TCB Feb. 7, 2019 — Genealogy while black

Greensboro / Winston-Salem / High Point February 7-13, 2019 triad-city-beat.com

WINSTON-SALEM EDITION

FREE

GENEALOGY WHILE BLACK Echoes of the past discovered at the Black History Month Genealogy Conference

Failed! PAGE 8

Innocence, projected PAGE 6

Closet guy PAGE 2

February 7-13, 2019

EDITOR’S NOTEBOOK

The guy from the closet Greensboro’s brush with viral fame broke on Monday: A guy had been secretly living in a UNCG student’s closet, without

by Brian Clarey her knowledge or permission. She told reporters she thought she had a ghost, until she found him sitting in there, wearing her clothes.

By Tuesday afternoon, word of Closet Guy had spread from Tate Street to Walker Avenue and beyond, and everybody, it seemed, had something to contribute.

My art director said he 86-ed the guy from New York Pizza for bringing in his own booze. My editorial intern believes the guy stole her mother’s boyfriend’s guitar. Trent says the guy hasn’t been allowed in Common Grounds since that thing over the summer.

Some in the cultural underground are calling BS on the whole thing, saying that the student had to be aware of the guy living in her closet, that he was exercising some

form of squatter’s rights until she finally called the cops to get him out.

But I think I believe her story.

For one, junkie ingenuity can border on true genius. I believe Closet Guy had a key — or, at least, ready access to the space. I piece together from news reports that he probably waited each morning for the student to leave, then slipped in when he knew the place was empty. He stayed in the closet because it was snug and dark during the brightest hours of the day; perhaps the smell of clean women’s clothes evinced a sense memory in him, allowing him some comfort as he slept off the evening’s sins.

It’s no big thing to live in a closet. Ray Ray lived in a closet for the entire summer of 1994, a hallway walk-in big enough to accommodate his mattress, some shelves and a little light. For this space, he negotiated that he be exempt from rent but would pay a third of utilities in the otherwise two-bedroom place.

But Ray Ray always played the long game.

Closet Guy clearly didn’t think this one through.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

One should never, ever underestimate the power of the Bennett Belles.

-Brian Clarey

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

PUBLISHER EMERITUS Allen Broach allen@triad-city-beat.com

EDITORIAL SENIOR EDITOR Jordan Green jordan@triad-city-beat.com

STAFF WRITERS Lauren Barber lauren@triad-city-beat.com

Sayaka Matsuoka

sayaka@triad-city-beat.com

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1451 S. Elm-Eugene St. Box 24, Greensboro, NC 27406 Office: 336-256-9320 Greensboro Cover: EDITORIAL INTERN Savi Ettinger Photo by Savi Ettinger calendar@triad-city-beat.com ART ART DIRECTOR Robert Paquette robert@triad-city-beat.com SALES

KEY ACCOUNTS Gayla Price gayla@triad-city-beat.com

SALES Johnathan Enoch

johnathan@triad-city-beat.com

CONTRIBUTORS

Carolyn de Berry, Matt Jones

TCB IN A FLASH @ triad-city-beat.com First copy is free, all additional copies are $1. ©2018 Beat Media Inc.

Winston-Salem Cover: Stock image

Yako THE MANHATTAN TRANSFER GI CH

SAUCE BOSS

LOVE LETTERS STARRING BARBARA EDEN & HAL LINDEN

GINA CHAVEZ

Show |7:30pm / Doors |6:30pm

OF SERENDIP

GINA CHAVEZ

RYTHM OF THE March 7, 2019 DANCE Two iconic TV personalities - Barbara Eden (I

Smirn Smirnof

THE Raleigh Ringers HIGHPOINT BALLET The SAUCE veters o BOSS L LeRAtEDEN N

February 7-13, 2019

High Point Theatre Presents� a new exciting season!

Yako March 8, 2019

Show | 8pm / Doors | 7pm

Dream of Jeannie) and Hal Linden (Barney Miller) - present the late A.R. Gurney’s poetic, elegant, and profoundly touching story about the power of the written word. The star power and supreme acting of Barbara and Hal has been holding audiences spellbound throughout the U.S, in this spectacular live performance of Love Letters!

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Gina Chavez invites audiences on a journey of discovery of her own Latin roots through a passionate collection of bilingual songs traversing cumbia, bossa nova, vintage pop, reggaeton and folk, combined with dynamic vocals and sharp social commentary. Backed by a talented four-piece band, this multi-ethnic pop songstress is a nine-time Austin Music Award winner.

THE QUEEN’S CARTOONISTS

RHYTHM OF THE DANCE

PASSPORT

Raleigh Ringers

To Entertainment

BRANFORD MARSALIS QUARTET 2018 & 2019

THE QUEEN’S CARTOONISTS March 10, 2019

DANCE On a mission of music preservation and music BALLET

Show |2pm / Doors |1pm

March 19, 2019

OF SERENDIP

A BARB HAL LIND

GINA CHAVEZ

BRANFORD MARSALIS THE MANHATTAN TRANSFER QUARTET THEHIGHPOINT RYTHM OF THE

THE QUEEN CARTO

Show | 7:30pm / Doors | 6:30pm

Reliving the epic journey of the Irish Celts education, the six cats of The Queen’s Cartoonists throughout history, Rhythm of the Dance is a two-hour dance and music extravaganza! A gifted offer a tour-de-force of the Swing Era’s zaniest young cast of performers, combining traditional and most creative music, some dating back to dance, music, vocals and costuming, while using the 1920s, and much of which was written for or adapted for classic cartoons. Whether you’re a fan the most up-to-date modern technologies, has of Looney Tunes,N Merry Melodies, The Simpsons, made this the premier performance in its field.

EDE classics, or the oldRDisney you’ll find something to Exciting and fresh, this critically acclaimed show A N E A D B will surely enthrall. swing BARalong to.LIN

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HAL

Presented in conjunction with the HP Community Concert Association.

THE QUEEN’S CARTOONISTS

Ra Rin

THE MANHA

BILLY “CRASH” CRADDOCK

Acts and dates are subject to change. For tickets and updates, go to HighPointTheatre.com or call 336.887.3001

RYTHM OF THE DANCE

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February 7-13, 2019

CITY LIFE February 7-13, 2019

by Savi Ettinger

THURSDAY

Up Front

Ron Stallworth, BlacKkKlansman @ Wake Forest University (W-S), 6 p.m.

FRIDAY

Winter Film Screening @ UNCSA (W-S), 7 p.m.

UNCSA’s School of Filmmaking hosts a screening of student work in the ACE Main Theatre. The screening features a variety of student-made short films from the 2017-18 academic year. Find the event on Facebook.

Opinion

News

The Trongone Band @ Wiseman Brewing (W-S), 8 p.m.

