Queen City Nerve - January 29, 2020

VOLUME 2 | ISSUE 5 | JANUARY 29 - FEBRUARY 11, 2020 | QCNERVE.COM

BLACK HISTORY MONTH 2020

ROMARE

BY PAT MORAN

DT V

20

Remembering

WORLD-RENOWNED CHARLOTTE NATIVE DEPICTED BLACK AS BEAUTIFUL

MUSIC: SWING DANCE AND EARLY JAZZ IN THE CAROLINAS PG. 16

NEWS: REVISITING THE BOMBINGS OF '65 PG. 6

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OLD CROW MEDICINE SHOW

Charlotte’s Cultural Pulse

NEWS & CULTURE

6 The Bombs That Awoke Charlotte by Ryan Pitkin Four attacks in 1965 made racial tensions impossible to ignore 7 Legalize It by D. Michael Brooks 8 Confessions of a Banker Bro by Tim Nicodemus 9 The Scanner by Ryan Pitkin

ARTS

10 Remembering Romare by Pat Moran World-renowned Charlotte native depicted black as beautiful

LIFELINE

14 How not to kill your social life

MUSIC

16 The Swing States by Ryan Pitkin Radeena Stuckey puts the originators first at Gotta Swing Charlotte 18 Make It Swing by Tom Hanchett Stuff Smith is a forgotten jazz legend who began in Charlotte 20 Soundwave

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LIFESTYLE

26 The Seeker by Katie Grant 26 Sudoku 27 Crossword 28 Horoscope 29 The Buzz 30 Savage Love

BLACK HISTORY MONTH 2020

Remembering

ROMARE

WORLD-RENOWNED CHARLOTTE NATIVE DEPICTED BLACK AS BEAUTIFUL

BY PAT MORAN

20

FEB. 27 • KNIGHT THEATER

22 The Pursuit of Nappiness by Ryan Pitkin Rojshawn Dontae looks to make his next move 23 The Newbie Foodie: Sandwich Shootout by Darrell Horwitz

DT V

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FOOD & DRINK

MUSIC: SWING DANCE AND EARLY JAZZ IN THE CAROLINAS PG. 16

NEWS: REVISITING THE BOMBINGS OF '65 PG. 6

Cover Design by Dana Vindigni

PHOTO COURTESY OF SPECIAL COLLECTIONS DEPARTMENT AT UNC CHARLOTTE

& OPINION THE BOMBS THAT AWOKE CHARLOTTE Four attacks in 1965 made racial tensions impossible to ignore

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A

BY RYAN PITKIN

S 17-YEAR-OLD Kelly Alexander Jr. lay in bed in the early morning hours of Monday, Nov. 22, 1965, in the bedroom he shared with his brother Alfred in their family’s home across from West Charlotte High School, he heard a rumbling that he took to be thunder. As it turned out, what he heard was the dynamite bombing of his uncle’s house next door. Seconds later, the window above him exploded in a violent blast.

“I remember hearing what I thought was thunder in the distance, and the next thing there was a big flash, which would have been the bomb going off on our porch,” recalls Alexander, now a member of the North Carolina House of Representatives. “Our room was right next to [the porch], so when the bomb went off, all of the windows just shattered and blasted across the bedroom.”

He believes that he and Alfred were saved from serious harm because they were laying directly under the window, so when the glass exploded across the room it blew right over their heads. His brother would later tease Kelly that he must be able to levitate, as he ran across the room full of broken glass and didn’t get as much as a scratch on his feet.

The attack was aimed at Alexander’s father, Kelly Alexander Sr., the president of the North Carolina NAACP. The bombings on Senior Drive in the University Park neighborhood targeting Alexander Sr. and his brother, Charlotte City Council member Fred D. Alexander, were two of four carried out that night targeting local civil rights leaders on the Beatties Ford Road corridor in Historic West End.

Police outside of Dr. Reginald Hawkins’ house after it was bombed by white supremacists.

All of the attacks occurred within minutes of each other, beginning at about 2:15 a.m.

Nearby in the McCrorey Heights neighborhood, Dr. Reginald Hawkins was targeted for his work in expanding local protests and sit-ins that had been started by Johnson C. Smith University students in Uptown.

In Northwood Estates, civil rights lawyer Julius Chambers’ house was also bombed. Chambers had presented the famous Swann vs. CharlotteMecklenburg Board of Education lawsuit, and more recently stirred local white supremacists into a frenzy with his efforts to integrate the Shrine Bowl, a popular high school football all-star game that took place every December.

Though nobody was seriously hurt in the bombings, they shook Charlotte to the core, serving as a wake-up call to white residents and city leaders who liked to believe that their city was above the racial violence and unrest that had been plaguing much of the Deep South. The effects of the bombings on Charlotte’s populace have implications that still ring true in the city today.

No arrests have ever been made in the attacks.

In a 2001 interview with Melinda Desmarais for

the UNC Charlotte Digital Sound Archive Initiative, Hawkins says he was told by his sources within the FBI that local police worked in concert with the FBI to carry out the bombings.

“I still believe that until I die,” Hawkins says in the recording. “I know that they had me on the UnAmerican list ... I know that Julius and all of us were listed as communists, and [FBI Director] J. Edgar Hoover had done everything he could to demonize us.”

Willie Griffin, staff historian at Levine Museum of the New South, says that no strong evidence has arisen to support that theory, although “it’s not a far-fetched belief, just understanding all the things that were going on in the 1960s.”

The Ku Klux Klan has long been suspected of involvement. Though the KKK presence was not strong in Charlotte, nearby towns were bastions for the hate group. In his book Radio Free Dixie, Timothy B. Tyson called nearby Monroe “the southeastern capital of the KKK.” The Nov. 22 attacks brought the truth about race relations in Charlotte to the forefront and forced people to honestly confront the hatred and turmoil that bubbled underneath the surface.

The city had been purposeful about the image it projected to the rest of the country.

“This was done in many ways to continue to remain an economically viable city while other cities in the South were just wrecking their reputation, almost as if they didn’t consider how this would affect their bottom line,” Griffin says.

Officials had been embarassed in 1957 when young Dorothy Counts was harassed, accosted and spat on while walking to Harding High School to attend class as the first black student there. Photos published in newspapers and video footage aired across the nation that night put Charlotte in a bad light, but the city had stayed off the national newscasts until the 1965 bombings.

“You fast forward almost a decade later [after Dorothy Counts], and this was another black eye,” says Griffin. “This was like the second black eye of the televised era, and Charlotte leaders did not want to be known as a place that was compared to Birmingham, [Alabama]. And so they worked to try to make this go away, to go across racial lines to show that this was not Charlotte.”

Six days after the bombings, thousands of black and white Charlotteans gathered at Ovens

PHOTO COURTESY OF SPECIAL COLLECTIONS DEPARTMENT AT UNC CHARLOTTE

LEGALIZE IT FOLLOW THE MONEY

Charlotte can’t legalize marijuana, but they don’t have to enforce it

BY D. MICHAEL BROOKS

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Investigators comb Kelly Alexander Sr.’s home top to bottom.

Auditorium to rally in support of the families that were targeted that night.

For Kelly Alexander Jr., the rally was like a new start to a fight that his grandfather had fought, that his father had fought, and that he had recently taken up as a youth leader in the local NAACP. “At this time in my life, I had been at many, many rallies, and the spirit of reconciliation [at Ovens Auditorium], the spirit of rejection of those who resort to violence to settle things, it was very much in the air,” he says. “And that’s been a hallmark of this community ever since.”

Alexander says the unification that followed the bombings was something that carried on for many years to come.

“Even years later, well over a decade later, I would come in contact with people who would talk about the political dynamic of the period and would end up in much the same place: that they had grown to appreciate what my father and his cohort had been doing, but they didn’t appreciate it back then, and they recognized that it was a necessary component of all of us coming to a point where we could come together and move ahead,” he says.

The Ovens rally was far from the end of racial tensions in Charlotte, where in the nearly 55 years since the bombings, city leaders and local activists have continued to grapple with the “New South” image that the city puts forward in contrast to the realities of racial disparities and segregation — be it mandated by law or naturally occurring.

For Griffin, however, the city’s response was more sincere than other Southern cities and towns, where

news of unrest was answered with the shaming and blaming of black civil rights activists who were said to be provoking violence with protests and demands for equality.

“Progressivism means different things at different times in the course of our history,” Griffin says. “And the fact that Charlotte was working to try to deal with what had happened — I mean really grapple with what was going on in a transparent way — that is what set Charlotte apart from other Southern cities, and that is what made it progressive for this time period.”

Perhaps the walking embodiment of Charlotte’s contrasts between its progressive public image and its racial realities at the time was the city’s mayor, Stan Brookshire, A former journalist elected in 1961.

Part of the reason Brookshire was so successful was because he understood the role that the media played in shaping the city’s narrative, Griffin says.

Upon his election, Brookshire restructured the Mayor’s Friendly Relationship Committee, formed in 1960 to facilitate conversations between lunch counter sit-in protesters and local business owners. Brookshire created the Mayor’s Community Relations Committee, which consisted of 27 notable black and white Charlotteans who would explore issues of housing, education, crime, the impact of segregation on communities, and equal opportunities for work, according to documents in the UNC Charlotte J. Murrey Atkins Library digital archives.

However, Brookshire was also a strong proponent SEE BOMBS ON PG.8

FEDERALLY, MARIJUANA LEGALIZATION will happen by 2025. Mark it down. Still yet, it may happen sooner, depending on how the politics play out.

Why, you ask? Money. According to New Frontier Data, the U.S. marijuana industry as a whole does $50 billion in annual sales consistently, and that number is growing. Legal state markets alone will exceed $17 billion in sales in 2020.

While N.C. Sen. Jeff Jackson recently stated on Queen City Nerve’s Nooze Hounds podcast that he does not realistically see our Republican-led state legislature budging on legalization anytime soon, there are steps our city can take on a local level to prepare for the future, and it begins with stomping out the harmful, often racist policies of the present and past.

A recent Elon University poll showed North Carolinians support medical marijuana enactment by 82% — no small stat in an election year. Perhaps more importantly, look at two of our neighboring states — Georgia and Virginia, both of whom have enacted medical marijuana programs. Even South Carolina is running a test facility in partnership with cannabis testing facilitator ProVerde Laboratories, according to Columbia Business Report.

Marijuana is now a regional opportunity. It has grown bigger than just one state deciding to move forward. Look at Connecticut, New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. In October, all four governors took part in the Regional Cannabis and Vaping Summit to discuss how to legalize adult-use together. Leaders from Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Colorado attended, as well.

Not only is Virginia starting a robust and industrial medical marijuana program with a giant production facility being built within 30 miles of the N.C. border, but Governor Ralph Northam, M.D., just announced his primary legislative task in 2020 is to decriminalize cannabis and expunge marijuana arrests records in the state.

Our leaders in Charlotte need to start working towards marijuana legalization progressively. As I write this article, Charlotte’s City Council is holding its annual

retreat. Members are discussing topics like public transportation, home prices, MLS soccer and a high murder rate. What I encourage our city’s leadership to discuss is ending the enforcement of marijuana simple possession in Charlotte in 2020.

End of simple possession enforcement — along with record expungement — will go a long way to help heal some of our past mistakes and open up more opportunities for mobility. Many people have trouble getting a good job, or a loan, or even a lease due to an arrest for possession of a small amount of marijuana, an issue that disparately affects the black community in Charlotte.

