Early Voting Tea Leaves p. 6 Does Dylan Deserve the Nobel Prize? p. 26
raleigh raleigh 11|2|16 1|27|16
Hank Willis Thomas’s Free Speech p. 27
They’re not going to win, but you should listen to them anyway.
! s t o h S g n Lo Page 10
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2 | 11.2.16 | INDYweek.com
WHAT WE LEARNED THIS WEEK | DURHAM
K
N
VOL. 33, NO. 42
6 We asked for Elizabeth Warren. We got Lena Dunham. 8 “I learned from Paul Luebke’s leadership that something that could not have been done by any one of the groups could be accomplished in coalition.” 11 For reasons that seem mysterious even to T. Greg Doucette, he will have an “R” next to his name on the ballot. 15 Running for vice president on a socialist ticket resembles being on a punk band’s DIY tour. 22 Northside District aims for food the owners grew up eating, not reinventing the wheel. 24 Not enough people are focused on the power of partying, says Andrew W.K. 29 Lizz Winstead knows that when you call out hypocrisy with humor, no one feels lectured. 30 Many of our values are relative, and our relatives determine more of our value than we might wish to acknowledge.
DEPARTMENTS 5
Backtalk
6
Triangulator
8
News
22 Food 24 Music
Charles Latham looks for a pair of boots at El Vaquero in Durham. Read more at indyweek.com. PHOTO BY ALEX BOERNER
27 Arts & Culture 32 What to Do This Week 35 Music Calendar
On the cover: T. Greg Doucette
40 Arts/Film Calendar
PHOTO BY ALEX BOERNER
INDYweek.com | 11.2.16 | 3
Raleigh | Cary Durham | Chapel Hill
PUBLISHER Susan Harper EDITORIAL
EDITOR IN CHIEF Jeffrey C. Billman MANAGING EDITOR FOR ARTS+CULTURE Brian Howe DESIGN DIRECTOR Shan Stumpf RALEIGH BUREAU CHIEF Ken Fine STAFF WRITERS (DURHAM)
Lauren Horsch, David Hudnall
STAFF WRITER (RALEIGH) Paul Blest ASSOCIATE MUSIC EDITOR Allison Hussey ASSOCIATE ARTS EDITOR David Klein ASSOCIATE FOOD EDITOR Victoria Bouloubasis LISTINGS COORDINATOR Michaela Dwyer THEATER AND DANCE CRITIC Byron Woods CHIEF CONTRIBUTORS Tina Haver Currin,
Spencer Griffith, Corbie Hill, Laura Jaramillo, Emma Laperruque, Jill Warren Lucas, Sayaka Matsuoka, Glenn McDonald, Neil Morris, Angela Perez, Hannah Pitstick, Bryan C. Reed, V. Cullum Rogers, Dan Ruccia, Dan Schram, Zack Smith, Eric Tullis, Chris Vitiello, Ryan Vu, Patrick Wall, Iza Wojciechowska INTERNS Lily Carollo, Melissa Cordell, Erica Johnson, Jamie Stewart, Sara Kiley Watson
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4 | 11.2.16 | INDYweek.com
backtalk
Call us today and ask about
FREE VACCINES FOR LIFE
Hotline to Hell Sometimes, voice mail is the best mail. And so we begin this week’s Backtalk with this verbatim transcription of a message we received last week (you can hear the recording at indyweek.com) from an Anonymous Caller. Come for the damning of our souls, stay for the weird pivot at the end. “Yes, I’m calling about the INDY Week [cover] ‘Pat McCrory Will Eat Your Brains and 666 Other Reasons Not to Vote for Him.’ Six-six-six is a sign of the mark of the beast and tribulation. Better be careful, whoever’s running this stuff. People that are saved and have the blood of Jesus supply their heart. John 3:16, Jesus saved, will not have to go through this. Six-six-six. Whoever wrote this don’t know what they’re talking about. It’s liberal. I hate it. I love everybody’s soul. I will pray for you. This is disgusting. This is what this world has come to: liberalism. I’m a conservative. I am not voting for Hillary Clinton. I voted straight ticket, Republican. All the way. Pat McCrory. Yes. Donald Trump. Hillary Clinton bloodsucking heads out of women’s bodies and she’s carving their brains all up. “She’s a heathen. And whoever votes for her, they’re gonna be damned one way or the other. Cause God does look— said he will not look upon it. And if you’re not saved, ask Jesus to save you. And come into your heart and be a new creature of Christ. All faiths are passed—all faiths passed away. All faiths become new. I’m not mad. I know God’s protecting me. Ever since I was saved in 1974. “This is uncalled for. Six-six-six, yeah, you’re not saved under tribulation, you’ll have that mark. You can’t buy yourself anything. And you’ll suffer if you go to hell. It’s hot. Jesus will save you. And he’ll damn your newspaper if you don’t straighten this out. I guarantee it. “North Carolina, where the best ballplayer of all time, Michael Jordan, came from, the University of North Carolina. He would be ashamed of it, too. He is a great man. A great basketball player, and he’s helping people today. Thank you for listening to my commentary. Thank you very much.” Next we have a letter from four former chief justices of the North Carolina Supreme
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Court—Rhoda Billings, Jim Exum, Burley Mitchell, and Beverly Lake—writing to support the reelection of Justice Robert Edmunds, whom we did not endorse. “We have seen Justice Edmunds’s work,” they write. “He has demonstrated in his years on the court that he is an independent justice who understands and abides by the rule of law. … In sum, Justice Edmunds has proven himself to be an invaluable public servant.” Commenter JK, meanwhile, is miffed about our endorsement of Hillary Clinton: “So, please refresh my memory. ‘INDY’ is shorthand for, what was it exactly? Oh yes, ‘independent’! As in ‘independent thought,’ ‘independent analysis,’ and so on. One would imagine “independent analysis” might lead to the inevitable conclusion that it’s not, in fact, in the interests of the working people to hand supreme authority to someone who: 1) is an outrageously corrupt Wall Street crony; 2) is the immediate family member of another president; 3) has been demonstrated to have rigged elections, disenfranchising her own party’s voters; 4) has aggressively pushed for the destruction of multiple independent Arab societies by arming and funding radical Islamic militias to destabilize their governments (the people living there be damned); 5) has been behind every neoliberal trade deal and backward economic policy that comes up; 6) has been behind every neocon war and backed every antidemocratic coup and criminal assassination that U.S. imperialist interests can devise; 7) is best friend of the repressive Saudi dictatorship (while posturing as a principled champion of gay and women’s rights) and of the Nazi-oligarch Ukraine coup; and 8) incessantly shouts to anyone who will listen to her outrageous neo-McCarthyite anti-Russian nonsense.” Finally, a correction: Our story on the podcast Criminal misstated the number of times each episode is downloaded. It is millions, not thousands.
“He’ll damn your newspaper. I guarantee it.”
Want to see your name in bold? Email us at backtalk@indyweek.com, comment on our Facebook page or indyweek.com, or hit us up on Twitter: @indyweek. INDYweek.com | 11.2.16 | 5
triangulator +VOTE, OR ELSE
Early voting ends on Saturday. So, if you haven’t already, put this paper down and go freaking vote like the fate of the Western liberal order depends on it (see our voting guide on page 21). If you’ve already done your civic duty, gather round the fireplace and join us for some early-voting tea leaf reading. So far, it seems, the data is mostly good for North Carolina Democrats, who look to be in line for their best performance since 2008. On Sunday, the state’s early voting tally surpassed 1.6 million accepted ballots, including both absentee and in-person voting. Catawba College professor Michael Bitzer found that, relative to the same point in 2012, the number of accepted ballots in-person ballots was up 10 percent. The New York Times, which is running a daily North Carolina vote tracker, thinks this bodes well for Hillary Clinton, estimating that she’s ahead by double digits among those who have already voted. As of Monday, the tracker estimates that Clinton will win the state by around 6 percentage points, which would all but ensure her the White House. Despite Clinton’s good showing and mostly positive (although narrowing) polls for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Roy Cooper, however, we have seen the effects of Republican efforts to curtail voting access. After the voter ID law was struck down in July, early voting was again expanded to seventeen days. But because all three-member county boards of elections have Republican majorities, the BOEs—via a coordinated effort by the state GOP—drew up early voting plans that, well, made it harder to vote. That has most affected Guilford County, where early voting sites over the first seven days dropped from sixteen in 2012 to just one in 2016. The result? According to an NBC News analysis, early voting in Greensboro over the first seven days plummeted 85 percent from 2012. Lo and behold, once Guilford expanded to twenty-five early voting sites, early voting surged. It’s not just early voting obstacles that have been a problem for African-American voters. On Monday, the state NAACP filed a federal lawsuit seeking an immediate injunction to stop voter purges in Cumberland, Moore, and Beaufort counties. Plaintiff James Arthur was one of 138 voters whose regis6 | 11.2.16 | INDYweek.com
EARLY VOTING NUMBERS
(percentage of registered voters in parentheses)
Accepted ballots as of October 31, according to ncvotetracker.com
NORTH CAROLINA 1,647,312 (24%)
WAKE COUNTY 165,865 (24%)
DURHAM COUNTY 75,245 (33%)
tration had been challenged due to “undeliverable mass mailings.” The reason mail to Arthur was undeliverable, the NAACP says, is because he moved to a nursing home within Beaufort County. “If I knew my right to vote was in jeopardy, I would do whatever I could to protect it,” Arthur said in a statement. “I want and plan to vote in the upcoming election, but I am concerned that, since my registration has been canceled, I will not be able to cast a ballot or it will not be counted.” All of that, plus a possible drop in voter enthusiasm, has led to a pretty disturbing statistic noted by Bitzer: white turnout is up 15 percent so far, but African-American turnout is down 15 percent. Although it’s too early to tell whether or not it will stick, this is somewhat troubling. “This is our Selma, and we will not back down and allow this suppression to continue,” the Reverend William J. Barber II, the state NAACP president, said in a statement.
+HEAR IT FOR THE GIRLS We asked to chat up Elizabeth Warren, whom we wanted to talk to about Wall Street and the general lefty unease with Hillary Clinton. We asked for a few minutes with
ORANGE COUNTY 39,905 (34%)
Clinton herself, because she is running for president and we have some things we’d like to know. What the Clinton campaign gave us was Lena Dunham, an actress best known for hooking up with Kylo Ren on that HBO show we stopped watching three years ago. Sigh. Dunham was at Duke University Sunday night to rally millennials to the polls through celebrity peer pressure. To this end, she assembled a powerhouse group of women— LGBTQ activist Janet Mock, actress Constance Wu, comedian Aparna Nancherla, and writer Ashley Ford—to discuss why the college-aged women in the room should vote for Clinton. “I don’t know if you guys noticed, but I’m kind of a woman and I’m kind of black,” said Ford, who moderated the panel. “At the end of the day I often feel like my identity, the things that make me who I am, the things that I honestly can’t help, are some of the biggest reasons why I want to vote for someone who seems to at least think I’m a person and a person who deserves rights and a person who deserves to live in this country.” Afterward, Dunham and Mock spoke with the INDY about the importance of voting. “For me, it’s that the higher the turnout, the more representative our government tends to be,” Mock said. “In the sense of being inclusive and ensuring that policies align with the lived lives, the lived realities, I think we need all underrepresented people [to vote].” Dunham echoed Mock. “I think it’s really essential for young women to understand
JOHNSTON COUNTY 21,544 (18%)
CHATHAM COUNTY 19,578 (39%)
that they really do have a voice in the political process,” she says. “The fact is that voting is one of the ways we make our voices heard.” This is all true and important, and we have nothing against Dunham or Mock, who are both smart and accomplished and are using their celebrity to change the world. We still would’ve liked to meet Warren, though.
+DO IT FOR THE KIDS On Friday afternoon, courtroom leaders and advocates from around the state gathered in Durham to hear how Durham, Orange, and Wake counties run their misdemeanor diversion programs and how they could implement programs of their own. Misdemeanor diversion programs allow young people to have a second chance at a clean record if they’ve been arrested for first-time, low-level offenses. Since the program began in Durham in 2014, the county has helped 187 teens successfully complete the program (a 98 percent completion rate). Since October 2015, eighteen-to-twenty-one-year-olds have had a separate program, with forty-five people completing it—a 100 percent completion rate. Orange County started its program in
April 2016; Wake County’s is school-based, meaning school resources officers recommend students to enter the program, not officers out in the field. During a panel discussion hosted by the Southern Coalition for Social Justice, the Youth Justice Project, and the Southern Education Foundation, chief district court judge (and INDY Citizen Award winner) Marcia Morey said there was some skepticism from law enforcement when the idea was first presented, but they eventually warmed to the idea. “There has to be compromise,” Morey said. “There was give and take everywhere. You have to have committed people to come together and say, ‘Yes, let’s do it.’” As for other pushback she received: “They were all overruled. I didn’t say, ‘Would you like to do this?’ [It was] ‘We’re going to do this.’”
+PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT This election—perhaps more so than others that have unfolded in the last several decades—has real implications both for North Carolina and the nation. The outcome of the gubernatorial contest and legislative
H H
H H
H
PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY SHAN STUMPF
races speaks to where state residents draw the line on the environment, education, LBGTQ rights, and, frankly, basic human decency. And the presidential race will answer a fundamental question about whether we, as a nation and as a state, choose to rise above demagoguery or give into our fears. Next week, the INDY will go to press hours before these questions are answered. But while the newspaper that hits the streets November 9 will have almost nothing in the way of election coverage, we will be on the streets all day and night Tuesday and will have extensive analysis and hot takes Wednes-
day. You can find our coverage on indyweek. com, our Twitter feed, our Facebook feed, and our Instagram. (We do not have, nor do we understand, Snapchat. Sorry.) Join us as we breathe a deep sigh of relief over a bullet dodged and do a victory dance atop the governor’s political grave, or crumple into a mess of alcohol-soaked existential dread. Either way, we’ll be around. Unless we move to Canada. triangulator@indyweek.com This week’s report by Paul Blest, Ken Fine, and Lauren Horsch.
PERIPHERAL VISIONS | V.C. ROGERS
INDYweek.com | 11.2.16 | 7
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Then, in 1990, Luebke himself was elected When I first arrived in Durham, as a twento the legislature. He held his Democratic ty-five-year-old hired by the INDY to cover House seat until his death. When he arrived, state government, I spent countless hours some of my fellow reporters underestimatsitting on Paul Luebke’s living-room sofa. ed him. I remember satirical articles on Surrounded by piles of newspapers—and the press-room bulletin board identifying with his young son, Theo, coming and Luebke’s political party as “S” (for Socialgoing—he immersed me into a years-long ist) rather than “D.” But he stood up to his tutorial on North Carolina politics. own party and succeeded in getting the food Luebke, who died Saturday of lymphoma at tax repealed—an enduring victory for poor the age of seventy, was a sociology professor at and working-class North Carolinians that UNC Greensboro when we met in 1986. Back we now take for granted. then, he was writing Tar Heel Politics, which By 2009, the last biennial session before argued that the essential political split in Republicans took over the legislature, the North Carolina was not between Democrats N.C. Center for Public Policy and Republicans. It was between Research ranked Luebke eleventh “modernizers” of both parties— in effectiveness among 120 House who support public schools and members. As he rose in stature, he civil rights because they benefit stayed focused on social and ecothe business climate—and “tradinomic equity. He was a primationalists” steeped in evangelical ry sponsor of the Racial Justice Protestantism, low-wage econoAct, which helped guard against mies, and segregation. bias in death sentences (and was The foundation of my underrepealed when the GOP took constanding of North Carolina came trol). And he didn’t shy away from from those early conversations. I Paul Luebke losing battles: Luebke was one learned a lot about my new homeof ten House members in 1996 who voted town, too. Luebke was a founder of Durham against a ban on same-sex marriage. People’s Alliance, formed in the 1970s in part In July, during a celebration of Paul to prevent the Durham Freeway from oblitLuebke’s twenty-five years as a legislator, erating the close-knit, majority-black Crest Theo Luebke—an accomplished political Street community. People’s Alliance became organizer in his own right—talked about his part of a multigroup, interracial campaign own memories from the 1990s: “Again and that ultimately realigned the highway, spared again, watching my father on the phone at the local church, and rebuilt the neighbornight, tirelessly working to prevent, delay, hood for those who wanted to stay. and obstruct the next attempt by the state to “I learned from Paul’s leadership that execute one of its own citizens.” Viewing the something that could not have been done by video of that speech, I can’t help but believe any one of the groups could be accomplished that Luebke’s greatest accomplishment was in coalition,” says former Durham City Counraising a son who will carry on his work. cil member Lanier Blum. “He gave me the gift of knowing early on Of the many issues Luebke championed what it meant to be part of a community that in People’s Alliance, his favorite was tax fairfights for things,” Theo said about his father. ness. He was a relentless advocate for repeal“A community—our community—who cares ing sales taxes on food and shifting the burden so deeply about the core principles of justice to multinational corporations and buyers of and equality that we’re willing to struggle, luxury goods. “Each time you tax food, you and we’re willing to fight, however imperliterally take food from the mouths of our fectly at times, for things that matter.” poorer citizens,” he told a legislative study backtalk@indyweek.com committee in 1986.
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g n Lo ts! o h S THEY KNOW THEY’RE NOT GOING TO WIN. WE KNOW THEY’RE NOT GOING TO WIN, EITHER. The four candidates profiled in these pages are underdogs, no denying that. In some cases, it’s because they’re on third-party tickets that don’t fare well in our first-past-the-post system; in others, their districts have been ruthlessly gerrymandered so as to make victory all but impossible. Realistically, only one has even a puncher’s chance of being successful, and that would require him to ride a political tsunami that has not yet materialized. But we nonetheless think they have something to offer, each with perspectives that have been largely absent from a mainstream-media discourse obsessed with Donald Trump’s sins against political decency and Hillary Clinton’s emails. One is the kind of smart, principled, sane conservative we wish populated Jones Street. Another is an avowed revolutionary, a socialist running for vice president even though he’s not even on the ballot in his home state of North Carolina. The third is a local political operative who decided that no race, no matter how difficult, should go uncontested. Finally, we have an essay looking at how young progressives should view Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson. And so we dedicated this, our last issue before the election, to them. They’re not going to win, sure. But their voices, and the arguments they make, are worth listening to. —Jeffrey C. Billman
PHOTOGR APHY BY ALE X BOERNER 10 | 11.2.16 | INDYweek.com
dismiss the case without putting up a fight. My client’s family is out what they paid me. Client himself is traumatized. And basis for police mistrust gets a fresh exhibit. While the officer who (wrongfully) charged him—and pretty clearly lied on official court documents will face ~0~ repercussions.”
“This is what police brutality looks like. It’s not just people having their rights violated and the sh*t kicked out of them,” he continued. “It’s an innocent 17yo black kid trying to be a good human being and not running over a cat getting thrown headlong into our court system. It’s having to come up with money
FINDER
T.
Greg Doucette is exhausting to follow on Twitter. He’ll clog up your feed with retweets, quotes of tweets, and, several times a week, topical tweetstorms spanning dozens of tweets—two dozen or more an hour when he gets worked up. If you’re interested in the gory intestines of the criminal justice system, though, Doucette is a must-follow: a wellspring of knowledge eager to share his opinions, which are wonky but also rooted in real experiences in the guts of courthouses and police precincts. Earlier this year, one of Doucette’s rants broke through the deafening din of his own feed and caught on with enough politicians, journalists, and other influential Twitter users to achieve something like virality: thousands of retweets and even a couple of online news stories aggregating his thoughts. Over the course of forty tweets, Doucette, whose Durham law firm practices small-business advisement and criminal defense, unspooled a tale about one of his favorite topics: black males getting arrested on false charges. He described a young black male charged with reckless driving. The arresting officer wrote in his report that the client was doing 360-degree donuts in the middle of the road. Doucette’s client insisted he had merely swerved to avoid an animal. Doucette went to the scene and took a photo, which clearly supported his client’s version—just some skid marks abruptly angling toward the sidewalk. “Do I hate police?” Doucette tweeted. “No. I hate raging incompetent cowboys w/ badges financed by my tax money who clearly haven’t had an eye exam recently. The DA was kind enough to
B Y D AV I D H U D N A L L
GUIDE TO THE TRIANGLE
IN THE OLD NORTH CAROLINA, T. GREG DOUCETTE MIGHT HAVE BEEN A RISING STAR IN THE GOP. CHANCES ARE, HE’LL LOSE ON NOVEMBER 8 AND BOW OUT OF POLITICS FOR GOOD.
now THE INDY'S
THE MISFIT
on stands
INDYweek.com | 11.2.16 | 11
T. Greg Doucette leaves his office with his dog, Samson.
you don’t have, to defend yourself against charges that shouldn’t have been filed.” And more: “The State doesn’t care of course. For every one case dismissed, hundreds more plead guilty. Court costs are $188+ apiece. A day’s worth of traffic cases can finance an ADA’s salary for a year. Likewise for a clerk or a judge. Guess what that means for legislators? They can cut preexisting court funding and put it somewhere where it’ll buy them more votes. So you’ve got a court system that ends up somehow being underfunded despite charging a sh*tload of money for minor offenses. Police routing more and more people (predominantly young and black) into the court system, patting themselves on the back.” Finally: “Welcome to the clusterf*ck that is our criminal justice system. I filed to run for the State Senate precisely b/c of this bullsh*t. It doesn’t matter if you put an R or a D or a U beside your name— this is wrong.”
