Queen City Nerve - July 29, 2020

VOLUME 2, ISSUE 18; JULY 29 - AUGUST 11, 2020; WWW.QCNERVE.COM

The Black History of Charlote

A THREE-PART SERIES TEACHES WHAT THEY DON’T TELL YOU IN SCHOOL

BY PAMELA GRUNDY

THE OUTBREAK OF CORONAVIRUS DISEASE 2019 (COVID-19) MAY BE STRESSFUL FOR PEOPLE. FEAR AND ANXIETY ABOUT A DISEASE CAN BE OVERWHELMING AND CAUSE STRONG EMOTIONS IN ADULTS AND CHILDREN. COPING WITH STRESS WILL MAKE YOU, THE PEOPLE YOU CARE ABOUT, AND YOUR COMMUNITY STRONGER. EVERYONE REACTS DIFFERENTLY TO STRESSFUL SITUATIONS. HOW YOU RESPOND TO THE OUTBREAK CAN DEPEND ON YOUR BACKGROUND, THE THINGS THAT MAKE YOU DIFFERENT FROM OTHER PEOPLE, AND THE COMMUNITY YOU LIVE IN.

 -Fear and worry about your own health and the health of your loved ones -Changes in sleep or eating patterns -Difficulty sleeping or concentrating -Worsening of chronic health problems -Increased use of alcohol, tobacco, or other drugs

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-Make time to unwind. Try to do some other activities you enjoy.

-Connect with others. Talk with people you trust about your concerns and how you are feeling. Â? Â?

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

NEWS& OPINION

5 EDITOR’S NOTE BY RYAN PITKIN 6 A BLACK HISTORY OF CHARLOTTE: PART 1 BY

PAMELA GRUNDY How leaders used white supremacy as a tool to curb growing Black independence

8 THOSE SHE LEFT BEHIND BY LYNN THOMAS, NANCY VERRUTO, EMILY TRASK On the 30th anniversary of a brutal murder in Charlotte, a family still has no closure 11 IN SOLIDARITY WITH THOSE IN SOLITARY BY SAVANNAH BAKER For Black Carolinians, all gains in this moment are relative

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12 LIBERTY’S LEARNING CURVE BY PAT MORAN The School of Good Citizenship opens for the fall

MUSIC

14 ALL THINGS CONSIDERED BY RYAN PITKIN Jah-Monte rethinks his place during a breakout year 15 LIFEWAVE A dose of reality

16 THE SECRET GARDEN BY PAT MORAN Diners find a vegan oasis in EastSide Local

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LIFESTYLE Connect with free arts, science and history experiences for all ages, virtually.

CULTURE

BLOCKS

The Black History of Charlote

A THREE-PART SERIES TEACHES WHAT THEY DON’T TELL YOU IN SCHOOL

BY PAMELA GRUNDY

FOOD& DRINK

18 PUZZLES 20 AERIN IT OUT BY AERIN SPRUILL 20 STRANGE FACTS 21 HOROSCOPE 22 SAVAGE LOVE THANKS TO OUR CONTRIBUTORS: PAMELA GRUNDY, PAT MORAN, SAVANNAH BAKER, NANCY VERRUTO, LYNN THOMAS, @UBUNTUGRAPHICS, EMILY TRASK, GRANT BALDWIN,

Find virtual experiences at ArtsAndScience.org/Virtual

DEOREN ROBINSON, AERIN SPRUILL AND DAN SAVAGE. COVER DESIGN BY: JAYME JOHNSON PHOTO BY: GRANT BALDWIN PICTURED: BIDDLE UNIVERSITY CLASS OF 1894

EDITOR’S NOTE

THE ONE AND THE OTHER

The all-too-human tendency to dehumanize

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BY RYAN PITKIN

On July 17, I took part in a panel discussion hosted by the local chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) in which we discussed racism and mental health. If you weren’t tuned in on Zoom or Facebook Live, I suggest you go back and watch on the NAMI Charlotte Facebook page, if only to take in the beautiful keynote address by local activist and therapist Justin Perry.

I was brought on to discuss allyship regarding racial injustice, something I don’t consider myself an expert on by any means, though it gave me a chance to look back on my childhood experience with racism — a feeling that was based on fear.

I didn’t grow up in a part of Connecticut that one would associate with money, though I didn’t grow up in a part that one would associate with diversity, either. On the rare occasion that I would come across Black people, when we were to drive into Hartford for example, I would become engulfed with fear.

