TCB Dec. 21, 2017 — An Italian-American Christmas

Greensboro / Winston-Salem / High Point Dec. 21 - 27, 2017 triad-city-beat.com

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AN ITALIAN-

AMERICAN CHRISTMAS Indecent exposure at the N&R PAGE 7

Faulty tower PAGE 13

From the Basement PAGE 16

The 2017 Local Gift Guide on page 9

Dec. .21 - 27, 2017

EDITOR’S NOTEBOOK

Firsts and lasts at Christmas

SPREADING JOY ONE PINT AT A TIME

Playing Decmber 21-23

The Idiot Box Presents Kenyon Adamcik

Monday Geeks Who Drink Pub Quiz 7:30 Tuesday Live music with Piedmont Old Time Society Old Time music and Bluegrass 7:30 Wednesday Live music with J Timber and Joel Henry with special guests 8:30

Thursday Joymongers Band aka Levon Zevon aka Average Height Band 8:30 Friday, Saturday & Sunday BEER!

OTHER SHOWS Thursday Night: Open Mic 8:30 p.m., Dec. 21st $5 Tickets!

Friday Night: Standup with Kenyon Adamcik 8:30 p.m. Dec. 22nd Friday Open Mic 10 p.m. Dec. 22nd $5 Tickets!

Saturday Family Friendly Improv 4 p.m. Dec. 23rd $6 Tickets!

Saturday Night Improv 8:30 p.m. & 10 p.m., Dec. 23rd, $10 Tickets!

Discount tickets available @ Ibcomedy.yapsody.com

joymongers.com | 336-763-5255 576 N. Eugene St. | Greensboro

2134 Lawndale Drive, Greensboro idiotboxers.com • 336-274-2699

The Nussbaum Center for Entrepreneurship...

by Brian Clarey They moved the performance area at the Friendly Center Barnes & Noble this year, away from the front

by Brian Clarey window and back by the wall of periodicals, which somehow still exists in this increasingly digital world.

So I’m among racks of calendars and notebooks while my oldest child performs in his last Christmas concert with the other guitar students from Weaver Academy — the best high school in the state of North Carolina right now, his teachers and I keep reminding him.

He’s posted right up front with most of the other seniors, and I flash on their first appearance here at the bookstore just a few short years ago. They all looked like little kids then, tucked way in the back of the ensemble, their fingers clumsy on the strings and their guitars looking like giant dogs that had climbed onto their laps.

And I’ll be damned if they don’t look like men now, confident in posture and position, a transformation common to every high school every year, I suppose, but I only monitor one crew of kids at a time.

This Christmas concert is one of the first of the lasts: last Christmas living at

home, last birthday as a technical minor, last day of high school, the last big summer of his childhood and, eventually, his last night at home before leaving for college in the fall. It went by so fast it felt like it all happened at once.

In some ways all parents re-litigate their own childhoods, trying to right perceived wrongs and maybe pass on some lessons so our offspring don’t have to learn everything the hard way. And in some ways, we all fail, because you can’t upload a life of experience on a kid like a hard drive. And anyway, in my experience kids hate parental advice as much as they hate jackets. And kids really hate jackets.

But these aren’t kids anymore, I remind myself. Not so much.

They tumble their way through a slate of holiday classics, a jazzy tango and a couple other pieces. And I see seated among the ensemble and weaving through the crowd a number of alumni home for the holidays. They pick right up where they left off, both with each other and on their instruments.

Awash in all these firsts and lasts, this is what keeps me grounded: They are going to leave. And hopefully, sometimes, they will come back.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

There was a breakdown, that is true. We’re not denying it.

We’re being up front about it. It was a single point of failure, not a systemic failure. One person made a decision to not document this complaint.

— News & Record Publisher & Editor Daniel Finnegan, in the News, page 7

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336-379-5001

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BUSINESS PUBLISHER/EXECUTIVE EDITOR Brian Clarey brian@triad-city-beat.com

1451 S. Elm-Eugene St. Box 24, Greensboro, NC 27406 Office: 336-256-9320 Cover photo by Rossi Ferraiolo ART ART DIRECTOR Robert Paquette robert@triad-city-beat.com

allen@triad-city-beat.com

SALES SALES EXECUTIVE Andrew Alzare

EDITORIAL MANAGING EDITOR Eric Ginsburg

andrew@triad-city-beat.com

SALES EXECUTIVE Cheryl Green

SENIOR EDITOR Jordan Green

CONTRIBUTORS

PUBLISHER EMERITUS Allen Broach

eric@triad-city-beat.com

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cheryl@triad-city-beat.com

Lauren Barber, Carolyn de Berry Spencer KM Brown, Matt Jones

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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Playing Dec. 23-26

“The Doctor Who Christmas Special” See Peter Capaldi’s FINAL ADVENTURE as the 12th Doctor AND Jodi Whittaker’s FIRST APPEARANCE as the 13th Doctor. 9 p.m.

CHRISTMAS NIGHT! (Doors open at 6 p.m.) RESERVATIONS REQUIRED!

triad-city-beat.com

PIZZERIA

219 S Elm Street, Greensboro • 336-274-4810

rattle + hum We repair all makes and models.

Auto motive 894 N. Liberty Street, Winston-Salem, NC 27101 336.293.7312 • #wsnc rattleandhumautomotive.com

--OTHER EVENTS & SCREENINGS--

FREE SCREENING: Emmet Otter’s Jugband Christmas 10 a.m. and 12 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 23rd Free Admission with Drink Purchase!

A Very Merry Anime Christmas Featuring Satoshi Kon’s “Tokyo Godfathers” 1 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 23rd, Free Admission with Drink Purchase!

Totally Rad Trivia Day After Christmas Edition. 8:30 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 26th $3 buy in - Up to Six Player Teams - Winners get Cash Prizes!

Beer! Wine! Amazing Coffee!

2134 Lawndale Drive, Greensboro geeksboro.com •

336-355-7180

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Dec. .21 - 27, 2017

CITY LIFE Dec. 21 – 27

by Lauren Barber

THURSDAY

Titus Gant Quartet @ Centennial Station Arts Center (HP), 7 p.m.

Up Front

Christmas for the City @ Benton Convention Center (W-S), 4 p.m.

Slanted Shed food truck @ Southside Beer Garden & Bottle Shop (W-S), 7 p.m.

Pair beer, wine, cider or nitro coffee with seafood and barbeque from Slanted Shed food truck at this newly-opened bar. Find the event on Facebook.

SATURDAY

News

Christmas Eve Market @ Greensboro Farmers Curb Market (GSO), 7 a.m.

Homeless Person’s Memorial Walk @ Interactive Resource Center (GSO), 4:30 p.m.