12 | 11.2.16 | INDYweek.com
F
or reasons that sometimes seem mysterious even to Doucette, he will have an “R” beside his name on the ballot next week. Doucette is running in Senate District 22, an artfully gerrymandered, reliably blue area that includes Durham, Person, and Caswell counties. His opponent is Mike Woodard, a popular Democratic legislator and former Durham City Council member. Doucette stands little chance of winning, and says he wouldn’t be surprised if November 8 marks the final day of his involvement in North Carolina politics. In September, I visited Doucette, who is thirty-five, at his law office in downtown Durham. His eponymous firm comprises Doucette, Marissa Meredith, who handles small-business clients in Durham, and Kahran Meyers, who does criminal defense work in the firm’s recently opened Charlotte office. Charlotte was in the news the afternoon I stopped by. Keith Lamont Scott
had been killed by the police two days prior, and that morning brought news that a man had been fatally shot while protesting the night before. Doucette’s firm had announced that it would represent anybody arrested while protesting, pro bono, and that it was working with local bail bondsmen in Charlotte who would post protesters’ bail for free. Meyers was nearby when the previous night’s chaotic scene unfolded, Doucette said. She believed it was a cop in riot gear who had fired on the protester, and not, as the Charlotte Mecklenburg Police Department alleged, a fellow civilian. “It would be nice if you could trust CMPD on this,” Doucette said, taking a sip from a yellow Bojangles’ cup on his desk. “But in their presser today, the chief basically admitted he wasn’t telling the truth yesterday when he said there was proof of Keith charging at the officers with his gun out. Today the chief says, ‘Nah, actually we don’t have definite
proof.’ Then he says, ‘Transparency is in the eye of the beholder.’ What? It’s just such an abject clown show down there.” Doucette is bald—he often wears a fedora—and burly, with big, excitable eyes. In person, he’s as voluble and intellectually confident as his Twitter presence suggests. Off the top of his head, he tossed off a litany of offenses committed by law enforcement in Charlotte so far this year, including six killings of civilians, as well as the case of Daniel Kevin Harris, a deaf and speech-impaired man gunned down in the street by a state trooper. The issue of police body cameras loomed over the mess in Charlotte; CMPD was slow to release the footage of what happened in the moments prior to Scott’s death, and then only released parts of it. Charlotte also drew attention to the fact that the General Assembly had, months before, enacted a law that reclassified body-cam and dash-cam footage as nonpublic records and moved power to release footage from police departments to the courts. Despite loud objections from transparency advocates, most Democrats, including Woodard, had supported HB 972, largely because it was attached to a state needle-exchange program Democrats sought. Doucette has little regard for this line of reasoning. “It’s a terrible bill that puts a veil of privacy over government at a time when police killings of civilians is a huge issue nationally,” he told me. “And the needleexchange thing—Republicans have a supermajority in this state. They could have passed body cams without Democrats voting for it. So why are Democrats letting Republicans buy their vote with needle exchange when they don’t even need it?” “Don’t downplay needle exchange,” Woodard told me later. “Should it have been a separate bill than the body-camera bill? Of course. But that’s the way the process works right now. And it was a big deal to get through. We had several local governments concerned they were violating state law by permitting these exchanges.” Woodard said he doesn’t know a whole lot about Doucette’s various positions on issues. But he’s not surprised that Doucette takes a purist view on releasing police videos. “Of course he does, he’s a criminal
defense attorney: it makes his job easier,” Woodard said. “I sat on the Durham City Council for seven years. I was in the room making decisions about what to release. It’s a complicated issue. As a legislator last session, we were talking with a hundred sheriff’s offices, over two hundred appointed police chiefs, community representatives, a lot of different people, trying to strike the right balance. Most of us who supported this bill knew it had shortcomings. And I think we’ll revisit it in the upcoming session in the wake of things like Charlotte. “But the point is, this is complicated stuff,” Woodard continued. “You can’t just boil it down to a tweet.”
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hat Doucette, a Republican, holds views frequently indistinguishable from those of a Black Lives Matter protester is particularly baffling given the political climate in North Carolina today. Doucette says it’s merely evidence of the degree to which the GOP has swerved right. But it’s also true that most Republican politicians have never been homeless, as Doucette was about fifteen years ago, not long after he moved to Raleigh to attend N.C. State. He grew up in Virginia Beach and never met his biological father. His mother and stepfather fought often, he says, which resulted in him often being shipped off to live with his grandparents—both prounion, old-school Democrats—for years at a time. “Domestic violence in our house was a normal thing,” Doucette says. “I didn’t know domestic violence was called domestic violence until I moved to North Carolina. That’s how normal it was in my life.” Doucette has identified as a Republican since the second grade. “Ever since I was a kid, I was independent-minded and just wanted to be left alone,” he says. “I didn’t care for my family environment. I was begging to be emancipated at the age of twelve.’” That led to skepticism about the role of government. “To me, that’s what Reagan and George H.W. Bush were about: government’s not the solution to the problem, it is the problem. I responded to that.” As Doucette reached high school, he became increasingly political. He volunteered on George Allen’s 1994 gubernatorial campaign. He started a Republicans
Doucette listens to other candidates speak at a forum in Roxboro. club. He read Supreme Court opinions for fun. “Virginia Beach back then was a military city and a tourist town, so being a Republican there was about being probusiness and in favor of a strong national defense,” Doucette says. “All this Republican culture-war shit, that wasn’t there yet. That all started after I left.” Politics was a hobby. Doucette was most interested in tech. He was offered a computer engineering scholarship from N.C. State and moved to Raleigh in 1998 at seventeen. (He skipped fourth grade.) It wasn’t long before Doucette again bumped up against what he viewed as the government obstructing his freedom. His parents, he says, were mad because he went to N.C. State rather than Old Dominion. So they refused to provide the tax information he needed to secure financial aid. Federal guidelines said he couldn’t do it on his own until age twentyfour, unless he served in the military or was legally emancipated. “So the upshot was I showed up to my sophomore year at State and had a bill for fourteen thousand dollars that I was never going to be able to pay,” he says. He tried to work and attend classes—he had a job at the Burger King—but couldn’t sustain it. After his sophomore year, a counselor advised Doucette to drop out and return once he could get his finances in order. He didn’t consider heading back to Virginia Beach an option. “I love ’em, but my family was just too nuts,” he said. Without student housing, Doucette found himself essentially homeless. His
girlfriend at the time, Teresa Nichols, let him use her dorm during the day to shower. “He’d sleep in his truck some nights, the library some nights,” says Nichols, who went on to work for Senate leader Phil Berger and Senator Harry Brown, both influential Republicans. “After three months or so, I put enough money aside for us to get an apartment together.” Doucette found a job loading trucks for UPS for $10 an hour. He moved on from there to a series of legal administrative jobs, including one at the N.C. State Bar. It would be four years before he returned to college.
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oucette has been outspoken about North Carolina politics more or less since he arrived here. The News & Observer began publishing his letters to the editor sometime around the time he dropped out of N.C. State. Here he is in October 2001 calling the newspaper “shamelessly liberal” for neglecting to mention a conservative candidate in an editorial. There he is in September 2002 railing against publicly financed judicial elections. In May 2004, a more nuanced glimpse of Doucette’s brand of conservatism emerged on the topic of equal protection for gays. “Disavowing the U.S. Constitution and the principles enshrined in it is a degree of foolishness no independent-minded Republican could ever support without admitting hypocrisy,” he wrote. “That [Republicans opposed to gay marriage] have gleefully abandoned their loyalty to
‘free people and free markets’ in order to advance a wedge issue against their own political brethren, all in the name of electoral politics, makes it all the more disappointing.” By the time Doucette drafted this last missive, he was working for the Wake County Republican Party. Andy Finlayson, then-chairman of the Wake GOP, had noticed Doucette’s N&O letters and asked him to come onboard. Soon after, Finlayson departed for Iraq, now-state Representative Marilyn Avila became chairwoman, and Doucette, at twenty-two, became second vice chairman. Around this time, Doucette was also working for Don Munford, a Republican state legislator who served from 2002–04. In 2004, in District 41, then in northwest Wake County, a Morrisville Town Council member named Thayne Conrad challenged a loud social conservative incumbent named Russell Capps, a Jesse Helms contemporary, in the GOP primary. Officially, the GOP’s plan of organization states that the party can’t take sides in a primary. But Doucette, new and naive, noticed that the party’s resources—walking lists, volunteer data, fundraising contacts—were being supplied to Capps and not Conrad. He piped up about it. “I was told, ‘Well, Thayne’s a Republican in name only,’” Doucette says. “And that was the first time that I noticed that there was some real friction between my Virginia Beach Republican experience and the Republican experience I was getting here in North Carolina.” Doucette threw his support behind Conrad. “He helped in every way imaginable,” says Conrad, who now lives in Atlanta and is no longer in politics. “We knocked on doors together, put up signs, strategized. He was a key person for me in a race where all the party activists were in my opponent’s camp.” “The catch there, though,” Doucette says, “is that you better hope your guy wins if you defy the party like that.” Conrad got shellacked in November. And that wasn’t all. At the time, Doucette’s day job was working as director of special projects for the clerk of the Wake County Superior Court, Janet Pueschel. Unbeknownst to Doucette, Capps and Pueschel were friends. (Neither Pueschel nor Capps responded to requests for comment.)
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“I come into work the very next day and Jan says, ‘You’ve been subordinate, pack your shit, you’re done here,’” Doucette says. “There was no relationship whatsoever between my work for Jan and my work for the GOP. But all clerks serve at the will of the court. You can fire anyone at any time for any reason.” (The Wake County GOP effectively booted him from his leadership position the following March.) Doucette found a job as an assistant at a Raleigh law firm, and then, when the firm split the following year, resolved to re-enroll at N.C. State. Back at State, his distaste for politics subsided. He was elected president of the Student Senate in 2007 and worked in his spare time for Larry Bewley, a Raleigh lobbyist. As president, he created a referendum that allowed students to vote on proposed fee increases, advocated for lower textbook prices, and supported voter registration drives. Doucette also sponsored a bill to establish an LGBT center on campus. In 2009, Doucette was named the president of the UNC Association of Student Governments, which gave him a seat—the only one occupied by a student—on the UNC Board of Governors. He served there until 2010, when he enrolled at the N.C. Central University School of Law. Within a year, he was president of the Student Bar Association. “Greg is one of these guys you just can never underestimate,” says Nichols, who was engaged to Doucette before they split up around 2006. “I don’t want to say he’s a chameleon, because that makes him sound disingenuous, but he has this ability to relate to all types of people. Take me. For him to date an African-American woman from the western part of North Carolina and be able to so quickly learn about and understand what my life is like and have it inform his worldview— and have him then go on to study at an HBCU law school and work in Durham—that’s rare, I think. “He’s always been conservative and always considered fiscal responsibility very important,” Nichols continues. “But he’s also compassionate and not opposed to spending on social policies, because he knows it makes a difference in people’s lives. And that, I think,
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is what is missing from the Republican Party these days.”
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ne Tuesday night in early October, a crowd of about twenty Libertarians (all men) sat in jammed-together tables inside Satisfaction, a sports bar in Durham’s Brightleaf Square, listening to Doucette’s pitch. Wearing a gray suit, Doucette talked about the criminal justice system, how he thinks Governor McCrory is a joke, how he’s embarrassed by Donald Trump—all the things he’d said to me in previous conversations and on Twitter. When he was done, he opened up to questions from the floor. “Yeah, I got one,” a man in a Heartland Institute shirt said. “Why are you a Republican?” “I get that a lot,” Doucette replied, with a grin. “To be honest, it’s gotten harder every year. Conservative doesn’t mean what it used to mean. And now they nominate Donald Trump. So I guess my answer is, I’m not sure I can keep threading this needle.” He talked about the lack of support he’d received from the party in his race and fielded questions about marijuana decriminalization (he’s for it, though he’s not sure he supports total legalization); Democratic state representative Graig Meyer (“I like him, but he’s a progressive’s progressive—very liberal”); local judicial races (he’s supporting Mike Morgan for the N.C. Supreme Court and Shameika Rhinehart for District Court); and whom he’s backing for president (Gary Johnson, which drew a big round of applause from the group). “This is hardly the first time I’ve heard a Republican talk about his or her own party as if they don’t know why they’re in it,” Brian Irving, chairman of the N.C. Libertarian Party, told me afterward. “He’s got an interesting dilemma trying to be who he is here in North Carolina.” Before Doucette retreated back to his seat at the table, he made a last request of the group: to find him on Twitter and follow him. “I’m at ‘Greg underscore Doucette,’” he said. “That’s the best way to get to know me.” backtalk@indyweek.com
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THE REVOLUTIONARY DURHAM’S LAMONT LILLY SEEKS THE SECOND-HIGHEST OFFICE IN THE LAND (BUT YOU’LL HAVE TO WRITE HIS NAME IN)
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t was Saturday afternoon, September 24, four days after police shot and killed fortythree-year-old Keith Lamont Scott, and three days after Justin Carr, twenty-six, was shot and killed while protesting Scott’s death. In downtown Charlotte, helicopters circled overhead. National Guard soldiers in camo gear stood watch near the entrances of tall buildings in the emptied-out business district. It was hot and bright out, and in Marshall Park, a peaceful protest was in full swing. A small stage had been erected. There was spoken-word poetry. There was conscious hip-hop. There were speeches about civil rights, police brutality, and the assault on America’s working class. It was all right in Lamont Lilly’s wheelhouse. Lilly initially wasn’t sure he was going to make it to Charlotte. The Workers World Party, the party that has nominated him for vice president of the United States, had planned to hold a daylong conference on socialism in Durham that Saturday. (Full title: “Hard Times Are Fighting Times: Building the Movement for Liberation, Revolution, and Socialism in the South.”) Lilly, who lives in Durham, was one of the featured speakers. But after the tension and the teargas on Wednesday, the decision was made to organize a caravan to Charlotte. Political theory could wait. This was a time for action. “We’ve got another brother down, and it’s happened just two hours away,” Lilly told me that Thursday. “So fuck the conference. We’re freedom fighters. We’re revolutionary-minded people. It’s not a hard decision. We need to be in the street with our comrades right now.” And so Lilly got his turn to address the crowd. He’d recently returned from the Standing Rock Indian Reservation, in North Dakota, where he’d joined protest-
B Y D AV I D H U D N A L L
ers opposing the construction of an oil pipeline across the upper Midwest. “Much love to the indigenous peoples I met up in Standing Rock, who taught me so much and elevated my consciousness and my spirit,” he said. “These are people that have been fighting against colonialism and white supremacy for the last five hundred years. And we bring them here with us today in love and resistance
and solidarity and self-determination. We have to learn to connect Black Lives Matter with Standing Rock, the Palestinian resistance with the Latino movement.” He went on: “We have to connect all oppressed communities together in order to defeat this wicked system: the state, white supremacy, racism, and also, what?” The crowd responded in shouted unison: “Capitalism!”
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he Workers World Party, founded in 1959, is a Marxist and Leninist revolutionary socialist party that believes, according to its literature, that “through global unity and solidarity of people’s movements against imperialism, capitalist exploitation, racism and all other forms of oppression, a new world can be created: a socialist order.” Historically, the group has supported radical activist groups like the Black Panthers and the Weather Underground, and was an early advocate in the struggle for gay rights. Today, its causes include Black Lives Matter, opposition to the deportation of immigrants, and the discontinuation of United States imperialism. “We believe the capitalist system can’t be reformed,” Lilly told me one morning in mid-October at Madhatter Bakeshop and Cafe in Durham, “and revolutionary socialism is the only way to dismantle and replace that system.” Lilly, dressed in a tweed cap and a white short-sleeve shirt buttoned up high, was seated at a table with his laptop, a copy of Writing on the Wall: Selected Prison Writings of Mumia Abu-Jamal, and a couple hundred pages of a marked-up manuscript—a rough draft of his first book, Lilly said. The book, which Lilly intends to selfpublish, will be a compilation of his writings between 2012 and 2016, years in which he emerged as a writer and activist in Durham. His byline has appeared in the Triangle Free Press (where he was a contributing editor until this year), Counterpunch, and in guest columns for The Durham News, The Herald-Sun, and Triangle Tribune. (In 2015, the INDY gave Lilly a Citizen Award for his work in the community.) Lilly took a roundabout path to journalism and activism. The son of a military serviceman, he arrived in Durham from Fayetteville in 1998 to attend N.C. Cen-
INDYweek.com | 11.2.16 | 15
Lamont Lilly talks with author Toni Tipton-Martin at the Center for Documentary Studies in Durham. tral University. (Lilly was also in the U.S. Army Reserves, stationed at Fort Bragg, during this time. He was honorably discharged in 2001. “My anti-imperialist views don’t come from a blind perspective,” he explains.) After graduating with a degree in criminal justice, Lilly found work mentoring young black males through a federally funded youth program at NCCU. He went on to seek a graduate degree in sociology, which he abandoned, he said, because it seemed to be only taking him further away from the community-based work in which he found fulfillment. “When you work with families, you see how poor everyone is, you see the schoolto-prison pipeline, you see police brutality,” Lilly says. “You see all these things up close. I started to really question why this is our reality. And that led naturally to journalism: I was seeing these things going on in the community that were not being talked about, not being covered, and I wanted to raise awareness of them.” When Lewis Little, a nineteen-year-old NCCU student, was incarcerated for one month over a murder he didn’t commit, Lilly told Little's story and called out the Durham Police Department. When seven16 | 11.2.16 | INDYweek.com
teen-year-old Jesus Huerta died of a gunshot wound while handcuffed in a police squad car, Lilly wrote articles questioning the cops’ account. “I found I could use my pen as a counter to the mainstream media narrative that never holds the police power structure or political officials responsible,” Lilly says. The murder of Trayvon Martin, in 2012, propelled Lilly to start speaking out at community protests, which led to community organizing and talks in other cities. He found he had a voice not just as a writer but as a speaker. Monica Moorehead, Lilly’s running mate, says she first encountered Lilly sometime around 2012. “He joined the party, and it was clear that he was not only very political and class-conscious about oppressed people everywhere, but also very much in tune with younger generations,” Moorehead says. “I’m in my middle sixties. He’s in his late thirties, but he relates to people much younger than him. He’s very immersed in art and culture—he understands how those things can be used as a weapon and a voice for social change. “Also,” Moorehead continues, “he’s from the South, like me—I live in New Jersey now, but I’m from Tuscaloosa. So I think
we both very much connected about our Southern upbringings, the fight against racism in the South. I’ve learned a lot from him. I very much expect him to be a very real force for revolutionary socialism moving forward.”
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unning for vice president on the WWP ticket much more closely resembles a punk band’s DIY tour than it does the billion-dollar campaigns being waged by Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. The budget is tight. A hotel room is a splurge. Mostly, it’s speaking to small crowds and sleeping on couches, often in cities where voters can’t easily vote for WWP candidates. “It costs an absurd amount of money just to get on the ballot in most states,” Lilly says. (Unless you live in Wisconsin, Utah, New Jersey, or Texas, you’ll have to write in your vote for Moorehead and Lilly.) “We don’t have the big-business engine behind us pushing out our message and our candidates. We don’t own the TV and radio stations or the newspapers. This two-party system is designed to prevent third parties from gaining footing.” Travel is limited. The party has a small budget that mostly comes from online
donations. Occasionally, at a campaign event, somebody will cut a check for a few hundred bucks. “That’s a big deal to us,” Lilly says. “For Democrats, two hundred dollars is chump change. To us, we can really put that to work. That’s two train tickets for the candidates. That allows us to eat while we’re on the trail.” This summer, in addition to Standing Rock, Lilly attended both the Republican National Convention and the Democratic National Convention to speak and stage protests, and the week before I met him at Madhatter, he’d been out on the West Coast. He’d guested on Mutiny Radio, a community radio program in San Francisco; spoken about community cop-watches “with some Chicano sisters in San Diego”; and, in Los Angeles, attended a fiftieth-anniversary celebration for the Black Panthers. “It was a real honor to be in the room,” Lilly says. “Everybody knows about Kathleen Cleaver and Bobby Seale, but these were folks who aren’t as esteemed or wellknown, telling old stories and putting them in the new context of what’s going on today. It was an awesome experience.” In the days before the election, Lilly will travel to Baltimore, followed by Philadelphia and then Detroit. “The more places I go, the more I see that people out there are really ready for something new,” Lilly told me. “And not some new cliché, like Obama. I mean a brand new system. We’re up against these huge, elite corporations that don’t care about us. They don’t care about working people. They don’t care about our ability to pay for decent housing, or our right to livable wages, or our right to be members of unions, or our right to drink clean water, whether here or in Detroit …” A Madhatter barista slipped into the booth beside Lilly with a video queued up on his iPhone. “Here, watch this,” he said. It was a CNN clip from the RNC. The camera pans across a crowd of protesters, and there’s Lilly, on the front lines, shouting. “I was watching TV and I was like, I know that guy, he comes into the cafe,” the barista said. “That’s crazy, man,” Lilly replied. They had a laugh and the barista returned to work. “Durham, man,” Lilly said. “I miss being here.” backtalk@indyweek.com
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THE OPERATIVE
THOMAS MILLS RECRUITED DEMS TO RUN IN IMPOSSIBLE CONGRESSIONAL RACES. AND THEN HE RECRUITED HIMSELF BY LAUREN HORSCH
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hen Thomas Mills grew up in Wadesboro—a rural town in Anson County two hours southwest of Carrboro whose biggest claim to fame is that Evil Dead II was filmed there—its population numbered around four thousand. In the fortyplus years since, it’s gained only fifteen hundred more people, and over the last five years the town’s population has actually fallen. The town has gotten poorer, too. According to the most recent census, Wadesboro has a 33.8 percent poverty rate, more than double the statewide average. In fact, former textile counties throughout the Eighth Congressional District (which includes Wadesboro)—Warren, Moore, Halifax, Hartford, Graham—and across the state have all fallen on hard times. “When I was growing up, most of those rural counties were driven by textile economy. They also had some cotton farming and some other things,” Mills says. “Some of the agriculture is still there. It was like the district was a patchwork of crossroads and small towns that had thriving business districts. It’s built around a textile industry that is no longer there. And they don’t have the tools to compete. The workforce isn’t trained for high-tech jobs. There’s no incentive for businesses to locate there. And it’s hard for businesses to get started down there” The fifty-three-year-old is seated at a table on the lawn of Weaver Street Market in Carrboro, where he’s lived for the last twelve years. He’s unassuming, a regular guy, with curly brown hair that is starting to gray and blue eyes obstructed by eyeglasses. In local political circles, Mills is best known as a Democratic operative with an acute grasp of the state’s political climate. He’s worked on campaigns ranging from city council members to presidential can-
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didates—most notably for the 2004 KerryEdwards presidential ticket, but also for Elaine Marshall’s 2010 bid for U.S. Senate and Bev Perdue’s gubernatorial race in 2008. This fall, however, he has a new client: himself. Mills is an unlikely candidate for North Carolina’s Eighth Congressio-
nal District, which is nowhere near his current residence. There, he’s up against incumbent Richard Hudson, who won nearly 65 percent of the vote two years ago in a heavily Republican district. In the most optimistic scenario, Mills has but an outside chance at winning, and he’s smart enough to know it. But that’s
not the point. The point is that somebody had to run—and, if he wanted to practice what he was so loudly preaching, it needed to be him. Some background: earlier this year, Mills was on a crusade. He looked around at North Carolina’s map—one unapologetically gerrymandered so as to practically guarantee Republicans ten out of the thirteen seats—and saw a host of Republicans who were getting a free pass. No Democrats were willing to challenge them. This, he thought, wasn’t right. “And I had seen a series of election cycles where a large number of races were uncontested, for all kinds of reasons— because of gerrymandering, because of too much money, because whatever reason they weren’t being contested,” Mills explains. “I started arguing that all races need to be competitive, need to be challenged, for a whole host of reasons,” Mills says. Last summer, he began a series of blog posts on politicsnc.com, the website he founded in 2013, on the necessity of longshot challengers. “Take the fight to the Republicans,” he wrote in August 2015. “Let people know what they’ve done to our state and our children. But don’t wait until September next year. Money will follow competitive races. To make these districts competitive, you have to change the dynamics, and to do that, you need to start closer to this September than next.” With the filing deadline fast approaching last December, Mills noticed that three Republicans still didn’t have challengers. He worked his connections and convinced Josh Brannon to challenge Virginia Foxx in the Fifth District and Adam Coker to run in the Thirteenth. (Coker eventually lost the Democratic primary.) That left the Eighth— a district in which he had political roots, in which his father had been a superior and district court judge and his uncle had been a legislator.