My mom tells a story of a time we walked into Burger King when I was around 6 or 7 years old and I broke into hysterics and refused to eat there because a Black man was waiting in line.

My parents were perplexed, as no one in my household was known to utter racist, hateful or otherwise fearful speech, and yet I was terrified of an entire race of people. How did this happen?

Thanks to the fact that my parents got in front of that and worked to educate me on my misplaced fears — also due in large part to moving to Charlotte and attending schools like J.T. Williams Middle School in the ’90s when CMS was still integrated — I was able to come out of that place of fear and recognize my Black neighbors as just that, neighbors.

The question remained, however, of where that learned behavior came from, and I think I know the answer: the media. As a young boy, I would often sit with my parents and watch the local news, and while my parents perhaps had the life experience to put context behind the constant stream of mugshots and other stories that portrayed Black people in a negative light, I did not, and I believe that had an awful effect on my perspective.

And so that’s what I spoke about during the July 17 panel: how it’s important now as a member of the media to not play into that tendency to criminalize people rather than humanize them, so as not to create a binary between the One and the Other, as it’s described in sociological terms.

Otherness is a theme that is playing out in so many of the stories that are at the forefront of local and national media today. In Uptown Charlotte, a growing encampment of our homeless neighbors faces a doomed future.

At some point, and it seems the time is growing near, the people living there are going to need to clear the property that they’ve occupied since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

When they’re eventually forced from that area, many Charlotteans following along from the safety of their own homes will use ideas around mental illness, drug use and criminality in the homeless community to subconsciously label the people living there as Others, allowing them to turn the other cheek without much concern for where those people go next.

As I mentioned in the NAMI discussion, this is why it’s important for journalists to spend time on the ground with the folks who are living the stories they cover, rather than reaching out to elected leaders, law enforcement or nonprofit organizations for statements and taking that to be the whole story.

In the end, a huge reason we exist is to humanize humans, as much as that shouldn’t even be a need in the first place.

Now, in the 21st century, a new type of media has brought the Otherness syndrome to a whole new level. The existence of social media and its saturation into nearly every aspect of society has given everyone a place in the conversation, and some of y’all never did deserve a voice to begin with.

The problem with the so-called dialogue on social media is that it doesn’t actually bring anyone together as much as it pits them against each other from the other end of a screen and keyboard.

The same way you’re more likely to yell “Go fuck yourself” at a person driving another car in traffic than you are to yell at them if they cut in front of you in line at the store, the physical barriers between people speaking on social media makes it much harder to get past that Otherness and view the person you’re speaking to as a fellow human rather than just an avatar or screenname.

Recent events in two very different parts of the Charlotte area have only magnified this issue for me.

First, the mass shooting that occurred on Beatties Ford Road during Juneteenth celebrations, which brought out the absolute worst in people on our Facebook page.

By the end of that day, I had turned off all notifications from the Queen City Nerve account and decided to stop even trying to moderate things.

Hateful people seemed to be multiplying in the comments section, and I wasn’t even sure to what end they were working to blame victims of a shooting that had nothing to do with them whatsoever.

Then, more recently, we saw a week of unrest in Gastonia that ended with the arrests of dozens of antiracist protesters and still hasn’t completely subsided as I’m writing this. The little bit I saw from the comments on our photo gallery from that week only cemented my stance that Facebook comments are a disgusting place for people who never really got past that Burger King stage I once found myself in, but cultivated that fear through their childhood and into adulthood.

There is no hopeful lesson to come from this social media experience, as I fear the divide will only grow as people continue to hide behind their screens and spew hatred for their fellow human.

My only advice would be to humanize someone you might view as the Other today. Do it again tomorrow. Get involved and meet the people whose shoes you’ve never walked in. I’ll try to do the same as often as possible. After all, it’s my job.

RPITKIN@QCNERVE.COM

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NEWS & OPINION FEATURE

enslaved people to learn to read and write. He learned shoemaking at age 9, and earned money for the man who claimed to “own” him until freedom came and he could strike out on his own.

A brilliant man with a commanding personality, Sanders became a widely admired minister and educator, as well as publisher of the influential African-American Presbyterian newspaper.

At Biddle, he worked tirelessly to raise funds, expand course offerings and modernize the curriculum. Faculty likened him to Moses. Students How leaders used white supremacy as a tool to curb dubbed him “Zeus.”