Ron Stallworth speaks at Wait Chapel for Wake Forest University’s Black History Month keynote address. As the first African-American detective in Colorado Springs’ police department, Stallworth infiltrated a Klu Klux Klan chapter, which later inspired the Spike Lee film BlacKkKlansman. Learn more at interculturalcenter.wfu. edu.

Puzzles

Shot in the Triad

Culture

Carrie Mae Weems @ UNCG (GSO), 6 p.m.

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Falk Visiting Artist Carrie Mae Weems speaks about her project, Constructing History, in the Elliott University Center.

Weem’s project involved partnering with students to uncover stories of the 1960s.

Find the event on Facebook.

Drivin N Cryin @ the Ramkat (W-S), 7 p.m.

Drivin N Cryin brings their folk-rock sound to the Ramkat in a concert equal parts classic rock and country. Lauren Morrow and Possum Jenkins join the show with Americana, roots and rock. Find the event on Facebook.

History of the Underground Railroad @ New Garden Friends Meeting (GSO), 1:30 p.m.

This discussion from Adrienne Israel and James Shields details Guilford County’s part in the Underground Railroad. A tour around local points on the Trail to Freedom map by the National Parks Service ends the event. Learn more on Facebook.

Daniel Champagne @ Muddy Creek Café & Music Hall (W-S), 8 p.m.

Australian musician Daniel Champagne travels to Muddy Creek for a concert of rootsy folk. Champagne’s set boasts an expert guitar sound that combines skillful strumming with knocking and other percussion for a full acoustic experience. Find the event on Facebook.

SUNDAY The Trongone Band makes a stop at Wise Man Brewing on tour for their 2017 debut album Keys to the House. The Richmondbased band blends together Americana and soul with a classic-rock twist. Find the event on Facebook.

SATURDAY

Galentine’s Day Market @ Gibb’s Hundred Brewing Company (GSO), 10 a.m.

This free event at Gibb’s Hundred Brewing promises a perfect place for a friend date.

Snack on cupcakes and mimosas while browsing a marketplace of local artists selling their works. Find the event on Facebook.

Wine & Chocolate Festival @ Greensboro Coliseum Complex, 1 p.m.

Taste dozens of wines from a full line-up of North Carolina wineries, paired with a selection of chocolates and other treats during this daylong festival. Wineries will sell bottles and glasses of their products, while a market hosts vendors selling food, clothes and jewelry. Learn more at wineandchocolatefestivals.com.

Lifted Voices @ Greensboro History Museum, 1 p.m.

A group of actors in costume turn back time and tell stories of Greensboro’s African-American history. As part of the Greensboro History Museum’s Lifted Voices series, this free event focuses on bringing the past to the present. Find the event on Facebook.

Second annual Love Market @ Foothills Brewing (W-S), 12 p.m.

The Foothills Brewing Tasting Room turns into an opportunity for Valentine’s Day shopping. More than 60 craftspeople display their art and products, alongside food trucks and couples’ games. Find the event on Facebook.

King Lear @ Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art (W-S), 2 p.m.

The Scott Dunn Auditorium shows a live screening from the West End run of King Lear directed by Jonathan Munby. Ian McKellen stars as the tragic Shakespearean monarch. Find the event on Facebook.

UNC Clef Hangers @ Carolina Theatre (GSO), 3 p.m.

Head to the Carolina Theatre for a concert with no instruments, as UNC’s Clef Hangers perform. Their a capella concert ranges from decades-old classics to modern radio pop hits. Find the event on Facebook.

Freedom Day @ Delta Arts Center (W-S), 3 p.m.

Teen authors from Authoring Action’s Outreach Ensemble read their works for Freedom Day. The day commemorates Nelson Mandela’s release from prison, 29 years ago. Find the event on Facebook.

What is your favorite part about your job?

As detention captain, the ability and the authority to make certain decisions like providing officers with the guidance and the tools to be successful. Also, to provide leadership skills to the next generation and guide them throughout their career. I’m concerned about the whole person, not just the person attached to badge. When a person knows you are invested in their life, that contribution will push them forward in their life.

GINA

To Entertainment

MARSALIS QUARTET

FOR TICKETS, call 336-887-3001 2018 & 2019 or visit HighPointTheatre.com

Presented in part by the generous support of Our State Magazine

L

EN AR BARB HAL LIND

THE QUEEN’S Day! In Celebration of Valentine’s Make It An Evening to Remember.

CARTOONISTS

Acts and dates are subject to change. For tickets and updates, go to HighPointTheatre.com or call (336) 887-3001.

Shot in the Triad

It says in the press release that you grew up in Winston-Salem. How, in your opinion, has the city changed since your childhood?

I have a lot of pride when it comes to our city. The city has changed a lot through the years; just look at the development downtown. It’s a beautiful place for families to live.

BRANFORD PASSPORT

Culture

What about your interaction with those who are detained?

After entering into a law enforcement career, you meet people from all different types of backgrounds. One of the things most evident is, people’s lives were in chaos when they are booked into our facility. Some people suffer from mental illness, physical or mental abuse, and some are neglected. If I did not have close interaction with those that I do in custody, I wouldn’t be able to find out what their needs are. If we know what their needs are, we can effectively help those people.

Show | 7:30pm / Doors |6:30pm NEA Jazz Master, renowned Grammy Award winning saxophonist and Tony Award nominee Branford Marsalis is one of the most revered instrumentalists of his time.

Leader of one of the finest jazz quartets today, and a frequent soloist with classical ensembles, Charles Gans from the Associated Press exclaims, “Saxophonist Marsalis leads one of the most cohesive, intense small N jazz ensembles on the scene today.”

A EDE

RYTHM OF THE DANCE

Opinion

What made you want to go into criminal COURTESY Captain Debra PHOTO justice?

Chenault I always thought that the criminal justice system was very interesting. Thinking about how people enter the criminal justice center. The detention center serves as the entry point as law enforcement where we’re caring for people in incarceration. We mostly work with pretrial detainees who are waiting to go to trial. The love of people and wanting to get to know the criminal justice system firsthand was why I got into it.

Raleigh Ringers Feb. 14th, 2019

THE HIGHPOINT BALLET veters o L et

News

How does it feel to be the first black woman promoted to the rank of captain in 170 years?

It’s actually amazing. It’s very humbling, and I’m honored. With that said, it is also a responsibility to inspire other women of color to just pursue their goals and pursue their dreams. I’d want to see them think about entering the law enforcement field; there are so many opportunities here.

THE MANHATTAN T Up Front

Debra Chenault recently became the first AfricanAmerican female to be promoted to the rank of captain in the 170-year history of the Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office. She will serve as the detention security services B/D Team Division commander and has worked her way up within the office for the last 27 years.

February 7-13, 2019

Seven questions for Capt. Debra Chenault

by Sayaka Matsuoka

The � a new exciting season! s t n e s High Point Theatre Pre SAUCE AN EVENING WITH BRANFORD BOSS MARSALIS QUARTET

Since the rise of the #BlackLivesMatter movement a few years ago, more attention has been brought to the killings of black and brown people at the hands of law enforcement. What do you think about the movement and how do you see your role in it?

