TCB July 15, 2021 — Karen Archia is enough

JULY 15-21, 2021 TRIAD-CITY-BEAT.COM

GREENSBORO EDITION

‘THE WORK IS ENOUGH BECAUSE I AM ENOUGH.’

Why is kat lamp smiling?

PAGE 12

KAREN ARCHIA

EVICTIONS IN W-S

BY SAYAKA MATSUOKA | PAGE 13

SUPPORTing THE SUPERINTENDENT

ON HER FIRST SOLO SHOW, THE LAST YEAR AND THE UNIVERSALITY OF BLACK

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PAGE 6

JULY 15-21, 2021

EDITOR’S NOTEBOOK

The office, again

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bought old newspapers down to the recycling the old bin. We filled a cabinet with archives design collected through the years: photoshoot computer props, original sketches for covers, a stack back in 2014, of CDs containing Eric Ginsburg-era when it was just records requests. I used my shop-vac on five years old: the carpet. Each layer of filth and grime a 27-inch iMac that came off brought back flashes of the

by Brian Clarey desktop from last seven years: our first award, Eric and 2009 that lasted through two different art Jorge’s soccer ball, a sketch of my wife directors, one new hard drive and nearly and me posed like “American Gothic.”

400 issues of Triad City Beat. With the Time had stopped in here. It took a lot keyboard and everything it of effort to get it going again. was close to $1,000. As a firstWe’ve become adept time business owner, I was exat getting the paper out Time stopped hilarated and slightly panicked from our respective homes, in here. It at dropping so much money tightened the processes and took a lot of on this necessary resource. mastered the technology.

This week I had Rob pack effort to get it Tomorrow we’ll have a full it up from his house, where house for our first in-office going again. it has been living for a year, production since last summer. and bring it back to the office I believe we’ve lost something where, today, right now, I am by not being together for this ripping its hard drive onto its final, creative push to birth replacement, updating the OS and Adobe the paper each week — the magic hapapps and then putting it to work. pens in person.

My wife and I spent half of Saturday We shall see. cleaning this space, which like a lot of In the meantime, our archives are in offices has lain dormant for more than a order, the new design computer is humyear. Unlike a lot of offices, this one hadn’t ming to life and this is as tidy as our office been properly cleaned since we moved can get. in seven years ago. We carted reams of

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

Because of folks like you, Guilford County is becoming a mecca for Christianity, home-schooling communities and a return to family-first mentality.

­—Aryn Schloemer pg. 6

1451 S. Elm-Eugene St. Box 24, Greensboro, NC 27406 Office: 336.256.9320 BUSINESS PUBLISHER/EXECUTIVE EDITOR

Brian Clarey brian@triad-city-beat.com

PUBLISHER EMERITUS

Allen Broach allen@triad-city-beat.com

KEY ACCOUNTS

SPECIAL SECTION EDITOR

CONTRIBUTORS

Michaela Ratliff michaela@triad-city-beat.com Nikki Miller-Ka niksnacksblog@gmail.com

EDITORIAL ADVISOR

OF COUNSEL

Jordan Green jordan@triad-city-beat.com

EDITORIAL MANAGING EDITOR

ART ART DIRECTOR

STAFF WRITER

SALES SALES EXECUTIVE

Jonathan Jones

Sayaka Matsuoka sayaka@triad-city-beat.com Nicole Zelniker nicole@triad-city-beat.com

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CHIEF CONTRIBUTOR

Robert Paquette robert@triad-city-beat.com

Drew Dix drew@triad-city-beat.com

TCB IN A FLASH @ triad-city-beat.com First copy is free, all additional copies are $1. ©2021 Beat Media Inc.

Chris Rudd chris@triad-city-beat.com Carolyn de Berry, James Douglas, Matt Jones, Jordan Howse, Jen Sorensen, Clay Jones

COVER

W-S: Kat Lamp draws inspiration from nature for her work.

GSO: Karen Archia celebrates her first solo show at the CVA.

(As of Wednesday, July 14)

JULY 15-21, 2021

Coronavirus in the Triad: Documented COVID-19 diagnoses NC 1,020,833 (+4,571) Forsyth 37,146 (+93) Guilford County

47,924 (+148)

COVID-19 deaths

NC

13,512 (+52)

Forsyth

427 (+5)

Guilford

(6 weeks no new deaths)

Documented recoveries NC

998,668 (N/A)

Forsyth

*no data*

Guilford

46,955 (+243)

Current cases NC 8,653 Forsyth

*no data*

Guilford

257 (-95)

Hospitalizations (right now) NC

487 (+72)

Forsyth

*no data*

Guilford

*no data*

Vaccinations NC First Dose Fully vaccinated

4,702,809 (*adjustment) 4,751,939 (45%, *adjustment)

Forsyth First Dose

185,343 (+725)

Fully vaccinated

174,824 (46%, +935)

Guilford First dose

263,988 (+1,245)

Fully vaccinated 249,658 (46% for the last 3 weeks, +1,657)

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UP FRONT | JULY 15-21, 2021

CITY LIFE JULY 15-18

by Michaela Ratliff

THURSDAY July 15

Children’s Yoga @ Kaleideum Downtown (W-S) 11 a.m.