Sip on wine or local craft beer while listening to holidaythemed jazz music from Greensboro-based Titus Grant Quartet. Find the event on Facebook.

FRIDAY

SantaCon Bar Crawl @ various locations (GSO), 7 p.m.

Shot in the Triad

Walk to remember the homeless who lost their lives this year and hear from guest speakers who will speak about the unique challenges of combating homelessness in Greensboro and what is being done to effect change. Find the event on Facebook.

Hop into your favorite holiday costume, enter contests and expect drink specials as you take a tour of Greensboro’s bar scene. Registration is 7 to 8 p.m. at the Elm Street Center.

Find the event on Facebook.

Shelly Stevens, Chad Huskey & Bill Heath @ Muddy Creek Café & Music Hall, 7 p.m.

Puzzles

Camel City Jazz Orchestra @ SECCA (W-S), 5:30 p.m.

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The Market’s Wednesday vendors and several Saturday vendors join for a festive Christmas Eve market. Among decorations like wreaths and poinsettias, find stocking stuffers from local artisans and stock up for holiday meals with meats, vegetables and sweets. Learn more at gsofarmersmarket.org.

Hot Chocolate Fun Run @ Fleet Feet (GSO), 8:30 a.m.

Culture

Opinion

Love Out Loud partners to bring a free Christmas experience for the greater Winston-Salem community. Share meals at community tables, circulate between 13 performance spaces, reflect and relax in art and music space or visit Santa. Learn more at christmasforthecity.com.

Camel City Jazz Orchestra presents A Holiday Tradition, and celebrate the holidays with big band favorites. Homemade cookies and other baked goods will be available in addition to a cash bar. The orchestra will play a late show at 8 p.m. Learn more at secca.org.

Shelly Stevens, Chad Huskey and Bill Heath perform original music and hits spanning the last several decades alongside Evan Bryant on bass and Arin Heath on percussion. Find the event on Facebook.

In addition to running, attendees can snack on cookies, drink cocoa and bring presents to be wrapped with a donation to BackPack Beginnings. Find the event on Facebook.

triad-city-beat.com

Shokunin Ramen pop-up @ Wise Man Brewing (W-S), noon

Holiday dance party @ Boxcar Bar + Arcade (GSO), 9 p.m.

Up Front

Try a new brew from a curated selection of seasonal craft beers or something special from Quiet Pint’s winter cocktail menu. Among giveaways and door prizes, Highland Brewing Company sponsors an ugly sweater contest at 8 p.m. and a raffle will benefit the Muscular Dystrophy Association of Central and Western NC. Find the event on Facebook.

Roseland with Molly McGinn & Alan Peterson @ Common Grounds (GSO), 8 p.m.

News Opinion

Stop by and warm your belly with a choice of Kumamoto, Tokyo, Sapporo or Roppongi style ramen. Gluten free noodles and vegan options are available. Find the event on Facebook.

SUNDAY

Hats & Bells Elf Run @ William G. White, Jr. Family YMCA (W-S), 9 a.m.

Culture

Christmas party & ugly sweater contest @ Quiet Pint Tavern (W-S), 6 p.m.

Support local musicians Molly McGinn, Alan Peterson and headliner Roseland, with former members of House of Fools and Hot Politics, while enjoying some wine, beer or something caffeinated. Find the event on Facebook.

Break in Boxcar Bar + Arcade’s new music room for its second annual XMAS is LUV II: Holiday Dance Party, featuring Super Yamba Band, Electric Jelly Funck, members of the Brand New Life, live Afrobeat dance music and vinyl DJ sets by Prez. Find the event on Facebook.

Shot in the Triad Puzzles

Interpret the dress code as you please, but Santa hats, tinsel and bells all seem welcome. This four-mile run is for people of all ages and abilities, and the group will wait for everyone to catch up at major intersections. Find the event on Facebook.

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Dec. .21 - 27, 2017

My 9 favorite albums of 2017

by Lauren Barber

Puzzles

Shot in the Triad

Culture

Opinion

News

Up Front

Trump’s 7 dirty words

by Brian Clarey

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Even Trump haters who thrive on outrage can become exhausted with the litany of offenses coming out of the White House and Capitol Hill. So many things! Clandestine racism and looting of the tax code and a looming war with Korea… and that’s just in the last few weeks.

Among the sideshow pieces that include a NY Times exposé revealing that President Trump drinks a dozen Diet Cokes a day and an explosion of coverage about Melania’s creepy Christmas decorations was a piece in the Washington Post describing a list of words that the president had “banned” the Center for Disease Control from using in its presentations and materials.

The words: “vulnerable,” “entitlement,” “diversity,” “transgender,” “fetus,” “evidencebased” and “science-based.”

Twitter had a field day with it, and the meme archive is already dense with whimsical takes. But an important clarification is in order.

The CDC is not banned from using these words. Not exactly. They are advised not to use these words specifically in budget documents and presentations — in other words, the stuff they submit to Congress for approval of their funds.

It seems the architects of the CDC budget consider these words as triggers to the Republican members of the House, who currently hold a strong majority. And they had concerns that their annual slice of the budget could be in jeopardy if they’re sitting there talking about diversity and science.

So yes, it’s sort of a non-story. But it also puts light on the delicate sensibilities of the conservatives in the House, who lunge blindly at anything with the word “fetus” in it. And also, how easily they may be duped.

1. Ctrl by SZA SZA wrote one of the best albums of the year and the soundtrack to my summer. She wrote about the tension between sexual freedom and a need for sustained intimacy, self-worth and self-reflection, and the ongoing existential crisis that is one’s twenties with wit, compassion and brutal honesty.

2. Ison by Sevdaliza The Iranian-Dutch singer’s debut trip-hop album and accompanying music videos are both inviting and jarring, laden with grandiose soundscapes and warm layers of orchestration perfect for a pensive mood. If you like Björk or FKA twigs, Sevdaliza is for you.

3. 1992 Deluxe by Princess Nokia Destiny Frasqueri, better known by her stage name “Princess Nokia,” is a queer, selfpossessed rapper who is vocal about her Afro-Puerto Rican and Taíno heritage. If you need convincing and love New York City, start with “ABC’s of New York” or “Green Line.”

Otherwise, meet Ms. Destiny in her early music videos and you’ll be listening to Deluxe from start to finish in no time.

4. Fin by Syd Unlike most artists on this list, Syd isn’t as interested in centering a sense of vulnerability in her lyrics. On Fin, the lead vocalist of the soul-rooted band the Internet emotes a sometimes icy, always seductive confidence I find it helpful to try on from time to time. Throw this on at the after-party.

5. About Time by Sabrina Claudio While I’m partial to Claudio’s EP Confidently Lost, also released earlier this year, she delivers lush, low-key ballads about love and loss on both. Prepare your heart and your mood lighting now.