The impact of community is very important. Every life is valuable. For law enforcement in general, we would like to have a certain level of transparency. We work on that every day.

Puzzles

What are you most looking forward to as captain?

To continue to touch the lives of the officers and provide them with the tools to be successful. For those incarcerated, I want to continue to make assessments on what their needs are and how to impact their lives in a positive way. I also want to help the families of those incarcerated. When families are in the middle of crisis, the best thing we can do is give them information to give them peace of mind in the middle of the storm.

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February 7-13, 2019 Up Front News Opinion Culture Shot in the Triad Puzzles

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NEWS

After drink-house shooting, John Hayes maintains his innocence

by Jordan Green Prosecutors convicted John Hayes of a double murder in the early morning hours at a drinkhouse party in northeast Winston Salem in the summer of 1993, but there were a lot of people shooting and multiple witnesses point to different culprits. The only problem is none of the witnesses are reliable.

Around 3:30 a.m. one morning on July 25, 1993, Winston-Salem police responded to a shooting at an illegal establishment, appropriately named “the Drink House,” at the end of East 22nd Street, where the street abruptly ends at a chain-link fence and guardrail separating it from Highway 52.

More shots rang out as the police found almost a hundred people in the street, according to a brief item in the Greensboro News & Record at the time.

After the crowd scattered, police discovered that two men, 21-year-old Waddell Lynn Bitting and 22-year-old Stephen Joel Samuels, lay dead. According to one witness who gave a statement to the police, almost 50 shots had been fired, and a federal magistrate judge would later cite officers at the scene as “describing shell casings of differing calibers and in various locations on the sidewalk and street, and bullet holes in the columns and roof of the front porch.”

Two cousins, Mary Geter and Anita Jeter, would testify that they were inside the drink house when they heard shots coming from outside, prompting almost everyone to run outside.

The police charged John Robert Hayes III, then 21, with the two murders on Oct. 11, 1993.

Geter and Jeter testified that Hayes had been inside the drink house playing cards when the initial shots rang out.

Hayes, like everyone else, ran outside.

The cousins said they waited inside for a couple minutes, and then went out to the porch. From there, they testified, they watched Hayes walk from the porch to a blue car, take a handgun out of the trunk and fire it repeatedly down 22nd Street into the crowd. Police testified that 12 shell casings were found by the blue car that matched a bullet found in one of the victims, although no murder weapon was ever recovered.

Hayes’ court appointed lawyer had only spent 10 hours in preparation for the trial since his appointment seven months earlier, according to court documents. After a two-day trial in 1994,

a jury took only 30 minutes to convict had a ‘beef with him.’ Mr. Lindsey also Hayes on two counts of second-degree told police that Grant planned the shootmurder. ing before Bitting (one of the murder The Innocence & Justice Clinic at the victims) went up to the drink house.”

Wake Forest University School of Law The brief cites Josephine McGill as took up Hayes’ case years later, and in telling the police that Grant and “Dar2011 and 2012 received more than 100 ren” “were shooting during the time that pages of police and SBI Lab reports, Mr. Evans, Mr. Samuels and Mr. Bitting but in 2012, according to a brief filed were shot.” on Hayes behalf, the Forsyth County The most detailed statement comes District Attorney’s office announced it from a woman named Avlon Fryer, would stop providing discovery materiwho, according to Hayes’ counsel, “told als. Hayes’ legal team kept filing moWinston-Salem police that ‘Demo’ left tions, and eventually, in March 2013, the porch of the drink house and fired the district attorney turned over 1,000 shots in the air. He yelled, ‘There go that pages of documents, 17 audio recording, MF! He gonna pay me my money’ and photographs and a crime scene video. then pulled out his gun and shot Mr. What the jurors who convicted Hayes Samuels in the head with a .38 revolver didn’t hear is that the police were in as Mr. Samuels was trying to enter his possession of two additional shell casings car. This matched the medical examinthat were fired by the same 9mm that ers’ testimony that Mr. Samuels was shot fired the 12 casings found in the head from behind. in the street, according This also matched the to an analysis by the SBI crime scene evidence: Mr. lab. Those two casings ‘Why did the state Samuels’ keys were found had been turned over to next to the body of his withold those police by a man named car. After ‘Demo’ shot Mr. John Hamm, who said Samuel, another individustatements’ he collected them from al named Antonio Bryant – Judge Roger L. the porch of the drink aka ‘Sunshine’ yelled, Gregory house. Hayes couldn’t ‘There go the other one!’ have walked to the car as both ‘Sunshine’ and and retrieved a handgun, Demo’ approached Mr. as Geter and Jeter testiBitting on the porch with fied, if some of the shots were fired from their guns out.’ After further questionthe porch, his new lawyers argue. They ing and an inconclusive polygraph, Ms. contend that two different police officers Fryer retracted her statements to police, testified that no casings were found on saying she was scared but had wanted the porch, despite having evidence to to help. The defense, however, never suggest otherwise. had the opportunity in 1993 or 1994 to Also revealed in the trove of materials determine whether she had been intimiturned over the prosecution from 2011 dated by Demo and Sunshine.” to 2013 was a statement by a witness ~ named Cynthia Coleman to police that Arguing before the Fourth Circuit the shooter shot first from the porch and Court of Appeals to oppose John Hayes’ then from the car. effort to obtain habeas corpus on Jan. In total, Hayes’ counsel alleges, there 30, Pete Regulski, an assistant attorney are 10 other witnesses who identigeneral with the NC Justice Department, fied other shooters on the night of the did not deny that prosecutors withheld murders that were “known to the state in evidence during the trial.

1993, and disclosed nearly two decades “Why did the state withhold those later.” statements?” asked Chief Judge Roger One, Kenneth Evans, 16 years old at L. Gregory, an appointee of President the time, was himself shot in the foot as Clinton and the only African American he fled from the drink house. Evans told on the three-judge panel. police that he was shot by a man named “I don’t know why the state withheld “Grant.” those statements?” Regulski responded.

As detailed in Hayes’ brief, another “That was wrong, wasn’t it?” Gregory witness named Haushen Lindsey “told asked, growing increasingly more depolice that Grant shot Evans because he monstrative. “If you have a case where a

person — 50 shots fired, 40 to 50 shots fired, and you have witnesses who talked about there were people there shooting who had direct animus against one of the two people who were killed, right?

And that’s not relevant for a juror looking at whether or not — because here you’re right: There’s so many people shooting, the question is not whether someone shot; the question is who killed those two people.”

As Regulski stammered, Gregory continued: “As a person who should be interested in justice and not just a conviction, you don’t think that’s relevant to disclose that to the defense?”

Regulski said he did think the other witness statements were relevant, but the problem was that a claim for actual innocence is more rigorous than whether there was a reasonable doubt at the time of the conviction.

