+ CUT PASTE
Laura Iseley creates intricate new worlds through her art.
BY MICHELLE EVERETTE | PG. 9
SENEGALESE FOOD | KICKED OUT | NINE YEARS IN
Collage artistCITY LIFE
THURSDAY FEB. 23
From the Franchise to a Franchise: What Fast Food Can Teach Us About Justice @ Elberson Fine Arts Center (W-S) 4:30 p.m. Salem Academy, in partnership with Bookmarks, welcomes author and historian Marcia Chatelain, Ph.D. for a discussion of her book Franchise: The Golden Arches in Black America. The discussion is free and open to the public. A reception and book signing will follow. Visit salem.edu/news for more information.
by MICHAELA RATLIFFSummer Camp Registration @ Reconsidered Goods (GSO) Online
Registration for Reconsidered Goods summer camps is now open at reconsideredgoods.org
Mixed Media Masters, DIY Designers and Architects of the Future are a few of the many camps available. Visit the website to register and contact Shayla Doyal at Shayla@reconsideredgoods.org for more information.
Seussical @ Kernersville Little Theatre (Kernersville) 7:30 p.m.
Kernersville Little Theatre presents Seussical until March 5. This musical by Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens combines 15 Dr. Seuss books including Horton Hears a Who, The Cat in the Hat and more for a family-friendly show. Purchase tickets at kernersvillelittletheatre.thundertix.com
SATURDAY FEB. 25
FEB. 23-28
SUNDAY FEB. 26
Dave’s Burgundy Bash (Bourgogne Wine Tasting) @ The Brewer’s Kettle (HP) 4 p.m. Enjoy a hand-picked selection of six wines from the Burgundy region of France. Visit the event page on Facebook to purchase tickets.
Othello @ Paul Robeson Theatre (GSO)
7:30 p.m.
The Theatre Arts program at North Carolina A&T State University presents Shakespeare’s Othello, a tribute to both the playwright and Paul Robeson, who played the role of Othello in the Theatre Guild production in New York in 1943-44. Follow Othello, a Black Moor and successful military commander as he deals with the consequences of betrayal by his best friend. For tickets, call 336.334.7749 or visit ncataggies.com
FRIDAY FEB. 24
TCB’s 9th Anniversary Party! @ Common Grounds Downtown (GSO) 6 p.m.
Come celebrate nine years of Triad City Beat with us at Common Grounds downtown. The event is free, and there will be a food truck on site to grab a bite from. Visit the event page on Facebook for the most up-to-date information!
Warm Hands Warm Feet Walk/Run Sock
Drive @ High Point Public Library (HP) 9 a.m.
High Point Public Library and other community partners need your help collecting 300 pairs of socks to assist community members in need! Other donates such as shoes, hats and gloves are welcome. Visit the event page on Facebook for more information.
Staged Readings: Introducing Mike Brannon @ Camel City Playhouse (W-S) 7 p.m. Join Camel City Playhouse for a reading of Greensboro native Mike Brannon’s play Remembering. Remembering is “a story about the Holocaust, about the importance and impermanence of memory and the real cost you pay for remembering.” Find more information at camelcityplayhouse.com
A Raisin in the Sun @ Hanesbrands Theatre (W-S) 7:30 p.m.
40+ Stage Company presents their rendition of Raisin in the Sun, a play by Lorraine Hansberry that follows a Black family’s experiences living in Chicago as they attempt to improve their lives, especially financially, after the death of their father. Purchase tickets at intothearts.org
TUESDAY FEB. 28
Madan Sara @ Greensboro Public Library - Glenwood Branch (GSO) 6 p.m.
Join the Greensboro Public Library for a free screening of Madan Sara, an exploration of the lives and issues of the market women of Haiti. Registration is required, so email John Serrano at John.Serrano@greensboro-nc.gov to do so. View the film’s trailer on YouTube
BUSINESS
PUBLISHER/EXECUTIVE EDITOR
Brian Clarey brian@triad-city-beat.com
PUBLISHER EMERITUS
Allen Broach allen@triad-city-beat.com
OF COUNSEL
Jonathan Jones
EDITORIAL
MANAGING EDITOR Sayaka Matsuoka sayaka@triad-city-beat.com
CITYBEAT REPORTER
Gale Melcher gale@triad-city-beat.com
Nine years in, examining how we do things
SALES
KEY ACCOUNTS
Chris Rudd chris@triad-city-beat.com
AD MANAGER
Noah Kirby noah@triad-city-beat.com
CONTRIBUTORS
Carolyn de Berry, John Cole, Owens Daniels, James Douglas, Michelle Everette, Luis
H. Garay, Destiniee Jaram, Kaitlynn Havens, Jordan
Howse, Matt Jones, Autumn
Karen, Michaela Ratliff, Jen
Sorensen, Todd Turner
TCB IN A FLASH @ triad-city-beat.com
WEBMASTER
Sam LeBlanc
ART ART DIRECTOR
Aiden Siobhan aiden@triad-city-beat.com
COVER:
“MONTERO Lil Nas X” by Laura Iseley
Design by Aiden Siobhan
e’ve been thinking a lot about how and why we do things around here. As we approach our 9-year anniversary this weekend (Feb. 26), we’re looking back at our legacy of almost a decade of journalism while imagining another 10 years into the future.