Across Charlotte, African Americans displayed growing Black independence similar ability and resolve. Amid the wreckage of Civil War defeat, North Carolinians had vowed

BY PAMELA GRUNDY to shape a “New South” based on commerce and The following is the first in a three-part history of industry.

Black culture in Charlotte. Stay tuned for the second and third parts in upcoming issues.

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A BLACK HISTORY OF CHARLOTTE: PART 1

African-American Accomplishment On October 4, 1891, Rev. Dr. Daniel Jackson Sanders ascended the pulpit at the Biddle University chapel to deliver his first sermon as Biddle’s president. He chose his text from Hebrews: “Seeing we . . . are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us.”

It was an auspicious occasion. Founded just after the Civil War to educate African Americans, Biddle University (now Johnson C. Smith University) had become one of Charlotte’s most substantial institutions, the embodiment of Black ambition.

The red-brick tower of Biddle Hall, where Sanders delivered that first address, soared grandly above the city’s western skyline, as it still does today.

In 1867, when Biddle first opened its doors, all the school’s teachers had been white. But times had changed. Sanders, who had been born in slavery, was Biddle’s first Black president. All but one of the professors in his audience were African American as well.

The change had sparked controversy. While many white Charlotteans supported the idea of a school for African Americans, they were far less enthusiastic about a school run by African Americans. “It is not probable that the negroes can successfully manage such an institution of learning,” the Charlotte Observer groused after Sanders’ appointment. All four of Biddle’s white Southern trustees resigned over the matter.

Sanders had no trouble proving his critics wrong. When he was born, in 1847, laws forbade

fluid racial order of the post-Civil War era, some found opportunity.

By the 1890s, Charlotte’s growing Black middle class practiced law and medicine, sold real estate, and operated businesses that included drugstores, restaurants, barber shops, saloons, newspapers, a brick factory, and the national publishing house of the AME Zion Church.

Successful African Americans invested in fine homes and substantial churches, often on the same streets as white homes and institutions. Thaddeus Tate built an Italianate brick mansion on East 7th Street, close to his upscale barber shop.

AME Zion Bishop George Wylie Clinton, publisher of the Star of Zion newspaper, lived on Myers Street in a Colonial Revival home surrounded by an enormous porch.

GUESTS AT A CHRISTMAS RECEPTION AT THE NORTH MYERS STREET HOME OF BISHOP AND MRS. GEORGE W CLINTON PHOTO COURTESY OF THE ROBINSON-SPANGLER CAROLINA ROOM, CHARLOTTE MECKLENBURG LIBRARY

Residents of Charlotte were especially keen on the promise of the New South. They built rail lines, farm supply stores, banks and a growing number of cotton mills, all of which promoted commerce and swelled the city’s population.

In 1860, on the eve of the Civil War, Charlotte had 2,265 residents. By 1900, it held 18,091, second only to the port city of Wilmington.

As in slavery, this new economy depended on African-American labor.

Black Charlotteans did hard, dirty and essential tasks that included washing clothes, scrubbing floors, digging ditches, making bricks, and loading and unloading 500-pound bales of cotton.

Many were brutally exploited. But in the more

Female leaders such as school teacher Mary Lynch worked together with white women to promote community welfare and raise charitable funds, most notably for Good Samaritan Hospital, which opened in Third Ward in 1891.

Thanks in part to the political astuteness of saloonkeeper John Schenck, Black candidates regularly won election to Charlotte’s Board of Aldermen, and at one point held as many as three of the 12 seats.

Such achievement built confidence and optimism. ”Thus far the Negro has done well, he has answered all questions,” the Star of Zion proclaimed in 1897. “His destiny is to make his race the equal of the best race in history and to be distinct only as to color.”

Political Strife But these gains were far from secure. Statewide, competing social and economic visions were fueling bitter political battles that would remake the racial order yet again.

From 1877 into the 1890s, North Carolina was run by the Democratic Party, the party which had plunged the South into the Civil War. Democratic legislators, most of which were well-off whites, used their power to favor commerce and industry and to restrict political participation to a wealthy few.

Most African Americans, who in 1890 made up 35% of North Carolina’s population, belonged to the Republican Party, the party of Abraham Lincoln. Both Black and white Republicans championed measures that would shake up the state’s social and economic hierarchy, in part by expanding voting rights.