Our criminal justice system should not adversely affect someone’s livelihood as a punitive measure for possessing a plant, not to mention that enforcing these antiquated laws takes resources from a police department that already claims to be 200 officers short, but these are all issues for a future column.

End of enforcement would signal to Raleigh and the rest of the country that Charlotte is progressive about marijuana — not that Raleigh cares. The marijuana industry is and will continue to boom, but it will only bring prosperity to cities and counties that welcome the progress.

Our city leaders ask us to think progressively and to support public transportation, greenway space and the arts. These are all good things, but they do come with a price tag. A progressive city could pay for our future needs and create thousands of jobs if they would be open to these changes.

Ending enforcement and implementing expungement will help so many Charlotteans with criminal records, while also helping CMPD function more effectively in accommodating a modern, fastgrowing city. End of enforcement will mean our city is open to thinking about alternative ways to create jobs and opportunity and equity for all of Charlotte.

Other cities like Atlanta; New York; and Austin,Texas, are ending marijuana enforcement.

Charlotte should too.

INFO@QCNERVE.COM

CONTINUED FROM BOMBS ON PG.8

is finally coming to the surface, and that has been of policies that have since been understood by many absent from our understanding of the civil rights to be egregiously harmful. movement,” Griffin says. “All across the South, AfricanFor example, rather than dedicate resources to Americans have always organized their communities help lift up historically black neighborhoods like to push back against over-policing and police violence, Brooklyn in the Second Ward, where Alexander but we think that that’s something new.”

Jr. and his brother grew up, Brookshire promoted Alexander Jr. agrees that some of today’s “urban renewal” policies that would lead to the turmoil stems from the fact that issues around destruction of the neighborhood — sometimes police violence have only gained national attention taking matters into his own hands. relatively recently, while black residents and activists have fun patterns or be colors that show you have In Brooklyn: A City Within a City, an exhibit have been speaking about them for generations. a fun, clever personality. Finance is usually full currently showing at Levine Museum that Griffin He remembers that one of the first campaigns he of folks expecting you to put your head down, fit in and make money. This is your chance to be infinitesimally different from your other coworkers.

Dresses/skirts: Look, ladies, good luck figuring out what your antiquated corporate dress code means. Since this column is written by a guy who has no interest in even satirically telling you what you should or shouldn’t be wearing, we’re just going to skip over this potential landmine.

Fleece / Q Zip / Puffy Vests: Want to look like you went to go camping but stopped halfway?

Throw on one of these bad boys and keep your core overheated while your arms stay cold.

N.C. Rep. Kelly Alexander Jr. Khakis: Contrary to the joke above (sorry teachers), khakis can work depending on the day.

They can pair nicely with a blue blazer and strong helped to curate, Brookshire can be seen gleefully worked on as a young man involved calling on local opinions about the commodity markets. Avoid posing for a photo while taking a sledgehammer to police to stop carrying the heavy flashlight models wearing to formal events or on days that are not a Brooklyn home. that they would often use to beat people in custody.

Thursday or Friday.

More than a half-century later, Charlotte has a “Those kinds of issues involving the police are Jeans: Good for casual Fridays, or if you work in IT. majority black city council and black leaders ranging not new,” he says. “It may be new to some folks who Suits: It’s hard to go wrong with a smart suit from police chief to mayor to sheriff to chair of the have just noticed them for the first time, or been regardless of gender. Blue, black and grey with a Mecklenburg Board of County Commissioners. Yet involved with them for the first time, but they have white shirt are always acceptable. For the gents, a still, despite the progress made and the progressive been around for a long time.” strong tie/pocket square is what helps you stand image that’s touted publicly, tensions remain, as He traces the slow progress of police out in this department. was seen in the response to the killing of Keith accountability efforts from his work to call for Don’t forget — this is the world of finance, Lamont Scott by a CMPD officer in 2017, known as dashboard cameras in police cars as president of the so leave the wild shirt/tie combinations at your the Charlotte Uprising.

North Carolina NAACP in the ’80s and ’90s, to helping fraternity formals where you left them.

For Griffin, the flashpoints that have occurred secure funding for body cameras for departments Shoes: The fancier the better. Make sure throughout Charlotte’s history over the last 90 years around the state as a legislator in 2015. He’s also they match your clothes. If you wear mismatched are symbolic of a difference in the problems that it proud of local activists’ efforts to fight for and finally clothes/shoes, just go ahead and move to Asheville faces. Most people tie the civil rights movement to form a Citizens Review Board with the CMPD. to start your new life with people who don’t care issues regarding the right to vote and integration, “From each one of these incidents, tragic as they about the important things like fashion and image. and while Charlotte has seen its share of integration have been, I believe we have had some progress, You are now all caught up on the cutting edge battles, many of the issues activists have fought for we’ve moved forward,” Alexander Jr. says, having of finance fashion. Go ahead and run over to the Jos in our city have revolved around police violence and lived through a bomb being detonated feet from his A. Bank by Founders Hall and shop the good deals economics, Griffin says. head and seeing the community react, to watching with confidence.

In fact, the first known example of the local residents come together following the Charlotte Go get those slacks tailored knowing that pleats black community coming together to organize was Uprising. “Again, the hallmark of this community has are out, but high cuts that show off your dope socks in response to police violence in 1930, he says. been to learn from adversity, and not just standing are in. Go get that money while you look like a J. “With the emergence of Black Lives Matter and around and [saying] ‘Woe is me’ but figuring out Crew model who is overly confident that pastels the Charlotte Uprising, the long history of negative what we can do to improve.” will never go out of fashion.

RPITKIN@QCNERVE.COM interactions between police and black communities

CONFESSIONS OF A BANKER BRO BANKER BRO STYLE GUIDE

It goes beyond the blue shirt

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BY TIM NICODEMUS

NEW YEAR, NEW YOU. It’s 2020 and your wardrobe has needed a shakeup since popped collars went out of style. Maybe you want to dress like a banker or fit into your corporate office culture better.

As usual, Queen City Nerve stays in these finance streets, so we are proud to present the definitive guide to finance fashion.

First off, your job title matters, but be aware of other unspoken rules. Corporate dress code policies vary from place to place, but in general, each company has stereotypes. Bank of America is known for being a more formal place compared to other companies. Boutique investment banking or private equity shops tend to be full of fancy people, and with the high salaries (generally) come the expectations for high-quality clothes, while an employee in the back office of a firm can get away with department store dress shirts on a daily basis.

If you’ve heard the expression, “Dress for the job you want, not the job you have,” then you get the idea behind the finance culture. Image is everything in finance. How you style your wardrobe matters. What threads you have on as you order your food from the falafel cart at Trade and Tryon will speak volumes to those around you about just how much respect they should give you. Khakis are for people hitting up Charlotte Country Club or their job as a 5th grade teacher, not for a meeting with your commercial real estate client to bang out a $100+ million deal.

If you are a social climber with big career aspirations, we recommend becoming good friends with the good folks at the local suit shop or boutique. Or maybe you work at a fintech shop, so you wear whatever fashion-forward nonsense that makes sense only in the startup world.

So, we’ve established that your clothing matters. How else can you express to the barista that you work a ton of hours and are paid well?

How else can you silently signal to folks on the Blue Line that you live in South End and are heading to Sycamore for a networking event?

May we suggest the following: Socks: For the gentlemen, plain-colored socks are, to put it nicely, trash. Your socks should

“FROM EACH ONE OF THESE INCIDENTS, TRAGIC AS THEY HAVE BEEN, I BELIEVE WE HAVE HAD SOME PROGRESS, WE’VE MOVED FORWARD.”

INFO@QCNERVE.COM

SCANNER

BY RYAN PITKIN

HOTBOX A school bus was cleared out on one recent afternoon after an elementary school student chose the wrong time to test out their pepper spray. According to the report, “The juvenile suspect sprayed pepper spray onto the floor of the school bus causing three other juveniles to be affected.”

The kids who were “affected” were not injured, however, and the young suspect was not charged.

Damn kid, when I was young we just made stink bombs and left it at that.

BAIT AND SWITCH A 20-year-old woman filed a police report after she was teased with some money then robbed of her cellphone. The woman said she had placed the phone up for sale on the letgo app, then met with a man who claimed he wanted to buy it.

When she met the him at a Public Storage on Albemarle Road, he flashed money at her to gain her trust, then suddenly grabbed her phone and ran off. The victim told police the man tripped and fell, then got up and ran through traffic and into the woods before disappearing for good.

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WHAT STINKS? CMPD and the Charlotte Fire Department responded to Tuckaseegee Park in west Charlotte one recent morning after it was found that someone had set a porta-potty on fire overnight and let it burn, which I’m including in this column only in case you need an expression for something that’s even worse than a dumpster fire.

The Trump administration, for example.

GROUNDED Police have been perturbed by a couple of mystery drone pilots who have been breaking the laws of the land … er, air.

In November, CMPD and the FAA reported that someone in the Selwyn Park area had been flying their machine in restricted Class B airspace. The pilot flew the drone 1,500 feet in the air, more than triple the maximum allowed 400 feet, which is considered what’s necessary to keep the drone in the pilot’s line of sight.

Then in December, the FAA filed another report stating that someone in the First Ward area flew their drone 1,100 feet up and came down in Bank of America Stadium.

SIX-SHOT DONATION The manager at a Goodwill store on Wilkinson Boulevard in west Charlotte called police after an inventory check turned up something that didn’t need to be resold.

According to the manager, someone had anonymously donated a revolver to the store. He said that he is unsure of the date at which they received the firearm because it had been donated “a while ago,” but he had just come across it while checking inventory recently. Good to know.

WHAT’S EVEN REAL If you can’t trust the people who are robbing you, who can you trust? Police responded to an armed robbery call in east Charlotte just before midnight and found four suspects who had tried to rob one 49-year-old man, and still felt like they needed plenty of firepower to do it.

According to the report, the suspects used a very real black Ruger .380 pistol and a toy assault rifle painted black, apparently just for the extra intimidation factor.

DARK MAN X A 41-year-old man was robbed in the Enderly Park neighborhood of west Charlotte recently, and the thieves made off with two of his necklaces. When asked to give a description of one of the pieces of jewelry, the victim told officers it was a platinum chain “like what DMX wears.” Well, that narrows it down.

SOMETHING’S LOOSE A 63-year-old truck driver living in University City filed a police report after becoming convinced that someone was trying to sabotage his vehicle.

The man told police that someone had loosened all eight lug nuts on the right front wheel of his semi. He didn’t believe that anyone was trying to steal the tire or anything, but did note that, “the loosening of the lugs resulted in oil loss from the plate that houses the wheel bearings.”

through Zelle and Google gift cards. He repaid the $3,900 that he was told the wrap costed, only to then find out that the original check he received was counterfeit.

HOLE-Y SHIT A bad day only got worse for a 31-year-old Concord man who had to have his car towed from Remount Road during rush hour on a recent afternoon.

The man told police he was waiting next to his Infiniti G35 when suddenly a golf ball came flying from the nearby Charles L. Sifford Golf Course at Revolution Park and went right through his rear windshield.

DUNKED ON If it’s too good to be true, it probably is.