WEvery week, every issue we put out, we strive for the best. But as Brian likes to say, “I don’t think I’ve ever put out a perfect paper.”
And that’s because it probably doesn’t exist.
by Sayaka MatsuokaThere’s likely a small typo, or a widow or an orphan lingering on a page somewhere. There’s maybe a misaligned photo or an extra space between two words.
But we always strive to do our best.
In the past nine years, TCB as an institution has come a long way. I’ve learned a lot from just the last five years of returning to work here.
As a whole, we’ve learned some hard lessons about privilege, language and how to tell sensitive stories. We’ve changed policies like not running mugshots and making sure to ask all sources for their pronouns. We’ve worked to diversify our writers so they more closely reflect our community.
And we’re still working at it.
Because contrary to some people’s belief, we’re not in it for the money. We’re not in it for the fame. So what does that leave us? A sense of pride and contentment that comes with putting out a good product week to week, full of stories that introduce readers to new communities, enlighten them about systemic inequalities or key them in on an unknown hole-in-the-wall or up-and-coming artist. Stories that bring readers closer to their community.
“All killer, no filler,” as Brian puts it. Because who has time for anything else?
In the past nine years, TCB as an institution has come a long way.
Mayor Joines recaps 2022 in State of the City address, talks affordable housing, economic gains and gun violence
by Gale Melcher
Winston-Salem Mayor Allen Joines discussed the progress made by the city over the course of 2022 during his State of the City address on Feb. 15 at City Hall. Joines said that the past year had been defined by the power of a united community, one that is linked with a “clear mission of a strong economy” that benefits all of its citizens. Joines also noted that the year was “propelled by a fierce devotion to public service, reducing poverty, addressing gun violence, creating affordable housing and growing the economy.” Joines communicated the city’s goals for this year, saying that he believes Winston-Salem to be in a strong financial position.
“We have programs in place to address housing, we have an effective economic development program, but we’ve got to deal with gun violence,” he said.
Joines said that the city is well-positioned to attain their goals by remaining unified.
“Working together, the city working with the county… we can get things done,” Joines said.
The city will also be hiring a new city manager after Lee Garrity’s retirement this June.
Celebrating economic gains, a focus on affordable housing
Joines applauded the city’s increase in jobs and economic development and reiterated Winston-Salem’s reputation as a “City of Arts and Innovation,” pointing out that keeping the economy healthy has been one of the city council’s top priorities, as well as his own. More than a thousand new jobs have
been created in the last year, he said; and that the year had ended with a 3.3 percent unemployment rate, he said. Similarly, the Bureau of Labor Statistics pointed to an unemployment rate of 3.1 percent in Winston-Salem.
An increase in affordable housing and reduction in poverty was also noted in Joines’ address as he mentioned that three years ago, the city had identified a need for 16,000 new units in the community over the next 10 years, setting a goal of 750 new units per year.
City council unanimously approved setting aside $30 million from ARPA funds and some state funds to be used exclusively for affordable housing. While only 450 new units were created last year, Joines said that the city would “continue to push hard on development of affordable units” and work on hitting their goal of 750 new units this year.
Joines also said that funding has been approved for a nonprofit organization that will be transforming an old motel into 100 new housing units for permanent supportive housing.
Joines noted that the city had run a successful eviction-prevention program through a grant from the federal government. By expending $11.7 million, they were able to help 2,595 households stay in their homes. Joines added that the city had been recognized by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development for having “one of the best programs in the country.” In an article from January, housing advocates told TCB that illegal evictions had been on the rise in the city.
Joines mentioned that while the poverty rate had dropped from 26 percent to 19 percent, the number was still “way too high” as one out of five citizens is living below the poverty level.
One win Joines pointed to was the fact that 449 students took part in Forsyth Technical Community College’s free college program last year. The
Winston-Salem Mayor Allen Joines gave his State of the City address on Feb. 15 in city hall. PHOTO BY GALE MELCHERprogram invites graduates from Forsyth County high school schools to attend the college cost-free, including tuition, books and fees.
