credit Elise Manahan/1808: Greensboro’s Magazine. (Jelisa will return to her regular column next week.)
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Tina Firesheets: Losing my childhood and breaking a promise
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