Freedom Summer @ North Carolina Black Repertory Company (W-S) 7 p.m.

Award-winning NC Black Repertory Company presents a one-time livestreamed performance of Freedom Summer, the tale of two Black sisters who analyze civil rights, Black identity and what it means to be free during the summer of 1964. Visit NC Black Rep’s Facebook page to purchase tickets.

FRIDAY July 16

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker @ LeBauer Park (GSO) 5 p.m.

This summer, certified children’s yoga instructor Ms. Christine is leading exciting classes featuring props to keep the children engaged while they learn breathing, meditation and more. In celebration of Kaleideum’s fifth anniversary, all 5-yearolds get in free on this day. To purchase tickets and view future class dates, visit Kaleideum’s website.

Run Club @ SouthEnd Brewing Co. (GSO) 6 p.m.

UNC Greensboro’s Spartan Cinema presents a screening of the latest Star Wars film this weekend. Tickets are not required. Just drop in with your blanket or chair. For more information, visit the event page on Facebook.

Dancin’ & Shaggin’ at the Station @ Centennial Station Arts Center (HP) 7 p.m.

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Join SouthEnd every Thursday for Run Club, where 1, 2 and 3+ mile routes are available for all abilities and paces. $4 beer specials are also up for grabs. For more info, visit the event page on Facebook.

High Point Arts Council invites you to dance and view music group Envision during this high-energy concert. Envision’s stage show includes hits from the ‘60s to today, covering a range of genres including R&B, pop and jazz. Food and beverages from the bar will also be available. Tickets are available for in-person or view the performance at home via livestream. Purchase tickets from the event page on Facebook.

SUNDAY July 18

Historic Twin City Trolley Tour @ Triad Trolleys (W-S) 10:30 a.m.

JULY 15-21, 2021 | UP FRONT

Open Mic Poetry @ Cork and Grind (HP) 7 p.m.

Cork and Grind is hosting an open-mic poetry slam in partnership with the Pullman Poetry Society. Learn more from the event page on Facebook.

SATURDAY July 17

Bacon, Lettuce, & Tomato Celebration @ Greensboro Farmers Curb Market (GSO) 8 a.m.

Enjoy the landmarks, architecture and history of Winston-Salem during this trolley tour. The tour includes a drive through Innovation Quarters, Reynolda Gardens and more locations. Tickets must be purchased in advance online at triadcoadventures.com or by calling 336.722.7777.

GFM is hosting its annual BLT & Tomato Celebration Day, with Chef Tracy Furman and Randy Barnes creating BLTs with Neese’s bacon, fresh tomatoes from Smith Farms, lettuce and Duke’s mayonnaise on artisan bread. Plates are available for a $10 donation. Learn more from the event page on Facebook.

Let’s Brunch! @ Sixth and Vine (W-S) 12 p.m.

Summer Market @ Winston Junction Market (W-S) 11 a.m.

Sixth and Vine Chef Ebony Warfield will be preparing recipes from Chef Belinda Smith-Sullivan’s cookbook Let’s Brunch during this event. Smith-Sullivan will be on-site signing copies of the book, with live music provided by Michael Spencer. No tickets or registration required for the event. Just show up ready to eat!

Featuring vendors specializing in locally handmade crafts and goods, this market will be one to enjoy. Urban Street Grill food truck will be on-site. Visit winstonjunctionmarket.com for more information.

Have an event in the Triad coming up?

Send an E-mail to calendar@triad-city-beat.com

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NEWS | JULY 15-21, 2021

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NEWS

Community rallies around GCS superintedent following attacks from conservative group

by Sayaka Matsuoka

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fter weeks of harassment from a vocal group of conservatives, individuals from the community and school board members spoke out in support of Guilford County Schools’ Superintendent Sharon Contreras during Tuesday’s school board meeting.

By about 5:45 p.m., 15 minutes before the meeting started, close to 60 people had shown in support of Contreras and the school board, compared to just three conservative protesters. Inside of the building, which was restricted due to pandemic rules, more than 15 people signed up to speak during the public comment period, a majority of whom spoke out against the hateful, racist messaging and activity that Contreras and board chair Deena Hayes-Green have endured over the past several months.

This week’s meeting marked the first that the public could attend in-person after the board voted to open the meetings back up last month.

“We understand what critical race theory has brought to the nation and not just to our county,” said Deon Clark, a pastor at Equation Church in Greensboro. “We can’t control the nation, but we can control what happens right in our front yard. This is our front yard; this represents our families, our students, and this our represents our superintendent. And the truth of the matter is, just because our superintendent hasn’t spoke, doesn’t mean she doesn’t have strength. Silence is a source of great strength. African-American females are disrespected… and I am here tonight to demand respect from the community, from the board members, from those who are in this room, from those who are outside.”