A 31-year-old man thought he landed a sweet job where he could make money from doing nothing, but in the end he was scammed out of thousands of dollars. The man told police that the scammer hired him to advertise for Dunkin’ Donuts by wrapping his QUIET DOWN An overzealous shoplifter blew her car with a DD ad. The suspect sent him a check to own cover at Sephora in Northlake Mall on a recent pay for the wrap, and was asked to return payment morning, but still got away with the goods.

According to staff, a look back at sur veillance footage showed that the woman had entered the store just before 10:30 a.m. and walked to the fragrance section. She selected a few, then walked to a corner where she felt comfortable placing them in her purse. She then went back for more, but this time when she got to the corner, she made a bunch of noise while removing a bottle from its packaging, which drew a salesperson to ask if she needed help. The shoplifter declined and quickly left the store with 12 bottles of fragrance, valued at a total of $1,560.

All Scanner entries are pulled from CMPD reports.

Suspects are innocent until proven guilty.

COURTESY OF ROMARE BEARDEN FOUNDATION

“Young Students” 1964

REMEMBERING ROMARE

World-renowned Charlotte native depicted black as beautiful

BY PAT MORAN

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I

T WAS WITH ROMARE BEARDEN’S PAINTING “Brass Section” that Patrick Diamond took the plunge.

Diamond and his wife Judy are now influential Charlotte art collectors, but in 1980 they were only novices visiting a one-man exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum of Art. There they discovered the celebrated collages and paintings of Bearden, the Charlotte-born African-American art pioneer, and it changed their lives forever.

“Judy and I both fell in love with Bearden’s work,” Diamond remembers. “We were living in Atlanta at the time, and as soon as we got back [home], we investigated whether any local galleries carried his work.”

After visiting yet another Bearden exhibit, this one at Atlanta’s High Museum of Art, the Diamonds walked down the street to a private gallery and found the piece that launched their lifelong

devotion to collecting art together. For just under $700, the couple acquired Bearden’s lively depiction of three musicians emerging from a swirling abstract background, a jazz trio comprised of two trumpeters and a trombonist. Patrick estimates the painting would be valued above $200,000 today, “Brass Section” suggests the shifting rhythms and movement of jazz, while simultaneously — and perhaps more importantly — placing AfricanAmerican experiences within a universal, classical and mythic context. Such attention to context, color and space is part and parcel of Bearden’s work, says Jonell Logan, local artist, entrepreneur and executive director of the nonprofit League of Creative Interventionists.

“An incredible sense of space [is] created — both interior and exterior space,” Logan says.

“Whether it’s strictly like you’re looking into a room, or the psychology of space, you’re forced to question

& CULTURE this interior kind of thought.”

For Jimi Thompson, better known as multidisciplinary artist and Camp North End art gallery BlkMrktCLT co-owner Dammit Wesley, Bearden’s greatest strength is that of storyteller.

“He’s a griot in a sense,” Thompson says, referring to the traveling poets, musicians and storytellers who maintain the oral history tradition of West Africa. Indeed, Bearden’s bold paintings and textured collages can be seen as a visual story of a people. The Great Migration of the early 20th century, the mass exodus of African-Americans from the rural South to the urban Northeast, is reflected in Bearden’s restless compositions and in his many depictions of bustling black life in big northern cities like New York.

Yet for all his modernity, Bearden’s work also keeps in touch with the South of his youth. His work focusing on the slower lifestyle of small-town Charlotte and rural Mecklenburg County speaks to Greenville, South Carolina, native Thompson, who grew up attending a black Baptist church.

“A lot of the imagery that he uses, I saw those symbols and iconography in my own life,”Thompson says. “I was able to contextualize [his] stories in a way that was deeply personal to me.”

Originally from Columbia, South Carolina, Patrick Diamond also finds an emotional and aesthetic touchstone in the artwork Bearden executed on rural African-American issues like religion, family and ritual.

“A lot of that Southern imagery, AfricanAmerican families celebrating certain rituals [like] baptisms, that [is what] is most attractive to me,” Diamond says.

“He’s an artist that captured life for people and they can relate to it,” Logan adds.

Storyteller, innovator and ebullient documenter of African-American life, Bearden was born to Richard Howard and Bessye Bearden in Charlotte in 1911. Though the family moved to New York City in 1914 while Bearden was still a toddler, he returned to the Queen City throughout his life.

Growing up on West 131st Street in Harlem, Bearden was too young to be part of the artistic, intellectual and cultural flowering known as the Harlem Renaissance, though the movement influenced his later work, Diamond says.

“His parents were engaged with many of the extraordinary artists and intellectuals and activists that were part of the Harlem Renaissance,” he says, and figures like W. E. B. Du Bois, Paul Robeson, Fats Waller and Duke Ellington were frequent visitors.

After beginning college at Pittsburgh’s Lincoln University, the nation’s first degree-granting Historically Black College and University, Bearden attended Diamond’s alma mater, Boston University, from 1930 through 1932. While there, he became a star pitcher for the varsity baseball team.

“In 1932 he was offered a contract to play professional baseball, but was asked to pass for white in order to do that,” Diamond says of the lightskinned Bearden. Bearden refused and transferred to New York University.

He graduated with a degree in education from NYU, where he also worked as a lead cartoonist and art editor for the school’s monthly journal The Medley. Bearden decided to become a professional artist after joining a group of African-American artists known as the “306 Group,” named after the street address of Bearden’s studio. The group later became the Harlem Artists Guild.

Concurrently, Bearden began to find inspiration from Western masters like Picasso and Matisse, as well as from African art.

From 1935 until 1937 Bearden worked as a

PHOTO BY BLAINE WALLER

Pg. 11 Jan. 29 - Feb. 11, 2020 - QCNERVE.COM

Patrick Diamond

PHOTO COURTESY OF PATRICK DIAMOND

weekly editorial cartoonist for a newspaper, the Baltimore Afro-American. In the mid ’30s he also took a position as a social worker with the New York City Department of Social Services, a job he held until 1966. All the while he worked on his art at night and on weekends, finally holding his first solo exhibition in Harlem in 1940. Bearden was subsequently drafted into the U.S. Army and served from 1942 to 1945.

Upon his discharge, he held his first one-man exhibition in New York at the Samuel M. Kootz Gallery. In 1950, Bearden attended the Sorbonne in Paris to study philosophy on the G.I. Bill.

When Bearden returned to New York a year later, he abandoned painting to concentrate on songwriting. He co-wrote the jazz standard “Sea Breeze,” later recorded

by Billy Eckstine and Dizzy Gillespie.

Recharged, Bearden returned to making art with renewed vigor. In 1954, he married dancer Nanette Rohan, who later became an artist and critic. Frequent trips to St. Martin, his wife’s ancestral home, encouraged Bearden and his wife to buy a second home on the island in the 1970s.

Perhaps reflecting his Caribbean surroundings, Bearden’s work from that decade displays renewed color and vibrancy. Eventually Bearden’s work was exhibited throughout the United States and Europe, with renown coming during his lifetime.

In addition to being prolific, Bearden was innovative, says Logan, particularly in his approach to collage.

“What I enjoy about his process is that form, the surface that is being used [for] the clipping or the tearing, doesn’t necessarily always relate to what it originally was for,” she elaborates. “There is this level of play and re-contextualizing going on.”

For Diamond, Bearden’s legacy is cemented by

COURTESY OF ROMARE BEARDEN FOUNDATION

“Mother and Child” 1971

Romare Bearden in his Canal Street studio, 1976

“It was not my aim to paint about the Negro in America in terms of propaganda.

It is to depict the life of my people as I know it.”

Romare Bearden

his body of work alone, but there was so much more to the man than making art.

“He was a mentor,” Diamond says. “He encouraged other artists, primarily AfricanAmerican artists, to continue their work.”

In 1963, when African-American artists were limited in their representation at commercial galleries, Bearden and other black artists launched the Spiral Gallery in New York, to provide an opportunity for African-American artists to get gallery exposure and representation.

The Spiral group also discussed how they could contribute to the civil rights movement. As Bearden reached out to other artists about the movement, he reconnected to memories about life within the black community in the South. He subsequently ramped up efforts to increase the visibility of AfricanAmerican culture through his work.

“It was not my aim to paint about the Negro in America in terms of propaganda,” Bearden said.

“It is to depict the life of my people as I know it, passionately and dispassionately as [Flemish Renaissance painter] Brueghel.”

Bearden was also an author. He co-wrote his first book, The Painter’s Mind, with artist Carl Holty in 1969. Six Black Masters in American Art, a collaboration with Harry Henderson, followed in 1972. At the time of his death in 1988, Bearden was working on a second book with Henderson, A History of African American Artists.

“He was an intellectual as well as an outstanding artist,” Diamond maintains. “He influenced quite a number of his contemporaries, artists that are still working today.”

“Carolina Shout” 1974 “The Sea Nymph” 1976

COURTESY OF ROMARE BEARDEN FOUNDATION

COURTESY OF ROMARE BEARDEN FOUNDATION

Connect with free arts and culture experiences for all ages, close to home.

CULTURE

Pg. 12 Jan. 29 - Feb. 11, 2020 - QCNERVE.COM

BLOCKS

One of Diamond’s fondest memories is meeting Bearden during the revered artist’s last visit to Charlotte in 1985. Charlotte’s Melberg Gallery was hosting an exhibit of Bearden’s work and the artist had arrived for an interview. The Charlotte Observer reporter scheduled to do the interview was running late so gallery owner Jerald Melberg granted Diamond and his wife 90 uninterrupted minutes with Bearden.

“Bearden invited Judy and me on a guided tour of the show. As we walked through the gallery, Bearden briefly discussed each of the collages that made up the show,” Diamond remembers.

The Diamonds informed Bearden that shortly after seeing the Brooklyn Museum exhibition of his work they had bought “Brass Section,” and that it was their very first purchase of an original work by an AfricanAmerican artist. Bearden was pleased to learn that they owned one of his prints, Diamond recalls. The conversation concluded with Bearden encouraging the Diamonds to support African-American artists by visiting gallery and museum exhibitions, reading as much as they could about African-American art and by purchasing black artists’ work.

Diamond says he devotes an entire chapter to the relationship Judy and he had with Bearden in his forthcoming memoir The Incredible Joy of

Find upcoming events at ArtsAndScience.org/CultureBlocks

Collecting African American Art: My Journey from Frogtown South Carolina to the National Gallery. The book is scheduled for publication in February.

As for Thompson, Bearden has inspired him through example.

“For me personally, just seeing somebody that looks like me achieve things and make history is enough for me to feel vindicated enough to pursue those same things,” Thompson says.

For Logan, Bearden represents an entry point into a conversation about black artists and the creative processes.

“He becomes the springboard for looking at other artists and the processes by which they work.”

She is particularly encouraged that despite his world travels and international accolades, Bearden is still closely associated with Charlotte, with his namesake park opening in a central location in Uptown’s Third Ward in August 2013.

“He’s from the South and then goes north.

His story is really interesting. It highlights that artists can come from different spaces,” she says. “[Bearden] brings attention to the creative energies that are happening within the city and the region, and encourages people to look at other artists.”