Under questioning by Gregory, Regulski said the standard for a claim of actual innocence should be “whether there’s new, reliable evidence that undermines” confidence in the conviction.

And, he said, the other witness statements couldn’t be considered reliable because they weren’t made under oath — an argument Gregory found preposterous.

Regulski sought to undermine the evidence of the two shell casings reportedly found on the porch, noting that John Hamm is no longer alive and not available to explain how he came to have them in his possession.

“Where was the shell casing found?”

Regulski asked. “Is there anything that shows where it was found? Is there anything that shows when it was found?

Do we know what the relationship to Mr. Hamm was to this scene? Do we know whether Mr. Hamm had any relationship to any of the participants? See, this is the problem.”

Judge Allyson Duncan, who was appointed by President George W. Bush, seemed flummoxed.

“The thing that makes this case troubling is less its current status than the fact that the caliber of evidence at trial was questionable,” she said. “There was no physical evidence the first time, there was no scientific evidence the first time.

So, you’re overlaying — where am I going with this? I don’t know….”

“I understand your frustration because this is a frustrating thing to try to sort

Up Front

NCDOT TO HOLD PUBLIC MEETING FEB 7 REGARDING THE PROPOSED IMPROVEMENTS TO THE INTERSECTION OF AIR HARBOR ROAD AT LAKE BRANDT ROAD IN GREENSBORO, GUILFORD COUNTY

February 7-13, 2019

STIP PROJECT NO. U-6019

The N.C. Department of Transportation is proposing to make improvements to the intersection of Air Harbor Road and Lake Brandt Road in Greensboro.

An open-house public meeting will be held at Covenant Grace Church located at 1414 Lake Brandt Road in Greensboro from 4-6:00 p.m. on Thursday, February 7, 2019. The purpose of this meeting is to provide interested citizens the opportunity to review maps of the project, ask questions and provide feedback.

Culture

A map of the proposal is available online at http://www.ncdot.gov/news/public-meetings/.

Opinion

Interested citizens may attend at any time between 4 and 6 p.m. Please note that there will not be a formal presentation. Maps of the proposed improvements will be displayed at the meeting and staff of NCDOT will be on hand to provide information and answer questions.

News

For additional information please contact NCDOT Project Engineer, Jennifer Evans, PE, (336) 487-0075 or jenniferevans@ncdot.gov. Comments will be accepted at the meeting, by mail or email, and should be submitted by March 1, 2019.

NCDOT will provide auxiliary aids and services under the Americans with Disabilities Act for disabled persons who wish to participate in this workshop. Anyone requiring special services should contact Lauren Putnam, (919) 707-6072 or Lnputnam@ncdot.gov as early as possible so that arrangements can be made.

Aquellas personas no hablan inglés, o tienen limitaciones para leer, hablar o entender inglés, podrían recibir servicios de interpretación si los solicitan antes de la reunión llamando al 1-800-481-6494.

Puzzles

Persons who do not speak English, or have a limited ability to read, speak or understand English, may receive interpretive services upon request prior to the meeting by calling 1-800-481-6494.

Shot in the Triad

out,” Regulski sympathized.

“It’s hard to put it all together because you didn’t have a rock-solid case to start with, but to go back and try to reconstruct it is challenging, too, because the responses are subject to a very different standard.”

And with that, Regulski rested his case.

Raquel MacGregor, a third-year law student arguing for Hayes, told the judges the evidence doesn’t need to conclusively prove her client didn’t commit the murders, just that the trial was so procedurally flawed that the original evidence presented to jurors was fatally infected.

“We’re arguing procedural actual innocence,” MacGregor said, “which does not require conclusive 100-percent he didn’t do it; just that no reasonable juror would have convicted him beyond a reasonable doubt.”

Judge Julius N. Richardson, a former federal prosecutor who successfully tried white supremacist terrorist Dylann Roof and was appointed to the bench by President Trump in August, seemed to have another idea.

“You can’t import the second question about a failure to disclose into the first question, which is an analysis simply of the new reliable evidence,” Richardson said.

“You’ve got to look at the evidence as it is, right? Not importing some challenge based on the constitutional violation that the claim that you only get to if you pass this threshold standard, right?”

Judge Gregory asserted that the precedent in Hayes case is Finch v. McKoy, a case involving a Wilson, NC man named Charles Ray Finch, who was convicted of murder in 1976 and sentenced to death, although the NC Supreme Court commuted his sentence to life imprisonment the following year. Writing for the Fourth Circuit in an opinion released on Jan. 25, Judge Gregory wrote that investigators used “impermissibly suggestive procedures” because Finch was the only suspect placed in a lineup who was wearing a three-quarter length coat, which may have led the state’s key witness — who struggled with cognitive issues, alcoholism and difficulty with shortterm memory recall — “to base his identification on cue, instead of the perpetrator’s face or other characteristics.”

More than two decades after the trial, another witness, Noble Harris, provided an affidavit expressing doubts about an earlier statement he had made that he saw Finch at the scene prior to the murder. Harris said that a sheriff’s deputy and prosecutor pressured him to stick with his initial account and told him that Jones was going to testify that Harris was at the scene when the murder happened. According to the affidavit, Harris replied that Jones was “going to testify to a lie.”

“Those are constitutional questions that are impacted,” Judge Gregory lectured Regulski. “You have to read Finch very carefully. That’s the precedent. This panel can’t overturn Finch.”

Regulski said he wasn’t trying to overturn the precedent, but argued that unlike Finch, the case made by Hayes lacks “exculpatory scientific evidence, trustworthy eyewitness accounts and critical physical evidence.”

MacGregor argued, in contrast, that Fitch “is extremely analogous” to Hayes’ case in that there was only eyewitness testimony and no physical evidence at trial.

“This case is stronger than Finch,” Judge Gregory opined.

“I agree, your honor,” MacGregor concurred.

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February 7-13, 2019 Up Front News Opinion Culture Shot in the Triad Puzzles

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Many Guilford County schools not suitable for students, report finds

by Sayaka Matsuoka A consulting group’s report revealed that many schools and facilities in the Guilford County School system are improperly equipped and cannot provide students with an adequate learning environment. The report found that those most negatively affected include students from marginalized communities such as black and brown students and those with disabilities.

More than a quarter of Guilford County schools are not educationally suitable for students, according to a report released on Jan. 31 by MGT consulting group.

Conducted over the course of a year, the report scored each school on a 100-point scale based on building condition, site condition, educational suitability and technological readiness.

Of the 126 schools in the system — 34 of them, or 27 percent — received a combined score of less than 60, placing them in the “unsatisfactory” category.

And of those that received unsatisfactory scores, 76 percent were schools with predominantly black or Hispanic students.

Councilman Byron Gladden, who represents District 7, said the findings of the report weren’t surprising but disappointing nonetheless.