Sustainability, leaf collection, policing remains top of mind
The city remains committed to sustainability, Joines said, with the goal of reducing carbon emissions by 50 percent by 2030, with total elimination by 2050, mentioning the fleet of hybrid buses that are currently running. A plan to bring an in-house recycling system is also a priority, Joines said.
Responding to criticisms around leaf collection, Joines said he city will develop a new protocol for leaf pickup, citing the “perfect storm” of equipment supply chain issues and bad weather that negatively impacted collection over the last several months.
Gun-violence reduction remained a major concern for the city as Joines mentioned the influx in gun violence since the start of the year, noting that 11 homicides have occurred in the city already. However, Joines applauded the police department’s efforts as well as the new technology housed in their Real Time Crime Center
On the horizon, Joines said that “reducing gun violence is at the top of the list for this year,” and that he wants the city to explore more ways of getting funding for social programs that will help get to the root of the violence.
Recently, the city announced that it would be implementing an alternative response model for some mental health calls in which trained social workers are dispatched rather than armed police.
“You can’t police your way out of this situation,” Joines said, “there must be a community-wide effort to work on this.”
Affordable-housing residents in Winston-Salem told to move out indefinitely so city can do an ‘assessment’
by Gale MelcherThe Winston-Salem City Council meeting drew a full house on Monday evening.
“I would surmise that most of us here know why a lot of you are here,” Mayor Pro Tem Adams said. “We’re glad to see you.”
Residents of two apartment complexes at 1200 Willie Davis Drive and 1635 N. Cleveland Ave. who were ordered by the city to vacate their homes by May 31 gathered in the council chambers. In addition to the residents, community members and local activists lined the rows in anticipation, ready to voice their concerns during the public comment period.
Both apartment complexes are more than 50 years old and the city-owned buildings have not undergone significant repairs or updates in about 30 years. The city has determined that a comprehensive assessment of the buildings needs to be conducted, but in order to do so, tenants were told they must temporarily vacate the premises by May 31. The city said that they are committed to offering 90-day rent forbearance. Tenants will not owe rent payments between March 1 and May 31. The city will also cover moving expenses including trucks and labor. The city has also offered rent differential for 24 months or until the buildings are rehabilitated, paying the difference between the residents’ current rent amount and their new rent amount — up to $385 per month for residents at the six-unit building on 1200 Willie Davis Drive and up to $519 per month for those living in the four-unit building on 1635 N. Cleveland Ave.
In a presentation during the meeting, Assistant City Manager Patrice Toney said that renovations are expected to occur inside and outside these units.
“The goal would be to renovate above the current minimum housing standards,” Toney said, adding that the renovation correlates with the Choice Neighborhoods Initiative in terms of the design and appearance of the units.
One of the speakers during Monday’s meeting was Cynthia Herson, a resident of 1200 Willie Davis Drive.
“If you put us out of somewhere, and you give us your little stipend of $385 for two years, it still makes us homeless,” Herson said. “We [are] in affordable housing, why take us out? Why should we have to move out just for you to do a complete assessment?”
The city has not released a timeline for when the assessment and subsequent repairs will be completed.
Asks for repairs leads to displacement
Apress release by the Winston-Salem-based group Housing Justice
Now states that residents of 1200 Willie Davis Drive asked the property manager to repair the outdoor stairs back in October 2022. The statement says that when the property manager asked the city to assist with this expense, city officials said that they were unaware it was city-owned property and ordered residents to vacate the property to complete a “full assessment of the building.”
On Wednesday afternoon, resident of 1200 Willie Davis Drive Carol Boykins told TCB that the stairs were repaired earlier that day. “All we asked in October was for these stairs to be fixed, we didn’t ask for no other problems or nothing like that,” said.
Boykins said that the stairs had a “split going down the middle…. It rusted out.”
ACityBeatstory
Housing Justice Now argues in their release that “if the residents are forced to leave, they will face a housing market where the average rent for a one-bedroom apartment is $1,151,” according to data from Rent.com. Currently the residents are paying around $450 a month for their one-bedroom apartments.
The only thing the residents wanted, according to the release, was a repair to the stairwell. “They do not wish to be kicked out,” the statement reads.
The release also stated that residents have signed a petition asking the city to stop their efforts of trying to move them out, provide new leases to tenants locking in the current rent rate and make immediate repairs to the staircases. The group has started an email campaign for community members to reach out to city council as well, resulting in 200 messages as of Wednesday morning.
HJN organizer Daniel Rose cited Mayor Allen Joines’ goal to develop more affordable housing for the city.