PMORAN@QCNERVE.COM

Pg. 13 Jan. 29 - Feb. 11, 2020 - QCNERVE.COM

APRIL 7-12 • BELK THEATER AT BLUMENTHAL PERFORMING ARTS CENTER

BlumenthalArts.org • 704.372.1000

WEDNESDAY, JAN. 29TH

THE CHRISTI SHOW

What: Christianee Porter started doing stand-up comedy in 2013, but eventually got burnt out and started making improv videos. Her character Ms. Shirleen went viral, and she launched The Christi Show, which now has more than 1 million followers across her social media feeds and landed her a role in Tyler Perry’s Madea’s Family Funeral.

More: Sold out; 7 p.m.; Comedy Zone, 900 NC Music Factory Blvd.; cltcomedyzone.com

THURSDAY, JAN. 30TH

ARTIST LECTURE: ‘A CITIZEN OF NO NATION’

What: In this exhibit, local photographer Toni Lovejoy layers images of slave narratives, President Lincoln’s writings, plantation owners’ letters, textures from slave cabin walls and other historic relics. Friends and family posed as ancestors to help personalize the pain of both Lovejoy and the viewer.

More: Free; 6:30 p.m.; Ketner Auditorium, Queens University, 1900 Selwyn Ave.; tinyurl.com/ToniLovejoy

FRIDAY, JAN. 31ST

LIFELINE

Pg. 14 Jan. 29 - Feb. 11, 2020 - QCNERVE.COM

JAN. 29TH - FEB. 4TH

BLACK FLAG

What: Black Flag vocalist Henry Rollins’ memoir Get in the Van is a hardcore bible, and the band’s melding of punk, metal and poetry invented a genre. But Rollins decamped and the Flag belongs fully to guitarist/founder Greg Ginn now. It’s not as good as classic Flag but you can still spin your copies of Damaged.

More: $30-35; 7:30 p.m.; Amos’ Southend, 1423 S. Tryon St., amossouthend.com

SATURDAY, FEB. 1ST

QUEEN CITY BREWERS FESTIVAL

What: At a new venue this year, Queen City Brewers Festival shines the spotlight on locally produced craft beer and cider with invites exclusive to Charlotte-area breweries, brewpubs and cideries along with hand-picked restaurants, snack exhibitors and sponsors. Festival proceeds benefit ACEing Autism-Charlotte.

More: $50; Noon-3:30 p.m. & 5-8:30 p.m.; The Park Expo and Conference Center, 800 Briar Creek Road; qcbrewfest.com

SUNDAY, FEB. 2ND

SKEWED LIVE-SCORES THE SUPER BOWL

What: A one-time audio-visual performance with previous member Ryan Decker grew into an ever-evolving collaboration called Skewed with drummer JM Askew, saxophonist Brent Bagwell, guitarists Brett Green and Jody Mattiacci and vibraphone player Eric Mullis. What better artists to live score your Super Bowl than the guys who dub themselves “torture jazz?”

More: $7; 6 p.m.; Goodyear Arts, 301 Camp Road, Ste. 200; goodyeararts.com

MONDAY, FEB. 3RD NO MONIKER

What: Richmond, Virginia, trio Moniker are now called No Moniker, but what’s in a name? Nomenclature aside, the band makes galloping alt rock with dark undercurrents. “Tidal Wave” off lasts year’s Private Prophet is a tsunami of coiling guitars and low, doomy vocals that suggest a post-punk Leonard Cohen. More: $7; 8 p.m.; Milestone, 3400 Tuckaseegee Rd., themilestone.club

TUESDAY, FEB. 4TH CHARLOTTE SYMPHONY OFF THE RAILS

What: A quartet of Charlotte Symphony Orchestra musicians leave the tony confines of their usual Uptown venues to play a program of innovative music on the wrong side of the tracks. Okay, it’s Plaza Midwood so it’s not that big of a stretch. Works

by Caroline Shaw and Jesse Montgomery are featured.

More: $15; 7 p.m.; Snug Harbor, 1228 Gordon St., snugrock. com

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for cool events happening in the queen city!

WEDNESDAY, FEB. 5TH

‘FIGHT FEAST’

What: Docunight is an organization that travels the country telling the stories of Iran through film, and with our president just recently going to the edge of war with that government, it would be a good time to put things in a humanizing perspective.

In Charlotte, Docunight screens 2018’s Fight Feast, which tells the vicissitudinous story of Iranian music between 1979-1989.

More: Free; 7 p.m.; Location TBA; docunight.com

THURSDAY, FEB. 6TH

‘SHEN YUN’

What: Shen Yun is everywhere, as the advertising budget seems bigger than the treasuries of several countries combined, but the Cirque du Soleil of Chinese dance harbors a secret. Beijing sees the troupe as the propaganda wing of banned spiritual movement Falun Gong, which dares to defy the state.

More: $80-150; Runs through Feb. 9, times vary; Belk Theater, 130 N. Tryon St., blumenthalarts.org

FRIDAY, FEB. 7TH

LIFELINE

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FEB. 5TH -FEB. 11TH

PRISM

What: Each artist is a prism, and when the white light of inspiration strikes them, the beam splits into a rainbow of visions.

You know, like the cover of a Pink Floyd album. C3 Gallery hosts the opening of an exhibition of six artists that runs through March 28.

More: Free; 7 p.m.; Alchemy at C3 Lab, 2525 Distribution St., c3-lab.com

SATURDAY, FEB. 8TH

SHRED 2020

What: Launched eight years ago by Vic the Chili Man, SHRED is a skateboard deck art show and auction, the proceeds of which go to help area kids with extraordinary medical needs. But wait, there’s more! If you’re not into awesome skate decks, there will be photography, canvas art, vinyl record art, sculptures and a local artisan vendor market.

More: Free; 1-7 p.m.; Unknown Brewing Co., 1327 S. Mint St.; facebook.com/shredclt/

SUNDAY, FEB. 9TH

ORDER/FIRE SCREENING AND OYSTER ROAST

What: Season five, episode four of the popular culinary video series Order/Fire features Ana Shellem of Shell’em Seafood Co., but this screening isn’t just about the show, it’s also an oyster roast with raffles, goodie bags and plenty of oysters caught by Shellem herself (that can’t be her real name, can it?). All proceeds go to the Community Culinary School of Charlotte.

More: Free; Noon-3 p.m.; Free Range Brewing, 2320 N. Davidson St., Suite D; orderfire.tv

MONDAY, FEB. 10TH POPPY

What: In 2017, The Guardian wrote, “Poppy is a disturbing internet meme seen by millions. Can she become a pop sensation?”

The article referenced one of her most popular YouTube videos at the time, which features her repeating “I’m Poppy” in her signature monotone for 10 minutes. In January of this year, she released her third studio album, titled I Disagree, and though she hasn’t become a “pop sensation” per se, she’s continued to grow rather impressively.

More: $24; 8 p.m.; The Fillmore, 820 Hamilton St.; fillmorenc.com

TUESDAY, FEB. 11TH KYLE MUTTER

What: Charlotte photographer Kyle Mutter specializes in food and product photos, and as a master of lighting, shadow, contrast and texture he has no equal. In this Small Talk presented by professional design association AIGA Charlotte, Mutter walks you through setting up the perfect still-life picture.

More: $5; 6 p.m.; The Light Factory, 1817 Central Ave., charlotte.aiga.org

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PHOTO BY BRAD NATHANSON

THE SWING STATES Radeena Stuckey puts the originators first at Gotta Swing Charlotte Pg. 16 Jan. 29 - Feb. 11, 2020 - QCNERVE.COM

BY RYAN PITKIN

P

ART OF RADEENA STUCKEY’S JOB as a lead instructor with local swing dance group Gotta Swing Charlotte includes showing YouTube clips of old movies depicting famous originators of the art in their prime. The scenes are beautiful, but there’s a certain cringe element that can’t be ignored.

“The most famous [swing dance movie], it’s called Hellzapoppin’ and recently it’s been colorized, but it has pretty much every last [one of the] most important Lindy hop figures dancing in this amazing scene, but all of their roles are servants,” Stuckey says of the way the black dancers are dressed. “So

it’s like a double-edged sword; it’s beautiful but then, man, why do they have to only have this type of role?”

The Lindy hop, jitterbug and other famous swing dances have a deep racial history that’s continuously co-opted to this day. Like many other art forms created by African-Americans throughout the Jim Crow era, swing dancing was sold to a white population that did not want to recognize their black neighbors as originators of the craft. Even in its later return to mainstream popularity, however, the art has been in many ways co-opted by white people again, as they make up the majority of

participants at most events.

INTRO TO SWING DANCING We spoke with Stuckey, who has traveled the Feb. 7, 8 p.m., followed by social dance at country dancing and competing with her practice 8:45 p.m.; $5; Gottaswing Charlotte, 1600 partner Lawrence Quinette, about why it’s important Park Drive; gottaswingcharlotte.com to her that the inclusivity of the swing dancing crowd works both ways, and how history plays a role Yehoodi in particular is very pivotal in making sure in every move she makes on the dance floor. that people have access to info about the cultural Queen City Nerve: How did your journey in context. So we’re trying to make sure that we have that available to people. dance begin?

We’re also teaching moves within the cultural Radeena Stuckey: I got started at a young age. My mom tried her hardest to allow me to go to ballet context, making sure that we’re not claiming it. We classes, jazz classes, modern dance, but it became do this dance the Shim Sham, which is a popular line unaffordable so I kind of stopped it at a certain dance. We make sure that we give reference to the point and picked it back up when I went to college. I person that created it: Frankie Manning. We make was much more interested in Latin dancing, African sure when we do the Big Apple, we are referencing dancing, so I spent a few years learning about those the fact that it was created 70 miles from here in a techniques, practicing and performing and things place called the Big Apple, which is still standing. So like that. It wasn’t until I uncovered my love of early giving cultural context so that it’s not just a YouTube jazz that I realized — through the movie Malcolm video that people are seeing, but it actually has roots X, there’s a really big Lindy hop dance scene in that right here in North Carolina and South Carolina. movie — that I just kind of realized, “Oh, my love of early jazz, Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, is connected Where is the Big Apple? to this dance that looks really cool, so why don’t I Columbia, South Carolina. There was a building that was a Jewish synagogue that was converted learn a little bit more about that?” to a nightclub that became the Big Apple, so there How did you get involved with Gotta Swing is a line dance that people do all around the world called the Big Apple that originated right there. It Charlotte?

When I came back to Charlotte from going to school has the same dance floor that these dancers danced in Greensboro, that’s when I realized that there on, so it’s really nice to have that connection and was a venue that gave lessons. So it started with know that there are ties right here in the Carolinas a routine that they were teaching in the series, to what people are doing all around the world, and and from that routine I was able to gain a practice still making sure it’s alive and relevant today. partner that I’ve had for a number of years now, and with that practice partner, we continued to travel to I’ve read in some places that swing started in different locations around the U.S. to take classes Charleston. Is that true? under world-class instructors and to dance with There were pivotal dances in slave quarters that dancers did that we still do today — dances like people from all over the world.

Camel Walk, slaves originated those dances that How do you approach your classes now as an continue to travel around the southeast. So from those slave dances, we have what was called the instructor?

We try to make things as natural as possible. What Breakaway that did come from Charleston, and the we teach today is inspired by these dancers: Frankie dance The Charleston. Then we broke off and we Manning, Norma Miller, Leon James. What we do added more momentum, and that became swing today is inspired by them, so if I’m teaching a move and Lindy hop.