A news report from June by Triad City Beat uncovered multiple hateful messages to Contreras from members of a local conservative group called Take Back Our Schools. While the group has existed for a number of years, they have recently become more vocal after conservatives at the national level used critical race theory, or CRT, to galvanize this base. Many of the messages were racist and sexist in nature, most targeting the fact that Contreras is a Black woman.

On Tuesday evening, many supporters rallied around Contreras, speaking up

SAYAKA MATSUOKA

Dozens of supporters voiced their discontent outside of the school board meeting on July 13 in support of Superintendent Sharon Contreras.

about the need to support Black female leadership.

“She’s not going anywhere,” Clark continued. “And just because she’s silent doesn’t mean we’re going to be silent….

Dr. Contreras you have our support.”

Prior to the meeting, supporters stood outside with signs that read, “We love

our superintendent” while others wore shirts that read, “Stand with Black women, demand respect for our leaders.”

And although the speakers during the public comment period spoke mostly in support of Contreras and the board, a select few spoke out against critical race theory and what they said was the “bul-

lying of children.” As TCB has reported, critical race theory is not taught in Guilford County Schools because it is a college-level framework.

Trudy Delling of Oak Ridge lamented that children were being taught to be victims or oppressors and stated that as a white woman, neither she nor anyone

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be able to deal with situations brought relate to COVID-19 issues and that it upon by the pandemic after the school hasn’t changed the board’s policymaking board voted unanimously to grant her authority. The measure is in place so that those powers. However, to date, Contreif Contreras needed to act expeditiously ras has never once used that authority, to purchase things for the district, for something that she made clear during example, she could do so and then notify Tuesday’s meeting. the school board afEven so, at the terwards. In the end, request of board ‘This entire conversation Contreras spoke member Sharpe, about how the issues is a continual reminder Contreras’ powers being brought up by were brought up some members of of why we have to do again for a vote on public as well as better with understand- the Tuesday. Sharpe school board mempushed for a motion ing board role and bers are due to a to rescind Contrelack of understandsuperintendent role.’ ras’ emergency powing of her position – Superintendent Sharon Contreras ers while Republias superintendent. can Pat Tillman of “Anything that’s District 3 suggested a substitute motion not in policy, the superintendent makes to rescind Contreras’ powers once the the decision about anyway, so most state was no longer in a state of emerthings in the district, I make decisions gency. The motion failed 6-3 along party about outside of the board so there’s no lines with Welborn, Sharpe and Tillman individual liability. That’s why school voting in favor. boards have superintendents,” Contreras During discussions about the emernoted. “And this entire conversation is gency powers, a few of the Democratic a continual reminder of why we have school board members such as Diane to do better with understanding board Bellamy-Small of District 1 and Deborole and superintendent role. I heard rah Napper of District 5 expressed someone stand right at the microphone confusion as to why the issue was being tonight and say, ‘Why is the superinbrought up at all. Bellamy-Small noted tendent on the policy committee, she’s that COVID-19 is still very real and that not a member of the board.’ I am by numbers are starting to rise while Napstate statute, the board’s secretary. It just per noted that the board is still functionshows we don’t understand what the role ing fully even after giving Contreras of a superintendent is in a school district emergency powers. To that, Sharpe and what board members do.” argued that the board has somehow abdicated its legal responsibility by The next school board meeting will take place granting Contreras extended powers but on Aug. 10. the attorney for the school district, Jill Wilson, clarified that the powers only

JULY 15-21, 2021 | NEWS

in her family had ever been given white like you, Guilford County is becoming a privilege. mecca for Christianity, home-schooling Another woman, Aryn Schloemer, communities and a return to family-first spoke at length about how CRT was mentality. The future looks bright for a “Marxist policy” and how the school rebirth, a revival of American patrioboard’s liberal agenda was sparking a tism.” wave of conservative Schloemer also spoke support. A Google out in support of Lt. ‘She’s not going search of Schloemer’s Gov. Mark Robinson, address, which is stated anywhere. And just elected in 2020. Robduring the public cominson is a Greensboro because she’s silent ments period, revealed native and is one of the doesn’t mean we’re that Schloemer is key conservative figures likely related to Myra at the state level who going to be silent….

Schloemer, who spoke has been using CRT Dr. Contreras you outside of a school to rally the right-wing board meeting on June have our support.’ base. In March, Robin17. As reported previson launched FACTS, – Pastor Deon Clark ously, Myra Schloemer an online-comment used a megaphone to platform in which speak out against the teaching of CRT those concerned about CRT can submit and advocated for the group to hire grievances against particular teachers or lawyers. She then alluded to being at the school districts.