“The commitment that he made last year for 750 units has already not been fulfilled,” Rose said during the meeting. The city missed their mark by 300 units last year.
“We’re seeing that this city is not really the City of Arts and Innovation right now, it’s the City of Broken Promises,” Rose said.
“How did you all not know that you owned 1200 Willie Davis?” Rose asked, a statement that was met with trickles of laughter from members of the crowd.
The city has promised to pay tenants $500 to help with fees residents may accrue as they resettle, such as utility transfers. Housing search and counseling services are being offered by the city as well with assistance from Financial Pathways of the Piedmont. Tenants will also be given preference if they want to move back in once the city has renovated the apartments.
But critics like Rose say that finding an affordable apartment for the amount the city is offering will be near impossible in this market.
“There is no housing in Winston-Salem at $420 to $450 a month for a one-bedroom in decent quality,” Rose said. “There is no reason to put them out to inspect that property. Code enforcement comes in all the time with residents in place…. This is about gentrification.”
Another HJN member, Renee Wimbish, brought up the current situation at Crystal Towers, a 200-unit affordable housing high-rise owned by the Housing Authority of Winston-Salem. Renovations were anticipated to begin last year, however Wimbish said that crucial repairs to amenities like the elevators have not yet been made. Many of the residents in Crystal Towers are disabled.
“People [are] sleeping down in the lobby because they can’t get back up into their room,” Wimbish said.“Everyone here should be ashamed, utterly ashamed, of what you’re doing to our most vulnerable citizens…. And you expect these residents to trust you to fulfill these promises?”
In an interview with TCB, community activist Arnita Miles expressed concern about what will become of the residents who are set to be displaced.
“It is greatly affecting low-income people,” Miles said. “Where can you go in Winston Salem to find rent for under $350? There’s no place. So, where are they supposed to go?”
This piece is part of our CityBeat that covers city council business, made possible by a grant from the NC Local News Lab Fund, available to republish for free by any news outlet who cares to use it.
The cost of selling homes for cash
Ask your friends in real estate about the current market and they will shake their heads slowly and tell you they have never seen anything like it: Inventory is low; demand is high; the cost of building materials is up more than 20 percent from pre-pandemic prices; interest rates for mortgages are almost twice what they were in 2019.
They will also tell you that most of the homes listed under $200,000 are getting snapped up by cash buyers which are usually corporations looking to rent these homes once they get them under contract.
It happens like this: When properties are scarce, every home that’s put on the market quickly gets multiple offers; homes below that $200,000 price point are usually sold within a matter of days. But corporations pay cash, as opposed to humans who generally have to get pre-qualified for a loan to even be in the game. But corporations can easily pay above asking price, while a borrower cannot raise more funds than they qualify for. That’s just one advantage corporations have over actual people.
According to a study by the Washington Post, in Greensboro and Winston-Salem between 30 to 60 percent of homes sold in Greensboro and Winston-Salem went to cash buyers in 2022. Not coincidentally, rents for one-bedroom apartments in Greensboro rose by almost 75 percent in 2022, averaging $1,289 per month in July 2022; Winston-Salem rents rose 22 percent, to an average of $1,293 per month.
It’s happening all over the country, but the Triad has been particularly
wounded by corporate homebuyers who are speculating on housing, which many consider a human right. Beyond that, homeownership has long been a reliable way for American families to begin building wealth.
Homeownership has always been more affordable in Guilford and Forsyth counties than in the other populous counties of the state. But even as home values have roughly doubled since 2020, corporate buyers remain unfazed because, unlike prospective local homeowners, their fortunes are not dictated by the Triad economy, which still lags behind the rest of the country.
So affordable homes get snapped up for cash, well above market value, which drives up the prices of other single-family homes in these neighborhoods and also sets a rent rate well above what people had been paying even a couple years ago. Rent for a one-bedroom in Guilford or Forsyth is now considerably more than a monthly mortgage note would be. And so the thwarted first-time buyers get stung again.
It’s a crisis that could be prevented by legislation — cities, counties and even neighborhood associations have some control over who gets to buy houses inside their jurisdictions just as they have some control over short-term rentals and other property issues. Atlanta is already considering moves to restrict corporate homeownership, as are Dallas and Los Angeles. Canada has already banned the sale of property to non-Canadians for a two-year term.
“Homes are for people, not investors,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in January. The same holds true here.
The Triad has been particularly wounded by corporate homebuyers who are speculating on housing.