So I think there is some truth to saying that it that is inspired by Frankie Manning, the videos that we have of him, I always say, “There was a dancer started in Charleston, with The Charleston, with that named Frankie Manning, you can see him in this clip solo jazz step, but the roots definitely come [from slavery]. There are a lot of books that deal with the where he did this.”

I’m always careful of not presenting what I history of a lot of these dances. So we teach people teach as my own, or our own, it belongs to the The Camel Walk, we teach them The Eagle Slide, originators, and I’m always trying to reference back things like that, but these dances come from African to that, either through clips or through pamphlets animals, or African shapes, or African movements that have been put out by certain media blogs; that were still carried on through slavery.

idea of Lindy hop, so I’ve had to step up and step out in a lot of ways and it’s been good, but then it’s also been very reflective of my own practices and my own understanding and my own confidence, being a person of color in a dance that is predominantly danced by white Americans at this point. It’s been a learning experience.

Pg. 17 Jan. 29 - Feb. 11, 2020 - QCNERVE.COM

PHOTO BY BRAD NATHANSON

Radeena Stuckey (right) and her dancing partner Lawrence Quinnett.

Black and white people dance together in some of those old movies. Were there reallife instances of swing dance being used as a uniting factor, or was it kept segregated?

From my knowledge, there were different communities around the country that did allow segregated ballrooms, but a lot of times, if you look into Billie Holiday in particular, she would tell stories about where she could perform on stage and Whitey’s Lindy Hoppers — Frankie Manning, Leon James, Norma Miller, they performed under that name — they would perform with Billie Holiday but they weren’t allowed to go into the audience after performing to watch. So I think in some instances there was segregation, and in some instances people could dance together, but those were few and far between.

Sometimes when you look at clips from that time period, old movies, you do tend to only see the face that was appropriate, which was white Americans, even with band leaders. So a lot of times when you’re looking at clips, you only see the white face of Lindy hop, you only see the white face of early jazz, even though we’re uncovering and understanding more about how that wasn’t in fact the case.

What is it like for you to watch those movies and see the beauty of the dance being tainted by what’s happening in other scenes of the movie or how the black dancers are represented?

It is definitely a contrast in which the dancing is amazing and the connection in the moments and

the flow that the dancers had to the music and one another, it’s amazing. You can’t recreate that these days; it was something magical back then. But the circumstances that these people were allowed to present this art form [in were] very oppressive.

And I think sometimes we do look at these YouTube videos, black-and-white videos, out of context, when you don’t really look at the full movie that this came from making people have a submissive role where they’re not ever people in leadership, they’re always serving, and you perpetuate that saying “This is so cool.” Yes, it’s cool, but let’s take a look at the context. Why are all these people in this film dressed as servants? Is this OK? What can we do to make people understand that this is beautiful, but it came out of something that we want our society to go against.

You’re now a lead instructor at Gotta Swing Charlotte. How has your role grown in the time you’ve been there?

I’m going on five years there now. I didn’t take leadership until one year ago. I never thought that I would be a lead instructor, just because I feel like my dance is still developing and I don’t know all the things to a degree that I could give someone a really strong foundation, but I realized that if I don’t take this opportunity to share my understanding of Lindy hop and swing dancing, then sometimes people can get a version that’s not the real thing and they’re willing to just live with that.

I would like to continue the true originators’

Why do you think it is predominantly white on the swing dance floors today?

There’s this idea of a “swing revival” that says that certain members of the Lindy hop scene “found” Lindy hop [in the 1980s]. They called Frankie Manning and they said, “Come teach,” so there’s this resurgence. These people were not white Americans, they were from Sweden, and so there becomes this narrative of white ownership, this idea that they “found” Lindy hop and they’re continuing to spread it, but a lot of people are realizing that, no, with swing music, the music changed, it became rock ‘n’ roll or bebop, so when the music changes the dance changes, and it doesn’t mean people stopped dancing lindy hop, it doesn’t mean communities stopped, maybe it just wasn’t as popular as it once was.

So I don’t think there’s any validity in claiming that there was a Lindy hop revival, or revitalization.

I don’t think it was ever dead, perhaps it just wasn’t as popular. So because of that ownership that, “We found Lindy hop and we are the ones that are teaching it because you guys left it alone,” that is terrible, but that’s a narrative that is out there that people are believing. Not to say that I believe it or anybody in the Charlotte community believes it, but that is a narrative that is being spread.

So I just want to make sure that that is not taken as the truth, that people do see the whole picture; just as music changes, dance changes. And I think that perspective allows some people to take ownership of Lindy hop and say, “It’s ours, we found it,” but there’s more people now that are willing to hear the other side of that narrative and say that, “Well, maybe it wasn’t as popular but let’s make sure that we’re including everyone to learn this dance,” because the originators, Frankie Manning, Norma Miller, they went around the world during times of segregation and Jim Crow — which was only in America, but there still were some outstanding racial dynamics going on — and they made it a point to go around the world and perform and share this. So we need to make sure that we’re inclusive of everyone, whether they’re poor, wealthy, whether they’re black, Indian, this dance is for everyone, so no one can take ownership because the originators

have all passed away. This is something that we can continue to share and pass down.

You talked about how your love for early jazz came before your love for the dancing. Can you speak about about how the two are so connected, specifically in this style of dance.

That’s part of the investment. You have to learn how to listen to the music and allow your body to express that. It’s not something that happens overnight. It’s something that you have to acclimate your ears to hearing, to hearing the patterns that different songs take on.

It’s definitely acquired, it’s something you have to look deeper into, and there is a strong connection that you can see with dancers that are on certain levels. They always know the breaks that are coming, they always know those drum solos, they listen to different versions of songs, they hear the saxophonist and they say, “Oh, I love this song because of the saxophone solo,” or, “I like this version because of the drum solo,” so you have certain people that are of a caliber of their dancing that really seek that connection.

And then you’ve got people that just type in swing music and get [Benny Goodman’s] “Sing, Sing, Sing” which is probably the most heard swing song. It kind of uncovers your understanding and your level of awareness about how the dance is connected to the music.

What have you learned about yourself over the last year in your leadership role?

It’s taught me to make sure that I always keep my purpose for dancing at the forefront of everything I do. Some days are good, some days are bad; some people give great feedback, some people give no feedback, some people give really negative feedback.

I have to make sure that I’m always reflective of why I’m doing this. It’s not about me, it’s about the originators, carrying on what they started, because Lindy hop did form in African-American communities, and I feel there is a strong connection, with my dad being a musician and playing jazz music and my love of music. So that’s what drives me, is making sure that people love to dance, they learn to dance, and that they are inspired to teach this to others and teach that camaraderie that Whitey’s Lindy Hoppers lived through, because they had some adversity but they still wanted to dance, and even into their 80s and 90s they still went around the world and were teaching people of different races, different backgrounds how to dance, and that’s what’s most important.

RPITKIN@QCNERVE.COM

STUFF SMITH PRESENTATION W/ TOM HANCHETT Feb. 7, 7:30-8 p.m.; Free; Gottaswing Charlotte, 1600 Park Drive; tinyurl.com/ StuffSmithCLT

professional road gig. Dizzy Gillespie would later rise to fame as an inventor of bebop, the cutting edge of mid-century jazz. President Jimmy Carter honored Gillespie at the White House in 1978.

Meanwhile, when Jimmie Gunn came off the road in the late 1930s, he served as music minister at First United Presbyterian Church on East 7th Street in Charlotte. He is best remembered as an educator, the longtime principal of the elementary school off Albemarle Road that now bears his name.

Stuff and Fats and Django and …

MAKE IT SWING

PHOTO BY TOM HANCHETT

Stuff Smith is a forgotten legend who began in Charlotte

BY TOM HANCHETT

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J

AZZ IS IN THE AIR THESE DAYS. Charlotte’s new Middle C Jazz nightclub, the Bechtler Museum’s sold-out monthly jazz evenings, the crowds of twentysomethings at GottaSwing Charlotte’s weekly dances, all signal a fresh enthusiasm. Will the music that had its first national heyday back in the 1920s become one of America’s hot sounds of the 2020s?

If you’re into jazz, you likely know the names Dizzy Gillespie, Fats Waller, Nat King Cole or Django Reinhardt. I’ve recently discovered that there’s a thread that connects them all and leads back to Charlotte — particularly to a remarkable music scene at Johnson C. Smith University (JCSU) in the 1920s.

Stuff Smith started me on this research

journey. His 1965 LP Black Violin helped turn me on to the notion that a fiddler could play swinging jazz. I’m perpetually trying to play jazz fiddle myself. Stuff’s hard-driving tone, never too-sweet, and his often-wacky vocals are an inspiration.

Imagine my surprise to discover that Stuff Smith’s own musical journey began at JCSU. JCSU in the early days of swing

At age 15, circa 1924, Hezekiah Leroy “Stuff” Smith left his native Ohio with a violin scholarship for the African-American college on Charlotte’s west side.

Why here, of all places? A young professor named Phillipe Boden, an immigrant from Haiti, was making JCSU a musical hotbed.

“Here’s the real originator of it all, in the 1920s, a French and piano teacher named Professor Boden,” the late Charlotte jazz educator Morris Donald told me. “They say he was the originator of the JCSU band, taught these guys theory and harmony.”

Two of Boden’s best grads, violinist L. David Taylor and pianist J.H. “Jimmie” Gunn, launched a jazz band. First named Taylor’s New York Serenaders, later Gunn’s Dixie Serenaders, the ensemble toured the eastern United States and performed as far away as Canada into the mid 1930s. Their two recording sessions for RCA Victor are still available today on CD. One of the Serenaders’ trumpet players was a kid from Cheraw, South Carolina, named John Birks “Dizzy” Gillespie. It was his very first

While Gillespie and Gunn are honored to this day, we’ve neglected Stuff Smith. What was he doing as swing jazz became a national craze during the 1920s and 1930s?

Stuff didn’t stay at JCSU long. He headed out on the road with travelling bands, then settled in at the Onyx Club in New York City.

In the 1930s the Onyx on 52nd Street was the spot for swing musicians, both black and white. Fats Waller, renowned pianist and songwriter of hits such as “Aint’ Misbehavin’” led the house band.

Stuff Smith would take over Waller’s ensemble when Fats died in 1943. By then, Stuff was an internationally known recording star. He wrote fun-time ditties like “You’se a Viper,” an ode to marijuana that Fats Waller made an enduring hit as “If You’re a Viper (The Reefer Song).”

Stuff’s nonsense song “I’se a Muggin’” made waves across the Atlantic. He cut it for Vocalion on February 11, 1936. That May in Paris, guitarist Django Reinhardt teamed up with violinist Stephan Grappelli to try recording some American jazz. Their version of “I’se a Muggin’” was among the first records in the much-loved swing genre “le jazz hot.”

Stuff Smith’s performing and recording career stretched three more decades. Among

his sidemen were pianists Erroll Garner, later famed for the Top-40 hit “Misty,” and Billy Taylor, long an ambassador for jazz on TV. Stuff himself appeared on many LPs for the prestigious Verve label, which paired him with unforgettable vocalist Nat King Cole, with piano giant Oscar Peterson — and with old Carolina friend Dizzy Gillespie.

Stuff Smith died in Munich, Germany, in 1967. The youngster who’d showed up at JCSU with his violin to study under Phillipe Boden and David Taylor sure had gone a long way. The jazz sound that his generation had crafted was now the world’s music.