“America will prevail and will be stronJan. 6 rally at the Capitol. ger and more united… because of some “I mean, we were there on the 6th and the FBI hasn’t found us yet so… any one of the policies,” Schloemer continued. of us could experience this,” Schloemer said.

Quarrels about the During Tuesday evening’s meeting, superintendent’s powers Aryn Schloemer echoed her relative’s nother point of contention that right-wing talking points. members of Take Back Our “I wanted to thank you today for acSchools as well as the Republicelerating our country into a new age can members of the school board like of Enlightenment,” Schloemer said.

Anita Sharpe of District 2 and Linda “Due to your radical, Marxist policies…

Welborn of District 4 have repeatedly parents of all ages, ethnicities, socioecobrought up is the fact that since March nomic backgrounds, races, etc. are comof last year, Contreras has had an ining together to protect our children here crease in temporary authorization from in Guilford County in alarming speed. the school board. Like many superinChurches are filling and new relationtendents across the state, Contreras was ships are forming in spite of your racist granted special emergency powers to and divisive teachings. Because of folks

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NEWS | JULY 15-21, 2021

Little Light Bread & Soup Co.

Scratch-made soup and bread for everyone - regardless of ability to pay.

Seasonal Italian menu available for dine-in and takeout.

3205 Yanceyville Street Greensboro, NC. 27405

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littlelighttriad.com

K

arrington Gathings has been trying to get her landlord to pay attention to the decay in her building for over a year.

Gathings moved into Abbington Gardens on March 6, 2020, and has since found bedbugs in her apartment, though it had passed an earlier inspection.

When she demanded her apartment be heat-treated, her landlord charged her for the service instead of paying for it himself.

In addition to bedbugs throughout the building, Gathings says there is a crack in the foundation and the building shakes. The building’s security cameras have not worked for a while, she added, making several residents she spoke to feel unsafe.

“There are women who are older than my grandmother in this building and I worry about them,” said Gathings.

“People put in requests for repairs three years ago and they haven’t been done.”

Thus, Gathings took it upon herself to knock on her neighbors’ doors to ask if they would sign a petition demanding better treatment. Because of this, Gathings says her landlord has decided to evict her for collecting signatures and passing out pamphlets. According to the eviction noticed filed earlier this month

by Heather Wade, an attorney who represents Abbington Gardens, Gathings is being evicted for failing to “complete her annual re-certification” and for “failing to work with the plaintiff to allow for proper treatment” of bed bugs. The complaint also alleges that Gathings has been “participating in several activites that are disruptive to other tenants...including...the dumping of trash, handling out of pamphlets and sharing petitions.”

Gathings noted that the landlord has tried to evict her before, for failure to recertify her lease and a trash code violation, both of which she says have already been dismissed without prejudice by a magistrate. On Wednesday, Gathings told TCB that she lost her latest eviction case with her landlord and that she has 10 days to appeal.

Wade told TCB that this is the first time that she has filed an eviction against Gathings but could not confirm how many other times in the past the complex has attempted to evict her. Wade also noted that she couldn’t comment on ongoing litigation, now that Gathings is filing an appeal. Gathings told TCB that Legal Aid is now helping her fight for her right to housing. She lives with her

fiancé in addition to her 1-year-old and a 2-month-old.

The ‘Swiss cheese’ moratorium

G

athings’ back-and-forth with her landlord has played out against the backdrop of a global pandemic. Originally set to expire at the end of June, an eviction moratorium from the Center for Disease Control to prevent evictions during COVID-19 has been extended until the end of July.

But in Winston-Salem, evictions have continued in spite of the protections.

According to data gathered by Eviction Lab, a research team of experts and students at Princeton University, Winston-Salem ranks 16th in the nation for evictions as of 2016 and things have only gotten worse during the pandemic.

Housing activist and Winston-Salem State University sociology Professor Dan Rose, who is authoring an evictions study with co-author and Wake Forest University law professor Emily Benfer, has seen this play out in the courtroom day after day. For example, a Spanishspeaking tenant with a 1-year-old child on oxygen was nearly evicted because of her inability to communicate with the judge, according to Rose.

“She wasn’t able to speak English, which should automatically lead to a continuance,” Rose said. “But the magistrate and the plaintiff decided they would go ahead with the hearing.”

Rose said the tenant could pay back the rent and wished to tell this to the judge. She went on her phone to look up how to say this in English when the bailiff started shouting at her not to use her phone.

“She didn’t understand and began to panic,” Rose said. “He unhooked his Taser and prepared to tase this woman with her child in her arms. At this point, the magistrate said, ‘Okay, hold on — we can get a court appointed translator.’”

There were 56 landlord-tenant cases during the 2019-20 fiscal year according to records of complaints filed with Winston-Salem’s human relations department. For 2020-21, the number of cases jumped to a total of 226, 108 of which were evictions.

Forsyth County has one of the highest rates of concentrated poverty in the United States, according to a recent study by Wake Forest University. Additionally, the same study found the

county has one of the lowest rates of economic mobility and that Census tracts with high rates of poverty correlate with housing loss.