CULTURE
Iconography gets reimagined in
collage artist
Laura Iseley’s intricately crafted pieces
by Michelle EveretteAmid clusters of life-bearing trees, a woman wearing pearls and a multi-textured headpiece cradles a much smaller woman, who is in turn, cradling a tiny, swaddled baby. A variety of pastel flowers and a few doting cupids frame the characters, while below them several mutilated men either endure pain or succumb to bloody deaths. Separating the women and the men is a thick beam resting on intricate golden arches; connecting the two worlds is a stake which functions as both a weapon to maim a screaming man and a pole to prop up a repurposed flag. The flag reads “corporis autonomia,” or “bodily autonomy,” which reinforces the theme of Laura Iseley’s collage, “Beauty and the Underneath.”
“It’s one of my favorite pieces,” Iseley says.
Made in May of 2022 as a frustrated response to the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, the subject of this collage, the pearled woman, is from the cover of a 1929 Modern Priscilla magazine.
“I put her at the top, hierarchically above the men, because historically women have been below,” Iseley explains.
Iseley’s 28 cohesive, analog collages are currently on display at Tate Street Coffee House in Greensboro as a feature of the business’ Artist of the Month series. Though the collection is a detailed exploration of artistic and thematic interests of hers, which range from nostalgic appreciations and subversions, to fanart of musicians, to the fluid energy of the divine feminine, the specific inspiration behind each piece varies.
“A lot of the time I’ll know the basics, like my aesthetics and color palette, but I won’t try to force a message, I’ll just let things flow,” Iseley says.
A 24-year-old viral content creator and multidisciplinary artist, she hails from Mebane and graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill’s biology program. Though she has chosen to pursue a different career path in the past few years, the classes she took for her minor in studio art have had the most meaningful impact on her creative process.
“I was extremely burnt out from biology because I didn’t have a good experience
with it,” Iseley says, “So I didn’t want to go into it.”
A collage class Islely took in 2019, as well as a specialized printmaking class combined with her biology background informs her artmaking.
“There’s a lot of symmetry in life,” she says. “Collage appeals to me because I’m artistic, but I take a very pattern-based approach to things. I have a very strong sense of composition and balance.”
Pattern and balance, along with attention to proportion, hierarchy, and contrast are a few principles of design that help make Iseley’s maximalist brand of collaging both fine art and effective art. Iseley’s piece “Montero (Lil Nas X)”, features the viral photo of the 23-year-old Black, queer male pop star pregnant and kneeling, this time in a white bathtub with a golden shower head, surrounded by bright colored flowers, flying birds and small cowboy boots. A rainbow is cast above him, tying together all of the images from different contexts, and increasing feelings of ethereality or euphoria in viewers.
“It’s very interesting to see the unification of all these things that match each other thematically and aesthetically come together because it’s a very rich world when it’s like that, very interesting,” Iseley says. “That’s how the real world is: so beautiful because it’s diverse and at the same time unified.”
Many of the collages in Iseley’s collection contain images with deep spiritual or religious connotations that have been recontextualized, an approach which creates new conversations about old topics. Sometimes there is only the suggestion of a spiritual experience through the use of familiar color palettes, like in the piece “Freya The Grey Cat,” which has enough gold, blue, yellow and orange to resemble a tarot card.
Religious figures such as the goddesses Demeter and Aphrodite, as well as
the Virgin Mary, are subjects of their own collages.
“Mary on a Cross,” which is partially inspired by the band Ghost’s alternative metal song of the same name, has garnered 2.7 million views on TikTok and depicts the well-known religious figure with a streak of blood dripping from her left eye. Mary’s hands are clasped as she leans against a structure dripping with blood, while around her offerings of pink and red fruit and long candles endure.
Iseley explains how a lot of themes and motifs rooted in religion are often explored in the same way over and over again. Jesus Christ being executed on the cross, for example, is ultimately a story that aims to understand how much suffering a human body can withstand. These depictions of the crucifixion, often bloody and intense, are culturally acceptable, but when a figure like Mary is visually bloody it can stir up feelings of discomfort.
“Some people get offended by the art that I make,” she says. “I just see all of these things, and I don’t practice any of them, but I see them all existing around me and I know there are good pieces in all of it. In my mind I’m making a beautiful thing by forcing these ideas from different groups to interact with each other.”
Laura Iseley is represented online by Austria-based gallery Return On Art. Her collection will be on display at Tate Street Coffee house for the remainder of February. Each framed collage has a small white label which states the title, and most pieces contain a QR code leading to the site where either the original piece or a print can be purchased.
Aromatic Senegalese classics
beckon at Saint Louis Saveurs in Greensboro
by Luis H. GarayIf you blink you might miss it, but the smell will likely draw you in.
On a busy stretch of West Wendover Avenue, Saint Louis Saveurs brings the flavors of West Africa to Greensboro.