“Honestly, I wasn’t surprised,” Gladden said. “This is one of the many reasons why I ran to be on the board.”

Some of the schools with the lowest grades fall in Gladden’s district. A few of them, including Vandalia, Bessemer and Hampton Elementary, were recommended by MGT to be “repurposed,” or closed.

“We have predominantly black and brown schools in this district,” Gladden said. “The board has known that for decades. It’s disheartening. This is what racism looks like. These schools have been underserved for decades.”

Many of the schools received low scores because of their building conditions and educational suitability scores.

Building-condition assessments were made by assessors who walked through every part of every building on school grounds and scored them based on national standards. Schools like Bessemer Elementary, which received a combined score of 48 and building score of 39, were recommended to be repurposed or closed, and its students moved to other schools.

Lissa Harris, an educational advocate with Parents Supporting Parents, disagrees with relocating students.

“It causes undue stress for kids to

move,” Harris said, “I’m hoping the foot restroom/shower/changing area school district is sensitive to that fact. It’s with locked cabinets, a changing table stressful.” and hardware to support installation of Harris said that her organization and sensory equipment. the families represented by them have The report by MGT found that many been voicing their concerns about the schools lacked these requirements. school system for years.

“The fact that nurses’ stations are ill“For years we’ve had parents and staff equipped is not a surprise,” Harris said. uplifting concerns,” Harris said. “Now “PSP has uplifted concerns with nursing what we are hoping is that they are able staff and has had to address issues for to do the repairs and do the recommenstudents with disabilities for years.” dations.”

Clarence Abram said his grandson, Based on the findings, MGT recoma seventh grader at Western Guilford mended closing 10 schools and rebuildMiddle School, was born with spina ing 27. bifida, a birth defect that causes incomThe report also found that many plete closing of the backbone and spinal of the schools were not meeting the cord. Abram’s grandson uses a manual minimum requirements needed to crewheelchair and urinary catheter that has ate proper learning environments for to be changed by a school nurse three students. times a day.

In addition to building and site When his grandson was in elementary condition, schools were also measured school at Guilford Elementary, Abram based on educational noticed that he was suitability. According taken into what looked to the report, Guillike a teacher workroom ford County Schools to have his catheter ‘I was surprised. It scored lowest in this changed. category, which was “I was surprised,” wasn’t the nurse’s stadefined as “how well Abram said. “It wasn’t tion. They had a room, the facility supported the nurse’s station. the educational proThey had a room, but but the equipment grams, including the the equipment looked learning environment, looked like it was from like it was from the size, location and ’60s.” the ’60s’ fixed equipment.”

Abram said West– Clarence Abram For elementary ern Guilford Middle, schools, the average despite being a new score for educaschool, doesn’t have tional suitability was buttons next to doors 67, which ranks as for those in wheelchairs. “poor.” Middle and high school averAbram noted that his grandson plays ages were 71 and 69, respectively. The an instrument in the school band and report listed several examples of eduhas a hard time opening the doors while cational suitability concerns including carrying his instrument while using the playgrounds in poor condition, lack of manual wheelchair. security cameras, and small classrooms “When they are building the schools, and restroom sizes at elementary schools.

I believe they need to put more thought Among the most alarming concerns on into the design,” Abram said. “It’s not the list included poorly equipped nurses’ only the kids, it’s any handicapped percenters and bathrooms for exceptional son getting into the school.” children, or those with special needs.

Scott McCully, the chief operations According to Appendix A of the officer for Guilford County Schools, said report, all schools should have a health the oldest schools tended to score the room that’s at least 250 square feet lowest. with space for the nurse’s private office, “The average age of our facilities is a minimum of two patient beds, dry 51 years of age and some are gonna be and refrigerated medication storage, older than that,” he said. “We have quite an eyewash station and an accessible a variance from the very, very old to the restroom that meets the standards of brand new.” the “Americans with Disabilities Act.” When asked about ill-equipped nurses’ For exceptional children, classrooms stations and exceptional children’s bathare required to include a 1,200 squarerooms, McCully said that the education-

al suitability guide played a significant role in assessing the facilities.

“It’s important to have an established guideline for each one of those components,” he said.

The next steps include receiving questions from a joint planning group made up of six members from the board of education and board of county commission.

“We’ll be taking a further look at how our schools scored and it will certainly inform how we develop a long-range master plan,” McCully said.

Gladden mentioned that he has received some complaints from constituents about inadequate nursing services.

“I’ve been to all of the schools, but I’ve only seen a nurse twice,” Gladden said. “I have received complaints where students’ medications weren’t stored properly, or a student was hospitalized because they were given medication before they were given food.”

School officials removed five school faucets or drinking fountains last month after testing in November and December 2018 found lead in the water. One of the faucets was at a nurse’s station at Frazier Elementary in Greensboro.

Several of the magnet schools in the district also scored poorly in educational sustainability. The report stated that the “school sites do not currently have the appropriate spaces, equipment, storage and/or learning environment to implement the magnet programs assigned to the schools.”

The report found that the Guilford County School district had “considerable building deficiencies” and that the estimated cost to improve all the facilities to a new or like new status would cost more than $1.1 billion and would likely require two or three bond cycles to secure. Recommendations included considering capital to ensure “school buildings are instructional tools and not barriers” which includes “appropriate educational spaces, storage and fixed equipment.”

Gladden said the current state of the school system hinders on children’s constitutional right to education.

“The North Carolina state constitution says that children have a right to a sound and free public education,” Gladden said. “We are in violation of their constitutional right to learn. I think that’s grounds for a lawsuit. We have failed them as a district and potentially violated their civil rights.”

State of disunion

Up Front News Opinion Culture Shot in the Triad Puzzles

Tucked into the endless honor “No issue better illustrates the divide between America’s roll of ordinary Americans spotworking class and America’s political class than illegal imlighted during Trump’s State of the migration,” Trump said. “Wealthy politicians and donors Union address, there was a neat push for open borders while living their lives behind walls symmetry between the survivors and gates and guards.” and heroes of last year’s Pittsburgh Trump’s core proposition is that the white working class synagogue shooting and the must be willing to jettison interracial solidarity to secure the Holocaust. blessings of prosperity. It’s the same old white-supremacist