Since before the pandemic, STOCK PHOTO Wanda AllenAbraha, the di- Winston-Salem has the 16th higest eviction rate in the nation. rector of human relations for the recovering from COVID and regaincity of Winston-Salem, and her departing full-time employment, a best-case ment have conducted several meetings scenario, you’re still behind and you’re between landlords and tenants to share still on track for eviction.” information in the hopes of addressing Fern and KT Coleman, another HJN evictions. The department has also been volunteer, were at a court hearing one looking into best practices from other recent morning and saw 75 eviction cities. Allen-Abraha said this research is cases on the docket scheduled between 9 just beginning, and did not cite specific a.m. and 10:30 a.m. Most of them were examples. for non-payment, which is supposed to

Who gets evicted?

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espite city officials stating that they are trying to address evictions, local activists don’t think they are doing enough.

“That moratorium from the beginning has been so incredibly puny and has put so much burden on people in crisis to educate themselves,” said Rachael Fern, an activist with Housing Justice Now. “You aren’t just automatically covered under that. It’s on you, the tenant, to provide this declaration. A lot of people we talked to at eviction court hadn’t even heard of the moratorium, or they think it’s automatic.”

Reporting by TCB from November 2020 showcased the story of one tenant, Sierra Graves, who got evicted despite applying for the CDC moratorium. As of January, Graves had secured housing after living out of a hotel since November.

Referred to as the “Swiss cheese” moratorium by Rose, “because it’s so full of holes,” the policy itself is not an outright rent freeze, but rather a delay with tenants still having to pay back rent when the moratorium ends.

“We’ve spoken with people who’d been hospitalized with COVID, who had an interruption to their income,” said Fern. “They were protected under that CDC declaration, but that recovery can be a long haul. Especially if you were barely making ends meet to begin with, it’s impossible to catch back up. After

JULY 15-21, 2021 | NEWS

Evictions continue in W-S as national moratorium nears its end

by Nicole Zeniker

be covered under the national moratorium.

Most of the tenants being evicted were people of color.

Gathings, who is Black, lives in the northern part of the city near the Stanleyville neighborhood. According to Census data, the tract is a majority-minority area with about 34 percent of the population being white, 26 percent being Black and 20 percent being Latinx.

According to an applicant demographics data from the city, Black residents of Winston-Salem make up 78 percent of all evictions citywide, 70 percent of evictions in all of Forsyth County. Black residents make up just 34.9 percent of Winston-Salem’s population.

The disparities in Forsyth County and Winston-Salem follow a national trend.

Across the country, evictions are much higher for Black residents than white ones. In 2020, Eviction Lab found that almost 25 percent of Black renters lived in a county that evicted Black residents at twice the rate of white residents.

“A lot of Black women, a lot of Black mothers, and a lot of elderly and disabled Black folks,” said Fern. “That’s who we are evicting en masse. Those demographics are a massive red flag for what’s been going on in Winston-Salem and should be a lot more alarming than they are to the local government.”

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OPINION | JULY 15-21, 2021

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OPINION EDITORIAL

The future is now

F

uturists in the late 20th Century, had a fatal flaw: No one accounted for before the technological boom those who would willingly reject accurate that ushered in the Internet information, even if it had the potential Age, were remarkably prescient to save their lives. in their predictions about the future — Consider the nation’s recent coronawhich is to say, now, about 50 years after virus surge, a proliferation of the Delta the movement began. variant that’s starting to fill ICUs and They agreed that we’d all have more ventilator space across the country. free time through automation, and that In Utah, 95 percent of those hospitalour notions of recreation would develop. ized with the virus are unvaccinated. Los They caught glimpses of what would Angeles County health officials estimate become the gig economy, and the their number is more than 99 percent. In service economy. And they even foresaw Alabama, with one of the lowest vaccinaa return to urban living, even tion rates in the United as white flight was still hapStates at 33.4 percent, the No one pening all around them. unvaccinated comprise The futurist thinkers of the accounted for 96.2 percent of all CO1960s, ’70s and ’80s — pretty VID-19 deaths since April. those who much exclusively white, In North Carolina, the willingly exceedingly male — did not percentage of fully vaccireject accurate nated residents has yet to write much about race relainformation. tions or social justice. They reach 50 percent; Guilford did not factor in the longCounty has been stuck term exacerbations of growat 46 percent for the past ing income inequality. They did not train three weeks. their lenses on the corruption of political Obviously, this information is not parties or world government, and only getting through to the unvaccinated. Or started extrapolating the coming climate it is getting through, and they choose crisis relatively late in the game. not to believe it, even as they are being The most important consensus among intubated. the futurists was the coming rift between The futurists didn’t realize that you the information-rich and the informationcan’t make people believe something poor, how accurate information, rapidly they don’t want to believe. And you can’t attained, would be the key to success in explain an evolutionary event to people the 21st Century. who don’t believe in evolution.