The new restaurant, tucked next to a Circle K gas station, now resides in a part of the building that was previously a Dunkin’ Donuts. A bubblegum pink handle in the shape of a “D” is all that remains from the previous tenant. Now, a neon-green to blood-orange ombré awning with a photo of a well-lit industrial bridge welcomes visitors into the small shop. The words “Saint Louis Saveurs” overlay the photo.
From the parking lot, the smells of djolof rice, stewed meat and simmering vegetables alert those pumping gas that a new vendor is there.
“If I hadn’t smelled that, I wouldn’t have ever come here unless someone referred me,” a tall man wearing jeans and a plaid button-up says with excitement as he pays for his order.
The name of the restaurant comes from the city of Saint Louis, Senegal in West Africa. Husband-and-wife team Mouhamadou (Mo) Cisse and Bator Cisse moved to the United States in 2009, first arriving in New York City before settling in Greensboro. According to the Center for New North Carolinians, 500 people from West Africa live in Guilford County.
In July 2022, the two opened Saint Louis Saveurs after renting the space for almost a year and a half.
The owners experienced delays as the restaurant needed updates like new kitchen appliances. The pandemic also made connecting with contractors and contacting the health department more difficult.
“I was struggling through that time,” Mo recalls with a sigh.
“It was really hard, I almost gave up.” Bator agrees. “It was traveling hours
and hours to have to pick up all the appliances,” she says. “It was a challenge for both of us.”
ut now, with the business underway, the two are intent on sharing the food they grew up eating in Senegal with Greensboro.
“A lot of people think African food all tastes the same,” Bator says. “We focus more on flavoring with garlic and green onion.”
Senegal’s geography, natural resources and religion all influence the cooking and cuisine. The country butts up against the Atlantic Ocean, making fish a common ingredient in Senegalese cooking. Chicken, lamb and beef make appearances, too. Pork isn’t used due to the country’s large Muslim population.
Djolof rice (often spelled “jollof”), West Africa’s most wellknown dish, symbolizes a meshing of cultures and continents. The one-pot meal comes to life in a tomato-based sauce, with vegetables and a meat. As the story goes, rice grown from the river basins of West Africa met tomatoes, onions and peppers introduced by European colonizers in the 16th century.
In 2023 at Saint Louis Saveurs, the meal is served on a bed of fried rice topped with seasoned chicken thighs and drumsticks. The meat greedily absorbs flavors from the garlic and onion sauce and mixed vegetables like corn, green peas, green beans and grilled yellow and red peppers. Cooked with care, the tender chicken falls from the bone with ease. If taken to-go, the container includes hard-boiled egg halves tucked into each corner.
Bator not only prepares the food but also developed the menu. She says she learned cooking from her mother.
“My mom taught me how to cook at the age of 12,” Bator recalls between bites for a lunch she has prepared for herself even though it’s already 8:30 pm. “I was always in the kitchen helping her while she was cooking. I would be cleaning the fish, you know, peeling onions and stuff like that.”
As the creator of the menu, Bator focused on blending Senagalese food with American tastes to feed a wider audience.
“We want to be diverse,” she explains. “We want to have food for everybody.”
A glance at the menu reveals a cross-cultural blend of dishes and flavors. Senegalese dishes like djolof rice and yassa, or braised chicken with white rice in an onion sauce, exist alongside American foods like cheesesteak, gyros and burgers.
The deep-fried fataya recalls a similarity to empanadas. Like the djolof rice, the interior of the crunchy pocket has a well-seasoned filling of chicken, onions and garlic. For those wanting an increased heat level, the spicy tomato sauce will add a punch.
For those who might need extra convincing, the couple’s 8-year-old daughter Fatima beams when asked if she is proud of her parents. “I would like to tell them that the food is really good,” she says. “And there’s a lot of stuff that maybe they’ll like.”
Saint Louis Saveurs is located on 337 West Wendover Avenue in Greensboro. Visit saintlouissaveurs.com or Facebook for more information. The menu at Saint Louis Saveurs is dense with Senegalese favorites like djolof rice and fataya but also American items like burgers.A lot of people think African food all tastes the same. Bator Cisse
CULTURE
IN THE WEEDS The elephant in the bar
by James Douglasneeded an ambulance after his head was practically stoved in. There’s now a rigged up “panic hole” under the beer tower where an employee can hide when a fight breaks out so they don’t get shot.
This isn’t happenstance. This isn’t “one bar,” or one neighborhood. This is Winston-Salem. This is Greensboro. This is the bar scene now, and it’s not based on location, price point or clientele. We just assume everyone is packing, and our beliefs are justified, considering the number of close calls (and I mean close) that we already contend with. As for solutions, all we can do is try to keep our places safe for patrons.
by James DouglasIt is perfectly reasonable to expect a fight to break out in the bar.