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37 YEARS OF SUCCESS Thomas Mills and his dog, Maisy And so, a few days before Christmas, Mills signed up to run. His theory is that anything can happen in politics, and sometimes just being an alternative is good enough. “We’ve seen this happen, where scandals happen in the middle of a campaign and the guy that is scandalized, whether it’s Democratic or Republican, has no opponent, so they get reelected,” he says. No scandals have engulfed Hudson, but Mills did catch a break of sorts. In February, a federal court ruled that North Carolina’s congressional districts amounted to an illegal racial gerrymander and ordered them redrawn. The new Eighth District was more streamlined; instead of including parts of eleven counties, it now has seven. And instead of being a blob, it’s shaped more like a witch’s shoe, pointed toe and all. Mills crunched the numbers and determined that the district could be competitive. Hudson, a two-term congressman, won with 53 percent of the vote in 2012 and 65 percent in the more GOP-friendly 2014. And while most analysts see the Eighth as a Republican stronghold, Mills sees the redrawn version as slightly more Democratic. “So now I’ve got a district that I would argue is at least marginally competitive,” he says. “And, in a year like this, is quite competitive.” By that, he means a year in which Donald Trump may bring the Republican Party to ruin. In fact, his campaign’s best hope is that Trump gets routed so badly, or that enough Republicans give up and stay home, that underdogs like
him can squeak past the post. Months ago, Mills was predicting an October Trump collapse. Now he’s hopeful that Trump’s devolution might just drag Hudson down with him. “This year ended up being a good year, because of what is going on with the presidential contest,” he says. “I think Donald Trump is going to melt down, and it offers Democrats all over the country a huge opportunity.” Indeed, Democrats are projected to pick up ten to twenty seats in the House—enough to dent, but not overcome, the Republican majority. In this case, however, Mills’s assessment might be overly optimistic, if only because his district leans Republican, and, in presidential years, that’s what matters. “A lot of people in presidential elections are really just there to vote for the top of the ticket,” says Michael Munger, director of the philosophy, politics, and economic program at Duke University. “That’s really going to hurt the Democrats generally.” Even so, Mills doesn’t see his campaign as quixotic. If anything, it’s an exercise in nostalgia, an attempt to reestablish the vibrancy he remembers from his youth within his native Wadesboro and neighboring areas. Mills is astute enough to know that, if he somehow emerges victorious next week, it will have precious little to do with him or Richard Hudson. More likely, it’ll be because a healthy contingent of GOP-leaning citizens throw up their hands in disgust and stay home. lhorsch@indyweek.com
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THE SPOILER NO, MILLENNIAL PROGRESSIVES, GARY JOHNSON IS NOT WORTH YOUR VOTE
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n a survey released last month by the Black Youth Project and the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, 51 percent of white millennials who supported Bernie Sanders—not surprisingly—backed Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. What was surprising was who came in second. Not Donald Trump, with his paltry 2 percent. Not Green Party candidate Jill Stein, who, despite charging hard after disenchanted Sanders voters, amassed just 9 percent. No, that distinction belongs to Gary Johnson, a former Republican governor of New Mexico and currently the Libertarian Party candidate, who picked up 20 percent. Johnson’s base is not progressive millennials, but rather self-identified libertarians and Never Trump Republicans. Still, in a close enough contest, one in five millennial Sanders supporters opting for Johnson could be enough to tip the election. And even if that weren’t the case, the fact that Johnson has scooped up even a scintilla of support from young progressives is baffling. If any year was ripe for a third-party candidate, it’d be 2016, with both majorparty candidate and Congress widely disliked and distrusted, especially among younger voters. Clinton represents a dysfunctional, removed political establishment struggling to grapple with the challenges presented by late capitalism; Trump, meanwhile, represents the unbridled id of the GOP—the politics of white aggrievement and fear of the other, unfettered by political norms. Enter two Republican governors of reliably blue states, who’ve been endorsed by conservative newspapers and some Trump-hating Republicans. Johnson embraces many of the same economic policies we’ve come to expect from Republicans, albeit slathered in an Ayn
20 | 11.2.16 | INDYweek.com
BY PA U L B L E S T
Rand glaze, but he’s also pro-choice, progay marriage, and generally critical of the police state. Vice presidential candidate William Weld of Massachusetts has similar libertarian cred. His 1997 nomination to be ambassador to Mexico was blocked by North Carolina’s own Jesse Helms, who
deemed Weld insufficiently conservative on drugs and gay rights. Johnson came into office in 1994 amid a Republican wave. He had no prior government experience, having owned a construction company, and it showed. Republican state senator Stuart Ingle
told The Washington Post last month that when he first met with Johnson and asked about the new governor’s agenda, Johnson mostly responded with “I don’t know”— and then said that if any bill grew the state’s budget, he would veto it. Johnson used that veto 739 times in eight years. It wasn’t just budget bills, either. Johnson vetoed the creation of an African-American affairs committee and a task force on equal pay for women because “he thought they were a waste of time and money.” He also vetoed hate crime legislation, which, earlier this year, he defended at a forum by saying, “I foresaw a situation where I got beat up in a parking lot and, ‘Well, gee, you’re not gay, you’re not black, you’re not Hispanic, you’re not Jewish, are you sure you want to press charges here? It doesn’t seem to be any hate crime.’” (In contrast, Weld said this at that same forum: “I think a burning cross on the lawn of a black church, you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to know there is an overtone there.”) But more than civil rights, Johnson’s tenure as governor was dominated by the privatization and destruction of public services. In short, he didn’t care much for government. “He made it very clear to me that by the time he graduated from third grade, he knew all there was to know about government,” former state House Speaker Raymond Sanchez told Jacobin in September. “He tried to privatize everything he could think of—everything that was in reach.” Indeed, Johnson privatized everything from prisons to schools; he proposed a nationwide voucher program as far back as 1999—an idea North Carolina Republicans have taken up with vigor in recent years. He also eliminated collective bargaining rights for public employees, long before conservative darling Scott Walker caught flak for doing that in Wiscon-
sin. His economic policies are centered on a predictable array of tax cuts and deregulation. If Johnson were somehow elected president, he would shred the social safety net with a gleefulness that would make Paul Ryan blush. This all leads us to an important point: Johnson, although he may believe in LGBTQ rights and marijuana legalization more than Pat McCrory, is effectively the same brand of conservative as the governor of North Carolina. Johnson criticized HB 2 and said the state deserves all the scorn it’s getting, but if you break the bill down piece by piece, it’s hard to see how a law sold as relieving a burden on businesses wouldn’t have met with his approval. After all, not only does the law prevent cities from mandating that businesses accommodate LGBTQ customers, it also prevents municipalities from increasing the minimum wage—something that Johnson wants to eliminate altogether. Transphobia aside, it’s a libertarian’s dream. And when the Obama administration tried to fix the problem McCrory and the legislature created, Johnson said the government was overstepping its bounds, telling radio host Adam Corolla, “These transgender bathrooms that schools are now being dictated to to provide by the federal government. Well, gee, that’s costs that the federal government is mandating to the states. Look, just leave the states alone.” (Fact check: there are no “transgender bathrooms,” and it doesn’t cost the state money to let transgender students use the bathroom that conforms to their gender identity.) So is there any reason for progressives disillusioned with Clinton to vote for Johnson? Johnson’s noninterventionist foreign policy is probably his strongest suit, but it’s offset by his pride in not knowing anything about diplomacy or the way the United States interacts with the global community. Johnson’s two biggest gaffes so far this election were not knowing what Aleppo is (it’s a city in northwestern Syria that is the site of perhaps the biggest human rights disaster in that country’s civil war) and not being able to name a single foreign leader he respects. Johnson has addressed concerns about his know-nothingness thusly: “But I guess because you can, you can
dot the i’s and cross the t’s on foreign leaders and geographic locations, that now somehow you’re qualified to put us in that situation? Hey, if that ends up to be the case, so be it. I guess I wasn’t meant to be president.” Well, OK, then. In fairness, in a New Yorker interview, Johnson also didn’t know who Harriet Tubman was, so his lack of interest apparently extends to the rest of the high school social studies curriculum. Johnson’s other claim to the millennial vote involves marijuana, which he admittedly enjoys (although he promised not to toke up while in office). But pot legalization, or at least decriminalization, might well be coming in the next decade no matter who wins next week. Colorado’s legalization has been wildly successful. And polling suggests that voters in most or all nine states that have marijuana-related referendums on the ballot—including five that would legalize weed for recreational use—are leaning toward relaxing marijuana restrictions. At this point, even Weld seems to have given up. In a statement last week about the “final weeks of this election,” Weld—who calls Hillary Clinton a friend—said that “every citizen must be aware of the power and responsibility of each individual vote. This is not the time to cast a jocular or feel-good vote for a man whom you may have briefly found entertaining. Donald Trump should not, cannot, and must not be elected President of the United States.” That is hardly a ringing endorsement of his running mate. But even if progressives didn’t feel pressured to rally with moderates and neocons against Trump, and even if Johnson were the Republican nominee and had a legitimate chance at the White House, he doesn’t have much to offer young liberals. Unless, of course, those young liberals are into privatization, austerity, the destruction of public schools, the elimination of labor rights, and all of the other corporatist goals that Johnson has championed throughout his career—basically the McCrory governorship on steroids. If that’s your thing, sure, vote for Johnson. But if you do, it’s hard to see why you’d ever consider yourself to be a progressive in the first place. pblest@indyweek.com
THE INDY'S VOTING GUIDE FEDERAL PRESIDENT: Hillary Clinton U.S. SENATOR: Deborah Ross U.S. HOUSE, DISTRICT 1: G.K. Butterfield U.S. HOUSE, DISTRICT 2: John McNeil U.S. HOUSE, DISTRICT 4: David Price U.S. HOUSE, DISTRICT 6: Pete Glidewell
COUNCIL OF STATE GOVERNOR: Roy Cooper LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR: Linda Coleman ATTORNEY GENERAL: Josh Stein SECRETARY OF STATE: Elaine Marshall COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE: Walter Smith COMMISSIONER OF INSURANCE: Wayne Goodwin COMMISSIONER OF LABOR: No endorsement due to conflict SUPERINTENDENT OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION: June Atkinson STATE AUDITOR: Chuck Stuber STATE TREASURER: Dan Blue III
GENERAL ASSEMBLY N.C. HOUSE, DISTRICT 11: Duane Hall N.C. HOUSE, DISTRICT 30: Paul Luebke N.C. HOUSE, DISTRICT 34: Grier Martin N.C. HOUSE, DISTRICT 35: Terence Everitt N.C. HOUSE, DISTRICT 36: Jennifer Ferrell N.C. HOUSE, DISTRICT 37: Randy Barrow N.C. HOUSE, DISTRICT 38: Yvonne Lewis Holley N.C. HOUSE, DISTRICT 40: Joe John N.C. HOUSE, DISTRICT 41: Gale Adcock N.C. HOUSE, DISTRICT 49: Cynthia Ball N.C. HOUSE, DISTRICT 50: Graig Meyer N.C. HOUSE, DISTRICT 54: Robert Reives II N.C. SENATE, DISTRICT 15: Laurel Deegan-Fricke N.C. SENATE, DISTRICT 16: Jay Chaudhuri N.C. SENATE, DISTRICT 17: Susan Evans N.C. SENATE, DISTRICT 18: Gil Johnson N.C. SENATE, DISTRICT 22: T. Greg Doucette N.C. SENATE, DISTRICT 23: Valerie Foushee
JUDICIAL
N.C. SUPREME COURT ASSOCIATE JUSTICE: Mike Morgan N.C. COURT OF APPEALS JUDGE (DIETZ): Vince Rozier N.C. COURT OF APPEALS JUDGE (GREER): Margaret Eagles
N.C. COURT OF APPEALS JUDGE (HUNTER): Abe Jones N.C. COURT OF APPEALS JUDGE (STEPHENS): Linda Stephens N.C. COURT OF APPEALS JUDGE (ZACHARY): Rickye McKoy-Mitchell N.C. SUPERIOR COURT JUDGE, DISTRICT 10C: Becky Holt N.C. DISTRICT COURT JUDGE, DISTRICT 10 (BOUSMAN): Bryant Paris III N.C. DISTRICT COURT JUDGE, DISTRICT 10 (NAGLE): Walter Rand N.C. DISTRICT COURT JUDGE, DISTRICT 10 (WORLEY): Marty E. Miller N.C. DISTRICT COURT JUDGE, DISTRICT 14 (MARSH): Shamieka Rhinehart N.C. DISTRICT COURT JUDGE, DISTRICT 15B (ANDERSON): Samantha Cabe N.C. DISTRICT COURT JUDGE, DISTRICT 15B (LONG): Sherri Murrell
CHATHAM COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS, DISTRICT 1: Karen Howard BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS, DISTRICT 2: Mike Dasher
DURHAM COUNTY SOIL AND WATER CONSERVATION DISTRICT SUPERVISOR: Danielle Adams DURHAM COUNTY BOND REFERENDUMS: Yes to all
ORANGE COUNTY ORANGE COUNTY SCHOOLS BOND: Yes ORANGE COUNTY AFFORDABLE HOUSING BOND: No
WAKE COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS, DISTRICT 4: Erv Portman BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS, DISTRICT 6: Greg Ford BOARD OF EDUCATION, DISTRICT 1: Tom Benton BOARD OF EDUCATION, DISTRICT 2: Monika Johnson-Hostler BOARD OF EDUCATION, DISTRICT 4: Keith Sutton BOARD OF EDUCATION, DISTRICT 8: Lindsay Mahaffey BOARD OF EDUCATION, DISTRICT 9: Bill Fletcher SOIL AND WATER DISTRICT SUPERVISOR: Marshall Harvey WAKE COUNTY PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION REFERENDUM: Yes
Early voting and same-day registration run through Saturday, November 5. Times and locations vary by county. Check your county’s board of elections website for details. Election Day is Tuesday, November 8. Find your polling place through the N.C. Board of Elections Public Voter Search website. You DO NOT need a photo ID to vote. INDYweek.com | 11.2.16 | 21
indyfood
Casual Cachet
THE RESTAURANT MERRY-GO-ROUND AT 403 WEST ROSEMARY COMES TO A STRONG STOP AT NORTHSIDE DISTRICT BY BLANCHE BROWN
When the Northside District first opened, I did not plan on eating there. The historic black neighborhood in Chapel Hill it references has undergone constant gentrification. The restaurant’s name smacked of an empty make-nice gesture. Although the tensions between the neighborhood and the proliferation of hip shops, bars, and housing developments have by no means been resolved, I find myself eating at the Northside District often—and liking it quite a lot. The restaurant-bar is the most recent endeavor in a revolving door of restaurants to occupy 403 West Rosemary Street (see sidebar). The owners are in fact not the suits I imagined. Almost a year ago, the beloved bros who once ran the Chapel Hill Underground venue, David Chong, Eddie Sanchez, and Stan Pickens, teamed up with Mike Krock, who trained at the Culinary Institute of America, to open the restaurant. “We really want to build a place where people can actually just talk about stuff and meet interesting people,” says Chong. “And places can be that—something that actually betters the community in a lot of different ways. When you look back on your life and you’re like, ‘That place was my home,’ it’s because of the people that were there.” Twenty comforting staples on the menu span a variety of culinary worlds. They make up a selection of classic favorites with some inventive flourishes. Maduros are listed first. The sweet and sticky plantains are thick chunks, lightly salted and seasoned with mint and cilantro. Citrus chili sauce swirls the plate, and I encourage swiping through these trails liberally. The sope is perfect for a light pre-party supper, with its fresh avocado slices splayed and bright like a green flower against bright red chorizo. On a bed of flaky masa, the spicy sausage is balanced by raw, sliced radish and pickled onions and ginger. It leaves my bottom lip buzzing. 22 | 11.2.16 | INDYweek.com
A hand-crafted bar welcomes visitors at Northside District. PHOTOS BY ALEX BOERNER
Other dishes range from adobo tacos and chicken biscuits to the popular Northside Noodles (you’ll find it among our favorite soups in the INDY’s recent Dish issue). Half of the menu is vegetarian; most of it can be modified to be meatless. Chong says the team created its eclectic yet comforting selection by being authentic to its own tastes and experiences. “We are not reinventing the wheel. Nobody is,” he says. “The best ones are doing what their grandparents did or doing what their mom did really, really well. We wanted to make food that we grew up eating. That we knew.” Chef Krock uses inventive fixings and sauces to remake familiar foods. A standout is the Wu Tang Slider. Seared pork belly sticks out the sides of this tiny sandwich like wings on a pig that can fly. A pile of sesame slaw and sour cucumber quick pickles melds with soy sauce and chili oil into a juice that drips off the sandwich. The tang in the name is literal. The tongue wants for nothing. Chong noted that he has people who come in two or three times a week to order that sandwich. I believe him. The quality of Northside District’s food is enhanced by its affordability. The most expensive item (excepting any add-ons) is the chicken biscuit plate, priced at a refreshing nine dollars. (I’m not sure when I got used to spending a minimum of twelve dollars on a sandwich, but it has to stop.) The restaurant serves its full menu until two in the morning. “We never even discussed it,” Chong reflects. “It was just something we were going to do. The only thing we ever talked about was what people late at night want to eat.” Hence, the mountain of fried potato, garlic, cilantro, and chorizo gravy that is North Fries. You know that old elementary science rule about liquid conforming to the shape of its container? Well, reverse that and you’ll have an understanding of how the Northside District functions as an environment: with flexibility to one’s needs. I’ve eaten early dinners
NORTHSIDE DISTRICT
403 West Rosemary Street, Chapel Hill www.thenorthsidedistrict.com
TRICT
acos and rthside avorite sue). Half it can be
s eclectic g authennces. “We obody is,” what their heir mom d to make we knew.” xings and A standpork belly Rich maduros at Northside District sandwich ile of sesck pickles nto a juice ang in the for nothNorthside District only opened late last ople who year, but it feels like I’ve been going k to order there forever, because I have. Has anywhere else in Chapel Hill had so many rict’s food name changes and yet so much comThe most forting continuity? My memories of the dd-ons) is multiple incarnations are fuzzy—it’s a a refreshbar, after all. But I know I started hauntI got used ing 403 West Rosemary around 2000, ollars on a when it housed Henry’s Bistro. It served dinner, but I probably never had it: Henmenu until ry’s was the place to go late night, after even disa show at the Cradle or Local 506, to ust somedrink more and feast on a killer menu. only thing I’ll never forget the pan-fried veggie eople late dumplings and the Kobe beef sliders mountain (this was before I kicked meat). I was d chorizo bereaved when Henry’s closed, but happily, it reopened as Fuse in the early ience rule aughties. The space stayed virtually ape of its the same, with its outdoor patio, baryou’ll have anchored dining room, and cozy, quirky hside Disfront parlor looking out onto Rosemary with flexStreet. Its nighttime scene featured ly dinners
alone with a book at the bar. I’ve come in covered with sweat and glitter to enjoy a late-night snack in the crimson-walled lounge nook. I’ve popped in with a large group of friends, ordering and sharing items in the style of tapas. Talking with Chong, I seized the opportunity to learn more about the decision behind the name, which had earlier caused me such queasiness. Chong explained that he used to live in Northside, and, when moving into the business space, it seemed as good a name as any other. “We’re here. We might as well respect the neighborhood and call it what it is.” In the spirit of calling things what they are, the Northside District is a casual place to eat and drink. The menu and ambience are unpretentious but ultimately satisfying. The owners and staff (these two roles are often one and the same) are genuinely working to build a great place to hang out— for themselves, for me, and maybe for you, too. Twitter: @blancheybee
WHAT’S IN A NAME?
a healthy assortment of jazz and DJ nights that drew a markedly international clientele into the fold with the homegrown scenesters. After about nine years, Fuse folded, but it quickly returned—first as The Standard, then as Industry—within the same owner family. (They had some amazing pizzas, like one with fig compote I still try to recreate, and added some movie nights to the mix.) Will Northside District last? In some form, almost certainly, as the spot is a perfect bridge between the Carrboro and Chapel Hill bar scenes. “It’s a nice space, right in the middle,” says current co-owner David Chong. “It combines the student, grad student, intellectual aspect with the homegrown, casual, bohemian one. It’s a place where you see really different people coming, and that’s always been what I want to foster.” —Brian Howe with additional reporting by Jamie Stuart
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indymusic
T
hose who haven’t kept up with Andrew W.K. since his 2001 debut album, I Get Wet—recognizable as much for his bloody-faced cover photo as for raucous singles like “Party Hard” and “She Is Beautiful”—may be surprised with the twists his career has taken in the last fifteen years beyond those high-energy mash-ups of hair metal, pop, and hard rock. With his efforts always directed by what W.K. refers to as “the party gods,” the energetic entertainer has hosted TV shows, delivered lectures, appeared in video games, penned advice columns, launched a radio show, drummed for twenty-four consecutive hours, opened a nightclub, started a political party, and recorded a solo piano album. Referring to himself as a “professional partier,” W.K. will hit North Carolina on election night, around two-thirds of the way through his fifty-state speaking tour dubbed “The Power of Partying.” He’ll let the party gods steer him as he tries to foster an increase in positive vibes in Carrboro.