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JANUARY 29

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Pg. 21 Jan. 29 - Feb. 11, 2020 - QCNERVE.COM

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THE PURSUIT OF NAPPINESS

Rojshawn Dontae looks to make his next move

Pg. 24 Jan. 29 - Feb. 11, 2020 - QCNERVE.COM

R

BY RYAN PITKIN

OJSHAWN DONTAE is getting restless.

The 33-year-old moved to Charlotte in 2015 shortly after dropping his rap career to pursue the culinary arts. In that time, he launched his brand, The Nappy Chef, beginning as a caterer and private chef, then renting out kitchens at different spots around town before opening his own brick-and-mortar spot on Albemarle Road in 2018.

As The Nappy Chef, Dontae has cooked for stars like Rakim, Nas and Floyd Mayweather, while becoming a bit of a local celebrity in his own right, regularly appearing on local news shows. He’s published a book and launched an entertainment agency to help rappers on the come up as he once was.

Now in the final year of a five-year plan that he formulated before arriving in the city, it’s plain to see that Dontae is getting bored, and he’s not reluctant to admit it.

“Everything I wanted to do, I’ve done it and more,” he tells me while we sit in a booth in his east Charlotte eatery on a recent afternoon. “If I died today, I’d be happy. I still want to do more in life, but everything that I put in that five-year plan is already completed.”

But Dontae isn’t dying, and the coming years will call for a new plan, the beginnings of which are already beginning to form. He wants to open a Nappy Chef bar and grill, then work to ensure that both his restaurant and bar can operate without him so he can set out to travel the world, trying new foods and cooking for new people.

Growing up in a military family, Dontae moved around a lot, and as a rapper, he spent time living

in Georgia, Florida and Virginia. He loves Charlotte, but this is as long as he’s stayed in one place during adulthood, he says. He’s beginning to feel closed in by the walls of his own restaurant, the daily routine burning him out.

“I want to be free. You should never be a slave to your business. I feel like I’m a slave to my business now because I’m no longer passionate,” he says. “Just staying in one place doing the same shit every single day, it burns you out. And this really burned me out because I feel like people don’t know my story or know how hard it was to get to where I’m at. I did it for me, this is my dream. I love to cook for me. So whether y’all come and buy my food or not, this is what I love to do, and I want to get back to that love.”

Dontae’s passion for cooking began when he was 13 years old. Everybody in his family cooked, and though he didn’t take it seriously until later on, it was a skill that he kept in his back pocket and pulled out whenever he was on the road as a rapper and the crew needed to eat.

In 2014, he became burnt out by the rap life and began itching for something new.

“I got out of the rap game because you gotta be a certain character, like a puppet. I don’t want to do nothin’ in life where I can’t be 100% myself,” he says.

“That’s why I became a chef, to be 100% myself.”

Dontae planned to attend culinary school in Nashville, but a serendipitous connection sent him on a different path. His roommate worked with world-renowned chef John Makin, who was in the twilight years of his career, running the Bakery & Cafe at Rose Cottage in Pine Mountain, Georgia.

The friend would talk up Dontae’s cooking skills to Makin, who brought him in and gave him a job on the line.

Makin, who had traveled the world and cooked for Nelson Mandela and Michael Jackson, was able to mentor Dontae in a way that not many others had experienced.

“Back in the day, John was such a high-ranking chef, you couldn’t get close to him; he had like 300 chefs up under him, he was the big dog. But when I met him, he had a small little restaurant in a small little town outside of Atlanta and I got to actually work in the kitchen beside him,” he recalls. “So I was getting knowledge, I was his apprentice, and he taught me everything that he could.”

Dontae worked for about a year under Makin before moving to Charlotte in February 2015. He quickly put his lessons to use, and Makin’s inspiration is still evident in his recipes today.

A 1987 Los Angeles Times profile on Makin that called him “quite possibly” the best chef in the state

Rojshawn Dontae, aka The Nappy Chef, in his east Charlotte restaurant.

of Texas reads, “He is a confident chef, unafraid of strong flavors and unlikely combinations of ingredients.”

Nothing could fit better as a one-sentence description of Dontae’s cooking 33 years later.

Though Makin passed away in 2016, The Nappy Chef has taken his experimental, down-homebut-fancy fusion and run with it. Some of the fan favorites on his restaurant’s menu are things you won’t find at any other casual lunch spot in town, beginning with the top-seller: the salmon cheesesteak.

His signature dish, the Jerk Mac, along with the Caribbean turkey and Reggae shrimp taco, are all examples of his tendency to throw Caribbean influences at usual lunch items. His wing flavors follow the same path, with the Henny Hot $5 basket being one of the biggest reasons folks come back for lunch.

“What I did was take food that people know and make it my own,” he says. “Just like the chicken wings; everybody makes chicken wings but I wanted to bring in ingredients from different countries and make different styles, where it’s like, ‘Damn, I never tasted this on chicken.’ Same with my shrimp tacos, same with my burgers. I wanted not to be way off the wall, but certain things that you wouldn’t necessarily eat all the time.”

The response has been popular with all segments of the population. In the hour that we spend in the restaurant on a Friday afternoon, a steady stream of black, white and Latinx customers

PHOTO BY RYAN PITKIN

come in and out of the doors of the small restaurant located just a block from the former Eastland Mall site.

Then as we wrap up, Dontae is right out the door, heading to the next thing with a rapper from his newly launched agency, Nappy Chef Entertainment.

In some ways, it’s indicative of how he’s already moved back from the front lines of running a restaurant.

When he first opened, regulars would walk in and walk out if they didn’t see him on the line. He’s worked hard to train all his chefs now to make the food like he makes the food, just one part of his preparation to move on to the next thing.

“I’m one of the younger restaurant owners in Charlotte, and everybody else is like, ‘Aww, you made it,’” he says. “To me, I ain’t made it. I can do more. I want to do more. I don’t want to be satisfied because I have a restaurant.

“Everybody else is like you got a restaurant, you’re successful. Naw, that’s for you, small-minded.

How can I reach somebody in California, how can I reach somebody in Italy, how can I reach somebody in Japan?” he continues. “There’s more in the world that I want to do, and I do not want to just be stuck in Charlotte, North Carolina, in this restaurant.”

And who are we to say someone shouldn’t chase their dreams? Just as long as he leaves the restaurant open for the rest of us.

RPITKIN@QCNERVE.COM

THE NEWBIE FOODIE THE SANDWICH SHOOTOUT

PHOTO BY DARRELL HORWITZ

Who’s the best outta three?

Pg. 25 Jan. 29 - Feb. 11, 2020 - QCNERVE.COM

BY DARRELL HORWITZ

DISCOVERING A GOOD SANDWICH shop is a lot like finding a good friend. They are not easy to come upon, but once you do, you don’t want to give them up. Being a recent transplant from Chicago, and without a lot of coin to commit to eating, a sandwich can be a fulfilling and rewarding meal without going broke in the process.

I like to think of this edition as the Charlotte Sandwich Shootout. I searched high and low for contenders and came up with three popular spots Charlotteans seem to enjoy, then went to each at least twice to sample the fare and get an honest assessment.

The first stop on my venture was at The Sandwich Club in Uptown. There are 32 choices on the menu and a special of the day, plus the ability to build your own. They’re open from 7 a.m.-3 p.m.

Monday through Friday, and sandwiches will run you less than $10.

During my first venture, I had My Cousin Vinny.

It came with grilled chicken, roasted red peppers, mozzarella, arugula and pesto mayo on a toasted ciabatta. The pesto mayo resonated more on my first bite than the chicken. The ciabatta was a good platform for the sandwich (remember that for later; bread is important). The sandwich was nicely packed and was a good value for $8, but didn’t excite my taste buds.

My next stop was the Noda Bodega. It’s a funky little shop in a small strip mall with no visible name on the building if you’re driving by, so follow your GPS. The choices aren’t as plentiful here, but the sandwiches are tastier. In addition, they have daily specials along with a few potluck choices on the weekend. They’re open until 8 p.m. during the week and 5 p.m. on the weekend. Everything is under 10 bucks, outside of the occasional special.

We ordered the Italian Stallion and the Caprese.

The Stallion included prosciutto, finocchiona, caocolla, fresh mozzarella, basil and peppadew relish on a nicely toasted baguette. The peppadew popped with flavor.

The caprese started with fresh mozzarella, roasted

The Italian Stallion at NoDa Bodega

tomato spread, tomatoes, basil, EVOO and balsamic on a baguette. There was a nice balance between the tomato and balsamic flavors. Bread is one of the key ingredients for a sandwich and this place gets it right.

Both sandwiches were good. My wife preferred the Stallion because she likes meat, while I was torn as they were both tasty.

The final stop on my quest was Common Market.

My wife and I went to the South End location, before I later ventured on my own to Plaza Midwood for another bite. It seems everybody talks about this place and it’s a favorite around town. Hours vary per location so call ahead for sandwiches.

The selections are plentiful just like they are at the Sandwich Club. You can make your own here, too.

Most sandwiches will run you from around $6 to $8.

I chose the Turkey Capri on sourdough and my wife selected the Simple Simon on honey wheat.

She chose her sandwich with ham as turkey or roast beef were also options. It came with red onion, tomato and lettuce. Simple, right? And boring, because according to her she said it didn’t have much flavor and said, “I will never get that again.”

Her highlight was the potato chips.

My turkey sandwich was no better. It was equipped with sundried tomato and goat cheese spread, barely-there red onions, and baby spinach.

My first thought was, not much excitement. I actually thought her boring sandwich was better than mine.

If this sandwich was in my Spiderman lunch bucket when I was a kid, I would have traded with a friend.

The Common Market seems like an interesting place with cool people hanging out and a great selection of beers to choose from, but you can find better sandwiches.

As for my winner, I’d have to go with Noda Bodega. I give the Sandwich Club second for my Paradise Special, (though it might have been the best sandwich), with the Common Market a distant third.

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LUNARLY ALIGNED

Use the moon to your advantage

Pg. 26 Jan. 29 - Feb. 11, 2020 - QCNERVE.COM

BY KATIE GRANT

WITH THE WOLF MOON lunar eclipse following hard on the heels of not just a new year but a new decade, a full moon meditation sounds like the most magical way to tiptoe into January.

The January full moon is also known as the Wolf Moon and kicks off the first of 13 full moons in 2020. Other applicable names for this particular full moon include Moon After Yule, Old Moon, Ice Moon and Snow Moon. Cryptic historical names aside, full moons present an opportunity for introspection.

What better place to experience an inward, spiritual journey than Curio, Craft & Conjure in NoDa? It’s a metaphysical supply store that provides goods and services; full moon circles included.

Led by Meliea Black, a midwife and intuitive coach, the circle’s intention is to better explain the energy of the full moon/lunar eclipse in Cancer this month and how to work with that energy.

According to Black, the full moon is a beautiful time for release and making space for the things we want to manifest in our lives. Witchy invitation: accepted.

As we explore this full moon/lunar eclipse in Cancer, we come to understand Cancer is a water sign, which may lead to more intense emotions than usual. Black recommends not fighting these energies but instead embracing them. Feeling like you’d rather cozy up with a book and blanket?

Follow your intuition and cancel those dinner plans.