When you’re young, it’s exciting. When you’re a bartender, it gets tiresome. Liability insurance makes bar fights a nightmare for owners. A cracked skull on the sidewalk outside can bring on ruination as much as any manslaughter charge when a drunk patron hits someone with their car.
I’ve seen fights over hurt feelings, mixed signals and pissing contests. A tussle happens, somebody gets tuned up, it ends. Security kicks you out. The involved parties lick their wounds and either move on or get arrested. That was the old approach. This new approach we’re seeing more often has more of a “Game Over” feel to it.
Within the past few years, I have had colleagues kick people out just to hear them pop off shots from their car; I have had friends beaten with guns in bars; I have had friends shot in bars by people there precisely to start shit on a Sunday afternoon. I’ve talked down shaky, wild-eyed men on the sidewalk who said they were about to murder every single patron inside.
I’ve had friends murdered in bars.
It’s the tip of the iceberg for every industry story I’ve heard or read about in other bars, other cities. But it is happening here, and it’s getting worse. Colleagues working doors have seen guns fall out of pockets when they were trying to check IDs. There have been drive-bys where bystanders get shot. There have been people letting off rounds in bar bathrooms while showing off to their friends.
These are people I know.
One incident involved a man shot at close-range by the pool table at a local spot, and as he fell out into the back alley leading to the parking lot, his assailant ran the opposite direction out the front door away from the scene. The victim, crawling down the alleyway with a crowd of people surrounding him, pulled out his gun and fired blindly down the alley, hitting two innocents and narrowly missing many others.
I’ve had people I care about hiding in low cabinets between the sodas and the mixers as someone stalked back and forth on the bar above them and a verifiable riot raged outside. Former employees of this bar said that the police were watching from across the street and didn’t get involved until a door guy
A decade ago, I never expected to worry about guns in bars. This isn’t Deadwood. We aren’t in the Wild West with minimal repercussions and a bounty on your head. The music shouldn’t screech to a stop as a gunslinger walks in, “thankee-sai.” A card game, a round of pool, an accidental bump-up or a crowded line for the bathroom shouldn’t end in bloodshed. But it’s happening. Incidents get reported, but not all. You can’t (some won’t) report every incident to the news, or even the police. I’ve witnessed personally on-duty bar security and back of house cooks detained by police because they fit a description. To add to the confusion, no bar owner in existence wants to have the name of their place sullied with talk of violence or be known as “that bar.” It’s easier to thank your stars that no one was hurt, this time. So we have to help ourselves.
A few years back, someone started a private group for the bartenders in our downtown radius. It’s a wide assortment of owners and employees who are all connected, about 180 or so, mostly in the walkable downtown area. It’s maintained, scrutinized for leaks and inaccuracies, and is constantly updated. This being a small(ish) town, we already see each other on our nights out or social occasions. We know each other, for the most part. We talk.
If someone causes a scene or breaks the rules and gets kicked out, word gets out. If an incident happens, we have an armada of Facebook stalkers on call that can find out what they ate for breakfast. Some other bartenders might’ve had a past experience with that person and can confirm their MO. They might be headed up the street to cause issues at your place of work, and often do.
This system allows us to catch the person before they even walk through the door. It’s been a boon for bar safety more than anything I’ve experienced in the industry. Good security procedures combined with a warning system about problem customers nearby is the best defense that has worked for us so far. But someone has to do something to warrant those warnings. It’s got to happen somewhere first.
The police aren’t as involved as they used to be and when they do respond, it’s after the fact, not preventative. Busy bars I’ve worked at used to hire off-duty cops on weekends. The price went up over the years, going from $38 an hour in 2010 to $55 an hour after the pandemic with a 4-hour minimum and two officers required for an occupancy over 100. That’s $440 a night, plus whatever other security is paid. It’s safe to say it’s not commonplace anymore. The beat-walking I’ve seen is mostly on sunny afternoons, not on busy bar nights.
And so the bar owners, the bartenders, the regulars, the people who want to responsibly have a good time and socialize now do so with the added danger of dumbasses with guns.
This is the new normal.
I’ve had friends murdered in bars.
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The Value and Power of Art V
Themes of journey, memory and music propel Radcliffe Bailey’s poetic installations and sculptures. Working frequently with layers of found elements, here he brings together a gilded door, a lock and chains of bottlecaps in an enigmatic meditation on the value of recalling and connecting seemingly disparate histories.