6. Trip by Jhené Aiko My friend Mankaprr once dubbed Aiko “an R&B woodsprite” and she could not have been more spot on. Trip is a dreamy mediation about relying on romantic relationships and psychedelics to process the loss of her brother to cancer. Though almost 90 minutes long, Aiko’s seamless transitions from pop to soul to groove is a journey that never drags.

7. Take Me Apart by Kelela The synth-filled futurescapes of Kelela’s latest album wade in the space between progressive electronic music and contemporary R&B. You might hear her in the club but Take Me Apart is just as appropriate in the bedroom or during late-night drives.

8. Blonde by Frank Ocean Frank Ocean finally graced fans with Blonde, his long-anticipated follow up to Channel Orange, and didn’t disappoint. His stripped-down meditation on loneliness and nostalgia is three-dimensional, his lyrics piercing and his falsettos as lovely as ever. The always excellent André 3000 makes a guest appearance, too.

9. RELAXER by alt-J Turns out I didn’t only listen to alt-R&B this year. The trio’s third album doesn’t necessarily push the envelope but feels fresh and — like each of their albums — provides a complete experience.

N&R employee found guilty of sex offense subject of 2014 complaint

by Jordan Green

Up Front News

The News & Record has acknowledged that a former HR representative failed to document a 2014 complaint against an employee who went on to expose his genitals to at least three women at the newspaper.

Continued on page 8

Puzzles

invited her to come by his office.

“He was very supportive,” Price recalled. “He said, ‘Hang in there.’ It was a very positive exchange. It wasn’t two weeks later; that’s when the first assault happened. That told me — after the initial shock — I would come home and it consumed me. Now, I’m thinking: What did I do? Why did he do that?.... I felt like it was the most disrespectful thing I had experienced, like someone says, ‘Shut up!’ This is what’s going through my mind. I don’t have no recourse. I was mad at myself because I gave him that power. He befriended me. I told Judge Cummings beyond a shadow of a doubt I couldn’t speak up. He knew I couldn’t go to them. He was right.”

Young could not be reached for comment on this story.

It fell to the reporter, whom TCB has opted to not identify by name, to report Young’s misconduct to human resources.

Sharmin Arrington, the current regional human relations manager at BH Media Group, told the police investigator that she met with Young to discuss the complaint in January 2017. The newspaper has not explained the time lapse between the report in November 2016 and Arrington’s meeting with Young in January of the following year.

The police report states that Young told Arrington “his indecent exposure was an accident as he did not know his

Shot in the Triad

In the statement, which was also posted on the N&R’s website on Tuesday evening, Finnegan wrote, “After Mr. Young was fired, several other employees came forward to say they had experienced similar incidents. One of them dated to 2014 and was not properly documented by an HR representative, who left our company in 2015. This lack of documentation left management unaware of the 2014 incident until after Mr. Young was terminated.”

In an interview with TCB on Wednesday, Finnegan acknowledged, “There was a breakdown, that is true. We’re not denying it. We’re being up front about it. It was a single point of failure, not a systemic failure. One person made a decision to not document this complaint.”

Finnegan also acknowledged that the undocumented complaint was received by human resources in 2014, which means there was a gap of at least two years between the initial report and the second complaint that led to Young’s firing.

Gayla Price, a 51-year-old account executive in the advertising department, said Young exposed himself to her on three occasions in November and December 2016. At the time, Price had initiated a discrimination complaint against the company over an unrelated matter, and she felt isolated and vulnerable. Two weeks before the first incident, Price said Young noticed that she was upset after she had met with management to discuss her discrimination complaint, and he

Culture

that the News & Record allowed a former employee to remain on the job while he exposed himself to multiple staff members.” The News & Record took issue with TCB’s reporting that human resources had been aware of complaints about Young’s behavior “at least 10 months before” the employee report that began the process resulting in Young’s termination.

The 10-month span measures the time from January 2016, when Arrington cited “reports” of Young’s “indecent exposure,” and November 2017, when an unidentified reporter alerted human resources about Young.

Daniel Finnegan, the editor and publisher of the News & Record, said in an email to TCB on Tuesday: “No complaints were made to our HR department or management team in January of 2016.” Finnegan suggested that the allegations of sexual misconduct by Young in January 2016 were retroactive, as opposed to contemporaneous. “Other victims came forward after Mr. Young was fired, and that is when we learned there had been previous incidents,” he wrote. “But we did not know about those incidents when the first complaint was brought to our attention in November.”

Beyond the News & Record’s dispute about when management knew about complaints about alleged misconduct by Young that occurred in January 2016, Finnegan acknowledged in a statement to TCB that a former HR representative failed to properly document a 2014 incident.

JORDAN GREEN

Opinion

Kelly Young was the last person his colleagues at the News & Record would have suspected as a sex offender. A well liked digital designer, he quoted scripture during a weekly Bible study and played on the company softball team. And a 2016 media kit published by the newspaper featured him front and center in an assembled group photo of the sales staff.

But in late 2016, a reporter and an account executive, both women, reported that Young stalked them at their work stations and exposed his genitals to them through his open pants, as detailed in police reports reviewed by Triad City Beat.

The unwanted encounters would often begin with Young commanding their attention through work-related talk. One of the accusers said Young would typically hold a folder in front of his crotch, and then when he was within a foot of her face pull the folder away to reveal his exposed genitals. The other accuser said on one occasion, Young appeared at her cubicle with his erect penis showing through his open pants and then pursued her after she got up from her desk to get away from him.

Young was fired in March 2017 after a second reported offense. Based on a criminal complaint brought by a now former employee, Young pleaded no contest to misdemeanor indecent exposure in Guilford County court on Dec. 13. His sentence is court-ordered “counseling that involves treatment for sexual deviant behavior.”

A report prepared by a Greensboro police detective who investigated the allegations in April 2017 indicates that a regional human resources manager for BH Media Group — the company that owns the News & Record — told the investigator she had not been “aware of the extent of Mr. Young’s behavior until he was terminated.” The report says that Human Resources Manager Sharmin Arrington “went on to state that the Greensboro News & Record had recently changed their HR staff and later learned there were previous reports dating back to December and January 2016 of Kelly Young’s indecent exposure.”

Following TCB’s initial story about the matter, which was published online midafternoon on Tuesday, the News & Record posted a response on its website disputing TCB’s reporting. The newspaper said TCB’s reporting “incorrectly suggests

triad-city-beat.com

NEWS

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News Opinion Puzzles

Shot in the Triad

Culture

Jen McCormack, who was struggling with an opioid addiction, died suddenly after a 16-day stay in the Forsyth County jail in 2014.