by Jordan Green Even if you despised the man bargain that elites offered white indentured servants in giving the speech, you couldn’t fail to feel tenderness and colonial Virginia in response to the threat of interracial warmth at the sight of the gallery singing “Happy Birthday” solidarity represented by Bacon’s Rebellion. to 81-year-old Judah Samet, who survived both the HoloTrump’s doctrine extends the offer to elevate the white caust and the massacre at Tree of Life synagogue, and then working-class only on condition that black and brown hearing Samet shout with all his breath: “Thank you!” Or people are punished. While the president inveighed against feel admiration for Timothy Matson, the Pittsburgh police “wealthy politicians and donors push[ing] for open borders” officer who ran into Tree of Life and suffered multiple and paid tribute to the “working class,” a carpet-cleaner gunshot wounds as he exchanged fire with the shooter. Still named Eduardo Fuentes — an immigrant from Honduras recovering from his injuries, he rose gingerly to accept the — sat in the Forsyth County jail awaiting deportation after applause, but seemed embarrassed by the attention. being detained on misdemeanor charges. He is the sole What better homily to antifasbreadwinner for his young wife and cism could you ask for than Trump their 2-year-old daughter. So much While the president inconveying how Joshua Kaufman, for lifting up the working class. a Jewish prisoner at Dachau, told But, as Rep. Adams observed, veighed against “wealthy him: “The American soldiers were Trump’s softened rhetoric is at odds policians and donors proof that God exists, and they with his actions. came down from the sky; they “Legal immigrants enrich our napush[ing] for open borders” came down from heaven.” And tion and strengthen our society in and paid tribute to the “work- countless ways,” Trump said. “I want then to see Herman Zeitchik, a 4th Infantry Division soldier who people to come into our country in ing class,” a carpet-cleaner helped liberate Dachau, rise with the largest numbers ever, but they Kaufman’s gentle assistance to be named Eduardo Fuentes — an have to come in legally.” recognized.

It’s strange to hear a president immigrant from Honduras Here was a president whose say that he wants “people to come paeans to American greatness into our country in the largest — sat in Forsyth County jail co-opted a progressive message. ever” while placing new awaiting deportation after be- numbers Did he really pay tribute to “our restrictions on migrants attempting unrivalled progress towards equality ing detained on misdemeanor to claim asylum and reducing the and justice”? number of refugees allowed into charges.

Excepting a dash of rock-ribbed the country. Likewise, the United Ronald Reagan conservatism States has issued fewer visas since thrown in for leavening, Trump’s Trump took office. And in August, appeal packaged civil rights and antifascism as apple-pie Trump advisor Stephen Miller was said to be developing Americanism. a plan to reduce legal immigration by making it harder for “Think of this capitol; think of this very chamber,” Trump legal immigrants to become citizens if they’ve ever used told the white-clad Democratic women of the House, public assistance. “where lawmakers before you voted to end slavery, to build “Unrivalled progress towards equality and justice” sounds the railroads and the highways, and defeat fascism, to like the theme of the class of Democrats and moderate secure civil rights and to face down evil empires.”

Republicans Trump scorched on his path to the White One of them, Rep. Alma Adams (D-NC), tweeted with House. Forget for a moment that the claim rings hollow in penetrating clarity: “The theme of this speech has been, a country that locks up a higher proportion of its citizens ‘Listen to my words and pay no attention to my deeds.’” than any other and trails Liberia and Chile in electing weBut also, pay attention to the core message. While man presidents. It’s also not at all what the Trump adminishymning bipartisan cooperation on criminal justice reform tration is about. and sharing an awkward moment with Democratic women A man who demonizes Mexicans as “rapists” and drug lawmakers over Congress’ historic female quotient, Trump mules, who calls for a “total and complete shutdown of laid his hand on the table: Every bit of flattery and conMuslims entering the United States” and who bans transcession was deployed in service of the singular goal of gender people from military service is signaling to his folDemocratic capitulation on funding for the border wall — lowers that freedom is a conditional right, with its greatest his monument to xenophobic exclusion. privileges reserved for white, Christian, heterosexual men.

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Bennett College was on the ropes. that support came from so many disparate corners In its second year of probation and in danger of losing from people who all saw the importance of Bennett its accreditation, enrollment at Bennett had shrunk to and its place in the world today, incredible that all this just 469 students. And in January, school administralove was there but for the asking, incredible that in the tors acknowledged they’d need to come up with $5 middle of Reconstruction and through Jim Crow, when million by Feb. 1. Bennett humbly asked for help from black women were the most vulnerable demographic any and all quarters. in American society, they were earning The short version of the story is that college degrees in Greensboro.

It’s incredible that It’s incredible that Bennett has survived Bennett raised more than $8 million as of this week, and will walk into its so much, and in turn has been able to Bennett has surre-accreditation hearing an adequately give so much to the world. vived so much, and We are all winners here. In bearing witfunded school.

The money came in two, three, four ness to Bennett’s remarkable resurrecin turn has been and five figures from more than 11,000 tion, we have seen something akin to a able to give so private individuals and organizations: modern-day miracle.

Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority and Alpha much to the world. It’s not over. Bennett’s accreditation Phi Alpha fraternity, Wells Fargo Bank, hearing takes place next week. At stake Papa John’s Pizza. High Point Univeris its ability to accept federal student sity came up with $1 million, and its president Nido loans, grants and other benefits.

Qubein brought another $350,000 or so in checks he But they’ll show up flush with donor cash and a solid raised on the way to the press conference. The artist plan to move forward. It will be tough to turn them Kwanza Jones and her partner José E. Feliciano gave down. $1 million — Jones’ mother and aunt were both BenAs we’ve seen: One should never, ever underestimate nett Belles. the power of the Bennett Belles.

Really, the whole thing is just incredible — incredible

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Martha Hartley, director of Moravian research at Old Salem and co-chair of Hidden Town project, says hosting the conference was a natural fit for them.

“We want to locate where enslaved people lived and integrate narrative into the visitor experience,” Hartley says. “We want to connect with descendants to help make the story real.”

For years, a tour of Old Salem has been a given for elementary and middle school field trips, but the stories of A copy of the 1900 Federal Census that ANGENITA listed Angenita Boone’s ancestor. slaves and black people who lived in the BOONE town remained unshared. Projects like Hidden Town and the genealogy confersizes the importance of tracing family ence look to change that. lineage for future generations and lists Bryana Campbell, a member of the the types of documents that can help genealogical society’s North Carolina trace family trees for free, without the chapter says she remembers school use of programs like Ancestry.com. trips to the historical town.

“Marriage certificates or death certifi“I remember the bonnets and the cates are free,” Boone says. “So, when weird clothes,” Campbell says. “But I there’s snow on the ground and you had no idea about the slave community have nothing to do, go ask your relaor black community in Old Salem. It tives, ‘Who’s this, who’s this?’ Because makes people know that our people when they die, no one will know.” were here. We have to reclaim our hisVelda Holmes, a retired EPA worker tory.” from Durham, rose early on Saturday to Campbell, who is white on her fadrive to Winston-Salem for the conferther’s side and black on her mother’s, ence. She says she’s been able to trace says she began researching her family her mother’s side of the family back to line a few years ago.

1866.