As it turns out, even that keen insight

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IN the weeds When bartenders become mental-health counselors

we don’t get paid enough to gauge the mental health of perfect strangers upon a glance.

JULY 15-21, 2021 | CULTURE

M

ost bars have a “no fly list.”

That is, a list of people who are no longer welcome in the establishment.

The reasons for this vary from place to

by James Douglas place, but the gist of it is usually the same. Persona non grata. They may have skipped one too many tabs, or maybe they’re toxic individuals or they can’t keep their hands to themselves. They might have started fights, threatened someone, smashed a bottle, or gotten sick on and around the bar.

One incident that is seared into my memory is a patron who didn’t want to be kicked out, so they locked themselves in the bathroom with the negligible latch and stripped down to nothing because they thought the bouncer wouldn’t touch a naked person. That approach worked, until it didn’t.

The thing is: Those people always come back, at least once. Some don’t even know they’re banned, and you have to remind them.

It’s only natural that some don’t remember being kicked out of a place when they can’t even remember what city they were in the previous night.

Now the bars are open in their newfound glory, ready to slide back into the business of discretion and no judgement, and there’s a new element to contend with. There’s a volatility at work. The careful consideration of new faces and new behaviors is now underscored with apprehension. Even some regulars you missed might come in with a brand-new outlook on the world and their place in it.

With the recent uptick in violence in public establishments (and believe me, it is widespread enough to warrant a serious look at it), the people who work on the front lines are hyperaware of their customers. Most don’t get paid enough to gauge the mental health There’s not a lot of room for unruly customers in here. of perfect strangers upon a glance, but we have to for our own safety and that of the people we serve. We must, because no one back into the same routines and behaviors is trying, at else is doing it. Like always, the judgement of cutting times. My patience with myself is tested for the same an unstable person off before they’ve even started is reasons. During the past year, a lot left to the people who are just there to of people had a grand opportunity to serve them, make some scratch and go reinvent, improve, and succeed when home to their lives. they couldn’t before. They had time.

I tend to watch the customer more They had a chance, so many did. But these days. You take into account the this is the quiet part, where the dust is mood, the movement, their conserstarting to settle from the societal upvation. You watch for cues, read the heaval, drastically changing peoples’ room. Things are still tense, for all of lives, good and bad. I think that some us. Most of us need a release without people are seeing the raw deal they’ve constantly worrying about someone been given with new eyes. What does starting shit, especially now. I find one do with that knowledge? that I have to check myself more often as well. My They react. patience with customers (and friends) who have fallen They react with the means at their disposal. If that

JAMES DOUGLAS

means acting out in a public place among strangers with mixed results, then that’s exactly what will happen. The ensuing emotional toil of the past year is all too apparent when inhibitions are muffled with mixed drinks and the Id pokes its head out to check on the state of the society.

I’m happy to still not see some people from the past year. It’s makes me think they succeeded elsewhere, and maybe they have. Still, for others we have to remind them that “You’re supposed to be adults, and we shouldn’t have to be babysitters.” Part of the job is making sure people feel safe in an establishment and having them want to come back.

Then again, part of the job is explaining why a “Tito’s and Vodka” is just vodka.

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CULTURE | JULY 15-21, 2021

Culture

by Nicole Zelniker

F

Kat Lamp creates at the intersection of music, art and nature

rom the time Winston-Salem artist Kat Lamp was 14 years old, she loved music. That was the age she started playing guitar and becoming involved in a community of people who shared her passions.

“It’s everything to me,” said Lamp.

“It’s a way of connecting with other people and connecting with myself.

I’ve learned so much from it in so many different ways, lyrically and through the technicalities of the way the instruments play together.”

Lamp wears round glasses and radiates joy in spite of the difficulties of the last year. As an artist, she works with bands to make concert posters, combining both of her passions together. She says she finds inspiration everywhere, especially from the band itself. She starts with small thumbnail sketches.

“I listen to the band to get in the mood,” Lamp said. “Sometimes the inspiration comes immediately from a song. I think of where the location of the concert is and tie in some local things with it.”

Blue dinosaurs roam against a seafoam green background. Some of them wear bow ties, while others don fancy hats or sunglasses. One carries a black cat on its back and another carries a dog. A few other animals make appearances, like a snake and a snail.

The poster is cut up into three sections, with motifs of red rocks spread across the triptych. The work is one of Lamp’s newest for the Avett Brothers who played a concert at Red Rocks Amphitheater in Colorado on July 10.

Venues are opening for the first time since March 2020, meaning Lamp is back in poster-making business. Another recent design she did was for the Blue Ridge Music Center in Galax, VA. For that poster, Lamp and her husband traveled to the concert location for inspiration. They even had a picnic there.