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Continued from Page 7. zipper was undone and his genitals were exposed.” The statement released by the News & Record late Tuesday indicated staff “conducted an investigation but could not determine whether the incident was intentional.” The statement went on to say that “management met with Mr. Young on Jan. 3 to warn him that he would be fired if we received any other complaints.”

When a second unidentified employee complained about Young exposing his genitals in March, human resources staff confronted him and fired him on the spot.

“This has been a painful incident for the victims in this case, and shocking for all of our employees,” Finnegan said on Tuesday. “We regret that any of them had to go through this experience. We are committed to making sure our workplace is a safe and supportive environment for all our employees.”

Up Front

Dec. .21 - 27, 2017

McCormack’s family settles suit

by Jordan Green

The families of Dino Vann Nixon and Jennifer McCormack Schuler, two former inmates who died either in custody or in a hospital after a medical emergency at the Forsyth County jail have settled their cases.

McCormack died at Baptist Hospital in 2014 after undergoing a heart attack during a two-week jail stay while awaiting trial on charges of prescription-drug fraud. She had recently detoxed from the opioid medication Oxycodone and was pregnant at the time. The lawsuit filed

by McCormack’s estate alleged that she died as result of the nursing staff failing to provide her with Zofran, an anti-nausea medication, leading to her inability to take other medications.

John Vermitsky, one of the lawyers from McCormack’s estate, confirmed to Triad City Beat that McCormack’s family agreed to settle the case for unspecified financial damages, and release defendants — including medical provider Correct Care Solutions and two employees, Registered Nurse Miriam Cornatzer Hauser and Nurse Practitioner Emma Aycoth — from further liability.

COURTESY PHOTO

“I can confirm that it’s settled to the mutual satisfaction of all parties,” Vermitsky said. He added that McCormack’s family members would not be able to comment.

Dino Vann Nixon, who was in jail on a charge of drug trafficking, died in custody in 2013. The medical examiner’s report attributed Nixon’s death to withdrawal from benzodiazepine, an anti-anxiety medication marketed as Xanax. Defendants in the case, including Correct Care Solutions and Forsyth County, disputed the medical examiner’s report. On Dec. 14, the Forsyth County Commission voted to pay Nixon’s widow, Diane Nixon, $180,000 “to fully and finally resolve” the case, while stating in a resolution that the payout doesn’t constitute an admission of wrongdoing.

Two inmates, Stephen Antwon Patterson and Deshawn Lamont Coley, also died in the Forsyth County jail in May 2017 from health-related causes.

In July, the Forsyth County Commission approved a $13.2 million contract extension with Correct Care Solutions.

Price, who resigned from her position at the News & Record in May, expressed dismay at the newspaper’s response to the revelations about Young’s misconduct. She charges that the organization tried to protect itself while jeopardizing its employees’ safety, that HR staff should have acknowledged that exposing genitals to coworkers is a criminal offense, and should have contacted the police as soon as they first received reports of the misconduct. She said the news organization also should have circulated a memo warning employees to be on guard against sexual harassment. Then, perhaps more victims would have felt emboldened to come forward, putting Young on notice.

Finnegan defended the News & Record’s handling of the matter and efforts to protect employees in its official statement on Tuesday, writing that the company “took several steps to try to provide assistance to our employees — we offered counseling to those we know were affected, so we sent a broader communication to our entire staff to remind them that of counseling services available to them through our Employee Assistance Program, and we required all employees to take anti-harassment training this spring, as we do periodically.”

Price said the company’s handling of the complaint destroyed her faith in the News & Record’s credibility.

“Not that their reporters don’t have credibility,” she said. “She reported a crime, and they did nothing about it, but they treated it as a ‘he said she said.’”

The experience took a significant toll on Price. She believes Young intentionally took advantage of her vulnerability, and then the episode of workplace sexual harassment ratcheted up the pressure she was already experiencing.

“By the time I went to the doctor my blood pressure was so high, the stress level was so high,” Price recounted.

“He ended up referring me to a mental health facility here in Greensboro…. I became so angry that I could no longer represent this company in a positive light. I lost employment. My blood pressure, that was out of the roof; my stress level, that was out of the roof.

“The sexual harassment on top of everything else just rendered me useless when it came to me doing my job,” Price added. “When things are piling up one person can only take so much.”

Although Young was not a senior employee in a technical sense, Price said his status as the only digital designer made him indispensable and allowed him to wield power over others. Young’s skills were crucial to the success of some of Price’s most lucrative accounts like the Greensboro Swarm.

“The power’s not always with a manager,” Price said. “Sometimes the power is a person you rely on to carry out and execute campaigns, and I couldn’t afford to sabotage that.”

When Young appeared in court on Dec. 13, three of his victims were present, including Price. The reporter who made the initial complaint in November 2016 told the court she wanted Young to get help and wanted to make sure the staff at the News & Record remained safe.

Price said the prosecutor indicated that there were five victims, although she only knows two others. A second News & Record reporter, whom TCB is not identifying, also attended the hearing.

“I’m happy we got a conviction,” Price said. “It vindicates all five women. We stopped a potential serial sex offender.”

SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

Local

Gift Guide 2017

Curated By:

Local Honey Artisan Hair Salon & Apothecary

233 Commerce Place GSO, localhoneysalon.com Beyond award-wining boutique hairdressing, consider Local Honey Salon when searching for the perfect gift.

The store offers an immense collection of men’s grooming items from beard oils, and balms to mustache combs and waxes. True to their name you’ll not want to miss out on all the locally sourced honey they carry. Make your gift complete with CDs and vinyl from local bands, T-shirts and signed books on fashion from a top designer with roots in the area.

Fainting Goat Spirits

115 W. Lewis St. GSO, faintinggoatspirits.com Named one of the best gins in the world at this year’s San Francisco and New York International Spirits competition, Emulsion New American Gin is the perfect gift this holiday season. Emulsion’s unique blend of botanicals pairs notes of cardamom, lemongrass and lavender with the spice of cloves and grains of paradise to create this one-of-a-kind gin. Emulsion is the first gin made by Fainting Goat Spirits located in downtown Greensboro. Named the 2017 North Carolina Distillery of the Year, Fainting Goat Spirits is Greensboro’s only Grain to Glass distillery. They also proudly make the international awardwining Tiny Cat Vodka and soon to be released aged whiskeys. You can purchase Emulsion New American Gin at your local ABC store or, you can purchase up to five bottles a year of any of their spirits directly from the distillery at 115 W. Lewis St. in downtown Greensboro. If you want to learn how they make the award-winning spirits as well as taste them, you can do a tour and tasting every Friday from 3-7 p.m., Saturday from 1-6 p.m., and Sunday from 1-5 p.m.