“My dad is white, so there’s more “I didn’t know to trace back to the records for him,” Campbell says. “There slave owner,” Holmes admits. “It was were more people researching and for interesting to hear her talk about that the most part, they had the tree done. and the documents she found. I’m My mom is more difficult. There are excited about trying to do that when I fewer records. I expected it but it’s agget back home.” gravating. They’re people too, so why Holmes says she’s become the desare they treated any different? Why ignated family historian. She plans to aren’t there records kept for them?” share her latest findings at her family’s Boone explains in her workshop that 62nd family reunion. slaves weren’t counted for the Census “I think that for us to stay connected, until 1870, almost 100 years after the we need to know as much as possible first official Census in 1790. And even about our family,” Holmes says. And for then, many her, that’s had names Find out more about the Afro-American everything, misspelled Historical Genealogical Society at aahgs.org. including or were her family’s Learn more about the Hidden Town project and history omitted how to contribute at oldsalem.org/core-initia- of being entirely. tives/hidden-town-project.

“It’s enslaved. not that “It was they never what was lived,” Boone says. “It’s that they were going on at the time,” Holmes says. missed, maybe.”

“Good or bad, that is part of your hisFor those starting out, she recomtory. The information is out there. You mends starting with the 1940 Census just have to go search it out and once which is the last census released to you do that, share it.” the public. Decennial Censuses take 72 years to be publicly released because of confidentiality rules. Boone empha-

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ngenita Boone gestures to the images projected on the screen. She motions to the rows of names, scrawled in cursive and points out the surname of her grandmother’s ancestors — Gailyard. Printed next to some of the names is an abbreviation: ‘neg.’ “‘Neg,’ that’s negro,” Boone explains.

“Some have ‘M’ for mullatto and that means you’re mixed or something, but some black people would have a ‘W’ because you looked white cause [they] didn’t ask and you didn’t want to tell [them].”

The abbreviations come from lines on a federal Census dating back to the mid 1800s. Boone stands at the front of the Sally Gant Classroom at Old Salem, where sepia-toned maps of Southern states decorate the walls. Several dozen enthusiasts have come to listen to her workshop, The Basics of Genealogy Research, as part of the 2019 Black History Month Genealogy Conference on Feb. 2.

Halfway through the talk, Boone reveals an unsettling finding: her ancestor’s owners. She describes how she worked backwards up her family tree, starting with her grandmother, until she found a pension record for a relative who served in the Civil War. Using that piece of information, she discovered the man who owned some of her relatives.

“I was happy and elated to find that’s why our last name was Gailliard,” Boone says. She incorporated the slave master’s family tree into her own. “Their history is my history,” she says.

The workshop demonstrates the mission of the conference hosted by the Afro-American Historical Genealogical Society: to research and discover the history of African Americans in the United States. For Boone, that means uncovering some uncomfortable realities.

“They had a hard life,” Boone says about her ancestors. “There’s nothing you can do about it. You just want to know what life was like and how they struggled, and you want your children to pass on that information. It doesn’t make life any better or worse. I’m not mad with anyone, it’s just about finding out the truth as best you can.”

The conference, which was held at Old Salem for the first time this year, was hosted in part due to Old Salem’s recent initiative, Hidden Town, which aims to reveal the history of enslaved and free Africans and African Americans who lived in Salem.

February 7-13, 2019

CULTURE In Old Salem, genealogy while black

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February 7-13, 2019 Up Front News Opinion Culture Shot in the Triad Puzzles

12

CULTURE Universalities unveiled in August Wilson monologue contest

by Lauren Barber

A

gainst a cheerful blue sky, stray clouds hung above the metalloid frame of a ’39 Ford that sat stationary on a winding, red-dirt road. The scene felt like Alabama, but the stories spoken on Feb. 2 rang out from the soul of 20th Century Pittsburgh.

Eight high schoolers from across the Triad converged at Triad Stage to participate in the third annual August Wilson Monologue Competition, where the nonprofit theater company is currently showing White Lightning. The students trained in a series of free workshops in libraries in Greensboro, High Point and Winston-Salem — taught by local artists Hilda Willis and Cassandra Williams — for months before facing off in semifinals to earn their places in last weekend’s statewide competition.

August Wilson, who died in 2005, was a venerated American playwright who came of age in Pittsburgh’s Hill District during the Jim Crow era. He was the son of a black woman from North Carolina and a Sudeten German immigrant father who, respectively, cleaned homes and baked pastries for a living. Wilson is best

known for The Pittsburgh Cycle (also known as the Century Cycle), a series of 10 full-length plays set in different decades of the 20th Century for which he won two Pulitzer Prizes for drama. Triad Stage’s next production will be Wilson’s Two Trains Running, set in the 1960s.

“We had this one exercise where we were all in a circle throwing lines from our monologues out there and everything just flowed together; his words are just so juicy,” COURTESY First Place winner Second Place winner PHOTO Halee Myers.

Aisha Sougou said. “Getting to know who he is and where he grew up and what characters in his life inspired characters in his plays… it’s beautiful.”

Sougou, a senior at UNC School of the Arts High School in LAUREN BARBER Aisha Sougou, Second Place, will travel to Winston-Salem, will travel to New York City alongside First New York City with Halee Myers.

Place winner Halee Myers, a junior at Greensboro’s Weaver Academy for the Performing Arts, where they will compete age students of all backgrounds to learn American history and for the national title on a Broadway stage with students from African-American culture through Wilson’s vibrant characters, seven other participating cities. Third Place winner all while sharpening their performance skills. A quote from Dorrian Perkins, a junior at North Forsyth High the prodigious playwright on the program’s cover reads: “I School in Winston-Salem, will serve as an alterwrite the black experience in America, and contained within nate. that experience, because it is a human experience, are all the Perkins remarked on the musicality of Wilson’s universalities.” Miller Lucky Jr, associate professor of theater at theatrical works before he delivered his monoNC A&T and the afternoon’s MC, assured audiences that Leon logue from Seven Guitars, and the afternoon’s and Kriedler intended for the competition to be open to stuintermission performance dents whose identities don’t necessarily began in song. Nine NC align with the Wilsonian characters A&T University BFA thethey choose to embody on stage.

Learn more at triadstage.org/ ater arts majors clothed in “It’s all about the work and getting learning/awmc. black performed a compiAugust Wilson into the schools,” Lucky lation of monologues celsaid. “So, you might hear any kind of ebrating the varied female thing, but it’s all good.” characters Wilson wrote “I’m not black, so at first it was difwhile judges deliberated behind the scenes. ficult for me to get into that mindset [and] I didn’t want to Earlier, Myers had performed a monologue ‘play black,’” Myers said during an interview. “And I shouldn’t from Act I, Scene II of Wilson’s first play, Jitney — do that because I don’t have experience with what it feels like written in 1987 and set in the 1970s — in the role to be black, so I looked at all the powerful women in my life… of Rena. and that helped me get to this character.”