The poster itself features waves of blue, yellow, green and white, with small interconnected squares each depicting a different scene. One depicts a bright shining sun,

COURTESY IMAGE

Kat Lamp’s newest poster for the Avett Brothers features partying dinosaurs.

another a rabbit on a field of yellow grass. One square reads, “Fly around my pretty little miss.” All of the scenes center on nature. Many of Lamp’s pieces feature creatures in nature, notably quirky cats, one of the artist’s favorite animals.

“I just love animals,” Lamp says. “I grew up with cats, and have had at least one cat in my life since I was little. My husband and I have two cats right now.

I love that across different cultures different meanings are associated with different animals. I like to use animals in my art symbolically. Also, I just enjoy drawing animals and sometimes I include them in my art just to share that joy with others.”

When the pandemic hit in the states, bands stopped touring which meant Lamp had to find other

Lamp will be hosting a poster show titled Favorite Things at Gas Hill Drinking Room on Aug. 6.

Learn more on her website at katlamp.bigcartel.com or follow her on Instagram at @katlamp.

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outlets for her creativity. She began working on wall hangings, taking classes on patternmaking and meeting with friends every week to do crafts. She even designed her first wallpaper and created a puzzle featuring a line-drawn dove nestled on a tree branch.

Lamp has also been focused on her online store, currently stocked with T-shirts of her own design featuring black cats and enamel pins in the shapes of animals, trees and fruit, among other things. And though she plans to continue updating her store, she is glad to get back to music posters. She is not sure where her career will go from here, but she is excited to find out.

“One day I was designing posters and the next day everything was canceled,” she said. But since the pandemic it feels like everything is easier; it feels like the pandemic was a long break.”

Culture

by Sayaka Matsuoka

T

owards the end of 2019, Karen Archia cried a lot.

She had just closed her beloved neighborhood coffee shop, the People’s Perk, putting her into a new chapter of her life.

“I cried a lot at the closing,” Archia says. “And a lot of people cried with me…. That crying was an emotional investment in everyone’s, including my, healing. If I had just closed up and disappeared, that would have been super traumatic for everyone.”

From that pain, the artist explains, was born her Fragile Heart series, which takes up the most space in her portfolio.

At this point, Archia says, she’s done about 135 pieces for the series.

Using singular drops of paint which she then guides across thick sheets of paper by tilting them, playing with gravity, the lines come together to form abstract ovoid shapes. Sometimes they intersect, creating pockets of negative space. Other times Archia adds in splashes of colors for added complexity. The idea came to her while she was watching another artist play with the dripping technique.

“I said, ‘That piece looks like it’s crying, but it still looks joyful,’” she recalls.

“I wanna cry in my pieces.”

At this point, Archia had just started her Public Art Practice, in which she made art in public spaces like the café area of Deep Roots Market, inviting others to create with her. Then the pandemic hit. As the world began to shut down, the extroverted artist found that she had to be creative by herself. She still found time for collaboration through interviews with artists on Instagram Live, but for the most part, putting ink to paper had become a solitary endeavor. Then, in December, she landed a residency at the Center for Visual Artists downtown. And for the next six months, the opportunity offered her time and space to dig deeper into her practice.

On Tuesday, seen|through, a show of Archia’s work from her time at CVA, opened in the organization’s gallery.

The exhibit contains with some of Archia’s earlier works, including pieces from her Fragile Heart series. She uses skull motifs, an American flag and pairs of eyes in several works. A lot of the art was influenced by the pain and chaos of the last year, she says.

“That grief and trauma of Black people being killed by police and the double pandemics of police brutality and COVID just merged with my own personal story,” she says.

“I want to elevate tearful release. I think we need to grieve in community and grieve out loud.”

On one of the main walls of the gallery, three large, sprawling scrolls span across the width of the space.

They are stacked one on top of the other and display Archia’s signature black-and-white markings. Each measuring almost four feet tall by 36 feet wide, the works are the artist’s largest pieces to date.

SAYAKA MATSUOKA “Their studies; seen|through is Karen Archia’s first solo exhibition. She says having the large space allowed her to play they’re called ‘Black more with the type of work she created.

Lives Inspire,’” she explains. “I drive by this physical output of it is just an expression of my love. You put sign in Lindley Park every day that says, ‘Black Lives Inspire,’ energy into the things you love.” and it’s impacted me because that statement means so much Lately, Archia has been putting her energy into mentoring to me…. And so I’ve been wanting to do larger works since I Black women artists. For the month of July, Archia helped had access to this space.” curate a new show at the Kernersville Public Library featurAnd while much of Archia’s work is visually abstract, there’s ing three Black, female artists. intentionality in how she creates As part of her CVA show, she and the tools she uses to make features fellow artist and activSeen|through will be on display at the her art. She says she spends time ist April Parker, who she painted just looking at many of her pieces Center for Visual Artists until Aug. 15.

A on commission to commemorate as she creates them. The process Parker’s residency at Elsewhere.