Oscar Oglethorpe 226 S. Elm St. GSO, oscaroglethorpe.com The friends who started Oscar Oglethorpe in downtown Greensboro began with a simple premise: Prescription eyewear should look great, hold up well and be affordable. Together they created a new way of buying high-fashion, high-quality eyewear that offers a boutique look at a big-box cost. New glasses start at $150 — every pair, every day — and the in-house stylists are expert at choosing the right frames.

Hundreds of unique styles to make sure your loved ones look great and see better this holiday season. Get $25 for yourself if you buy a gift certificate for $150 or more for someone else! Valid until Dec. 24.

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Local Gift Guide 2017

Art and Soul

2140 Lawndale Drive, GSO, 336.763.0438, artandsoulnc.com Art and Soul is a women’s boutique on Lawndale Drive’s retail row, a curated mix of clothing, jewelry, gifts and spa-quality apothecary products that, by design, can’t be found anywhere else. Owner Jenny Stickrath buys craft goods in small quantities from local and regional artisans, and can explain the provenance of everything in her store. She and her staff take pride in customer service, and can provide styling advice or help hunt down the perfect gift.

Shelf Life Art & Supply

2178 Lawndale Drive Greensboro, shelflifeart.com Visit Shelf Life Art & Supply Co. for the finest new and used arts & crafts supplies, professional custom framing, and art classes and workshops in the Triad.

Shelf Life carries a wide selection of supplies for drawing, painting, printmaking, sculpture, fiber arts and more, including: Arches watercolor paper, Dr. PH Martin’s ink, Gamblin oil paints, Yupo paper, calligraphy supplies, canvases, fabric & yarn, gift sets and vintage supplies.

GREENSBORO FARMERS CURB MARKET

501 Yanceyville St., GSO, gsofarmersmarket.org Besides a roomful of bounty from area farmers and small-batch food makers, the GCFM teems with local gift ideas: handmade soaps, candles and apothecary; locally made jewelry and art; fine pottery from area artisans and more. The market is open on Wednesdays through Dec. 28, from 8 a.m.-1 p.m., and on Saturdays all year round from 7 a.m.-noon.

Local Gift Guide 2017

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Shop Local this

Holiday Season

EDITORIAL

The dark (cell-phone) tower

Campus free speech is code for stifling dissent

News Opinion Culture Shot in the Triad Puzzles

Amidst the weekly parade of nounce bigotry? The ACLU of North Carolina complained horrors in the United States, it’s that the University of North Carolina policy is vague and easy to overlook the crackdown on overly broad. dissent on college campuses.

“The First Amendment protects both the right of controA new policy regulating speech versial figures to speak on public campuses, and the right of on the 17 campuses of the Uniothers to peacefully protest those speakers,” said Susanna versity of North Carolina System Birdsong, policy counsel for the civil liberties organization.

by Jordan Green was approved by the UNC Board “Because of its overly broad language, UNC’s policy runs of Governors without discussion as part of the consent the risk of punishing people for constitutionally protected agenda at its most recent meeting on Dec. 15. There wasn’t activities — an ironic outcome for a policy supposedly much to debate because the new policy was mandated designed to protect free speech and free expression.” by the Orwellian-named Restore/Preserve Campus Free Also opposing the policy is the state conference of the Speech law ratified by the Republican-controlled General American Association of University Professors, whose onAssembly in late July. line petition accumulated almost 450 signatures by Dec. 15, This wasn’t the kind of ambush that generates instant according to the News & Observer. The state conference outrage, and in truth political repression on campus is part raised the issue that the policy gives preference to speech of a steady creep that affects more than just public univerover counter-speech while arguing that it will make dissent sities in North Carolina. But in an era when the president of “scary, unsafe and punishable” and “chill healthy academic the United States plays footsie with white nationalists and discourse and debate.” endorses a child molester who openly expressed nostalgia At least the policy proposed by Wake Forest University for slavery, the penalty for student dissent is being ratchspecifies the kind of conduct that falls under the category eted up. of “substantial disruption.” In contrast, protesters at North The North Carolina policy, which protects controversial Carolina’s public universities have this vague guideline guest speakers while imposing penalties to follow if they want to avoid discipline: against students, faculty or staff who en“Students, staff and faculty shall be permitLiberals and congaged in “substantial disrupt[ion],” is part of ted to assemble and engage in spontaneous a wave of repression sweeping over public expressive activity as long as such activity is servatives made and private universities across the country. lawful and does not materially and substancommon cause to tially disrupt the functioning of the constituThe University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents passed a nearly identical policy ent institution.” squelch student in October, and lawmakers in Ohio are While liberal free speech advocates in protest. considering a similar measure. Even Wake academia and the mainstream media have Forest University, a private institution in narrowly focused on the First Amendment, Winston-Salem, is considering revisions to its Student college campuses have become Ground Zero in the battle Code of Conduct prohibiting “substantial disruption,” to halt the spread of white nationalism, from Charlottesville including “preventing an instructor or speaker from giving to protests against Silent Sam at UNC-Chapel Hill. Starta lecture, by means of shouts, interruptions, chants or other ing in Berkeley at the beginning of the year, the alt right verbal or audible means.” has sought to “trigger” supposed liberal intolerance with Highly publicized incidents of left-wing students disruptpro-Trump rhetoric. White supremacist groups like Identity ing conservative and far-right guest speakers have seemed Evropa melted in with mainstream Young Republicans, to come with increasing frequency since the 2016 election. hoping to recruit by “red pilling” — the idea that alienated Rioting by students and antifa visitors prevented former white men will experience an epiphany through confirmaright-wing provocateur and former Breitbart contributor tion that the forces of multiculturalism, feminism and sexual Milo Yiannopoulos from speaking at UC Berkeley in early diversity are arrayed against them.

February. The next month students would shout down Unfortunately, there’s little evidence that debating political scientist Charles Murray, who has advanced the fascists is effective at either converting them or dissuading racist argument that differences in intelligence are partially their followers, and there’s a real risk that it dignifies their accounted for by genetics, and hounded him off campus putrid ideology and provides a platform for hate. After the at Middlebury College in Vermont — an incident widely alt-right marched through Charlottesville chanting, “Jews condemned in both conservative and liberal publications. will not replace us,” and one of their number accelerated a As a consequence, liberal First Amendment absolutists Dodge Charger into a crowd of marchers, there aren’t as and conservatives crusading against supposed liberal intolmany liberal apologists arguing that a robust democracy erance have inadvertently made common cause to squelch requires protections for hate speech. student protest. But what about the right to righteously de-

Up Front

The Ardmore cell-phone tower, cleared by WinstonSalem City Council on Monday night for a spot behind Twin City Bible Church near Silas Creek Parkway, is in and of itself not such a terrible thing.