Downtime is critical to recharging your batteries.

Another notable takeaway is that water signs (Cancer, Scorpio and Pisces) and fire signs (Aries, Leo and Sagittarius) tend to be the most sensitive and are ruled by emotion. Why is this important?

Because the next time someone (husband, family member, friend or boss) says I’m acting overly emotional, I can simply allow the fact that I’m a Leo to speak for itself. It’s written in the stars, friends; I’m

an emotional hot mess by astrological design.

Black guides us through the phases of the moon cycle, and essentially instructs us on how to harness the energy of each. Understanding and incorporating the moon cycle into life plans can be advantageous when it comes to decision-making, she says.

For example, during the new moon and waxing gibbous, the moon’s presence signifies a fresh start and renewed intentions. Listen up, procrastinators — mystic wisdom suggests this time is ideal for tying up loose ends and finishing outstanding projects.

Then as the moon grows larger through the waxing phase, we can expect it to expose issues connected to looming decisions that need to be made. I may or may not be speaking for myself here, but when considering asking for a raise, gather the facts, stand in your power and submit the request during this phase of the moon cycle.

Lastly, the illumination of the full moon is said to be nourishing for creative energy and breakthroughs. The best full moon rituals include assessment and recharging.

Now is the time to cleanse your mental and physical space. Open the windows and sage the corners of your home to release negative energy. However, keep in mind the words of Aristotle, who stated “horror vacui,” or “nature abhors a vacuum.” According to the laws of nature and physics, empty spaces are unnatural, so wherever there is a void, the universe seeks to fill it.

Approach your full moon ritual with intention and don’t forget to call in what you’d like to manifest as you release what’s no longer serving you.

If this all sounds like too much, start slowly with an organizer that tracks the phases for you. If you’d prefer a more old-school alternative, check out the Best Days calendar in the Farmers’ Almanac, which recommends specific lunar days to do basically anything.

Whether you’re a full moon energy skeptic, supporter or somewhere in between, it’s important to remember we are organic beings consisting of mostly water. According to Health Central, “The moon being closer to the Earth than the sun has a strong gravitational effect on the planet. One of the main arguments in relation to the full moon’s effects on our emotions and thoughts is that given the fact that our bodies are made up of approximately 75% water, its ability to impact the ocean/tides infers that it may very well have the same subtle effect on us.”

Lunar calendars have been dated as far back as 32,000 years ago, so why not give our ancestors the benefit of the doubt? They were probably more attuned to working with the universe’s energy than their descendants will ever be.

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SIX FROM THE FAB FOUR

Pg. 27 Jan. 29 - Feb. 11, 2020 - QCNERVE.COM

ACROSS

1 Approach intrusively 7 Lamenter’s sound 11 Process of going bad 19 Attach with heat, as a patch 20 Heart sections 22 When shows are broadcast 23 Butler or maid 25 Fish also called a largemouth 26 Mop 27 At that point 28 CNN anchor Burnett 30 China’s Mao — -tung 31 1960s reform movement in China 38 “Sid the Science Kid” network 41 Tracker maker, once 42 Convert to the Koran’s religion 43 Chevy model 45 Suffix with towel 48 Korean, Thai or Chinese 52 Precipitating heavily 57 Big Apple sch.

58 Off-white 59 March composer John Philip Ñ 60 Cease 61 Lives (in) 63 It lures fish 65 Loss of memory 67 Posed (for) 68 “Stop thinking of me as so naive” 74 “— recall ...”

75 Headlined 76 Dying words from Caesar 77 Inflicts upon 79 Honshu sash 80 Small piece 83 Ad biz prize 87 Collaborator 88 Person in the third decade of life 91 Frantic scramble 94 Correct copy 95 Hitchcock classic 96 Light blue avenue in Monopoly 100 Neat — pin

101 Announcer Hall 102 American flier with scarlet patches 109 Special time 110 Tabula — 111 Postal letters 112 Get in return 116 Person petting 120 What the last words of 23-, 31-, 52-, 68-, 88- and 102-Across are 124 Unusual 125 1983 Streisand film 126 Holy rings 127 Property of a magnet 128 Solar output 129 Fully ready

DOWN

1 Bails out, e.g.

2 Brag loudly 3 Unconscious state 4 Final non-A.D. year 5 “Mayday!”

6 Blast source 7 — Picchu (Peruvian site of Incan ruins) 8 Alternative 9 Game venue 10 Zip 11 Mouth liquid 12 Billy Joel hit 13 Planet Mork came from 14 Suffix with social 15 Ad- — 16 Rare violin 17 Undercoat for painting on wood 18 West German city 21 People who mimic 24 “What’s — ya?”

29 Brother or aunt: Abbr.

32 Tangelo trademark 33 Tilts one’s body toward 34 Bank claim 35 Fleur-de- — 36 Israeli arm 37 Poke fun at 38 Conduit 39 Coll. hotshot 40 Motivate 44 Island near Venezuela 45 College Web site suffix 46 Set- — (sharp fights) 47 Old United rival 49 Oklahoma oil city 50 Mosaic work 51 Certain skin bulge 53 “You — see this!”

54 — Martin (cognac) 55 British queen 56 “Beware the — of March!”

61 Coke Zero alternative 62 Witch’s blemish 64 Secy., e.g.

65 Moreover 66 Vapor 68 Land in water, in Italy 69 Use, as a tool 70 Sweat of one’s — 71 “Kill — killed!”

72 Hold in check 73 Small state ruled by a sovereign 74 Eve’s man 78 Actor Max von — 80 Rocker Barrett 81 CBS drama 82 Turn rancid 84 Pet parasites 85With a sharp picture, for short 86 Hymn start 88 Epithet for Alexander 89 Be a ratfink

SOLUTION ON PAGE 30

90 Alexis I, e.g.

92 Jackie’s hubby #2 93 Offense 97 Almost 98 Six-pt. plays 99 Cry like — 100 Amply skilled 102 Rundown 103 Bards’ Muse 104 Singer Hall 105 Oven maker 106 Spiteful 107 Passes idly, as time 108 Dryly funny 113 Slaughter of baseball 114 James with a Pulitzer 115 Discreet call 117 MPG monitor 118 Chaplin’s title 119 — -fi flick 121 Always, poetically 122 Oldies group — Na Na 123 “Tonka” star Mineo

JANUARY 29 - FEBRUARY 4 ARIES (March 21 to April 19) Mixed signals could create problems. Make sure your views are presented clearly, and insist others do the same.

Don’t let an unanswered question go by without a full explanation.

TAURUS (April 20 to May 20) Financial pressures ease, allowing for more budget flexibility. But as the money-wise Bovine will appreciate, thrift still beats out splurging. Expect news from someone special.

GEMINI (May 21 to June 20) Getting things done is what you do so well. But be careful not to overtax your energy reserves. Take time out to relax or to do something different to help keep them at optimum levels.

Pg. 28 Jan. 29 - Feb. 11, 2020 - QCNERVE.COM

CANCER (June 21 to July 22) This is a good time to satisfy the Moon Child’s growing sense of wanderlust. Choose a really special place to go to, with a very special person to share it all with you.

LEO (July 23 to August 22) You love being in the spotlight. But be careful it doesn’t blind you to the truth behind a seemingly wonderful opportunity.

Look closer and you might be sadly surprised at what you find.

VIRGO (August 23 to September 22) Isn’t it time to take a break from your hectic schedule? Sure it is.

And the sooner you do, the sooner you can return fresh and more than ready to take on all those new projects.

LIBRA (September 23 to October 22) A recent family incident can help bring everyone closer, and there’s

FEBRUARY 5 - FEBRUARY 11

no one who’s better at making that happen than ARIES (March 21 to April 19) You need to be certain you. Accept (indeed, insist on!) help from others to that all the right conditions are in place before you take that first step. It can’t hurt to listen to good get things off and running. advice from those who have your best interests at SCORPIO (October 23 to November 21) Long-held heart. habits are often difficult to break. But the change from how you always did things to how you can do TAURUS (April 20 to May 20) Be careful not to get them now can be liberating. So, be flexible and give involved in other people’s disputes unless you know the facts behind the disagreements. That’s the it a try. best way to be assured of making wise and honest SAGITTARIUS (November 22 to December 21) decisions.

Someone you met in your professional world last year and thought you would never hear from again GEMINI (May 21 to June 20) You still need to be could make a sudden reappearance in your life, careful about how you’re going to spend those energy reserves you finally got around to restoring. along with an interesting offer.

Best advice: Avoid overdoing it. Let things take their CAPRICORN (December 22 to January 19) Once course. again, you delight everyone by coming up with a solution for a problem that actually works. On CANCER (June 21 to July 22) Your aspect continues another note, it’s not too early to get started on to favor travel -- alone or with that special person.

So if you’ve been putting off making those getaway those travel plans. plans, it’s still a good time to get started on them.

AQUARIUS (January 20 to February 18) Before you go ahead with finalizing your plans for your new LEO (July 23 to August 22) Those so-called golden project, check them over to see if you can make opportunities that continue to dazzle the Lion still some improvements or if you can find ways to cut need to be carefully checked out. Be suspicious about anything that looks like the “perfect” costs. prospect.

PISCES (February 19 to March 20) The Fabulous Fish might have been out of the social swim for too long, VIRGO (August 23 to September 22) Changes at the and it’s time you plunge back in. Reinforce your old workplace could make it more difficult to do things the way you prefer. But the wise Virgo who shows friendships and be open to starting new ones. some flexibility could find it paying off in a big way.

BORN THIS WEEK: Your creative talents help bring beauty to the world and the people in it. On their LIBRA (September 23 to October 22) You might want to check out the explanation you were given behalf, thank you. for a sudden shift in your duties. There’s a possibility

that you haven’t been told all the facts that you deserve to know.

SCORPIO (October 23 to November 21) Having confidence in your abilities is important, especially when you could be facing a new challenge, whether it’s in the workplace or in a personal relationship.

Good luck.

SAGITTARIUS (November 22 to December 21) A new work-related opportunity might not be all that it seems. Before making any decisions, you might want to check with others who have had some experience in that area.

CAPRICORN (December 22 to January 19) A situation involving someone close could benefit from your timely intervention. Avoid being judgmental.

There’ll be plenty of time later for those “little talks” you like to have.

AQUARIUS (January 20 to February 18) Travel could be a surprise element in that new project. Be prepared for other previously undisclosed aspects that also might come to light as you proceed with the work.

PISCES (February 19 to March 20) Try to balance your work-related responsibilities with the time you’re spending on your recently revived social life.

An old friend might be planning to return after a long absence.

BORN THIS WEEK: Your sensitivity makes you aware of the needs of others. Have you considered a career as a counselor?