Party Lines
POSITIVITY APOSTLE ANDREW W.K. SPEAKS FROM THE HEART ON ELECTION NIGHT BY SPENCER GRIFFITH
The speaker has the floor: Andrew W.K. PHOTO COURTESY OF THE WINDISH AGENCY 24 | 11.2.16 | INDYweek.com
INDY: What makes this “Power of Partying” tour different from other speaking engagements and motivational writing you’ve done in the past? ANDREW W.K.: I’ve never really done a full-blown motivational speaking tour before—I’ve just done one-off events—so getting to present a speech every night and hopefully develop it and improve upon it, that’s been new. This is the first time I’ve ever done so many events in a row, backto-back, but the theme is the same. I’m always trying to get better at hitting my bull’s-eye, and the bull’s-eye is trying to conjure up and amplify a type of celebratory energy and excitement and optimism about life. So are you working off a framework as you revisit this theme every night and develop your speech? No, every night is totally different. I don’t have any notes or anything like that. I don’t work with a script or anything prepared. It’s quite open in that regard. There’s a lot of interaction with the audience in the room, so there’s a great deal of discussion, which is my favorite part of the event. In that regard, I think leaving a lot of it up to chance is definitely scary in one way, but also very thrilling.
ANDREW W.K.
Tuesday, Nov. 8, 8 p.m., $20–$23 The ArtsCenter, Carrboro www.artscenterlive.org
Why did you feel like now was the right time to embark on this tour of all fifty states? I don’t really know. Again, there’s not usually a lot of planning put into most of what I do, for better or for worse. I try to just turn my mind off and let the party gods pull me into whatever direction they want me to go. Do you feel like you’re able to address different groups of people through your speaking and through your music? There’s definitely been a lot of people who say they really don’t like my music or loud rock music in general, but they like something I said or something I wrote. That’s always really exciting to think that you’re able to reach someone and party with someone that you otherwise wouldn’t be able to. In terms of the Party Party, the political party you started earlier this year, what are the goals of that? Well unfortunately, that’s all been canceled because we were contacted by a nonprofit organization that I didn’t know about— and actually haven’t been able to find much information about—based in Missouri that was already called the Party Party. They demanded that we stop, so it’s all done now, but that’s not a big deal. It was just another attempt to add some party energy and party vibes to the world, so in that way, it can never really be canceled. It just takes on a different name, but the spirit of partying lives on in all these other various forms. This was just a way to present it in the structure of a political party. How do you expect the party atmosphere to be impacted, if at all, by speaking in North Carolina on election night? It definitely might affect the turnout, for sure, but of course people should go to the polls and vote, if that’s their plan. I definitely wouldn’t want anyone to attend this event instead of voting, if their plan is to vote, but hopefully they can do both. Have you been keeping up at all with the political situation in North Carolina at the moment? As someone who’s trying to be a responsible civilian and someone who’s a very thankful resident of the United States of America, I
try to keep up with as much news as I can, but it doesn’t really fit into my professional work or shows as a professional partier. For better or worse, I don’t focus on political issues. The good thing is, many other people do, and a lot of people, including a lot of entertainers, make politics a main element of their work. I respect and admire them for that. I’m glad that they’ve got it covered, but I don’t think enough people are focused on the power of partying. That’s what I try to focus on and provide my little humble offering in that area. Why is it so important to you that you spread the message and the energy of partying to the world? Being someone who has really struggled with darker feelings and negative feelings and feelings of cynicism or pessimism for the majority of my life right up to today, focusing on joyful, uplifting, and optimistic mind-sets has been really important for me. It’s been a desperate effort to get cheered up, and pretty much everything I’ve done as a performer has originated with trying to feel better about being alive. These problems that we face individually and collectively demand a real high level of integrity and energy, because it’s really hard to save the world and fix problems when you’re in a bad mood. I think we’ve got to get cheered up and get that kind of hopeful enthusiasm for life, so that we can make things as good as they can be. Your focus—at least in terms of releases—hasn’t been directed as much towards music over the last few years as it was earlier in your career. Has that been an intentional shift away from music into these other directions? I have no idea. I really have no plans, unfortunately, and no organization to anything I’m doing. Sometimes I feel very bad about it and very frustrated, but other times I feel very thankful that these unexpected opportunities have come through. I never thought I’d be a motivational speaker. I never thought I’d be singing rock ’n’ roll songs about partying either. None of this was really planned out in a way that involved my dreams or goals or setting these directions; things just happened. I just take it one day at a time and whatever happens, happens. music@indyweek.com INDYweek.com | 11.2.16 | 25
music
BOB DYLAN AND HIS BAND
Friday, Nov. 4, 8 p.m., $63–$93 Durham Performing Arts Center, Durham www.dpacnc.com
W
hen something unexpected happens in the art world, critics have to catch up. They naturally turn to old methods, the very thing a new event calls into question. So when Bob Dylan was awarded 2016’s Nobel Prize in Literature, commentators predictably said more about themselves and their assumptions than about Dylan and the Nobel. Those invested in taste cultures either applauded the choice as populist or dismissed it as slumming; the generationally minded used it as a pretext to celebrate or condemn the counterculture of the sixties; the vulgarly political found a European statement against Trump’s America or the reverse, an epitome of Trump’s antiintellectual chauvinism. And most everyone assumed that a Nobel Prize bestows something worth fighting over in the first place, something both Dylan’s nonchalance toward the award and modern writing on prize culture will cause you to seriously question. But beyond op-ed polemics, it is undeniable that his music, lyrics, and performances have expanded our concept of the literary beyond the book, his music reanimating oral culture’s bardic tradition. His four most important roles have been as a dramatizer of contemporary history, a philosopher of liberation, a vernacular researcher of American musics, and an undercover teacher and critic of literary methods. Here they are, briefly dissected. HISTORICAL DRAMATIST Dylan’s music dramatizes the collective truth of contemporary history. “A Hard Rain’s AGonna Fall” dug beneath the obvious terror of the Cuban Missile Crisis to find the shards of hope and beauty of lives lived under the sign of destruction. Blood on the Tracks, released in 1975, used confessional narrative to allegorize America’s social fragmentation and its creeping compromises with money and power. His so-called Christian records, 1979’s Slow Train Coming and 1980’s Saved, manifested the need for Truth persisting beneath the surface of such disillusioning times. His best songs archive the feeling of history and put flesh on its most striking contradictions, while lending life and passion to abstract concepts and now distant events. While they fail to account for all possible perspectives and identities, they often articulate collective undercurrents hidden underneath more cramped, individualistic perspectives. 26 | 11.2.16 | INDYweek.com
demic, Dylan has been an avid hunter of sources, techniques, and information since his earliest days in New York. It’s surprising that he became a rock star rather than a professor, and we should be happy he made records rather than dry monographs. His best work functions like a vortex: it concentrates the power of disparate media, primary and secondary sources, to produce a new whole, while leaving the seams visible for those curious about his source material. Beyond simple intertextuality, songs like “Stuck Inside of Mobile With the Memphis Blues Again” and “Idiot Wind” demonstrate that research can yield something emotionally powerful, that one medium can deputize the techniques and effects of the others to create something radically new.
ILLUSTRATION BY STEVE OLIVA
A Nobel Cause BOB DYLAN WON THE TOP PRIZE IN LITERATURE. DOES HE DESERVE IT? BY MAX BRZEZINSKI
THINKER OF LIBERATION Dylan’s central concept has always been freedom, executed through songs that reveal the traps that keep people oppressed and exploited. But the political emphasis of “freedom,” a notoriously vague concept, has varied drastically over the years. At one extreme, “It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)” (1965) undoes the snares of consumer culture, while on the other, “Neighborhood Bully” (1983) preaches Israeli liberation at the expense of Palestinian life. Over the years, Dylan has conceptualized liberation
in both leftist and reactionary ways, for both collective and personal ends. If not always far-seeing about the uses of freedom, Dylan has always been an uncanny reader, spotting the danger lurking in even the most benignlooking things. His songs expose the chains holding back true liberation, both personal and political. RESEARCHER No one has made a stronger case for the creative potential of research than Dylan. As a sort of vernacular folklorist and aca-
LITERARY MODEL The idea that Dylan is a protean figure, flitting from identity to identity with the times, was the start and end point of Todd Haynes's disastrous 2007 biopic, I’m Not There, but it misses the greater continuity beneath the surface changes. Dylan is a lifelong student of lyrical genres, and unlike most of his contemporaries in music or poetry, he is adept at them all: the love ballad, the apocalyptic, the pastoral, the hymn, prayer, and narrative romance. His interest is primarily in how songs work, how they are made, and how they can be bent, played with, experimented upon. It is this self-conscious presentation of method that makes him a teacher, a modeler of literary practice. He’s reworked the dominant literary forms for a contemporary audience. Immersed in Dylan, you are better equipped as a reader of all sorts of poetic language. In his long career, he has road-mapped most of the formal experiments one can perform on the extant genres. In the process he shows listeners how it’s done. For those still smarting that a great American novelist like Don DeLillo was passed over for Dylan, you can console yourselves by reading DeLillo’s fine 1973 novel, Great Jones Street. It’s about a divisively brilliant, spiritually searching singer-songwriter named Bucky Wunderlick. Disillusioned with modern American life, he records something called the Basement… ahem, Mountain Tapes. It’s almost as good as Blonde on Blonde. music@indyweek.com
indyart
HANK WILLIS THOMAS LECTURE Thursday, Nov. 3, 7 p.m., free Nasher Museum of Art, Durham www.nasher.duke.edu
NCMA PARK CELEBRATION
Sunday, Nov. 6, 1 p.m.–dark, free North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh www.ncartmuseum.org
Bench sculpture by Hank Willis Thomas PHOTO BY JAMES EWING/COURTESY OF NCMA
Free Speech
ARTIST HANK WILLIS THOMAS BRINGS HIS QUESTIONING QUEST FOR TRUTH TO NCMA’S NEW PARK BY SAMMY FELDBLUM When the North Carolina Museum of Art lets the public into its new park on Sunday, after a two-year-long renovation, two speech-bubble-shaped benches by the conceptual artist Hank Willis Thomas will be among the new sculptures on permanent display. The benches, named Ernest and Ruth after Thomas's grandparents, echo The Truth Booth, a speech-bubble-shaped booth that collected responses to the prompt “the truth is …” at NCMA earlier this year. Though he is based in New York City, Thomas has a strong presence in the Triangle. His work is currently on view at
21c Museum Hotel and in Southern Accent at the Nasher, and he is represented in NCMA’s permanent collection. Before moving into the conversational sphere, Thomas focused on advertisements. His early series B®anded repurposed ad imagery to examine the branding of black bodies by corporations, tracing it back to its most horrifically literal incarnation. And his Unbranded series, which strips the words from advertisements, lays bare the fundamental assumptions of the American psyche. Part of that series is currently on view at Greensboro’s Weatherspoon Art Museum.
Thomas’s examination of race, identity, representation, and commerce is often haunting and always timely. We sat down with him to talk about his focus on frames and conversations, his new artist-run super PAC, and his incessant search for the truth. INDY: Where did the idea for Ernest and Ruth come from? HANK WILLIS THOMAS: Well, I’ve been making a lot of work for the past several years inspired by speech bubbles, especially a project called The Truth Booth (In Search of the Truth), which was at NCMA earlier
this summer. I’ve also been doing a series of signs that say in different languages, “The truth is I love you,” “The truth is I know you,” “The truth is I hear you,” “The truth is I believe you.” And I wanted to create a sculpture that people could inhabit, or just exist in, to try and make a statement. It would be this opportunity for people to playfully or functionally—and sometimes, subconsciously— interact with the creative process. You talk a lot about “framing” with your work. Do you trust that people existing in this space, framed by a speech bubble, may INDYweek.com | 11.2.16 | 27
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spur the same sort of thinking that The Truth Booth has? Ironically, I hadn’t thought about that, so thanks for thinking about it. Maybe with the work I didn’t really intend it, but everything in my work is about framing and concepts. Depending on where you’re standing, it affects what you see. This would be a classic example of that, right?
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Do you see The Truth Booth as having grown out of your earlier work, the B®anded and Unbranded series? Your sculpture? It has been an ongoing quest for people who don’t consider themselves artists to get involved in the discourse and to make statements. I think that’s a lot what [the early work] is about as well: making the conversation about art legible for people who don’t consider themselves artists.
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The Truth Booth is on tour. You’ve mentioned that you want to hit all fifty states before Election Day. Have you been able to look at the footage yet? Yeah, it’s been pretty amazing to see all the different ways people participate. I think the universal lesson is that everyone has something valuable worth offering. You can never tell where wisdom will come from. If you follow @insearchofthetruth on Instagram, you can see the travels and videos uploaded from different sites.
You started your artistic life largely as a photographer, but have been doing more sculpture recently. Does it allow you to do anything that photography doesn’t? Photography is all about framing, right? Which is what led me to sculpture. I think every medium lends a new opportunity, a new way of seeing and representing an idea. And when sculpture gets to a certain size—I guess you could say the physiological interaction is pretty awesome. There’s a lot of your work in the Triangle. Do you have any sense of why your work is catching on here? No! Do you have any suggestions? I think questions about race are really crystallized in the South, but I don’t know why North Carolina in particular. Well, it’s definitely a turbulent time in North Carolina, right?
Big time. I saw that you called race “the most successful advertising campaign in the world,” referring to the creation of blackness in America. During this electoral cycle, there’s a lot to think about with the creation of whiteness, too. Does that resonate with your work? Yeah, that’s why I’m really interested in framing, because whoever’s holding the frame gets to create the reality. That’s the way that we not only see one another, but the way that we see ourselves, the way we define and relate to humanity. We’re not interacting as individuals, but as these social roles. Prototypes. Or archetypes. Looking at what is lurking underneath the advertisements that we’re all encountering every day—does it ever make you feel crazy? Yeah, you start to see how some of our values are shaped or created, looking at these ads. Thinking about who they are for, the way that they function in society. They reinforce things we already think while getting us to buy shaving cream or whatever. You talk about the importance of images in the public sphere that aren’t trying to get you to behave in any sort of commercial way. Are the benches at NCMA connected to that? I’d like to believe it’s all connected, through viewers. Like you said earlier, each viewer has a connection to the work that I didn’t see before. Sometimes, as artists, we get so focused on the headspace of making the art that we don’t see the correlations of the projects, but I think they’re obviously there, especially if I’m doing them all at the same time. What’s next for you? I formed this super PAC called For Freedoms. We’re looking to broaden community engagement, to build a critical discourse of the critical discourse in fine art. So it's in the Question Bridge and The Truth Booth model of using art to promote dialogue and listening? Exactly. arts@indyweek.com
indystage
LADY PARTS JUSTICE LEAGUE Thursday, Nov. 3, 8 p.m., $15–$20 Cat’s Cradle, Carrboro www.catscradle.com
L
ady Parts Justice League banded together to tackle reproductive rights through comedy and digital media. The group’s often NSFW jokes aim to “laugh politicians out of office.” Not all politicians, though—just the Pat McCrory kind. Lizz Winstead, the co-creator of The Daily Show and Air America radio, is leading an uproarious team of feminists—also including Helen Hong, Joyelle Johnson, and Buzz Off, Lucille—in a North Carolina mini-tour called You Should Smile More and Other Man-spirational Observations. The Cat’s Cradle stop on Thursday will take on one of the big villains in today’s politics, Targeted Regulation of Abortion Providers (TRAP) laws. They require doctors to gain admitting privileges to hospitals, upgrade already suitable equipment, and create waiting periods for abortions. While these laws often pass as protections for women, they actually create superfluous barriers to reproductive rights and force women’s health clinics to shut down. Winstead knows how powerful comedy is in exposing legislative failures and changing people's minds, which is what she hopes to do with this tour. INDY: How did this show come about? LIZZ WINSTEAD: Broadly, we were doing The Daily Show, Air America radio, and other network stuff. It was fun getting people riled up and getting them information about what was happening around them. But working in corporate environments, it wasn’t my job to say, “Here’s what you can do about it” or give a call to action. It was my job to be funny, tell stories, and expose people with humor. So while that was fun, I always felt like I wanted to do more. I wrote a book, and during that time is when the Tea Party took over Congress in 2011. There were home foreclosures and an economy that was insane. Mike Pence, at that time, was in Congress. He proposed to defund Planned Parenthood, and the national parks, and public broadcasting. When I watched that fail, I wondered what was going to happen next. What happened next was dozens of legislatures around the country dropping model legislation that involved TRAP laws, turning your clinic into an ambulatory surgical center. Women had to wait a long time to get care. I did fundraisers. I was pro-choice, but didn’t really take an active role in making sure these clinics could continue on for gen-
“Exposing hypocrisy, in all forms, is oftentimes when comedy is at its richest.”
Clinical Attachment
THE DAILY SHOW CO-CREATOR LIZZ WINSTEAD LEADS A HILARIOUS CHARGE AGAINST REGRESSIVE REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS POLICIES BY ERICA JOHNSON
Lizz Winstead PHOTO BY MICHAEL YOUNG erations to follow. So I got a bunch of comics together—writers, editors, and anyone that works in my field. I said we should make videos exposing all this creepiness. We need to take our talents, go on the road, and do comedy shows that bring a whole bunch of people together. Be funny, but explain to them the need. Then go out to help the clinics. You could have worked on a lot of different projects. Why this one? Because no one else is doing it. People will
talk about the environment. They’ll talk about fracking. They’ll talk about the banking system. No one is bringing up the fact that it’s fifty-one percent, if you just count women, of the population with uteruses that are being controlled. If you count trans men, it’s even more. To have the government decide how you will be living your life, what kind of family you will have, and to be forcing that upon people is something that everyone should care about. If you care about human rights in any way, reproductive rights are human rights.
What's your mission in North Carolina? I have watched North Carolina take this incredible turn, redistricting and gerrymandering and voter ID laws, and all this stuff just takes this incredible state and has the politicians turning it into something that does not reflect the people who live there at all. Part of the show is just to be like, we’re here because we want to just give you guys some motivation, get you laughing, and understand that we are your allies and supporters. We just want to be there to energize you guys to keep fighting your fight. Why is comedy a good platform for advancing this mission? Exposing hypocrisy, in all forms, is oftentimes when comedy is at its richest. Through my work on The Daily Show and Air America, and my stand-up, I have watched people think about things in a different way when I present the hypocrisy and irony of somebody who’s got really bad intentions with what they plan. When you present it with humor, you’re not lecturing someone. You’re making them laugh, and that means that on some level you have had a connection. Then you can get them to listen a little longer, think about changing their minds. It is really nice to gather people in an environment with other like-minded people and laugh at what you perceive as gigantic fuckery. It gives you a little bit more energy because you see you have people alongside of you who are also fighting the same fight. What else should we know about the show? If you need catharsis, this is going to be a fun place for you to come. It’s fun to have a whole team of feminists who are doing some of the best comedy out there stand onstage and make you laugh for ninety minutes. Just disproving to all the assholes that say women aren’t funny that, in fact, women are. arts@indyweek.com INDYweek.com | 11.2.16 | 29
stage
THE OPEN HOUSE HHH Through Nov. 12 Manbites Dog Theater, Durham www.manbitesdogtheater.org
Michael Foley and Matthew Hager in The Open House PHOTO BY ALAN DEHMER
Captive Audience
THE OPEN HOUSE DIALS UP THE DYSFUNCTION BUT STINTS ON THE MOTIVATION BY BYRON WOODS We’re clearly in a captive situation at the beginning of Will Eno’s The Open House at Manbites Dog Theater. In a dingy, creamcolored room that has seen little life since its period furniture was installed in the late 1950s, three gazes are riveted on an oblivious warden: a scrawny, square-jawed, bespectacled old man in a wheelchair (Michael Foley) who is immersed in The New York Times. There’s a knock at the door. No one moves. When it repeats, insistently, someone takes a calculated risk and lets in a fifth character, the old man’s adult son (Matthew Hager), who had just stepped out to bring in the family dog. Soon, it’s evident why the unnamed mother (stage veteran Marcia Edmundson), adult daughter (J Evarts), and uncle (Michael Brocki) are making no sudden moves: initiative is hardly rewarded in this clan. But that’s often the case when family members are reduced to emotional hostages whose every word and deed is mercilessly interrogated by a husband and parent who can never be pleased. For the children, coming home for their parents’ anniversary is a return to captivity of sorts. When they learn how little their father values the occasion, this nuclear family goes into full meltdown, and both children start looking for opportunities to leave. After attempting to tear the one-person 30 | 11.2.16 | INDYweek.com
show to shreds with 2004’s Thom Pain (based on nothing), Eno offers this 2014 work as venom for a different theatrical genre: the family drama. But the main thing Eno displays is a fundamental lack of interest in, or understanding of, dysfunctional families. How does a childhood of constant verbal violence produce the son and daughter we see here? Sorry, trick question: when characters are this underdeveloped, we can hardly see them at all. Evarts and Hager are skilled actors, but Eno renders them as little more than props to underscore just how bad the dad is. Unfortunately, in this production, he isn’t bad enough. Under Jeff Storer’s direction, Foley demonstrates insufficient range to sell the cruel, soul-crushing omnipotence at the heart of his character. The most dimensional character is Edmundson’s wife, whose own prickliness slowly rises to the surface. Eno’s endgame confronts us with an outcome in which the value of a house is placed alongside the value of the people in it. After that reassessment begins, even a bully can see his own worth rise or fall. For better and worse, we learn in The Open House that many of our values are relative—and that our relatives determine more of our value than we might wish to acknowledge. Twitter: @ByronWoods
indyscreen
THE HANDMAIDEN HHHH Opening Friday, Nov. 4
SOUTHERN ACCENT EXHIBITION ARTIST
Annual Rothschild Lecture
HANK WILLIS THOMAS Thursday, Nov. 3, 7 PM Free and open to the public. Please arrive early. Seating is limited. 5:30 PM Cash bar.