We all love and need our phones, and most of us harbor uncharitable thoughts towards our carriers when our devices lose coverage. More towers are inevitable, in the same way more car-charging stations are inevitable, as the years progress. And hey — they can even make them look like trees now.

The Ardmore tower, known in the parlance as a “slick stick” because it’s basically just a giant flagpole without a flag, is problematic and not just because of its somewhat grotesque name.

Once a network No, the Ardmore decides to plant tower’s problems stem from the fact that once a pole, there’s a network decides to nothing anyone plant a pole, there’s not very much anybody can can do about it. do about it. And it was enough to make Councilman James Taylor of the Southeast Ward march from the council chambers in a small act of defiance.

The NC General Assembly passed HB 310 this year, a bill that prioritizes strengthening the state’s wireless network by fast-tracking the permitting process and tying cities’ hands in terms of regulation, taxation and objection. No prohibitions. No moratoriums.

No mechanism to deny a permit unless it meets one of four very specific concerns: Does it run afoul of existing codes? Is it safe? Does it meet existing design standards? Will it reduce property values?

These all come down to matters of fact; Ardmore residents’ argument about lower property values was refuted by the telecom company’s appraiser, which is enough to satisfy the letter of the law.

It’s just one of the ways in which the state erodes a city’s ability to self-govern, a troubling trend in North Carolina politics, slowly turning our city council meetings into farces with outcomes dictated from on high.

At the point of action, perhaps the only appropriate response is the one employed by Taylor: Throw up your hands and walk out of the room, even if it’s purely symbolic — which it was. Taylor’s vote was counted as a “yes” because had had not recused himself from the vote.

CITIZEN GREEN

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Farewell, old friend In retrospect I don’t really know why, but when we launched Triad City Beat, I secretly wanted to be the music writer.

We met our new

by Eric Ginsburg office, a secondfloor walkup not yet full of hundreds of newspapers we would later painstakingly assemble, or even all of our secondhand office furniture pulled out of the Nussbaum Center’s basement. Jordan Green and I had quit our former altweekly jobs together, sitting side-by-side in our old boss’ corner office, without having yet agreed on our beats.

When Brian Clarey — our exuberant leader we’d grown to love at the old shop — said he wanted Jordan to handle music, I tried to keep the disappointment from flashing across my face. I’d never dreamed of being Cameron Crowe; if anything, I got into this industry to make the powerful tremble. But for some reason, in that moment, it felt like bombing a pop quiz.

So much has changed in the subsequent four years, more than I could ever adequately track. For starters, I’m deeply grateful that Brian assigned me to the food beat, and soon after to booze as well, and thank god I didn’t have to cover music. But much more importantly, we built something magnificent, something simultaneously tangible and intangible. We changed the conversation. We wrote a different ending.

We made a lot of “important” people say the F word, we uncovered huge stories, we rooted for the home team and offered loving but necessary critiques. We held power to account, we didn’t back down and we made our own way.

One of the main reasons Jordan and I followed Brian into the unknown was the promise of editorial freedom, and we’ve reveled in it. We’ve lost big advertisers because of it, and we were briefly blacklisted by the police department (sorry not sorry).

We stuck to our convictions and published hundreds — thousands — of articles that wouldn’t have had a home anywhere else but here.

But Jordan and I also took the plunge without hesitating because we trusted Brian, because we’d learned to function as a unit over the three preceding years (the two of them much longer) and because we could tell each other exactly what we were thinking. Don’t ever do something like starting a business without existing trust, strong ties and open communication.

Cliché or not, I never could’ve anticipated what the following four years would hold. In some ways, especially financially, it’s been much more challenging than I expected.

But in other regards, we succeeded so far beyond what 26-year-old me envisioned that I consider Triad City Beat to be a raging success.

Now it’s time for me to step into the unknown once again, to take a deep breath and move forward, to see what’s on the other side of a couple doors. Triad City Beat has given me the courage to knock on those doors until someone answers. Some have opened already.

I started interning with Brian and Jordan when I was 23, an unemployed recent college grad who’d never seriously considered a career in journalism. Now I’m 30, having turned this penchant for comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable (and drinking a lot of local beer) into a profession along the way. I leave this fiercely independent newspaper in the hands of those who started it alongside me, and to so many of you who made this dream possible.

Thank you most of all to Brian and Jordan — my mentors and really in many respects, my heroes. Thank you for taking a chance on me, for bringing me along and for knowing what’s best for me even if I didn’t always see it. My sincere thanks to everyone who accompanied us on this journey so far, including our families, former writers, Kickstarter donors, advertisers, Jorge, contributors like Carolyn and countless others who gave their time, money or skills to our cause.

And maybe more than anything, thank you to our readers. When you emailed me to say that you tried a restaurant I recommended, shared a news article I wrote or picked up a copy of this paper, you made all of this possible. Like Tinkerbelle, TCB grew a little bit stronger each time you did.

But this newspaper isn’t going anywhere — only me. So please, if I can ask one more thing of you, it’s to keep this thing going.

The Little Newspaper That Could persists, and I leave it in your capable hands. Become a sustainer, share it with a friend, send in a tip, tell local businesses to advertise and above all, keep reading.

What this team does is of the utmost importance, and while they can do it without me, they can’t do it alone.

by Brian Clarey

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honey and sprinkles.

I was into my teens before I realized that most Americans basically run a repeat of Thanksgiving for the Christmas Day meal: turkey and whatnot.

Italian-Americans do it differently.

Even on Thanksgiving, my grandmother would make ziti. And on Christmas we do another massive antipasto before a main course of lasagne, meatballs, sausage and braciole, again with the giant bread, the quality of which was always the subject of some discussion, from the size and weight of it to its quality in relation to last year.

The bread. The meatballs. The giant shrimp. They’re part of a sense memory so deeply entwined with the holidays and a dwindling connection to my heritage that, for me, are part of the meaning of the season.

We stopped doing the seven fishes about 10 years ago, a few years before my grandmother died. And nobody has brought up midnight mass in a good, long while. But we still get together and have lasagna on Christmas Day, with meatballs and sausages and everything else.

We’re still Italian, maybe just not as Italian as we used to be.

Shot in the Triad

mincemeat-stuffed pies that always went quickly. At the center of the tray was always this brown, amorphous, fruitcake-type thing that looked like chocolate but wasn’t. Without fail it was the last thing on the tray to be eaten every year, and no one in the family, or any Italian American I’ve ever asked, knows has ever heard of this dish. We called it “the turd.”

My Aunt Louise — who spent so much time in the kitchen that when I was little I thought she was my Aunt Flora’s maid — was the keeper of my favorite Italian Christmas cookie: pizelles, a batter-based, deep-fried delicacy made by dipping an iron into a thin batter and then dropping it into the bubbling fryer. She sent a giant tin every year to my grandma’s house, in a container that used to hold Charles’ Chips.