“I chose my monologue because I felt a perSougou, who is black, said she wanted to find a monologue sonal connection with it,” Myers said. “My from a character she couldn’t easily identify with, and began father’s not in my life anymore and so I really am studying King from King Hedley II. just channeling my mom. I kind of felt like this “When I started getting deeper into King Hedley I was like, would be a perfect monologue because of all the ‘Wait, hold on, we’re actually not that different,’ just based struggles she’s been through for me. I can relate on his motives and what his super-objective is in the play,” to having a man in my life I can’t rely on, and so Sougou said. “This monologue specifically speaks to today’s does my character. She’s a young mother, too, and society on black men being misrepresented… He feels like he I felt like I was born to be an actress and born to was misrepresented in the court and… in Act I, Scene III when be a mother, so it goes hand in hand.” he was talking to his best friend, that’s where he’s most vulThe competition’s co-founders Kenny Leon nerable. That’s where he’s showing his true colors.” and Todd Kriedler, two of Wilson’s closest living collaborators, designed the program to encour-

by Savi Ettinger

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Up Front News SAVI ETTINGER

Opinion Culture Shot in the Triad Puzzles

ustin McCombie adjusts his guitar a mill village. The strap slightly, leaning into the cotton-mill owners mic. He sets the scene: a rural sponsored groups farmhouse passed down by his and activities to family through the generations. The keep employees structure recently burned to the ground, happier, includhe tells the audience, inspiring a song ing a community titled “The Fire.” He begins to sing; his baseball team and wife, Sarah, joins in. a string band.

“He woke up to the sound of his “One of the hound dog,” they sing. “A spark, a flame, guitar players of and it was all gone.” the band lived in On a Sunday night, the couple holds the house that court in the Crown at the Carolina Thewe own,” Sarah atre in Greensboro. Billing themselves as McCombie says.

Chatham Rabbits, it’s a stop on the tour “When we found for their debut album, All I Want From that out that was You. The duo marries fiddle, guitar and another reason banjo for the type of bluegrass songs and signal that that start off with a few stomps to set we chose the right the beat, but the show itself seems band name.” more like a storytelling session, with The duo tunes each new tune bringing a different tale. their instruments The McCombies lay out anecdotes together, standing onstage as they work their instruments, face-to-face as if in Austin and Sarah McCombie are the Chatham Rabbits, who brought their debut album, Sarah on banjo and Austin switching a slow dance. They All I want From You, to the Crown. between guitar and fiddle. They glance make the wooden at one another as they harmonize during slats of the plata Biblical story about Elijah, who heals form stage feel like a front porch. a man in the Jordan River. Later on, In the dim light offstage, a small another song details a pursuit down a child dances in his seat as the band highway to Chattanooga. performs their rendition of a wellSarah McCombie mentions the more known tune, “The Good Things somber tone some of the songs take on, Outweigh the Bad.” To the left of the hiding behind a warm Southern sound. stage, a man taps his foot slowly to “Now, we’re going to do a song about the rhythm, his teenage son beside indentured servitude and cotton mills,” him, while a few rows back an elderly she says. couple rocks their heads back and “Yay,” Austin McCombie deadpans. forth.

She sways as she narrates the life of “We are really inspired by the coma fieldhand working for a day’s wages, munal nature of old-time and blueher soothing voice grass music,” contrasting the Sarah McComsomewhat tragic bie says, “and For more information on “Heat of the Day.” that it is so Chatham Rabbits, visit “All we have deeply rooted for the fields are in a tradition of chathamrabbits.com. songs,” she vocalpeople playing it izes, “that I have as a pastime.” to sing alone.”

Sarah returns Their moniker comes from the early to carefully turning the tuning pegs, 1900s economy of Chatham County in trying to match the key of Austin’s North Carolina, when rabbit hunting guitar. Red and yellow stage lights was a sport but also an industry unto its ricochet off the metal parts of the othown, shipping off supplies of meat to erwise white banjo, which Sarah notes larger cities. is decades old.

Although Sarah estimates they spend “We’re never sure if the banjo can be three-fourths of their time touring the tuned but we’re gonna try,” she jokes.

Eastern Seaboard in their van, they own a home in Bynum — a town five miles north of Pittsboro that began as

February 7-13, 2019

CULTURE Tuned together: Chatham Rabbits plays like a slow dance

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February 7-13, 2019

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1 “In ___” (Nirvana album of 1993) 6 506, in Roman numerals 9 Breaks down 13 Diminished 15 Youngest woman to serve in Congress, initially 16 “___ for Steve” (Morley Callaghan short story) 17 Coen Brothers movie of 1991 19 Zip 20 Internet annoyance 21 Lazybones 22 Lenny’s friend on “The Simpsons” 25 2007 T-Pain song feat. Yung Joc 28 Garden pests 30 March Madness org.

31 Queen of Quebec?

32 Sandcastle tool 34 “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” disguise ©2017 Jonesin’ Crosswords (editor@jonesincrosswords.com) 37 Good value, slangily 41 “___ y Plata” (Montana motto) 42 “Tres ___” (“Very well,” in Paris) 43 Bindi and Robert Irwin’s mother 44 Crawl around?

46 Bedazzler item 47 Color categorized as #DA1884 and Pantone 219C and trademarked by Mattel 52 Diamond experts?

53 Bird-related 54 Laissez-___ 56 Tolkien trilogy, to fans 57 Islands off the North Carolina coast, or the theme of this puzzle 62 One in the red 63 Volcanic dust 64 “The Death of Actaeon” painter Answers from last issue 65 ___ buco (Italian veal dish) 66 ATM charge 29 ___ Jam Records 67 Word of the future?

32 Dress up fussily 33 Consenting vote Down 34 Gold, in Latin 1 Flash drive letters 35 Monetary stand-in 2 “___ Carter V” (Lil Wayne album of 2018) 36 Onion peels 3 Goof 38 Award co-presented by the American Theatre Wing 4 Sounding like a clunky engine 39 State hwy.

5 ___ about (approximately) 40 Hand down to heirs 6 Every 24 hours 44 Food court pizza chain 7 Actor Max ___ Sydow 45 Get a victory 8 “Ew!” 46 Go around, as an issue 9 Actress Bullock of “Bird Box” 47 “The Jungle Book” bear 10 Central Florida city 48 Affirms as true 11 City in the Black Forest, when doubled 49 Formal ceremonies 12 Inspire, as Kondoesque joy 50 “___ shoe fits ...”

14 Radio features, once 51 No, in Scotland 18 It might give you chills 55 Triple Crown category in baseball 21 “Princess ___” (Gilbert & Sullivan operetta) 57 Ungainly one 22 ___ loading (marathon runner’s strategy) 58 Take advantage of 23 “... partridge in ___ tree” 59 Actress Vardalos 24 Horned charger 60 Penn of the “Harold & Kumar” films 26 Part of SOTU 61 Show with Ego Nwodim, briefly 27 “Because Freedom Can’t Protect Itself” org.

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February 7-13, 2019

CROSSWORD ‘Shore Thing’— from one side to another. SUDOKU

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