2020 KING FEATURES SYND., INC.

D I LWO R T H BAKERSFIELD

Monday: $3 Jack Daniels Tuesday: $3 Tres Generaciones, $10 Don Julio 1942 Wednesday: $3 Bulleit Bourbon Thursday: $3 Espolon Friday: $3 George Dickel No. 8 Saturday: $3 Lunazul Sunday: $3 Larceny Bourbon 300EAST

Monday: 1/2 off wines by the glass Tuesday: 1/2 off beer cans and glasses of Italian reds Thursday: $3.50 local drafts, $8.50 Matilda Wong cocktails Sunday: 1/2 off wine bottles, $5 mimosas & bloody marys, $6 Bellinis BAD DADDY’S BURGER BAR

Monday: 20-oz. draft for 16-oz. price Tuesday: $5 specialty cocktails Wednesday: $3.50 local drafts Saturday-Sunday: $5 mimosas & bloody marys DILWORTH NEIGHBORHOOD GRILLE

Monday: $4 Crown & Down Tuesday: $4 drafts, $12 pitchers, $5 flights of North Carolina drafts Wednesday: 1/2 off wine bottles and martinis Thursday: $12 domestic buckets, $18 import buckets Friday: $3 craft drafts, $5 flavored vodka Saturday: $5 mason jar cocktails Pg. 29 Jan. 29 - Feb. 11, 2020 - QCNERVE.COM

SUMMIT ROOM

Tuesday: $4 drafts Wednesday: 1/2 off glasses of wine Thursday: $7 Summit cocktails

SOUTH END COMMON MARKET SOUTH END

Monday: 1/2 off select pints Tuesday: Free beer tasting 5-7 p.m.

Wednesday: $2 off select pints, wine tasting 5-7 p.m.

BIG BEN PUB

Monday: $6 beer cocktails, $2 off vodka Tuesday: $8 mules, 1/2 off gin

Wednesday: $6 you-call-it, 1/2 off wine bottles Thursday: $4 wells, 1/2 off specialty cocktails Friday: $5.50 Guinness and Crispin, $6 vodka Red Bull Saturday-Sunday: $4 bloody marys and mimosas, $15 mimosa carafes MAC’S SPEED SHOP

Monday: $3 pints, $5 Tito’s Tuesday: 1/2 price wine, $3 mystery draft Wednesday: $4 tall boys, $5 Lunazul Blanco Thursday: $3 mystery cans and bottles, $4 Jim Beam Saturday: $1 off North Carolina pints Sunday: $4 mimosas & bloody marys GIN MILL

Monday: $5 Tito’s and New Amsterdam Tuesday: 1/2 price wine Wednesday: $4 draft beer Thursday: $2.50 PBR, $5 Jack Daniels and Tito’s

UPTOWN THE LOCAL

Monday: $7 Casamigos, $2 Natty Boh and Miller High Life, $5 Jager Tuesday: $3 Modelo, $5 house margaritas, $5 Don Julio Wednesday: $5 Crown & Down, $3 Southern Tier Thursday: $5 Captain Morgan, $7 craft mules, $16 Bud Light buckets Friday: $3 Jell-O shots, $4 drafts, $5 wells Saturday: $3 PBR, $5 Jager Sunday: $7 loaded mimosa, $7 Grey Goose bloody mary, $16 Bud Light buckets THE DAILY TAVERN

Wednesday: $5 whiskey Thursday: $4 pint night Sunday: $4 Miller Lite, $6 bloody marys DANDELION MARKET

Monday: $3 select drafts Tuesday: $15 select bottles of wines Saturday-Sunday: Bloody mary bar ROXBURY

Friday: $5 flavored vodka drinks, $5 fire shots, $3 bottles

Saturday: $5 fire shots, $4 ZIMA, $3 bottles

Sunday: $3 Birdsong, $3 Tall or Call

WORLD OF BEER

NODA 101

Monday: $2 off North Carolina drafts and spirits Tuesday: 25 percent off bottles and cans, $5 mules Wednesday: 1/2-priced wine, wheats and sangrias Thursday: $4 old school, $4 well, $4 signature shots Friday-Saturday: $3 shot of the week Sunday: $2 mimosas, $3 bloody marys & beermosas PROHIBITION

Tuesday: 1/2 off everything Wednesday: $3 drafts Thursday: $2 PBR, $6 vodka Red Bull Friday-Saturday: $4 call-its

NODA CABO FISH TACO

Monday: $5 El Cheapo margarita Tuesday: $3.50 Tecate and Tecate Light, $5 Altos silver tequila Wednesday: $7 Absolut Lime Moscow mule Thursday: $1 off neighborhood beers on draft Friday-Saturday: $8 margarita special Sunday: $5 mimosas, $6 Absolut Peppar bloody mary, $7 Absolut Lime Moscow mule JACKBEAGLE’S

Monday: $5 Cuervo margaritas Tuesday: $3 drafts, $5 vodka Red Bull Wednesday: $1 off whiskey Thursday: $6 Deep Eddy’s vodka Red Bull Friday: $5 Fun-Dip shots, $5 Crown Black Saturday: $5 Gummy Bear shots, $5 big mimosa, $6.50 double bloody mary Sunday: $5 big mimosa, $6.50 double bloody mary SANCTUARY PUB

Monday: $7 Bulleit and Bulleit Rye, $3 Yuengling and PBR APA Tuesday: $6 Tuaca, $6 Tullamore Dew Wednesday: $3 Birdsong beers, $5 Sauza, Thursday: $2 Bartender Bottles, $6 Crown Royal

Monday: $4 Ketel One Lemon Drop, $4 well liquor, $5 Camerena Tuesday: $6 seasonal cocktails, $6 Jameson, $4 Grape Gatorade Wednesday: $5 Green Tea Shot, $6 Blue Balls Thursday: $5 Jagermeister, $6 vodka Redbull, $6 Oxley Gin Cocktail Friday: $5 Fireball, $6 vodka Red Bull, $6 Jameson Saturday: $5 Fireball, $6 vodka Red Bull Sunday: $5 Deep Eddy Flavors, $1 off tequila, $5 White Gummy Bear shots BILLY JACK’S SHACK

Monday: $1 off moonshine, $3 domestics Tuesday: $1 off all drafts, $7 Jameson Wednesday: $1 off bottles and cans Thursday: $4.50 wells Friday: $5 Fireball, $1 off local bottles and cans Saturday: $4 mimosas $5 Brunch Punch, Sunday: $4 mimosas, $5 Brunch Punch, $5 Fireball, $10 champagne bottles

PLAZA MIDWOOD HATTIE’S TAP & TAVERN

Monday: $6 Pabst & Paddy’s Tuesday: $5 Fireball Wednesday: $3 mystery craft beers Thursday: $6 margaritas Friday-Saturday: $5 well drinks Sunday: $10 domestic buckets INTERMEZZO

Monday: $4 Makers Mark, $2 domestic bottles Tuesday: $4 margaritas, $7 Tito’s mules, $3 Blanche de Bruxelles, $3 OMB Copper Wednesday: 1/2 price wine bottles, $2 off bourbon of the week Thursday: $6.50 Ketel One Botanical Series, $4 Stoli Friday: $4 20-oz. Birdsong LazyBird Brown Ale and Birdsong Jalapeño Ale Saturday: 1/2 price martinis Sunday: $3 drafts

RAIN CHECKS

One very bright red flag

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BY DAN SAVAGE

I’m a 33-year-old woman in a relationship with a 43-year-old man. My boyfriend’s fantasy is to have a threesome with another man. He enjoys watching me have sex with other men and then intermittently fucking me. But he mostly likes to watch me get fucked.

For a long time, my boyfriend would send nudes or videos of him fucking me to men we met on dating apps. We would talk dirty about it during sex. Recently, we met up with a man for the first time. I don’t think it went well.

My boyfriend and I have had conversations about my fear of contracting an STI. So before the threesome started, I explained to my boyfriend and the other guy that condoms were required. They both agreed. This guy was really nervous and when he put a condom on, he went flaccid. He would try to fuck me with his flaccid, condom-covered penis, but it just didn’t work. He would take the condom off, jerk off, get semi-hard, put a condom back on, go completely soft again. Even when I sucked the guy’s dick: nothing. (He actually told me to stop trying!)

So my boyfriend, who was observing and jerking off, suggested we forget the condoms in the hopes this guy could stay hard. I said no and restated my boundary. The guy still couldn’t get it up, hopped out of bed, and started getting dressed. My boyfriend offered to let the guy cream pie me if he would stay. I said fuck no and the guy left. He didn’t even say bye.

I don’t know why the guy couldn’t get hard. But I certainly don’t think my boundary should be compromised because a stranger can’t get it up. My boyfriend keeps suggesting we meet up with this guy again so he can “get

closure.” He really wants to watch this guy at least come on me. My boyfriend and this guy have since texted about him fucking me again. I’m all for being GGG, but ... what the fuck?

I thought this guy was kind of an asshole.

My boyfriend was definitely an asshole. My questions are: If I’m uncomfortable during a threesome, how do I politely call it off? I don’t want to embarrass anyone, but this went on for two hours and the guy never got it up. How do I terminate a threesome without sounding like a bitch?

THREESOME OBVIOUSLY DRIED UP MY PUSSY

To politely call off a threesome, TODUMP, all you gotta say is, “Hey, this isn’t working for me — let’s take a rain check.” Say it while pulling up your pants and use your “final answer” voice.

And the “rain check” thing doesn’t have to be sincere. It can be, of course, if you’re interested in trying again sometime, but it doesn’t have to be.

The “rain check” thing is mostly a nice, polite, face-saving, ego-sparing way to ease someone out of your pants or bed or playroom or apartment or whatever. And if anyone starts arguing with you — if your third or your primary partner starts arguing with you — don’t worry about being polite, TODUMP. Go ahead and be a bitch: “This is over, you/ they need to go, rain check rescinded, asshole/ assholes.”

And while we’re on the subject of terminating things with assholes, TODUMP, you need dump your incredibly shitty fucking boyfriend immediately — and there’s no need to be polite about it. Fuck him.

Your boyfriend tried to coerce you into having sex without condoms when he knew you didn’t want to; you consented to having a threesome on the condition that condoms be used.

Attempting to reopen negotiations about your stated boundaries once the threesome was underway was a violation of your consent. And your boyfriend knew you wouldn’t want to embarrass anyone and maliciously attempted to weaponize your consideration for other people’s feelings against you! Can’t you see that?

He was hoping you wouldn’t embarrass him by refusing to have sex without condoms after he “offered” to let this guy cream pie you (come inside you) to get him to stay!

He was hoping you’d rather risk an STI than risk embarrassing or contradicting him! And on top of that, he spoke to this guy like it was up to him — up to them — what happened next, like you were a Fleshlight or tube sock or something!

And now your asshole boyfriend is pressuring you to get back together with a guy who couldn’t get it up with a condom on when he knows you don’t want to have sex without condoms? A guy who couldn’t be bothered to say goodbye after you sucked his fucking dick? And your boyfriend is claiming you owe him (or them) closure?

WTF? This relationship should have been over the moment your boyfriend made it clear some stranger’s dick was more important to him than your health, safety and boundaries.

In that moment — that moment he attempted to barter away your boundaries — he proved he can’t be trusted and you aren’t safe with him, TODUMP, alone or with a third.

DTMFA. This is every woman’s nightmare scenario when

it comes to cuckolding or hotwifing — that her boyfriend or husband will pressure her to do things she doesn’t want to do during a sexual encounter with another man.

Guys like your boyfriend not only don’t deserve to have GGG girlfriends or their fantasies fulfilled, they ruin things for other wannabe cucks, stags, and hot husbands.

He not only deserves to be alone forever, TODUMP, he deserves to be kicked in the balls forever.

On the Lovecast — Raising children in a happy, poly home: savagelovecast.com; mail@savagelove.net; Follow Dan on Twitter @FakeDanSavage.

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