If my grandfather had been into Manhattan, we’d have hard torrone candy, the kind you need to break with a hammer. If he had not, we’d have the soft torrone, imported from Italy, wrapped in foil and packaged in little tiny boxes. And sometimes there would be a struffoli — little balls of fried dough mortared together with

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e haven’t done the seven fishes since I was a very little kid.

Like pizza, spaghetti with meatballs and sweeping the sidewalk, the Feast of the Seven Fishes is one of those traditions with roots in the old country but is primarily an Italian-American invention.

Mine was just the third generation born on US soil on my maternal grandfather’s side, the fourth on my grandmother’s — marrying a non-Italian would have been considered a mixed marriage in the 1940s when they wed.

My grandmother and my noni, what Italians call their great-grandmothers, kept the vigil when I was small: an array of shrimp marinara with linguine and spicy red sauce; baccalá, or salted codfish with onions and crushed red pepper; eel; clams; fried smelt; scungili; maybe a puttanesca, I don’t know. Like I said, I was small.

The tradition comes from an obscure practice in fishing villages on the southern end of the boot: Technically, it’s a fast, because in Roman Catholic culture, fish is sort of a vegetable, partaken around midnight to coincide with the birth of the baby Jesus.

The breadth of the feast diminished as the years wore on. My mother’s brother and sister, my aunt and uncle, both have strong aversions to fish. And as their growing families pulled them away from the Christmas Eve festivities at my grandma’s house, she scaled the meal down to the shrimp the biggest my grandfather could find the baccalá, which nobody but my mother would eat, and occasionally the smelt.

There’d be a giant antipasto, though, with roasted peppers, salamis and cheeses from my grandfather’s preferred purveyors of Italian goods, coarse salads of cece and eggplant and artichoke and whole cloves of marinated garlic. A round loaf of bread as big as a manhole cover, with a dense crust and billowy insides, stayed on the table.

Afterwards we’d go up Mount Kemble for midnight mass at the Villa Walsh, an invite-only affair hosted by this small sect of Italian nuns. My grandfather was their dentist, earning him a favored spot in the very first pew.

The grateful nuns sent a tray of homemade Italian Christmas cookies every year: scarpe di cavallo, pizzelles, taralles, pignolli cookies and crispelli di natale,

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CULTURE The seven fishes and meatballs for Christmas

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CULTURE At New York Pizza, Basement Life comes up for air

by Spencer KM Brown

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asement Life has managed to make a name for itself as a band of reclusive rockers from Greensboro by holding fast to the more punk tradition of breaking norms and doing things their own way.

Their headline set at the Dec. 16 show at the popular Tate Street venue New York Pizza was their first Triad show in almost six months. Though this sort of vanishing act might cause many bands to lose any hope of garnering a fanbase, the trio’s staggered live performances have helped them build a strong mystique, making each show a coveted gem.

Combining former members of Kudzu Wish, Social Life and Funny Like a Funeral, Basement Life are diligent purveyors of ’90s post-punk, garage-rock. The NYP bill teamed them up with Raleigh indie rockers the Old Sioux Summer and Zephyranthes for a rare night of postpunk music.

The eerie, dark melodies of Zephyranthes opened the night and hooked the crowd in a world of math rock. Selfdescribed as a “futuristic indie band,” the trio runs off the technically precise, polyrhythmic beats of drummer Michael Lamardo and multi-instrumentalist Logan Maxwell, with Elijah Melanson’s crooning vocals on the surface. At times calm and ambient with soft melodies leading the way, Zephyranthes demonstrated an ability to turn the music on its head, punching out jazz-driven breaks breathes bizarre life into the music, keeping it fresh, while the crowd listened intently, either out of joy or confusion; it’s like the vocals of Real Estate with Tool’s drummer behind them.

Taking the more straightforward approach to the genre was Raleigh-based band the Old Sioux Summer. Coupling vocalist Jeremy Scott’s lyric-driven songwriting like that of early ‘00s post-hardcore act Brand New with melodramatic pensive melodies, the Old Sioux Summer changed the mood by slowing down the energy and placing their poetic lyrics in the forefront of their performance.

If the shifting moods and sounds emanating from the stage disrupted the crowd’s experience, everything came back together through the well-polished, veteran musicianship of Basement Life. From the opening song, it was clear that the beloved band has earned their place in the Triad music scene.

The heavyweight punch of drummer Caleb Gross’ steady beats and the

Basement Life @ Newyork Pizza

COLLIN WILSON

crunching power of Gavan Holden’s vocals make for a perfect formance as it is in their recorded material, it is clear the band thrashing, post-punk sound. The music is topped off by Eric takes its time in making music, paying close attention to every Mann’s blending of chunky power chords and beautifully minute detail. While many bands work out the kinks in their technical lead melodies. And when placed on the stage tosound through dozens of live performances or from album to gether, the angsty, punk attitude plumed into the narrow club, album, Basement Life’s slow and thoughtful approach might enough to get any member of the audience on their feet, if not have seemed more detriment than advantageous at the start, raising their fists in camaraderie. but the result lends itself to producing stellar shows and, so They do it their own way, which is clearly seen in their alfar at least, a solid recording. most nonexistent self-promotion and the randomness of their “The chemistry took a little time to develop and I think in live performances. a lot of ways it comes from us all having a fairly wide range “We haven’t hit a clear stride to of influences that somehow come be actively playing a lot of shows out together in a good way,” Holden yet,” Basement Life frontman Gavan said.

To listen to Basement Life’s music Holden said. “We went through a This dedication to music was clear and find out when they’re playing, couple drummer swaps and have even in the individual members’ taken breaks for life events and past bands such as Kudzu Wish visit basementlife.bandcamp.com. heavy writing from time to time. and Funny Like a Funeral, but has Lately, it’s mostly been for writing pushed even further in Basement the new record.”

Life, making them perhaps one of Basement Life’s first album, the the most professional-sounding long-awaited Love Is Not Real, wasn’t released until this past bands in the Triad.

March — three years after the band’s inception.

“We try to play to our strengths,” Holden said. “We kinda go The album remains locked in the era of late ’90s, early ’00s with the classic ‘loud and hard’ formula when we play most of songwriting, homesick for a genre that perhaps is merely a bythe time.” gone. But nevertheless, the talents and musicianship of each And by sticking to this simple, hard-hitting approach, what member shine through, keeping a distance from pandering in comes out are the driving, lean-muscled tunes of Basement the realm of a nostalgia act. It is clear that the band’s aggreLife that seem to be bringing back a fading genre. gate past efforts and experiences in music inform this album, as it is among one of the most tightly written and cohesive debut albums from a Triad band. As evident in their live per-

by Lauren Barber

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Up Front News Opinion

Teens associated with Authoring Action performed spoken-word poems inspired by Sonya Clark’s exhibit, Entanglements, at the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Arts on Dec. 16.