Hank Willis Thomas, a prolific conceptual artist who lives and works in New York City, will deliver the Annual Barbra and Andrew Rothschild Lecture at the Nasher Museum, a talk entitled, “For Freedoms.” Kim Tae-ri & Kim Min-hee: The Handmaiden PHOTO COURTESY OF AMAZON STUDIOS/MAGNOLIA PICTURES
Fifty Shades of Cray
nasher.duke.edu/southern 2001 Campus Drive, Durham, NC 27705 Photo of Sonya Clark by J Caldwell
LEFT: Hank Willis Thomas, self-portrait.
SEX DOES MORE THAN SELL IN OLDBOY DIRECTOR'S EROTIC THRILLER BY GLENN MCDONALD The young, delicate Lady Hideko has never left the mansion she was raised in from childhood. Her Uncle Kouzuki is grooming her for marriage—to himself, so he can plunder her inheritance. Until then, he keeps her in gilded captivity. Meanwhile, the teenage Sook-hee, an orphaned street urchin, runs with a Dickensian pack of thieves and pickpockets. Its leader, Count Fujiwara, is a savvy con man who plans to seduce Hideko, elope, then declare her insane and inherit the fortune. To facilitate the con, he arranges for Sook-hee to infiltrate the household as Hideko’s handmaiden. The year is 1930, the place is Korea, and the movie is The Handmaiden, the latest from director Park Chan-wook (Oldboy). But if the setup sounds a little Victorian, it is— or was. The script is based on Fingersmith, a novel by Sarah Waters, set in nineteenthcentury England. Park shuffles elements of the original story into a charged erotic thriller with ingenious narrative twists. Nothing in this film is as it seems. On one level, it’s a layered storytelling con, broken into three parts that retell events from different characters’ perspectives. It’s also a psychosexual suspense thriller with scenes of escalating weirdness. There are
whips, and ritual readings of classic erotica, and an octopus. On another level, it’s a puzzle-box mystery in the key of Hitchcock, who is alluded to in playful visual puns. But the pulsing heart of the movie belongs to Hideko and Sook-hee, whose fierce passion blossoms amid all the treachery and deception. The unrated film’s sex scenes are graphic indeed; they are at once intensely erotic and fundamental to the story. If the English language had an exact antonym for gratuitous, I’d use it here. It’s beautiful to behold a film this finely crafted. The pacing is brisk, the performances are perfectly pitched, and there’s even a sustained note of goofy humor running through it all. Park is a renowned visual stylist, and he delivers virtuoso camera moves and compositions. Ultimately, The Handmaiden is a story of liberation, sexual and otherwise, and the climactic revelations in the final scenes are enormously satisfying. If you can spot the expertly concealed plot twists coming, you’ll have outdone me. I spent the first third of the film intrigued, the second third confused, and the final third filled with giddy admiration. This is one of the best films of the year. Twitter: @glennmcdonald1 INDYweek.com | 11.2.16 | 31
11.02–11.09 STAGE
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 4 & SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 6
THE BLACK PIONEERS PROJECT
When Edith Hubbard arrived for her first English class at UNC-Chapel Hill, her professor told her she was in the wrong class. When he learned the course section and room number were both correct, he clarified. “He essentially said, ‘You’re not going to make it,’” Hubbard recalls. “I think something clicked in my head, because I remember saying, in very vivid language, if I don’t make it, nobody else in this class is going to make it.” Black students were first permitted to enroll at UNC in 1952. But when they arrived in Chapel Hill, they encountered discrimination on and off campus in an era when Jim Crow segregation was still the law and the custom of the land. That group is now known as the Black Pioneers. Over the past year, the Southern Oral History Program has interviewed surviving members to document their experiences. After adapting these interviews for the stage, Process Series director Joseph Megel leads a group including Gil Faison, Yolanda Rabun, Lakeisha Coffey, and John Harris in recounting those trials and triumphs in the presence of those who lived them. —Byron Woods SONJA HAYNES STONE CENTER, CHAPEL HILL 8 p.m. Fri./3 p.m. Sun., free, www.processseries.unc.edu
STAGE
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 4
KEN FARMER OF ANTIQUES ROADSHOW
The sight of regular Americans rendered speechless by the news that they can now retire on a weird painting bequeathed by an eccentric aunt accounts for the enduring appeal of Antiques Roadshow. But along with the comforting notion that riches may await us in some old steamer trunk, the show also educates, with a sharp, sometimes quirky array of experts who school an object’s owner, as well as the viewing audience, about the history and value of the item in question. Ken Farmer, a Virginia-based antiques maven and a regularly featured guest on the show since its inception in 1996, possesses expertise far beyond the world of antiques; in one episode, he appraised a turn-of-the-century banjo and then played it. No doubt Farmer’s had some strange and wonderful objects proffered to him for appraisal over the years; on Friday he’ll share stories about people he’s met and memorable manmade treasures he’s seen. And please, if you’re thinking about breaking out that weird painting bequeathed by your eccentric aunt … no. —David Klein PAGE-WALKER ARTS & HISTORY CENTER, CARY 7 p.m., $25, www.townofcary.org Sabine Gruffat in The Candidates PHOTO COURTESY OF THE ARTIST ART
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 4
SABINE GRUFFAT: THE CANDIDATES
Did you know that for the last several weeks, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump have been engaging in heated pop-up debates at various busy intersections around the Triangle? It’s true—or, at least, virtually true. The Candidates is a public art project by Sabine Gruffat, who is an associate professor of digital art at UNC-Chapel Hill. Gruffat created mobile Clinton and Trump avatars to which passersby—or people anywhere in the country—can text a message (919-745-8547), which is then recited by the virtual candidates, complete with facial expressions and computer voices. The result is a kind of digital agora, a democratic marketplace of ideas in which users can debate through the mouths of two of the most polarizing figures of our times. You can follow the project via the crowdsourced Twitter account @VirtualHillary, but this Raleigh First Friday pop-up is your last chance before Election Day to hear Trump saying, for once, exactly what you want him to say. —Brian Howe CORNER OF MARTIN AND DAWSON STREETS, RALEIGH 5:30–6:30 p.m., free, www.sabinegruffat.com
32 | 11.2.16 | INDYweek.com
STAGE
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 4
JANE BORDEN
Some people are funnier on paper than in real life, but with Jane Borden it’s a toss-up. In her best-selling I Totally Meant to Do That, she created a memorable chronicle of her transition from cloistered Southern debutante to would-be New York hipster, making fans of such high-flying wits as Gary Shteyngart and Amy Poehler and earning comparisons to another sharply funny North Carolinian writer, David Sedaris. She’s also a seasoned actor and improviser, having spent years with Upright Citizens Brigade before moving on to a stand-up career, where her infectious bemusement has made her a familiar presence at comedy festivals far and wide. She’s written for SNL and is an accomplished travel writer, too. Whatever the setting, Borden’s humor derives from a genuine curiosity about the world, not merely the impulse to make people laugh. Get closer on Saturday, when she’ll conduct a workshop. —David Klein DSI COMEDY THEATER, CHAPEL HILL 8:30 p.m., $10, www.dsicomedytheater.com
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Weyes Blood PHOTO BY KATIE MILLER MUSIC
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 5
FLOCK OF DIMES
Our culture encourages extroversion: go out, be garrulous, and make sure you document it for good measure. But what if you’d rather just be alone? If You See Me, Say Yes, Jenn Wasner’s full-length debut as Flock of Dimes, addresses just that as her gorgeous voice glows among layers of guitars, synths, and electronic beats. In an essay she published on Medium, Wasner wrote that the record developed from examining the distance she created from her friends and family in order to pursue the creative life she wanted. It’s not so much about introversion as creating and valuing space for yourself, even when it’s difficult— alone doesn’t always mean lonely. Say yes to this one. Your Friend opens. —Allison Hussey CAT’S CRADLE BACK ROOM, CARRBORO 8:30 p.m., $12, www.catscradle.com
MUSIC
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 6
WEYES BLOOD
As Weyes Blood, twenty-six-year-old Natalie Mering has spent the better part of a decade working at her craft. The Pennsylvania native, who grew up in a strict religious household, listening to church music, told one interviewer that she’s been trying to undo that upbringing since age twelve. You can hear her pulling it apart all across her catalog. October’s Front Row Seat to Earth— by far her best—explores sacred musical spaces. The vocal harmonies on “Can’t Go Home” make the song feel like a hymn, abetted by effects that transform Mering into a one-woman choir singing in a silent chapel. The details of her enchanting work slowly unfold as you listen. Be careful not to miss a moment. Truly and UVB-76 open. —Allison Hussey KINGS, RALEIGH 9 p.m., $8–$10, www.kingsraleigh.com
WHAT ELSE SHOULD I DO?
ANDREW W.K. AT THE ARTSCENTER (P. 24), CAITLIN CARY & GESCHE WÜRFEL AT ARTSPACE (P. 40), BOB DYLAN AT DPAC (P. 26), HELADO NEGRO AT DUKE COFFEEHOUSE (P. 38), LADY PARTS JUSTICE LEAGUE AT CAT’S CRADLE (P. 29), THE OPEN HOUSE AT MANBITES DOG THEATER (P. 30), NCMA PARK CELEBRATION AT NCMA (P. 27), AL RIGGS AT THE CAVE (P. 35), THE SICK CHICK FLICKS FILM FESTIVAL AT THE CARY THEATER (P. 43), TRAVIS SMITH AT FLYLEAF BOOKS (P. 43), TWO TURTLE DOVES AT COMMON GROUND THEATRE (P. 42)
indy week’s bar + beverage magazine on stands February 22 • reserve by january 11 Contact your ad rep or advertising@indyweek.com
Contact your ad rep or advertising@indyweek.com
November 12 10-5PM November 13 12-5PM nineteen professional potters & two teaching facilities Tour studios & buy beautiful locally made pottery Maps and brochures available at DurhamCountyPotteryTour.com INDYweek.com | 11.2.16 | 33
TH 11/3 LADY PARTS JUSTICE LEAGUE PRESENTS:“YOU SHOULD
TRANSACTORS IMPROV: FOR FAMILIES! TU 11/15 POPUP CHORUS FRI 11/19 CARRBORO FILM FESTIVAL SAT 11/20 CARRBORO FILM FESTIVAL FR CHARLIE PARR FT. PHIL COOK & 11/18 SA 11/12
THE STUMPJUMPERS
FR 11/25
THE ARTSCENTER AND GUITARTOWN PRESENT:
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FR 12/2
ALEJANDRO ESCOVEDO A CLASSIC COUNTRY SA 12/3 CHRISTMAS SA 12/3 10TH ANNUAL ELF FAIR THE BAREFOOT MOVEMENT SA 12/17 CHRISTMAS Find out More at
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SMILE MORE AND OTHER MANSPIRATIONAL OBSERVATIONS” STARRING:
LIZZ WINSTEAD,
HELEN HONG, JOYELLE JOHNSON, BUZZ OFF, LUCILLE ($15/$20) FR 11/4
PORTUGAL. THE MAN SOLD W/ ADAM TOD BROWN
OUT
FR 11/5
ANIMAL COLLECTIVE SOLD W/ ACTRESS
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BY VOICES
W/SURFER BLOOD ($26.50)
SU 11/13 BENJAMIN FRANCIS LEFTWICH W/ BROLLY ($15/$18)
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JESSE DAYTON ($15/$17) SA11/19
11.3
CHARLES LATHAM RECORD RELEASE SHOW W/ JOHN HOWIE JR. AND THE ROSEWOOD BLUFF 11.4
SAM EVIAN
EARLY: SAM EVIAN (OF CELESTIAL SHORE) 11.4 (OF CELESTIAL SHORE)
HISS GOLDEN MESSENGER
W/ NATALIE PRASS**($15/$17) TU11/22PETER HOOK LIGHT ($25)
& THE
SU 11/27
HOWARD JONES($25/$28) SA 12/3 BOMBADIL W/GOODNIGHT, TEXAS ( $16/$18) SA 12/10 SOUTHERN
CULTURE ON THE SKIDS 11.4
LATE: Y2K DANCE PARTY W/ BITCHCRAFT & QUEENPLZ
11.5 11.5 KARL BLAU / LAKE / AL RIGGS W/ LAKE & AL RIGGS
KARL BLAU
($13/$15)
1/13/17 MIKE DOUGHTY W/ WHEATUS ($18) 2/1/17 THE DEVIL MAKES THREE ($22/$25) 2/3/17
G LOVE AND SPECIAL SAUCE W/ RIPE ($25/$30)
11.6
Your Week. Every Wednesday. indyweek.com 34 | 11.2.16 | INDYweek.com
11.7 11.8 11.9 11.10 11.11
11.12
WXDU PRESENTS: KIKAGAKY MOYO (FROM JAPAN) VOTARIES / BEARS WE’RE WATCHING THIS INSANE ELECTION! THERE WILL BE GAMES. THERE WILL BE LAUGHTER. QUINTRON AND MISS PUSSYCAT / D-TOWN BRASS TED LEO / OUTER SPACES SUNFLOWER BEAN THE LEMON TWIGS / AMERICAN WRESTLERS RAUNDHAUS AND RUNAWAY PRESENT: TEKLUHN / TENNIS RODMAN ZOOMO / OC SEPAIII
2/16/17
FLOCK OF DIMES
FR 11/11
YEASAYER 12/9,10,11: KING
MACKEREL & THE BLUES ARE RUNNING 12/14: SHEARWATER
SA 11/12
GUIDED BY VOICES
MEWITHOUTYOU
W/ YONI WOLF (OF WHY?) $15/$18
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11 7 W MAIN STREET • DURHAM
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SU 11/6 STAND AGAINST HB2 THE LOVE LANGUAGE, THE VELDT, FOXTURE, HENBRAIN, PRERAPHAELITES, OLSEN TWINS, MY 3 SONS, HAPPY ABANDON, ONWARD, SOLDIERS, BLUE CACTUS, THE GRAND SHELL GAME, MATT PHILLIPS & THE BACK POCKET, THE FABULOUS KNOBS, PINTO, THE DB'S, BRETT HARRIS, 6 STRING DRAG, TRES CHICAS, ROBERT KIRKLAND, ROD ABERNETHY, UR MOM, ORLANDO PARKER, JR., SOMEONE'S SISTER NOON -MIDNIGHT CONCERT! ($15/$20) TH 11/10
TH 11/10
MEWITHOUTYOU
SA 11/5
THE RADIO DEPT. ($15/$17)
2/17/17 STRFKR ($20/$23 ON SALE 11/4) 3/15/17: HIPPO CAMPUS ($13/$15; ON SALE 11/4) 3/24/17
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& THE BLAZERS REUNION ($10/$15) 1/6-7/17: ELVIS FEST 2/6/17:
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ALBUM RELEASE SHOW W/ BEAUTY WORLD, JOSH MOORE (SOLO) ($10)
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ARTSCENTER (CARRBORO)
11/8":GOODBYE
JUNE ($10)
11/10: DAVE SIMONETT OF TRAMPLED BY TURTLES AND CARL BROEMEL OF MY MORNING JACKET ($15) 11/11: NO
2/21/17:
($17/$20)
11/8: ANDREW WK 'THE POWER OF PARTYING' ( $20/$23) HAYTI HERITAGE CENTER (DUR)
12/2:
MANDOLIN ORANGE ($25) MOTORCO (DURHAM)
BS! BRASS BAND ($13/$15)
11/16: MITSKI W/ FEAR OF MEN, WEAVES($15)
11/12 (4PM): ALL AGES MATINE
1/27/17: COLD CAVE ($15) KINGS (RAL)
NO BS! BRASS BAND ($13/$15) 11/12 (9PM):
SEABREEZE DINER / THE REMARKS W/ TANGIBLE DREAM 11/13JONATHAN
RICHMAN FEAT. TOMMY LARKINS ON DRUMS W/ TANGIBLE DREAM ($15)
11/16: SLOAN "ONE CHORD TO ANOTHER" 20TH ANNIVERSARY TOUR ($20) 11/17: BRENDAN JAMES W/ TYRON ($14/$16) 11/18: BRUXES DEBUT SHOW & EP RELEASE W/BODY GAMES, TEARDROP CANYON, YOUTH LEAGUE ( $7) 11/19:KILLER FILLER FAREWELL SHOWW/BEAUTYOPERATORS($8/$10)
SOLD OUT
11/20MANDOLIN ORANGE 11/21: THE GOOD LIFE W/ FIELD MOUSE ($12/$14) 11/30 GHOST
OF PAUL REVERE ($10) 12/2: FRUIT BATS
W/ SKYLAR GUDASZ
SOLD OUT
12/4-5: THE MOUNTAIN GOATS 12/6: THE DISTRICTS W/ TANGIERS ( $15)
SOLD 11/19MANDOLIN ORANGE OUT
PINHOOK (DUR) 11/10: TED LEO W/ OUTER SPACES ($13/$15) CAROLINA THEATRE (DUR) 3/7/17: VALERIE 3/20/17: THE
JUNE ZOMBIES
'ODESSEY AND ORACLE' 50 YEAR TOUR THE RITZ (RAL) (TICKETS VIA TICKETMASTER)
1/20/17: RUN THE JEWELS W/ THE GASLAMP KILLER AND SPARK MASTER TAPE ( ON SALE 11/4) HAW RIVER BALLROOM 11/18
LD
MANDOLIN ORANGESO OUT 12/17
CHATHAM COUNTY LINE ELECTRIC HOLIDAY TOUR FLETCHER OPERA THEATRE (RAL) (TICKETS VIA TICKETMASTER)
11/20:
PATTY GRIFFIN W/ JOAN SHELLEY
CATSCRADLE.COM ★ 919.967.9053 ★ 300 E. MAIN STREET ★ CARRBORO
**Asterisks denote advance tickets @ schoolkids records in raleigh, cd alley in chapel hill order tix online at ticketfly.com ★ we serve carolina brewery beer on tap! ★ we are a non-smoking club
music WED, NOV 2
CAT’S CRADLE: Snakehips, Lakim; 8:30 p.m., $17–$20. • HUMBLE PIE: Peter Lamb & the Wolves; 8:30 p.m. • LINCOLN THEATRE: Kevin Devine & The Goddamn Band, Julien Baker, Pinegrove & Petal; 7:30 p.m., $16. • NEPTUNES PARLOUR: Bloodworth Combo; 9 p.m., $5. • POUR HOUSE: Mike Keneally & Beer for Dolphins, Travis Larson Band; 8 p.m., $20. • SLIM’S: Savagist; 9 p.m., $5.
THU, NOV 3 Jeff Carey CYBER Self-described as FREAX “hardcore digital noise,” the music of Baltimore’s Jeff Carey strafes the line between futurism and raw floorcore noise. His means are atypical: his live setup typically involves using a gamer’s joystick and gestural controls to wreak piercing tones, backlit by weapons-grade strobes. If you like your technoise paired with a crazy live rig, this is church. With The Burning Hand and Mike Geary. —DS [NIGHTLIGHT, $5/9 P.M.]
Raw Dog RALEIGH Raleigh’s Raw Dog, RAW led by Manning “MK5” Kimmel and supported by a revolving cast of players, has spent the past decade crafting irreverent comedy punk, indebted to the likes of GWAR and Mojo Nixon. Songs like “Meat Is Murder...And Murder Tastes Good” is bludgeoning punk with the title’s punch line bent into an insistent hook. “Captain Belligerent” is a ragged cowpunk tune that might tuck more than a little truth into its tongue-in-cheek anthem of assholery: “The best times that I’ve had,” Kimmel sings, “Are when I’m making people mad.” Jehovah’s Witness Protection Program and 49/Short open. —BCR [SLIM’S, $5/9 P.M.]
Rebirth Brass Band NOLA More than three ROYALS decades ago, brothers Phillip and Keith Frazier started Rebirth Brass Band in New
11.2 – 11.9
CONTRIBUTORS: Jim Allen (JA), Elizabeth Bracy (EB), Timothy Bracy (TB), Grant Britt (GB), Ryan Cocca (RC), Spencer Griffith (SG), Allison Hussey (AH), David Klein (DK), Desiré Moses (DEM), Bryan C. Reed (BCR), Dan Ruccia (DR), David Ford Smith (DS), Eric Tullis (ET), Patrick Wall (PW)
Orleans, and the spirit of the place lives in the band’s freewheeling, deeply funky mix of classics and originals. It’s a party every night, but these native sons know their history and embody the city’s air of joy and perseverance. D-Town Brass, the local equivalent, opens. —DK [MOTORCO, $20–$40/8 P.M.]
American Circus, Crystal Bright & the Silver Hands; 9:30 p.m. • SOUTHLAND BALLROOM: CBDB, Left on Franklin, Towne; 9 p.m., $7. • THE STATION: The Farmer and Adele, Christiane and The Strays; 8:30 p.m., $8–$10.