Opening February 18
Healers, Guardians, and Nurturers
February 18
11 a.m.–12:30 p.m. Free with Museum Admission
reynolda.org/towns
A narrow, five-panel door serves as the sculpture’s primary form. Resonant with notions of coming and going, the door was reclaimed from a neighborhood of compact homes in Houston, Texas. Specifically, it came from one of the homes that has been transformed into the arts and community platform Project Row Houses, which is located in the city’s Third Ward. A predominantly African American community, Third Ward is anchored by Emancipation Park, a plot of land purchased by former slaves in 1872. From that time through the mid-1950s, the district was economically vibrant; music lovers from across the region flocked to its blues-filled nightclubs and dance halls. However, following World War II, freeway development and suburban flight left the neighborhood a shell of its former self. Though it became what some have called the “cradle” of the city’s civil rights movement in the 1960s and 1970s, its financial challenges are ongoing.
Bailey has covered the front of his reclaimed door in sheaves of gold leaf whose warm glow evokes the richness of the Third Ward’s cultural history. Scratches and dirt on the wood surface show through the gilding and are clearly visible on the ungilded back side of the door collectively suggesting an earnest commitment to protecting one’s home and all that it holds.
The artist has also installed an oversized, hand-carved wooden bolt lock from Mali, which links this remnant of an African-American row house directly to Africa. The connection is apt, as scholars have traced the architectural origins of the row house to West Africa and noted its diasporic migration from there to Haiti to the Southern United States via the slave trade.
With these references in mind, one might also read the luminous gilded surface as honorific, transforming the assemblage into a sort of monument to a particular African American community and to the larger history of the African diaspora. Instead of layering the gold leaf densely to obliterate the marks and scratches on the door, Bailey invites the viewer to enjoy the gleam but not forget the scars that are part of its history.
Gilded: Contemporary Artists
Explore Value and Worth is on view at the Weatherspoon Art Museum at UNCG through April 8.
SHOT IN THE TRIAD
BY CAROLYN DE BERRY
Spring Garden Street, Greensboro
CROSSWORD SUDOKU
by Matt Jones
‘Just Visiting’ — a monopoly on two initial letters
LAST WEEK’S ANSWERS: Across
1. Kama ___ Records (Lovin’ Spoonful label)
6. Frittata ingredients
10. Aeration
14. “It’s worth ___!”
15. Actress Petty of “Orange Is the New Black”
16. “Garfield” drooler
17. Fictitious “100% Colombian Coffee” farmer in an old ad campaign
19. Clue weapon
20. Sculptor, e.g.
21. Sailor’s hook
23. Mil. mess duties
24. Acorn, later
27. Beastly sorts
31. Musician such as Stéphane Grappelli (and not many others in that genre)
35. Ooze with
37. Award named for a TV network
38. Sch. with a campus in Atlanta
39. Fundamental physics particle
40. They’ll get to U afterwards
41. Religious crusade
43. CN Tower’s prov.
44. Conditional suffix?
45. Courtroom figs.
46. Business partnerships
50. Eventually
51. “I ___ a lot of problems with you people!” (Festivus “Airing of Grievances” line)
52. Move like a toad
55. Nest builder
57. Pooh’s morose friend
60. Nursery rhyme pet
63. French science fiction novelist who’s the second most-translated individual author in the world
66. Like the goateed twin, it’s said
67. Shimmery gem
68. Fur tycoon John Jacob
69. Stare intently
70. Trees used for archery bows
71. Some Wikipedia entries
1. “Wheel of Fortune” host since 1981
2. Unlawfully take over
3. “I’m as surprised as you ...”
4. Pasta ___ (boxed dinner)
5. Dune buggies, briefly
6. Pipe bend
7. Pan, for one
8. Actor Kinnear
9. In a rather large way
10. Not seriously
11. Altar-ed statement?
12. Five-digit address ender
13. Tappan ___ Bridge
18. The whole gamut
22. Part of TGIF
25. Disinclined (to)
26. Word spelled out after “sitting in a tree”
28. Cyclist’s wear (for aerodynamic purposes)
29. Test type
30. Small earrings
32. Fuss
33. Type of garden with rocks
34. Decides on
35. Smiley face, for example
36. Element in strobe lights
41. Pasta sauce container
42. “Graph” ending
44. Make way happy
47. Just a bite
48. Initials for an oversharer
49. Sporty trucks, for short
53. “Ripley’s Believe It ___”
54. Jury’s makeup
56. Deceive
58. Performance assessment, for short
59. “Oh ___ can!”
60. One way to get your kicks
61. Director DuVernay
62. “Les ___” (Broadway musical, casually)
64. Congressional creation
65. Golfer Ernie
© 2023 Matt Jones © 2022 Jonesin’ Crosswords (editor@jonesincrosswords.com)