LAUREN BARBER

Shot in the Triad Puzzles

“Toothless” (2015), for instance, is a cascading waterfall of my hair,” Sims said. broken combs bound with black zip ties, useless and tossed Unsurprisingly, she and others expressed a strong conaside. The piece’s title at once alludes to the phases of birth nection with one of Clark’s more experimental works, like a and death, and the work prompts reflection on generational Remington 7 Noiseless typewriter with kinky hair affixed to cycles of discrimination and poverty. each of its keys. Clark replaces the English letters with a self“I remember when I was younger my mom would use those devised alphabet consisting of 26 variations of tiny hair coils. combs and they always used to break, and I’d have little pieces She typed six poems by African-American women, including of the comb stuck in my hair,” said “Naturally” by Audre Lorde and 15-year-old Mikari Sims, one of the Au“at the hairdresser” by Gwendolyn thoring Action performers. “I decided Brooks.

View Sonya Clark’s work at SECCA to relax my hair when I was 6 years old “I came with Rosa Johnson, Maya (W-S) through Jan. 7 or learn more and just went natural this year when I Angelou’s niece… so with the poetry chopped it all off.” it was overwhelming,” said 32-yearabout the exhibit at secca.org.

A photograph from Clark’s Hair old Aileen Imana, the mother of Craft Project features the back of a 11-year-old spoken-word poet, Sauwoman’s head whose natural hair is dia. “We’re a hair family, a family of braided in tight spirals, prepared for a sew-in, braids, or other women and we go through dozens of these combs, of braids protective style against a bold red background and beside the and weaves and vitamins and that’s all here. This was everywoman who braided her hair. The image represents the curthing to me. This was therapeutic for the performers, for the rent stage of Sims’ hair journey since the big chop and inspired audience… and it had to be therapeutic for Sonya Clark.” her writing.

“We don’t really get to discuss our hair a lot so it made me feel very powerful to share here with others how I feel about

Culture

ore than 50 people found church in the art center as 12 teenagers and adolescents with Authoring Action performed spoken-word pieces from a descending stairwell and the Voices of God’s Children gospel choir sang African-American spirituals one floor above a captivated audience seated in bright white fold-out chairs.

The youth ensemble wrote poems in response to Sonya Clark’s exhibit, Entanglements, which is currently housed in the main gallery of the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art. Clark, who is of African, Caribbean and Scottish descent, works primarily as a fiber artist exploring the way hair continues to negotiate race, class and gender in America and the African diaspora. Novel combinations of kinky hair and black plastic combs are common physical mediums in her most recent work on identity.

The young poets and choir took turns performing, the former speaking of hot combs and journeys to self-acceptance and the latter singing hymns about chariots and chains. Clark’s small sculpture “Sugar Eye” (2016) gazed down upon visitors from a tall wall on the left.

The triangle-framed eye on a matteblack background symbolically represents the Eye of Providence featured on the US dollar bill, a reminder that God is watching. In the context of the exhibit’s themes, Clark seems to intimate that this God casts judgement upon America’s history of chattel slavery, the grotesque institution that spurred the growth of the nation’s robust economy and the trade of bills still manufactured with three-fourths cotton.

Relatedly, “Triangle Trade” (2014) is a stark reference to the trans-Atlantic slave trade, also known as the triangle trade because of common oceanic shipping routes. More than 5 feet tall and wide, the arresting canvas-backed piece is a maze of large concentric triangles densely outlined in black cotton thread.

There is only a narrow and singular path to the center, though, where the thread is entwined to resemble a hair-like, braided knot that protrudes from the canvas.

Few works in this iteration of Entanglements focus so explicitly on slavery, though; most focus on contemporary practices and motifs with occasional references to Yoruban cultural traditions.

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”Not That Exciting”--no wait, the puzzle’s exciting, I promise!

by Matt Jones

49 Stamp pad stuff 50 Montana hrs.

51 Like some wines 52 One of the Coen brothers 54 Overdid the acting 57 Footfall 58 Dwelling with a skeleton of timbers 62 Type of year 2020 will be?

63 Letterman’s rival, once 64 Earliest stage 65 What turns STEM to STEAM? 66 See 3-Down 67 Cold weather range

Up Front

Answers from previous publication.

40 Glowing brightly 42 Coal receptacle 43 Rigid social system 45 “You’re a better man than I am, Gunga ___!”: Kipling 47 Elon Musk’s company 48 Sleek river swimmer 50 Jason of “Game of Thrones” 53 Smartphone programs 55 Michael who directed “Miami Vice” 56 Over it 58 Reason for a shot 59 Expend 60 Title for Doug Jones of Ala. 61 Aliens, for short

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Down 1 Contacts via Skype, maybe 2 ___ TomÈ and PrÌncipe 3 66-Across’s location 4 Current “Match Game” host Baldwin ©2017 Jonesin’ Crosswords (editor@jonesincrosswords.com) 5 Making sense 22 Marinade in some Spanish cuisine 6 Get rid of 23 Make a comeback 7 Spiritual advisor of sorts 24 Health problem on some summer days 8 Makes a lot of dough 27 Random quantity 9 Fabric measures (abbr.)

30 CafÈ au lait container 10 Leave out 31 Regimens that may be faddish 11 Long-standing, like many traditions 32 Out in the country 12 Pong creator 36 Say 13 Sum up 37 John Irving’s “A Prayer for Owen ___” 18 ___ nous (confidentially) 39 Holy fish?

21 Be indebted

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Across 1 Actor Oscar of “Ex Machina” 6 Like some potato salads 10 Rating unit 14 “That Girl” actress ___ Thomas 15 Felt bad about 16 It works in the wind 17 Carrie Underwood’s 2005 debut album 19 Apple that turns 20 in 2018 20 The next U.S. one will be in 2020 21 Donizetti work, e.g.

22 “___ you serious?”

25 66, for one (abbr.)

26 Uncooked 28 Where pagers were worn 29 Showtime series about a killer of killers 31 Cash, slangily 33 Figure at the pump 34 Slippery, as winter roads 35 “One” on some coins 38 Go pop 39 Word that I guess is hidden in the theme answers, but whatever 40 Scribbled down 41 Picked-over substances 42 Animal in the Bacardi logo 43 Magna ___ (1215 document) (var.)

44 Field docs 46 “Annie” star Quinn 47 Low digit?

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SODUKO Culture Shot in the Triad

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Answers from previous publication.

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