Respect the R.U.H Tour
Dial Tones Afterparty
THEY In a recent Twitter RUN THIS diatribe against the focus-grouped, allegedly ghostwritten, commercially optimized material behind the artist known as Drake, Boone rapper C. Shreve The Professor told us what many local fans already know: hip-hop, in his eyes, is about words more than awards. It’s an outlook shared by his compatriots on the R.U.H. Tour, which features Triangle hip-hop veterans Descendent, Eternal the MC and Tuscon. It’s hard to imagine a less Drake-y gathering of MCs, and for an underground showcase like R.U.H., that’s a good thing. —RC [DEEP SOUTH, $7/9:30 P.M.]
SLUMS’ Moogfest did most VILLAGE everything right for its Durham debut earlier this year, but it slipped up by not including Raleigh’s chief bass rocker, Oak City Slums, in its lineup. To redeem itself, Moogfest has partnered up with him for one of its Dial Tone synth workshops at N.C. State’s Hunt Library during the evening and relied on him to curate a powerful party at Kings later that night with peers such as GRRL, Ace Henderson, Drozy, Professor Toon, and Treee City. —ET [KINGS, $5–$8/9 P.M.]
Texas Trash and the Trainwrecks PSYCHO- The train wreck tag BILLY is literal for this ensemble: frontman Terry “Texas” Trash lost a leg and part of an arm to a train. A blend of hellbilly, punk, and wild-ass country, Trash and the Train Wrecks make music he says “sounds like a fucking noise that a dog hears when he cocks his head.” —GB [THE KRAKEN, FREE/9 P.M.] ALSO ON THURSDAY BEYÙ CAFFÈ: Michael Jones Trio; 7 p.m. • THE CAVE: Al Riggs, Second Husband; 9 p.m., $5. See box, this page. • KINGS: Animalweapon, Goodbye Titan, Foxture, Tinkerer; 8:30 p.m., $6–$8. • LINCOLN THEATRE: The Revivalists, Stop Light Observations; 9 p.m., $20–$25. • LOCAL 506: The Collection, Lowland Hum; 8:30 p.m., $8–$10. • THE PINHOOK: Charles Latham, John Howie Jr. & the Rosewood Bluff; 8 p.m., $7. See indyweek.com. • POUR HOUSE: Local Band Local Beer: Curtis Eller’s
FOR OUR COMPLETE COMMUNITY CALENDAR
WWW.INDYWEEK.COM
FRI, NOV 4
Duke Family Weekend Concerts BRING This yearly THE FAM event-filled weekend entices family members of students and faculty to visit and connect with Duke’s campus. Music always plays a major part, and this year the offerings are stacked with an eclectic array of accomplished—and yes, parent-pleasing—performers. Friday night kicks off with twin ensembles: the Djembe Ensemble, led by ace jazz man/ scholar Wayne Bergeron, and John Brown’s Jazz Ensemble, along with a cappella performances at the Bryan Center. Saturday night features student music ensembles in the classical vein. —DK [DUKE’S BALDWIN AUDITORIUM & DUKE CHAPEL, $10, STUDENTS FREE/VARIOUS TIMES]
A Party for Blackspace: Diali Cissokho & Kaira Ba & The Beast FUTURE Blackspace, FUNDS downtown Durham’s community incubator
PHOTO BY ALEX BOERNER
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 3
MAYBE I’M DOING IT WRONG: AL RIGGS PAYS TRIBUTE TO RANDY NEWMAN You might very well see some short people at Al Riggs’s twenty-two-song revue of Randy Newman’s music at The Cave on Thursday. But you won’t hear “Short People,” Newman’s blackly humorous hit of 1977. Nor will you get to nestle inside “You’ve Got a Friend in Me,” Newman’s fortune-making, Oscar-nominated heart-tugger from Toy Story. If this sounds like churlish aesthetic elitism at work, be assured that Riggs, a Chapel Hill-based singer-songwriter, has not been motivated by snobbism in assembling his set list. “It’s really more of a personal thing, because these are just twenty-two of my favorite Randy Newman songs,” says Riggs, who first discovered Newman through Pixar films and movies his parents watched, like You’ve Got Mail. Eventually he found his way to Newman’s Sail Away, the record that established the acerbic L.A. native as one of America’s most respected songwriters. Entranced, Riggs set out to copy the songs, and in doing so, taught himself to play piano. “There were these brilliant beautiful arrangements that I wasn’t really hearing anywhere else,” he says. “But underneath all that were these incredible lyrics that just oozed a weird mix of sincerity and cynicism that I really never experienced before.” The essence of Randy Newman is his one-of-a-kind croaky voice over piano lines tinged with ragtime, blues, Broadway, New Orleans, and other elements. Accordingly,
Riggs is doing this tribute on his own, just him and his piano. Some songs, like “Cowboy,” have presented a challenge to arrange for solo piano, but the show isn’t a total stretch; he’s spent a few years working out these songs, and some, like “I Think It’s Going to Rain Today,” have already joined his live repertoire. The program will lean toward the songs he heard as a kid, like “Old Kentucky Home,” from 12 Songs. It’s one of his favorites. Employing a quote he picked up from a Newman documentary he watched in preparation for the gig, Riggs says it’s a song about an American bully in a bullying America. “I’ve always been fascinated with the way that he writes male characters through this weird pride masking this incredible shame,” he says. These flawed personages, in all their passion and contradictions, will be given a full airing when Riggs sits down to play. Second Husband, whose single “The Swells” is a love song about enjoying being eaten by a shark, opens. —David Klein THE CAVE, CHAPEL HILL 9 p.m., $5, www.caverntavern.com
INDYweek.com | 11.2.16 | 35
for art, tech, activism, and conversations around Afrofuturism, raised more than twenty-four thousand dollars during this summer’s successful Kickstarter campaign. The space’s financial sustainability, however, is the focus for this Friday night fundraiser when griot singer Diali Cissokho and dance band Kaira Ba mix their Senegalese shake with The Beast’s beloved jazz-hop. Also, expect a special cameo performance from area puppeteer Jeghetto working the strings of his locally renowned futuristic puppet show, 5P1N0K10. —ET [MOTORCO, $10–$12/9 P.M.]
Teresa James & the Rhythm Tramps ROWDY Teresa James ROCKERS sounds like an unholy, spot-welded alliance of Bonnie Bramlett and Lou Ann Barton that’s abut to tear loose and rip your head off. It’s a Texas-flavored assault on the senses led by James’s Jerry Lee keyboard antics and fiery vocals. On her latest, Bonafide, James rips it up on “I Like It Like That,” but shows she’s more than a window rattler with her sultry soul delivery on “You Always Pick Me Up.” —GB [BLUE NOTE GRILL, $15/9 P.M.]
Shaun Martin, Mark Lettieri TWOFER With its improvisational bent and a unique amalgamation of genres, the instrumental Brooklyn-based ensemble Snarky Puppy has loaned its jazz-funk fusion to artists as diverse as Snoop Dogg and Justin Timberlake as well as copped a couple of Grammys. Two talented members of the group step out tonight on their own, promising two sets with two different approaches. —DK [SOUTHLAND BALLROOM, $15–$20/9 P.M.]
N.C. Symphony: Copland Classics CLASSIC A concert of works AMERICA by American composers built around Aaron Copland’s Our Town, Billy the Kid, and Fanfare for the Common Man isn’t especially innovative, nor is including John Williams and Samuel Barber in the mix. These pieces are the gauzy shroud surrounding Missy Mazzoli’s recent orchestral arrangement of Sinfonia (for Orbiting Spheres), a 36 | 11.2.16 | INDYweek.com
medium-length work that combines celestial loops with hurdy-gurdy-esque drones and baroque ornamentations, getting its second performance ever. —DR [MEYMANDI CONCERT HALL, $15–$75/8 P.M.]
Off With Their Heads RIFFS’LL For the past couple ROLL of years, Off With Their Heads’ founding member Ryan Young has tended to his podcast and accompanying website, Anxious and Angry, which deals with topics ranging from music to mental health. Now Young and a crew of Midwest punks are back on the road peddling an acoustic set. With Almost People, Dollar Signs, and Severed Fingers. —DEM [LOCAL 506, $8–$10/9 P.M.]
Portugal. The Man WASILLA Alaska’s Portugal. ROCK The Man have long purveyed the kind of feel-good “alternative” music that seems inextricable from mid-level hotel bars and high-end beauty salons. Tuneful, inoffensive, and almost artful in its lack of consequence, this is the sort of thing we can all agree on when we give up entirely. Adam Tod Brown opens. —EB [CAT’S CRADLE, $25–$28/9 P.M.]
Raleigh Music Festival: Keith Sweat, Avant, K-Ci & JoJo, Mint Condition R&B Deceptively billed as ARENA the Raleigh Music Festival, this lineup of nineties R&B legends is nothing more than date night set in an arena. But if Bell Biv Devoe can have a smash hit (“Run”) in 2016, why can’t these legacy acts enjoy their own version of contemporary visibility? After all, Keith Sweat’s moans are eternal, Avant’s pleading remains useful, Jodeci is forever beloved, and Mint Condition’s live shows still outperform most of the new R&B stars’ sorry excuses for musicianship. “An R&B Celebration in Raleigh” seems more apt. —ET [PNC ARENA, $49–$125/8 P.M.]
Sam Evian EASY In the video for his DOES IT single “Sleep Easy,” Sam Evian—aka Sam Owens, also of Brooklyn’s Celestial Shore—
rides on the back of a motorcycle cutting through a lush, green landscape. The song is a gentle, meandering that tune that’s immediately inviting, as warm as the golden-hour light of the video. The rest of Premium, Owens’ full-length debut as Sam Evian, is similarly alluring. With an early evening start time, this one’ll be an easygoing weekend kickoff. —AH [THE PINHOOK, $8–$10/7 P.M.]
Town Mountain COUNTRY Asheville’s Town GRASS Mountain takes adventurous routes—think tributes to J.D. Crowe and the Grateful Dead—through bluegrass traditions, picking hard, loose, and fast beneath Robert Greer’s mighty Southern twang. Opener Blue Cactus finds Steph Stewart teaming up again with Mario Arnez on classic country heartbreakers and honky-tonk. —SG [HAW RIVER BALLROOM, $12–$15/8 P.M.]
Wild Fur FLOATING Like fellow North FACTION Carolinians Floating Action, Wild Fur trades in slack, hazy rock anchored by steady, compelling grooves, though Wild Fur occasionally adds in twinges of twng. In Carrboro, the band celebrates the release of its new LP, Feel Free, with opening sets from Beauty World and Josh Moore. —AH [CAT’S CRADLE BACK ROOM, $10/9 P.M.] ALSO ON FRIDAY BEYÙ CAFFÈ: Atticus Reynolds; 8 & 10 p.m., $10. • CAROLINA THEATRE: 1964 The Tribute; 8 p.m., $25–$70. • CARY ARTS CENTER: Cary Town Band; 7:30 p.m., free. • THE CAVE: The Dick Richards, Bulgogi, Sibannac, The Nitrogen Tone; 9 p.m., $5. • CITY LIMITS SALOON: Ray Scott; 8 p.m. • DEEP SOUTH: The Fifth, Beyond The Fade, Modena; 9 p.m., $8–$12. • DURHAM PERFORMING ARTS CENTER: Bob Dylan and His Band; 8 p.m., $93–$130. See page 26. • THE KRAKEN: Triple Fret, The Oblations, Poor Pie; 8 p.m. • LINCOLN THEATRE: GF*W 4 Year Anniversary BASH; 9 p.m., $15. • NIGHTLIGHT: Disco Sweat XXIX; 10 p.m., $8. • THE PINHOOK: Y2K Dance Party; 10 p.m., $5. • POUR HOUSE: Igor & the Red Elvises, The Nasty Habits; 9 p.m., $12–$15. • THE RITZ: Rumours; 9 p.m., $10. • SHARP NINE GALLERY: Jim Ketch/Aaron Hill Quintet; 8 p.m.,
TUE 7/5 Crank It Loud: NOTHING / CULTURE ABUSE WAILIN STORMS / HUNDREDFTFACES
w North ns Floating s in slack, steady, ough Wild n twinges he band of its new ing sets d Josh
7/8 SolKitchen & The Art of Cool Project: The Art of Noise #Durham
FRI
motorcycle $10–$15. • SLIM’S: Drew Taylor, Baby green Why, Ezra Noble; 9 p.m., $5. DJ Lord a gentle, Redbyrd; midnite. • THE STATION: that’s The Well Respected Men; 8:30 p.m., $7. s warm as of the video. wens’ m Evian, is an early one’ll be Animal Collective d kickoff. ADOBE From their earliest SLABS days, Baltimore psych-pop monoliths Animal Collective have delighted in flipping the script each time out. in Compare the noise-rock spasms of Hollinndagain to the circus pop ’s Town of Centipede Hz, or the pastoral n takes electro-ambience of Sung Tongs. hink This year’s spastic Painting With is and the AnCo’s attempt at wringing gh cking hard, bite-size, colorful punk-inspired h Robert psych tunes, with rare guest help rn twang. from John Cale and Colin Stetson. nds Steph If it didn’t grab you, no worries, gain with just check back next album. With c country Actress. —DS ky-tonk. [CAT’S CRADLE, $30–$33/8 P.M.] LLROOM,
SAT, NOV 5
Karl Blau BLAU BA Scene veteran Karl BA DEE Blau has for so long been rendering a particularly sturdy and ingratiating mix of country-tinged folk and off-kilter new wave that it can be possible to lose sight of him altogether. But to do so would be a shame—Blau remains a foremost chronicler of hard times and the bad nights that follow. Lake and Al Riggs open. —TB [THE PINHOOK, $10/9 P.M.]
OOM,
The Kneads
GIMME From just west of Reynolds; INDIE the Triangle, OLINA infectious Greensboro trio The bute; 8 Kneads has found a home in the ARTS Potluck Foundation nebula. The nd; 7:30 band’s riff-heavy indie rock—built : The Dick on the same kind of swaggering c, The twang and refracted dissonance • CITY that marked Archers of Loaf and y Scott; 8 p.m.Polvo—would have fit well in ifth, Beyond Chapel Hill a quarter-century ago, $8–$12. but its urgent thrust descends RMING from early-nineties NYC emo Dylan and heroes Jawbreaker and Texas Is 0. See page the Reason. Blunt Bangs and riple Fret, Minorcan open. —PW p.m. • [SLIM’S, $5/9 P.M.] GF*W 4 p.m., $15. • weat XXIX; One for Duane III HOOK: Y2K SKYDOG Named after The POUR BENEFIT Allman Brothers’ Elvises, 1970 LP, Idlewild South pays $12–$15. • tributes to the Brothers that can p.m., $10. run as long as four hours. This gig LERY: is a benefit for the Allman et; 8 p.m., museum, The Big House, and
features a bevy of local stars including Taz Halloween. —GB [SOUTHLAND BALLROOM, $10/8 P.M.]
Pacifica Quartet WORLD Composer Julia PREMIERE Wolfe has been on quite a run. Her oratorio Anthracite Fields won the 2015 Pulitzer Prize, she was just named a MacArthur genius, and she finally seems to have stepped completely out of the shadows of fellow Bang on a Can composers David Lang and Michael Gordon. This concert features the world premiere of her new cello quintet, Splendid Hopes (in a major coup for Duke Performances), paired with Schubert’s sumptuous cello quintet. —DR [DUKE’S BALDWIN AUDITORIUM, $10–$48/8 P.M.]
Persona 14: DJ Wey NITE LINE A recent up-andcomer in the fruitful NYC techno underground that has spawned tastemaking labels like L.I.E.S., Brooklyn’s DJ Wey is a promising talent. Seductive, sumptuous lo-fi house is his sphere, but he zigs and zags his lysergic style on every track where it never degenerates into mood music. On a side note, Wey also deejays under the alias DJ Xanax, a name so on-the-nose it seems to defy time and space. Gaul Plus opens. —DS [NIGHTLIGHT, $7/10 P.M.]
Punk/Metal Throwdown CROSSED Whatever boundary WIRES lines divide heavy metal and punk rock have been blurred for ages. Iconic acts like Slayer, Corrosion of Conformity, and Motörhead cemented their legacies with both the headbanging and spikey jacket camps decades ago, so this is hardly a rivalry at play. Still, the six-band Throwdown does underscore the shared energy and intensity among its trad-leaning metalheads (Colossus, Blatant Disarray, and Knightmare) and the gritty anthemics of its punk contingent (Poison Anthem, The Ghost of Saturday Nite, and Sibannac). —BCR [THE MAYWOOD, $8–$10/7:30 P.M.]
Rainbow Kitten Surprise FEEBLE & These well FOLKSY intentioned and regrettably named Boone natives specialize in a kind of carefully coiffed folk-rock variant that can, in its timidity, make the Lumineers sound like GG Allin. Here’s hoping this talented combo eventually shakes off the shackles of its inherent conventionality. —TB [POUR HOUSE, $12–$15/7 & 10:30 P.M.]
Trash Talk THRASH West Coast TALK hardcore outfit Trash Talk has received plenty of hip-hop cosigns: They’ve opened for hip-hop Martian Lil B, and its last two records, including 2014’s savage No Peace, came out on the record label of the misfit Odd Future collective. But any connection to hip-hop outliers seems to be rooted only in skateboards and weed; Trash Talk relies on reverently purist blasts of grimy, grinding, bad-vibes hardcore. —PW [MOTORCO, $15–$17/9 P.M.] ALSO ON SATURDAY BERKELEY CAFÉ: 6 String Drag; 8 p.m. • BEYÙ CAFFÈ: James “Saxmo” Gates; 8 & 10 p.m., $15. • BLUE NOTE GRILL: Armand & Bluesology; 8 p.m., $10. • CAT’S CRADLE (BACK ROOM): Flock of Dimes, Your Friend; 8:30 p.m., $12. See page 33. • THE CAVE: Electrick Ladyland, Cosmic Country Band, Stephen Vincent; 9 p.m., $5. • DEEP SOUTH: Veronica V, Noise Ordinance, The American Titans; 9 p.m., $5. • DUKE CHAPEL: Duke Chorale, Duke Symphony Orchestra, Duke Wind Symphony; 8 p.m., $10. • KINGS: Great Good Fine Ok, Dreamers, Miracles; 9 p.m., $12–$14. • THE KRAKEN: Jimmie Ray Swagger; 9 p.m. • LINCOLN THEATRE: Start Making Sense, HmfO; 9 p.m., $12. • MEYMANDI CONCERT HALL: NC Symphony: Copland Classics; 8 p.m., $15–$75. • THE RITZ: Sublime, Rome, The Skints; 8 p.m., $38. • SHARP NINE GALLERY: Kate McGarry/Keith Ganz Quintet; 8 p.m., $10–$25. • THE STATION: 90’s Dance Party with PlayPlay; 10 p.m., $5. • TRIANGLE YOGA: Samadhi; 7 p.m., $10. • UNC’S KENAN REHEARSAL HALL: Charanga Carolina, UNC Jazz Combos, Catharsis; 8 p.m., free.