First Friday celebration will take place on allows her time to commune with Centering her identity, creating the works and feel when they are Aug. 6 from 6-9 p.m. The Black Women’s Art community and championing othclose to completion. ers are the core tenants by which Collective show will be on display at the “To me, it’s a process and I Archia lives through her artmakknow, for myself, it’s not a sciKernersville Public Library until July 31. ing. For the foreseeable future, ence; I go by how I feel,” she says.

Archia says she’ll be focusing on “I know that the work is enough the Black Women’s Art Collective To learn more about Archia, follow her on because I am enough.” that she’s started and working That’s a core essence of Archia’s Instagram at @scrappyunicorn or on her as the city’s liaison for the new work. While her pieces aren’t website at karenarchia.com.

Neighborhood Arts Residency Profigurative in nature, and she only gram. After that, she’s going to has two traditional self-portraits take a break from making art. But in the show, Archia views all of her work as a kind of extension that doesn’t mean she’ll be gone for long — creating is part of of herself. Even her use of Black sumi ink is a reflection of her who she is. identity and her love of Black people.

“I feel like this is the most soulful work I’ve ever done,” she “I love black, I love being Black, I love Black people,” she says. “I’ve spent more years on this Earth than I’ve got left, so I says. “I want to say things about the universality, the funwant to do soulful work.” damental nature of black and the diversity of black and the

JULY 15-21, 2021 | CULTURE

Tearful release: Karen Archia’s new CVA show tackles grief, trauma and healing from the last year

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SHOT IN THE TRIAD | JULY 15-21, 2021

SHOT IN THE TRIAD

Old Battleground Road, Greensboro

CAROLYN DE BERRY

Ice cream experts and heroes of summer Cullen Capehart and Caroline Doss at Ozzie’s Ice Cream.

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CROSSWORD ‘Go Get‘Em’—actually, this is my first rodeo.

1 11th graders’ exam (abbr.)

5 “Now, ___ from our sponsor” 10 Hill’s high point 14 “It’s ___ Quiet” (Bjork remake) 15 Doritos flavor 16 Any of the three “Survivor” motto words 17 Place to make a vinyl purchase 19 He’ll give you a ride, on “The Simpsons” 20 Muse for Keats 21 Norse pantheon chief 23 Oedipus ___ 24 “Scarface” director Brian 27 Mushroom with white buds 29 Second side in a game, perhaps 31 Cherry ___ (Ben & Jerry’s offering) 34 “Can’t Fight This Feeling” band ___ © 2021 Jonesin’ Crosswords (editor@jonesincrosswords.com) Speedwagon 37 A little above the pitch 39 Drum kit cymbal stand 40 Stumbles 42 “... the bombs bursting ___” 44 ___ speak (as it were) 45 Start a meal 47 Shoelace tip 49 “Shiny Happy People” group 50 Casino worker Answers from last issue 52 Camera that gets strapped on 18 Acting jobs 54 Name, in Latin 22 “The Daily Show” host Trevor 56 Vacationing traveler 25 Half a Hawaiian fish?

60 Ray gun sound 26 Kitchen appliance manufacturer 62 Came up short 28 Khloe’s mom 64 “___ just not, please?”

30 “Thatcherites” singer Billy 65 “___ please the court ...”

32 “... can’t believe ___ the whole thing!”

67 Protester’s forum 33 Tiniest speck 70 Wine valley 34 “SNL” cast member Chris 71 Spanish footballer Sergio 35 Lake on four states and a province 72 Miners’ quarries 36 Component of some church instruments 73 Acceptability, for short 38 First show 74 Painter Gustav who often used gold leaf 41 Grain storage tower 75 Rodeo item that I can’t seem to properly get 43 Govt. auction auto, perhaps around the theme answers 46 “Finding Dory” fish Down 48 It may be called 1 Read carefully (over) 51 Edit considerably 2 “The Jungle Book” tiger ___ Khan 53 One who talks the talk 3 Music licensing org.

55 Tibet’s neighbor 4 Greet with a honk 57 Opening notes 5 “What next?”

58 Win all the games 6 Existed 59 Brief 7 Eight, in El Salvador 60 Most of a penny’s makeup 8 Half a state name 61 From a long way 9 Olympic athlete’s violation 63 Singer Lovato who announced their new 10 Guac ingredient, casually pronouns in 2021 11 Scent after the first rain in a while 66 Lincoln’s son 12 Mononymic Art Deco designer 68 Chow down, slangily 13 Microsoft system launched in 2001 69 Amphibious WWII vessel

SUDOKU

If you read

then you know...

• What a “wandering cop” is • Why Fred Cox Jr. shouldn’t be dead

JULY 15-21, 2021 | PUZZLES

Across

by Matt Jones

• About the Black Joy parade Triad City Beat — If you know, you know ©2021 Jonesin’ Crosswords

(editor@jonesincrosswords.com)

To get in front of the best readers in the Triad, contact Chris or Drew

Answers from previous publication.

chris@triad-city-beat.com drew@triad-city-beat.com

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