MON 7/11 Regulator Bookstore presents HEATHER HAVRILESKY: Ask Polly Live TUE 7/12 DANNY SCHMIDT / REBECCA NEWTON with WES COLLINS THU 7/14 Storymakers: Durham, Community Listening Event SAT 7/16 PINKERTON RAID / ST. ANTHONY & THE MYSTERY TRAIN
WED JUN 29 @ 8:00 PM, $12/$15 SUN JUL 17 @ 8:00 PM $12/$15
RICHIE RAMONE REBIRTH BRASS BAND THE RAGBIRDS THE RAGBIRDS
THU 11/3
FR 11/4
THE COLLECTION / Lowland Hum OFF WITH THEIR HEADS (ACOUSTIC)
SU 11/6
ALL BOY/ALL GIRL
MO 11/7
TOMBS / WOLVHAMMER / GROHG COYOTE VS. ACME / Kitty Box & the Jonnys
TH 11/3
TH 11/10 FR 11/11 SA 11/12 MO 11/14
Almost People / Dollar Signs / Severed Fingers
w/ POISON ANTHEM
MON 7/18 MAIL THE HORSE SAT 11/5 TUE 7/5 Crank It Loud: NOTHING / CULTURE ABUSE FRI JUL 22WAILIN STORMS / HUNDREDFTFACES @ 8:00 PMJOHN COWAN $25/$30 FRI 7/8 SolKitchen & The Art of Cool Project: W/ ANTWON / BLACK NOI$E The Art of Noise #Durham
Barren Graves / Ozymandias
TRASH TALK
Jimmie Ray Swagger & the Fussy Eaters
BABY BABY / Roar The Engines BUSDRIVER / DEANTONI PARKS PAPER ROUTE / HALFNOISE
W/ D-TOWN BRASS
BACCHUS & THE LUCKIEST GIRLS KAIRA BARICHARD & THE BEAST PRESENT: A PARTY FOR BLACKSPACE SAT FRI11/5 7/1TRASH LOOKTALK HOMEWARD / THE MIDATLANTIC / ANTWON / BLACK NOISE FRI 11/4
JOHN COWAN FLASH CHORUS PRE-ELECTION PARTY: w/ DARIN & BROOKE ALDRIDGE
MON 11/7
MON 7/11“Roar”Regulator Bookstore presents - Katy Perry / “It’s The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)” - REM HEATHER HAVRILESKY: Ask Polly Live TUE 11/8 ELECTION NIGHT RESULTS
S D R I B G A R E TH WED SAT11/97/23 Girls Rock Showcase BALLDENIO / SAM PRICKETT TUE 7/12RICHARD DANNY SCHMIDT / REBECCA NEWTON with WES COLLINS
DAMIEN JURADO / DOUGNight: KEITH TUE 7/26 Motorco Comedy THU 7/14 Storymakers: Durham, Community Listening Event IN THE AND /XIV HOURS: ANDYPOCKET WOODHULL ADAM COHEN SAT 7/16DUALPINKERTON RAID / ST. ANTHONY & THE MYSTERY CD-RELEASE CONCERT BENEFITTING STOP HUNGER NOW TRAIN er s -P op Ma tt FRI11/137/29ADRIAN YOUNG BULL Album Release SUN LEGG el er s"Show SUN JUL 17 tic tr av tis ar e at w/ ALIX&AFF / DURTY DUB su mm on11/14 @ 8:00 PM "CMON MOTORCO THE ART OF COOL PRESENT: BILAL THE RAGBIRDS $12/$15 TUE 11/15 CRANK IT LOUD PRESENTS: DIIV FRI 11/11
MO 11/14 TU 11/15
PAPER ROUTE W/ HALFNOISE
SOUND OF CERES / Brothertiger
TH 11/17 CARDIGAN & LOCAL 506 PRESENT:
VICTORY DANCE
Faulkner / Lazarus Wilde / Cloud Hands
PLUTOPIA / FANTASTICO! THE SHELTERS MO 11/21 MONDAY NIGHT OPEN MIC COMING SOON: TOGETHER PANGEA, ANTISEEN THE SOIL & THE SUN, OWEL, PATRIOT FR 11/18 SA 11/19
www.LOCAL506.com
SAT 11/12
SUN JUL17 COMING SOON: JULIETTE LEWIS, YARN, JARED & THE MILL, WED 11/16 CAT’S CRADLE PRESENTS: MITSKI / FEAR OF MEN / WEAVES HAL KETCHUM, Doors: 7pmNRBQ, LIZ VICE, WINDHAND, THU 11/17 HELMET / LOCAL H CODY CANADA Show: 8pm& THE DEPARTED, RUSSIAN CIRCLES, BAND OF SKULLS, FRISISTER 11/18 SPARROW DRIFTWOOD & THE DIRTY BIRDS, KING, $12 ADV 723 RIGSBEE AVE - DURHAM, NC - MOTORCOMUSIC.COM DOYLE LAWSON & QUICKSILVER, THE BONOFF, RECORDREDCOMPANY, LEGG, COMING SOON: MY BRIGHTEST DIAMOND, KARLA FANG, JOHNADRIAN MCCUTCHEON, $15 DAY OF MON 7/18 MAIL THE HORSE SPIRIT ANIMAL,BRASS JOHNNYBAND, IRION (U.S. THEDIAMOND, STRAY BIRDS,KARLA CROWBAR W/ GOATWHORE, REBIRTH MY ELEVATOR), BRIGHTEST BONOFF, ! W O N LE ENTER THEJUL HAGGIS, CAVE,WAINWRIGHT THE PINKERTON RAID W/ A THE B OLD CEREMONY, FRI 22COLD AIL TALIB KWELI, LOUDON VIII M A JOHN DARNIELLE, KWELI,U LEMURIA, LOUDON WAINWRIGHT III ALB H" T EWPMTALIB R @N 8:00 A E H JOHN COWAN & THE LD O H S $25/$30 E R H "THE T
THE RAGBIRDS
The Threshold & The Hearth
723 RIGSBEE AVE - DURHAM, S. NC C- MOTORCOMUSIC.COM OM
JOHN COWAN w/ DARIN & BROOKE ALDRIDGE THE RAGBIRDS
AGBIRD W W W .T H E R
S D R I B G A R E H Year TeasersT16 SAT 7/23 Girls Rock Showcase
TUE 7/26 Motorco Comedy Night: ANDY WOODHULL / ADAM COHEN
-P op Ma tt FRI 7/29 YOUNG BULL Album Release Show av el er s" tis tic tr e ar at mm w/ ALIX AFF / DURTY DUB su "C on
er s
Anniversary Celebration
SUN JUL17 COMING SOON: JULIETTE LEWIS, YARN, JARED & THE MILL, HAL KETCHUM, Doors: 7pmNRBQ, LIZ VICE, WINDHAND, CODY CANADA Show: 8pm& THE DEPARTED, RUSSIAN CIRCLES, BAND OF SKULLS, SISTER SPARROW & THE DIRTY BIRDS, KING, $12 ADV 723 RIGSBEE AVE - DURHAM, NC - MOTORCOMUSIC.COM DOYLE LAWSON $15 DAY OF & QUICKSILVER, THE RECORD COMPANY, ADRIAN LEGG, REBIRTH BRASS BAND, MY BRIGHTEST DIAMOND, KARLA BONOFF, LE NOW! TALIB KWELI, LOUDON WAINWRIGHT M AVIIIAILAB H" NEW ALBU HE HEART SHOLD & T "THE THRE The Threshold & The Hearth
723 RIGSBEE AVE - DURHAM, S. NC C- MOTORCOMUSIC.COM OM
THE RAGBIRDS
W
GBIRD W W .T H E R A
Saturday Nov. 12
MEMBERS IN FREE before 9pm door prizes and heavy hors d’oeuvres special entertainment www.teasersmensclub.com 156 Ramseur St Durham, NC
919-6-TEASER
for directions and information
Open 7 Days/week • Hours 7pm - 2am An Adult Nightclub
INDYweek.com | 11.2.16 | 37
WE 11/2 TH 11/3 FR 11/4 SA 11/5 SU 11/6 TU 11/8 TH 11/10
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DO OR DIE W/ JOE “PISTOL” PETE, SAMSON, DJ DAMU, HOSTED BY SOFAB KIM 11/14 11/15
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PHOTO COURTESY OF THE WINDISH AGENCY
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 5
HELADO NEGRO Private Energy is an apt album title for Helado Negro. His live performance is a window into an artist’s psyche, a key to a lover’s emotional treasure chest. Some critics have called the record, released in early October, a reinvention. But the artist, Ecuadorian-American Roberto Carlos Lange, sees it as more of an unconscious evolution. “The process becomes invisible to you,” he explains. “[On tour] your energy gets stretched so thin, you start becoming way more creative on how you’re using it.” Always one to stretch the boundaries of synths and rhythms in his production, Lange also incorporates the melody of linguistics by using Spanish in much of his work, creating monolingual and bilingual metaphors that gently pull you in. Live, Lange carefully sculpts each beat, intonation, and pause, occasionally meandering into free-form territory as dancers dressed in shaggy tinsel body suits wade through rhythms on stage. The entire performance is an art piece. The fragility in each track—from the declarative syncopation in “It’s My Brown Skin” to the sexy yet vulnerable lyrics of “Lengua Larga”— derives from a need to preserve the energy demanded from us as we move through a troubled world. “A lot of those songs became way more fluid
SUN, NOV 6 Ciompi Quartet ALL For this concert of MOZART Mozart chamber music, the Ciompi Quartet brings back a pair of frequent collaborators, clarinetist Allan Ware and pianist Olivier Cavé. You know exactly what to expect: a wellspring of melodies tumbling over one another to be heard, buoyant rhythms, and that certain Viennese grace undergirding everything. —DR 38 | 11.2.16 | INDYweek.com
working with the political environment and social environment in the U.S.,” says Lange. Private Energy isn’t supposed to be political commentary, but politics finds its way into the record anyway. Take, for example, “Young, Latin and Proud,” which serves as the LP’s centerpiece. It’s Lange’s anthem for Latinx and others embracing bicultural and immigrant identities. While performing the song on tour last year, he told crowds it was a letter to his younger self. Private Energy has become both a personal and collective declaration of identity, a reminder to stay grounded in a turbulent society that’s chipping away at its injustices at a glaring, rapid pace. “In a domestic sense and through the world’s perspective, we’re really vulnerable. We don’t want to be represented in all of these different ways,” says Lange, alluding to our toxic presidential election and the horrific racial injustices dominating the media. “It’s exhausting, too. We have to leave time to preserve and meditate and don’t get caught up.” Instead, why not get caught up in Lange’s Private Energy? —Victoria Bouloubasis DUKE COFFEEHOUSE, DURHAM 9 p.m., $5, www.dukecoffeehouse.org
[DUKE’S BALDWIN AUDITORIUM, $10–$25/7 P.M.]
Keep the Vision Alive Benefit JAZZ Now in its second MASTERS year, this benefit helps sustain N.C. Central University’s jazz studies program, the first of its kind in the state and now a lauded institution with numerous accomplished graduates. The concert features a pair of aces, composer/pianist Ellis Marsalis and saxophone
master Marcus Anderson, bringing their estimable talents to bear for a good cause. —DK [CAROLINA THEATRE, $52–$127/6 P.M.]
Kikagaku Moyo SPACE A Japanese ROCK five-piece with 1967 on the brain, Kikagaku Moyo’s ingratiating take on psychedelia convincingly conjures root elements like the Airplane and Jethro Tull. Expanding its palette on post-punk workouts like “Zo
ROCK FOR As the finale of a CHANGE statewide series of benefits for Equality NC and QORDS, the Carrboro edition of the Stand Against HB 2 falls two days before the election that’ll likely affect the lifespan of such legislated discrimination in North Carolina. More than twenty acts are slated to appear, drawing heavily from the area’s wealth of indie rock and alt-country with big-time acts like The dB’s, The Love Language, and Tres Chicas joined by rising stars such as Happy Abandon, Matt Phillips, and Blue Cactus. —SG [CAT’S CRADLE, $15–$20/NOON]
Valient Thorr PARTY After sixteen years HEARTY and seven full-length albums, it’s safe to call Valient Thorr a veteran hard rock band. Its heavy and hooky blend of hardcore punk, classic metal, and arena rock has endeared the band to legions of “Thorriors” while cementing its signature sound as a landmark in a resurgence of melodic and heavy music beyond the modern rock radio format. After releasing its varied and dynamic LP Old Salt in July, Valient Thorr plays a rare hometown gig in an uncharacteristically small room. Expect jubilant bedlam. Davidians and Lightning Born open. —BCR [SLIM’S, $10–$15/8 P.M.] ALSO ON SUNDAY BETH EL SYNAGOGUE: Yiddish Songfest; 3 p.m., $15–$20. • CAT’S CRADLE (BACK ROOM): All Get Out, Gates, Microwave; 8 p.m., $10–$12. • THE CAVE: Boss’ Daughter, Nevernauts, Sibannac; 9 p.m., $5. • KINGS: Weyes Blood, Truly, UVB-76; 9 p.m., $8–$10. See page 33. • LOCAL 506: All Boy/All Girl, Barren Graves, Ozymandias; 9 p.m., $8. • NC MUSEUM OF HISTORY: Jean Dubé; 3 p.m. • NEPTUNES PARLOUR: Band & The Beat, Gold Light, Grace Joyner; 9 p.m., $8. • POUR HOUSE: Delta Bombers, Motorbilly; 9 p.m., $5–$8.
MON, NOV 7 GHOST SACRIThe Grammy-winLICIOUS ning Swedish band Ghost has all of its shock-rock
Felix Martin PROG A stone cold virtuoso GUITAR on the order of John McLaughlin or Stevie Ray Vaughan, the Venezuelan guitarist Felix Martin has established a dedicated worldwide following purely on the strength of his instrumental mastery. Combining elements of jazz, metal, and prog, Martin is apt to send thrills through even the most jaded of six-string enthusiasts. The Fine Constant and Anamorph open. —EB [NEPTUNES, $10–$12/9 P.M.] ALSO ON MONDAY LOCAL 506: Tombs, WOLVHAMMER, GROHG; 9 p.m., $12. • THE PINHOOK: Votaries, Bears, Foxture; 8 p.m., $8. • UNC’S MEMORIAL HALL: Isabelle Faust, Alexander Melnikov; 7:30 p.m., $20–$50.
“Rainbow Death Revisited” convey fear and ecstasy in equal measure. Bears and JC Graves open. —TB [KINGS, $6–$8/9 P.M.] ALSO ON TUESDAY
THE CAVE: Bask, The Seduction; 10 p.m., $5. • POUR HOUSE: The Groove Orient; 9 p.m., $5.
WED, NOV 9 Bleak
.
METAL The Syracuse quartet MACHINE Bleak possesses a name befitting their intense sound, which lassoes hardcore and death metal influences into a furious sludge reminiscent of a slow-burn nightmare. Come early for Asheville stoner metal purveyors Bask, plus Boone doom metal acolytes Trudge. —DS [SLIM’S, $9/9:30 P.M.]
Vince Gill
COUNTRY Vince Gill is kind of VET like the David Letterman of country. He’s been expertly walking the line between accessibility and edge since the eighties, maintaining an unassailable level of cool cred amid a sea of sellouts. But the big difference is that Gill hasn’t retired, and his new blend of country, rock, and pop (with the occasional dash of soul) is still making its way to stages across the nation. May it ever be thus. —JA [DURHAM PERFORMING ARTS CENTER, $45–$78/7:30 P.M.]
TUE, NOV 8
Quintron and Miss Pussycat
Goodbye June
WEIRDO Half dance party and VOODOO half psychedelic puppet-show performance art, the unbridled, unhinged, and wildly creative low-tech swamp boogie of Quintron and Miss Pussycat has few touchstones. The duo’s dance songs are flush with staggering, oddball sonic textures; they’re too silly to be self-conscious, filled with shrill non sequitur shouts, swirling church organ and space-ray bleeps that emanate from homemade gadgets. Keep N’awlins weird, y’all. Durham’s own D-Town Brass opens. —PW [THE PINHOOK, $12/9 P.M.]
REGULAR If you anticipate an ROCK election night filled with anxiety and dark rumination, perhaps you should distract yourself with some good ol’ rock ’n’ roll. Goodbye June, a Nashville band recently signed by Interscope and out on tour with ZZ Top, are purported to deliver the goods. —DK [CAT’S CRADLE BACK ROOM, $10/8:30 P.M.]
Votaries PSYCHE- The shape-shatterDELIC ing folk and garage rock of Asheville’s Jackson Scott falls into a long tradition of psychedelic shop-wrecking, with influences ranging from Roky Erickson to Klaus Nomi. Tracks like the sublime and deranged
ALSO ON WEDNESDAY
MOTORCO: Richard Balldenio, Sam Prickett; 9 p.m., $5. • NEPTUNES PARLOUR: Sunwatchers, Enemy Waves; 10 p.m., $7. • POUR HOUSE: Headfirst for Halos, Mycah; 9 p.m., $7.
on stands
now THE INDY'S GUIDE TO THE TRIANGLE
Stand Against HB 2
tropes checked. It’s risen to acclaim with big, arena-ready hooks buttressing sharp, melodic pop-metal even as the band revels in sacrilegious imagery and costuming, borrowing the Satanic theatricality of Scandinavian metal peers, and dressing it in a pop veneer. The band stops in Raleigh supporting the glossy new Popestar EP. But more beguiling, even, than the headliner is the unlikely opener. Marissa Nadler’s delicate, haunting folk tunes are an atmospheric complement to metal’s darkness, but their quiet and contemplative setting stands in stark contrast to Ghost’s bombast. —BCR [THE RITZ, $27.50/8 P.M.]
FINDER
No Senaka” the band suggests a common ground between Laurel Canyon and Sonic Youth. —EB [THE PINHOOK, $10/8 P.M.]
INDYweek.com | 11.2.16 | 39
art OPENING
SPECIAL Background: Lauren EVENT Clay, Julia Gartrell, and Angelina Gualdoni. Nov 4-27. Reception: Nov 4, 6-9 p.m. Lump, Raleigh. www. teamlump.org. Eight is Enough: A Kick Ass Group Show: John Geci, Elijah Leed, Ben Galata, Jean Christian Rostagni, Abie Harris, Peter Milne, Claire Ashby, and Peter Dugan. Nov 4-Dec 23. Bull City Arts Collaborative’s Upfront Gallery, Durham. www. bullcityarts.org. SPECIAL Groundlessness: EVENT Julie Cardillo. Nov 4-27. Reception: Nov 5, 2-4 p.m. Nature Art Gallery, Raleigh. www.naturalsciences. org. SPECIAL I Wish To Say: PopEVENT up performance by Sheryl Oring. Sat, Nov 5, 5 p.m. CAM Raleigh, Raleigh. camraleigh.org. SPECIAL Imagination EVENT Architectures: Eric Mack. Nov 3-Jan 6. Reception: Nov 3, 7-9 p.m. UNC’s Sonja Haynes Stone Center, Chapel Hill. www.sonjahaynesstonectr. unc.edu. SPECIAL On the Wings of EVENT Birds: Emma Skurnick. Nov 6-30. Reception: Nov 6, 1-3 p.m. Joyful Jewel, Pittsboro. www.joyfuljewel.com. SPECIAL Quadrivium *when EVENT four roads cross: Sue Edmonson, Cole+Cole jewelers, and Jonathan Davis. Nov 4-30. Reception: Nov 4, 6-9 p.m. Roundabout Art Collective, Raleigh. www. roundaboutartcollective.com. SPECIAL Rockford Files EVENT Paintings: Paul Friedrich. Nov 4-28. Reception: Nov 4, 6-9 p.m. Personify, Raleigh. SPECIAL Siglinda Scarpa, Ida EVENT Trisolini: Ceramics and repurposed books. Nov 6-28. Reception: Nov 6, 2-4
FOR OUR COMPLETE COMMUNITY CALENDAR WWW.INDYWEEK.COM 40 | 11.2.16 | INDYweek.com
11.2–11.9 p.m. Horace Williams House, Chapel Hill. www. chapelhillpreservation.com. SPECIAL Sisters: 10 Years and EVENT Counting: Mary Beth Owen and Virginia Owen. Nov 4-26. Reception: Nov 4, 6-9:30 p.m. Local Color Gallery, Raleigh. www. localcoloraleigh.com. View from the Edge: Caroll Lassiter. Nov 8-Dec 4. FRANK Gallery, Chapel Hill. www. frankisart.com.
ONGOING Night Comes Creeping: Group show. Thru Nov 29. Glas, Raleigh. www.glas.work/gallery. LAST Amanda Parer: CHANCE Intrude: Outdoor sculpture. Thru Nov 6. NC Museum of Art, Raleigh. www. ncartmuseum.org. SPECIAL Anything Goes 2016: EVENT Paintings, photography, sculpture, and mixed media. Thru Nov 4. Reception: Nov 4, 6-9 p.m. Litmus Gallery, Raleigh. www. litmusgallery.com. Beyond Bollywood: Indian Americans Shape the Nation: By examining the history of Indian immigrants as they assimilated into the U.S. and their contributions to American life—musical, political, culinary, scholarly, sporting, and cultural—this traveling Smithsonian exhibit reframes what it means to be an Indian American. The artifacts range from images of nineteenthcentury Indian railroad workers and anti-Hindu propaganda to twentieth-century small-town life and today’s Silicon Valley. Thru Apr 2, 2017. City of Raleigh Museum, Raleigh. —David Klein Backwoods to Bayou: Southern folk art. Thru Nov 17. Alexander Dickson House, Hillsborough. www.historichillsborough.org. SPECIAL Bathroom Humor: EVENT National Cartoonists Take on HB2: Group show. Thru Nov 11. Reception: Nov 4, 6-9 p.m. The Assembly, Raleigh. Beauty by Nature: Sol Levine.
Thru Dec 1. ERUUF Art Gallery, Durham. www.eruuf.org. LAST Black on Black: CHANCE Group show. Thru Nov 4. Visual Art Exchange, Raleigh. www.visualartexchange. org. Carolina on My Mind: Group show. Thru Nov 26. Village Art Circle, Cary. www. villageartcircle.com. Cascading Color: Elizabeth Kellerman. Thru Apr 16, 2017. Durham Convention Center, Durham. www. durhamconventioncenter.com. Collections: Leah Sobsey. Thru Dec 31. 21c Museum Hotel, Durham. www.21cmuseumhotels.com/ durham. The Contemporaries: Carrie Alter, Jeff Bell, Charles Chace, Casey Cook, Lynda Curry, Warren Hicks, Jimmy Fountain, Heather Gordon, Harrison Haynes, Soleil Konkel, Leigh Suggs, and Steve Walls. Thru Nov 19. Light Art + Design, Chapel Hill. www.lightartdesign. com. LAST Cuba Now: CHANCE Photography by Elizabeth Matheson. Thru Nov 5. Craven Allen Gallery, Durham. www. cravenallengallery.com. Discover Your Governors: Thru Aug 6, 2017. NC Museum of History, Raleigh. www. ncmuseumofhistory.org. Dress Up, Speak Up: Costume and Confrontation: In this visually dazzling, politically charged exhibit, artists of international renown and local legends alike unravel clothing, costume, and ornament into identity politics, especially those pertaining to race. Ongoing. 21c Museum Hotel, Durham. www.21cmuseumhotels.com/ durham. —Chris Vitiello Elsie Dinsmore Popkin: The Art of Carolina: Landscape images. Thru Nov 17. Gallery C, Raleigh. www.galleryc.net. The Enchanted Arcana of Greg Carter: Sculptural forms and prints. Thru Nov 14. Meredith
“THAT PINK HOUSE AT PERSON AND LENOIR, RALEIGH, NC, 2016” BY CAITLIN CARY PHOTO COURTESY OF THE ARTIST
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 4
CAITLIN CARY & GESCHE WÜRFEL: RALEIGH REDUX In complementary but contrasting ways, Caitlin Cary and Gesche Würfel are both artists whose medium is place, as you can easily compare at this dual Artspace exhibit, Raleigh Redux. Cary, who has been playing music and making art in Raleigh for more than twenty years, was awarded a Regional Emerging Artist Residency by Artspace last year. She’ll show her unique fiber art, in which recognizable Raleigh buildings are depicted in repurposed upholstery sewn to paper. More than just an aesthetic, the style responds to a modern Raleigh which is in a state of transformation as buildings and blocks reknit themselves into new, development-driven patchworks. Würfel, meanwhile, is a native of Germany who moved here in 2009; she brings an outsider’s (and an urban planner and sociologist’s) eye to Southeast Raleigh in new photographs of domestic and commercial spaces in various states of decay, supplemented by drawings made on bus rides from Durham to Raleigh during her own Artspace residency. The exhibit is a fractured but coherent diptych of a city in a state of flux, and after this opening reception, it runs through November 26. —Brian Howe ARTSPACE, RALEIGH 6–10 p.m., free, www.artspacenc.org
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College: Gaddy-Hamrick Art Center, Raleigh. www.meredith. edu. Exchanged and Revealed: Luna Lee Ray and Shelly Hehenberger. Thru Dec 10. Durham Art Guild, Durham. www.durhamartguild. org. Finding Each Other in History: Stories from LGBTQ+ Durham: Personal narratives. Thru Jan 15, 2017. Durham History Hub, Durham. www. museumofdurhamhistory.org. LAST Flowers + Water + CHANCE Color: Capel States. Thru Nov 6. Durham Arts Council, Durham. www. durhamarts.org. Harvest: Member exhibition. Thru Nov 13. Pleiades Gallery, Durham. www. PleiadesArtDurham.com. Ellen Hathaway: Thru Dec 17. Elevation Gallery at SkyHouse Raleigh, Raleigh. www. skyhouseraleigh.com. Kim Herold: Mixed media work. Thru Nov 30. Looking Glass Cafe, Carrboro. lookingglasscafe.us. History and Mistory: Discoveries in the NCMA British Collection: This is the first time in decades
that NCMA has curated an exhibit from its British holdings of Old Master painting and sculpture. Thru Mar 19, 2017. NC Museum of Art, Raleigh. www. ncartmuseum.org. —Brian Howe Shelton Cooper Hodge: Thru Dec 17. HQ Raleigh, Raleigh. Interstitial: Photography by David Hilliard. Thru Dec 11. Cassilhaus, Chapel Hill. Journey: Catharine Carter. Thru Nov 12. Tyndall Galleries, Chapel Hill. www.tyndallgalleries.com. Levitas: Thomas Konneker, Bruce Mitchell, and Zoe Sasson. Thru Nov 13. Arcana, Durham. www. arcanadurham.com. Luminous Creatures: Digital images by JP Trostle. Thru Jan 6, 2017. Atomic Fern, Durham. www.atomicfern.com/. A Man Singing To Himself: Jill Snyder. Part of the Click! Triangle Photography Festival. Thru Dec 30. Durham Arts Council, Durham. www.durhamarts.org. Eric McRay: Thru Dec 17. more. Raleigh. www.jmrkitchens.com. Midnight Sun: Lori Vrba. Thru Nov 12. Through This Lens, Durham. www.throughthislens. com.
LAST Musings on an CHANCE Origin: Lien Truong. Thru Nov 4. SPECTRE Arts, Durham. www.spectrearts.org. New Corridors Exhibition: Marnie Blum, Kristan Five, Shawn Hart, Chieko Murasugi, Pete Sack, and Pat Scull. Thru Nov 26. Artspace, Raleigh. www.artspacenc.org. On the Wing: Alicia Armstrong, Molly Cliff Hilts, Tinka Jordy, and Marlise Newman. Thru Nov 20. Eno Gallery, Hillsborough. www. enogallery.net. Oppressive Architecture: Photographs by Gesche Würfel. Thru Dec 4. CAM Raleigh, Raleigh. camraleigh.org. Permutations, Progressions + Possibilities = The Art of Vernon Pratt: Thru Nov 28. Gregg Museum of Art & Design, Raleigh. www.ncsu.edu/gregg. Photographs by Hugh Morton: An Uncommon Retrospective: Photographs of North Carolina. Thru Sep 4, 2017. NC Museum of History, Raleigh. www. ncmuseumofhistory.org. Places In Mind: Ann Howe, Barbara Rohde, and Sherry Nicholson. Thru Nov 22. Cary Gallery of Artists, Cary. www. carygalleryofartists.org.
ARPANA DANCE COMPANY AS SEEN IN BEYOND BOLLYWOOD AT THE CITY OF RALEIGH MUSEUM PHOTO BY JOHN MERRELL
LAST Pots in the Piedmont: CHANCE Pottery by North Carolina artists. Thru Nov 6. FRANK Gallery, Chapel Hill. www.frankisart.com. Printing Realities: Sergio Sánchez Santamaría. Thru Dec 6. Duke
Campus: Fredric Jameson Gallery (Friedl Building), Durham. Reflection: Works by Christine S. Berndt: Pastels and watercolors. Thru Nov 11. Chapel Hill Town Hall, Chapel Hill. Rolling Sculpture: Art Deco Cars
from the 1930s and ’40s: On one hand, these ostentatious cars are the obscene baubles of the interwar industrialists whose progeny are today’s rogue traders, junk bond kings, and profiteering Wells Fargo
HACKSAW RIDGE INFERNO
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SEPARATION AGREEMENTS Mu s i c Bu s i n eDIVORCE ss Law UNCONTESTED In c o r p oBUSINESS r a t i o n / LLAW LC / MUSIC Pa r t n e r s h i p INCORPORATION/LLC Wi lls WILLS
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bill.burton.lawyer@gmail.com INDYweek.com | 11.2.16 | 41
executives. On the other hand, the cars offer a nuanced look at how design aesthetics responded to the production line and its consumerist culture with a mixture of fantasy and faith. Thru Jan 15, 2017. NC Museum of Art, Raleigh. www.ncartmuseum. org.—Chris Vitiello Scent of the Pine, You Know How I Feel: North Carolina Art from the Jonathan P. Alcott Collection: This exhibit shows how depictions of the mountain, Piedmont, and coastal regions of North Carolina have changed over two centuries in the hands of seventy-three painters: Impressionists, realists, folk artists, futurists, postmodernists, and more. Thru Dec 4. NC Museum of History, Raleigh. www.ncmuseumofhistory. org. —David Klein Selections from the Photography Collection: Thru Jan 22, 2017. Nasher Museum of Art, Durham. nasher.duke. edu. Selma to Montgomery: A March for the Right to Vote: Photographs by Spider Martin. Thru Mar 5, 2017. NC Museum
stage
of History, Raleigh. www. ncmuseumofhistory.org. Southern Accent: Seeking the American South in Contemporary Art: This is less a simple exhibition than a speculative and critical archive of Southern identity. Slavery, the Civil War, racism, and their complex inheritances? Much of the work explores and interrogates that. Connections to place so deep that land and body become the same thing? Many artists unravel the warp and weft of that. The dissonance of the past’s intrusion into the present? The exhibit shimmers with that temporal disorientation. It’s powerful work by supremely capable artists, and the intensity of their proximity is life-changing. Thru Jan 8, 2017. Nasher Museum of Art, Durham. nasher.duke.edu. —Chris Vitiello
Town and Country: Will Goodyear. Thru Nov 26. Adam Cave Fine Art, Raleigh. www. adamcavefineart.com.
Mary Carter Taub: Thru Dec 17. Red Hat Gallery, Raleigh.
Transits and Migrations: A Summer in Berlin: Student photography. Thru Apr 15, 2017. Duke’s Center for
The Jemima Code: Photographs by Toni Tipton-Martin.
Andy Beningo: Fri, Nov 4, 8 p.m. The Cary Theater, Cary.
Odd Squad Live: $30-$40. Sat, Nov 5, 6 p.m.. Durham Performing Arts Center, Durham. www.dpacnc.com. Richard III: Play. $10-$18. Nov 4-20. Sonorous Road Productions, Raleigh. www. sonorousroad.com.
Jane Borden: $10. Fri, Nov 4, 8 p.m.. DSI Comedy Theater, Chapel Hill. www. dsicomedytheater.com. See p. 32.
Tom Segura: $29. Fri, Nov 4 & Sat, Nov 5, 5, 7:30 & 10 p.m. Goodnights Comedy Club, Raleigh. www. goodnightscomedy.com.
A Charlie Brown Christmas and Jingle Bell Jukebox: Play. $15-$20. Thru Nov 13. Raleigh Little Theatre, Raleigh. www. raleighlittletheatre.org.
Storybook Tales: Raleigh Dance Theatre. $15-$18. Sat, Nov 5 & Sun, Nov 6, 3 p.m. Fletcher Opera Theater, Raleigh. www. dukeenergycenterraleigh.com.
Bill Engvall: Stand-up comedy. $40-$60. Sun, Nov 6, 7:30 p.m.. Durham Performing Arts Center, Durham. www.dpacnc.com.
Two Turtle Doves: Play. $12-$16. Nov 3-12. Common Ground Theatre, Durham. www. cgtheatre.com.
Demetri Martin: $40. Wed, Nov 9, 8 p.m.. Carolina Theatre, Durham. www.carolinatheatre. org.
Walk Two Moons: Play. $7-$15. Fri, Nov 4, 7 p.m. & Sat, Nov 5, 2 p.m.. EK Powe Elementary School, Durham. powe.dpsnc. net.
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The Ties That Bind: Precious Lovell. Thru Jan 8, 2017. CAM Raleigh, Raleigh. camraleigh. org.
Transgender USA: Mariette Pathy Allen: Photography. Thru Dec 22. Power Plant Gallery, Durham.
Nov 6. Carrboro High School Theater, Carrboro.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream: Play. $5-$10. Thu, Nov 3–Sun,
THIS CAMPAIGN IS YUUUGE!: Cartoonists Tackle the 2016 Presidential Race: Collection of 2016 election cartoons. Thru Dec 2. Duke Campus: Rubenstein Hall, Durham. sanford.duke.edu.
Steinfest: Ceramic beer steins. Thru Nov 14. Claymakers, Durham. www.claymakers. com.
OPENING
The Black Pioneers Project: Oral history performance. Fri, Nov 4, 8 p.m. & Sun, Nov 6, 3 p.m. UNC’s Sonja Haynes Stone Center, Chapel Hill. www. sonjahaynesstonectr.unc.edu. See p. 32.
Thru Nov 23. Duke’s Center for Documentary Studies, Durham. www.cdsporch.org. LAST Things My Mother CHANCE Would Have Told Me If...: Linda Belans, Leah Sobsey and Herbert A. Belans. Thru Nov 5. The Carrack Modern Art, Durham. www. thecarrack.org.
wellRED Comedy Tour:
food
Documentary Studies, Durham. www.cdsporch.org. Under the Burning Sun: Kenneth Nkosi. Thru Nov 13. Eno Gallery, Hillsborough. www.enogallery.net.
FOOD EVENTS
Walden Pond in Four Seasons: Selections from Transcendental Concord by Lisa McCarty: Photographs and text. Thru Nov 26. Bull City Arts Collaborative’s Upfront Gallery, Durham. www.bullcityarts.org.
Bourbon: It’s In the Barrel: With Chetan Reddy. $45. Thu, Nov 3, 6 p.m. The Fearrington Granary, Pittsboro. www.fearrington.com.
William Noland: Dream Rooms: Long video takes examining technology and intimacy. Thru Feb 5, 2017. NC Museum of Art, Raleigh. www.ncartmuseum.org. LAST Wonders of Space CHANCE and Time: Astrophotography: Photographs by Tim Christensen. Thru Nov 6. Durham Arts Council, Durham. www.durhamarts. org. Zanele Muholi: Faces and Phases: Photography. Thru Jan 8, 2017. NC Museum of Art, Raleigh. www.ncartmuseum. org.
Cooks & Books: Katie Button: Hors D’Oeuvres. $95. Sun, Nov 6, 4 p.m. McIntyre’s Books, Pittsboro. www. mcintyresbooks.com. DURHAM ROOTS Farmers’ Market: Saturdays, 8 am; Thru Nov 19. Northgate Mall, Durham. www. northgatemall.com. Hoppy Hours: Food trucks and art activities. Thu, Nov 3, 5:30 p.m. & Fri, Nov 4, 5:30 p.m. NC Museum of Art, Raleigh. www.ncartmuseum. org. Plant Based Latin-Inspired Dinner: Dinner by Soul Cocina. $6-$13. Fri, Nov 4, 6 p.m. Ninth Street Bakery, Durham. www.ninthstbakery.com. Raleigh Downtown Farmers Market: Wednesdays, 10 am. Raleigh City Plaza, Raleigh. Wine Tasting at Mandolin: Exploring Terroir with Pinot Noir:
Wednesdays, 6 p.m. Mandolin, Raleigh. www.mandolinraleigh.com.
F O O D R E L AT E D Mario Batali: Mario Batali Big American Cookbook: 250 Favorite Recipes from Across the USA. Fri, Nov 4, 2 p.m. Flyleaf Books, Chapel Hill. www.flyleaf books.com. Katie Button: Cúrate: Authentic Spanish Food from an American Kitchen. Sat, Nov 5, 6 p.m. Quail Ridge Books, Raleigh. www. quailridgebooks.com. Shalane Flanagan and Elyse Kopecky: Run Fast.. Eat Slow: Nourishing Recipes for Athletes. $30. Wed, Nov 2, 5:30 p.m. Fleet Feet, Carrboro. Cynthia Graubart: Chicken: A Savor the South Cookbook. Sat, Nov 5, 11 am. McIntyre’s Books, Pittsboro. www.mcintyres books.com. Vivian Howard: Deep Run Roots. Wed, Nov 2, 5 p.m. Whole Foods Market, Raleigh. www. wholefoodsmarket.com.
$20-$40. Thu, Nov 3, 7:30 & 9:30 p.m.. Goodnights Comedy Club, Raleigh. www. goodnightscomedy.com. Lady Parts Justice League: Comedy. $15-$20. Thu, Nov 3, 8 p.m.. Cat’s Cradle, Carrboro. www.catscradle.com. See story, p. 29.
ONGOING LAST The CHANCE Crucible: Thru Nov 6. PlayMakers Repertory Company, Chapel Hill. www. playmakersrep.org. Read Byron Woods’s review at www.indyweek. com. The Open House: Play. $5-$20. Thru Nov 12. Manbites Dog Theater, Durham. www. manbitesdogtheater.org. See review, p. 30. LAST The Trump CHANCE Card: $6-$10. Thru Nov 7. Manbites Dog Theater, Durham. www. manbitesdogtheater.org. Read Byron Woods’s review at www. indyweek.com.
TWO TURTLE DOVES
PHOTO COURTESY OF ALLIE MULLEN PHOTOGRAPHY
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 3–SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 12
TWO TURTLE DOVES
Hawaii means you’ve made it, right? The semester’s over, Christmas is here, and any troubles back home are half an ocean and a continent—plus five time zones—away. So sorry: not far enough. Not if you’re James Littleton, a very big man in a small Carolina town. He coaches high school girls to greatness—at least, while they’re on a basketball court. (Off-court, the results are a bit more varied, due to James’s tough-love coaching strategies.) His wife has just left him, so he’s gotten out of town for the holidays. He’s brought along Meredith Erwin, a one-time student who’s now his assistant coach. The two have started a relationship, maybe. Then the phone rings. The team’s starting point guard just tried to commit suicide. The family is suing James for emotional and mental abuse. And Meredith is recalling all the times he used the same tactics on her. Shelby Hahn directs Alice Rose Turner and Jaybird O’Berski in Mark Cornell’s new play. —Byron Woods COMMON GROUND THEATRE, DURHAM 8 p.m., $12–$16, www.cgtheatre.com
screen
Rated R.
The Ballad of Fred Hersch: Thu, Nov 3, 7 p.m. The Cary Theater.
Doctor Strange—Explore the mystical side of the Marvel Universe in this superhero flick. Rated PG-13.
SPECIAL SHOWINGS
Madam Satan: Fri, Nov 4, 8 p.m. NC Museum of Art, Raleigh. www.ncartmuseum.org. Rodents of Unusual Size: Fri, Nov 4, 7 p.m. Full Frame Theater, Durham. Rosenwald: Mon, Nov 7, 7 p.m. UNC Friday Center, Chapel Hill. www.fridaycenter.unc.edu.
½ Hacksaw Ridge—Mel Gibson directs the true story of heroic U.S. Army medic Desmond T. Doss. Rated R. The Handmaiden—See review, p. 31. Unrated.
here doesn’t quite add up. Rated R. ½ The Birth of a Nation—This Nat Turner biopic overturns the conventions of white Hollywood. Rated R. ½ Bridget Jones’s Baby— Renée Zellweger’s loveable comic character deserved a better comeback. Rated R. Deepwater Horizon— This account of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill thrills but skimps on context. Rated PG-13.
OPENING
Shut In—A psychologist (Naomi Watts) isolated with her paralyzed son believes something bad is with them in the house. Rated PG-13.
Almost Christmas—The likes of Danny Glover and Omar Epps fill out this dysfunctionalfamily-Christmas comedy. Rated PG-13.
Trolls—Troll doll fads have been coming and going since the sixties. This time they’re back in an animated Dreamworks picture. Rated PG.
Arrival—Humans and aliens make contact on Earth in Denis Villeneuve’s sci-fi drama. Rated PG-13.
A L S O P L AY I N G
½ The Magnificent Seven—Despite an able cast, this remake adds little to the “band of disreputables” trope. Rated PG-13.
Certain Women—Kelly Reichardt’s buzzy drama interweaves the tales of several lives in Montana.
The Accountant—Is Ben Affleck trying to actually turn into Matt Damon? In any case, his autistic assassin character
Suicide Squad—The plot is weak, but these antiheroes bring some much-needed levity to the DC Extended Universe. Rated PG-13.
The INDY uses a five-star rating scale. Read our reviews of these films at www.indyweek.com.
½ The Girl on the Train— Emily Blunt’s vulnerable performance almost redeems a trashy, lurid film. Rated R.
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 5
SICK CHICK FLICKS FILM FESTIVAL The first festivals devoted to showing and celebrating films made by women arose in the late seventies in response to the worldwide film industry’s domination by men. There are more than a hundred such festivals at the moment, from Texas to Taipei, and the trend seems to be toward genre specificity. In the spirit of 2015’s Ax Wound Film Festival in Brattleboro, Vermont, the Sick Chick Flicks Film Festival focuses on women’s work in the world of independent horror and suspense, with some fantasy and sci-fi thrown in. Films by an international and local roster of directors, none longer than twenty minutes, will get the jury treatment. The day’s segments are divided among “creepy and disturbing,” “dark and twisted,” “scary and Southern,” and more as twenty-seven films vie for top honors. By the time the winner of the inaugural Best Sick Chick Flick award is announced, the suspense should be unbearable. —David Klein CARY THEATER, CARY 10:30 a.m.–11 p.m., $5–$23, www.sickchickflicksfilmfest.com
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 6
TRAVIS SMITH: ZODIAC B The constellations as we know them were fixed by a group of astronomers in 1922, but their official enshrinement of variously sized dippers and bears relegated a number of evocative sidereal configurations to the graveyard of history. In his chapbook Zodiac B, prior INDY Poetry Contest winner Travis Smith revives the stars that fell from the heavens in conversational prose-poem encomiums to the likes of Testudo the Turtle, Bufo the Toad, and Aranea the Spider. Appropriately for his forgotten subjects, Smith’s address is often consolatory: “No wonder you have those scales, Pangolin. Everyone wants a piece of you.” The chapbook is beautifully printed on tarot cards, giving these lost arcana a proper homecoming to the firmament. Smith launches the chapbook, published by Ninepin Press, on Sunday at Flyleaf Books, where he is a longtime bookseller. —Brian Howe FLYLEAF BOOKS, CHAPEL HILL 5 p.m., free, www.flyleafbooks.com
page
READINGS & SIGNINGS Warren Bingham: George Washington’s 1791 Southern Tour. Sun, Nov 6, 2 p.m. NC Museum of History, Raleigh. www. ncmuseumofhistory.org. April Ayers Lawson, Clare Beams: Debut story collections. Fri, Nov 4, 7 p.m. Flyleaf Books, Chapel Hill. www.flyleafbooks. com. See story, www.indyweek. com. Lee Pace: Football in a Forest: The Life and Times of Kenan Memorial Stadium. Thu, Nov 3, 7 p.m. Quail Ridge Books, Raleigh. www.quailridgebooks.com. Alan Shapiro: Life Pig and That Self-Forgetful Perfectly Useless Concentration. Thu, Nov 3, 7 p.m. Flyleaf Books, Chapel Hill. www.flyleafbooks.com. Margot Lee Shetterly: Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who
Helped Win the Space Race. Wed, Nov 9, 7 p.m. Duke Campus: Reynolds Industries Theater, Durham. Richard Snow: Iron Dawn: The Monitor, The Merrimack.... Sun, Nov 6, 2 p.m. Quail Ridge Books, Raleigh. www.quailridgebooks. com.
LITERARY R E L AT E D Sarah Jane Deutsch: From Ballots to Breadlines: American Women 1920–1940. Book club discussion. Fri, Nov 4, 6:30 p.m. NC Museum of Art, Raleigh. www.ncartmuseum.org. Fall Into Romance: Romance novel festival presented by Durham County Library. Fri, Nov 4, 6 p.m. & Sat, Nov 5, 10 a.m. www.durhamcountylibrary.org. Ken Farmer: Stories from Antiques Roadshow. Fri, Nov 4, 7 p.m. Page-Walker Arts & History Center, Cary. www. friendsofpagewalker.org.
In the Wings: The May Queen: PlayMakers cast discusses current production. Mon, Nov 7, 7 p.m. Durham Main Library, Durham. www. durhamcountylibrary.org. North Carolina Writers’ Network 2016 Fall Conference: Fri, Nov 4, 3 p.m., Sat, Nov 5 & Sun, Nov 6, 7:30 a.m. www. ncwriters.org. Marriott Crabtree Valley, Raleigh. Victoria Pass: “Designed for Speed: Fashion and Car Culture in the 1920s and ’30s.” Fri, Nov 4, 6 p.m. NC Museum of Art, Raleigh. www.ncartmuseum.org. Pauli Murray Program on Harriet Smith: With Kim Smith. Thu, Nov 3, 7 p.m. Durham Main Library, Durham. www. durhamcountylibrary.org. David Ruderman: “The Cultural Significance of the Ghetto of Venice for Jewish History.” Thu, Nov 3, 5 p.m. UNC Campus: Hyde Hall, Chapel Hill.
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