At the start of the 1890s, a nationwide depression opened a window of opportunity. The economic downturn was particularly hard on the state’s small-scale white farmers. They began to look for alternatives to Democratic rule.

In 1894, these farmers joined with Republicans in a political alliance they called the Fusion Party.

Fusionists won control of the state legislature in 1894 and elected Republican Daniel Russell governor in 1896.

Once in power, they passed laws that helped ordinary people — they capped interest rates, made it easier to vote, and increased funding for public schools.

Elite whites reacted with self-righteous outrage. Fusionists, lamented Charlotte mayor J.H. Weddington, sought “to take the government out of the hands of the men who own the property and put it in the hands of those who are ignorant and own no property.”

The Return of White Supremacy Democrats across the state began to search for an issue that would fuel their comeback. They settled on white supremacy.

White supremacy had a long history in North Carolina. When Europeans first settled the area, they had used the concept to justify taking land from Native Americans. They then made it the foundation of two centuries of race-based slavery.

In 1898, elite whites turned white supremacy to a new use – splitting the Fusion coalition. They devised a carefully coordinated statewide campaign that revived and intensified old racial stereotypes.

Articles, speeches and ghoulish political cartoons portrayed the state’s African Americans as foolish, dishonest and dangerous.

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NEWS & OPINION FEATURE Most dramatically, Democrats claimed that African-American men had been emboldened by political power, and thus posed a threat to white women.

The year leading up to the election saw sensationalized coverage of a handful of alleged black-on-white rape cases — accusations that resulted in three lynchings and several public hangings.

Campaigners urged rural whites to leave the Fusion alliance and unite with Democrats to protect their wives and daughters.

“Proud Caucasians,” one campaign song ran, must defend their women’s “spotless virtue” with “strong and manly arms.” Additional rhetoric denounced “Negro Rule”and warned of “black domination.”

Many of the state’s rising young political stars played key roles in the White Supremacy Campaign — which is what its leaders proudly called it.

Josephus Daniels, future U.S. Secretary of the Navy, turned the Raleigh News and Observer into an effective propaganda machine. Up-andcoming Charlotte participants included future state Supreme Court justice Heriot Clarkson and future governor Cameron Morrison.

In Charlotte, the campaign culminated with a massive parade and rally just before Election Day. “Tryon Street was full of horsemen from one end to the other,” the Observer reported.

Participants held banners that proclaimed “White Supremacy” and “White Government.” Nearly 1,500 schoolchildren cheered as the marchers passed the white graded school.

On Election Day, the prospect of violence kept African Americans and their remaining white allies from going to the polls. Democrats won handily across the state.

“Once more the white man’s party will take possession of that which is its right by every law of birth, intelligence and principle,” the Observer reported.

Three days later, on November 11, 1898, African Americans in Charlotte awoke to even more devastating news from Wilmington, then North Carolina’s largest city. “Eleven Negroes Dead,” the Observer proclaimed. “Whites in Control.”

Wilmington was a Republican stronghold, with a Republican mayor, a number of Black public officials and a large Black voting population.

Emboldened by the Democrats’ sweeping

statewide victory, Wilmington’s old-line white elite staged an armed revolt. They rampaged through the city, seeking out and murdering Black leaders.

Hundreds of African Americans fled into the swamps around the city.

The insurgents then marched on City Hall, where their leader, Alfred Moore Waddell, declared himself the new mayor. It was the first and only coup d’etat in American history.

In every case, facilities for African Americans were made deliberately and obviously inferior to those for whites.

The rise of white supremacy also fueled the “Lost Cause” movement, which romanticized slavery and the Confederacy, and wiped African-American resistance out of public view. Confederate memorials began to multiply, often fueled by the efforts of elite white women.

patience, unceasing perseverance and a firm faith in God,” AME Zion Bishop Clinton wrote in 1903. “If these things be done and he continues to educate his children, acquire homes and land, improve his morals . . . his course will be ever onward and upward.”

Black businesses began to cluster in the Second Ward neighborhood, joining Black institutions such as the Myers Street School and the Brevard Street Library. Smaller enclaves consolidated in First Ward, Third Ward, Biddleville, Griertown, Cherry and Greenville.

In Second Ward, entrepreneurs hired Black builder and designer W.W. Smith to construct handsome office and retail buildings, including the still-standing Mecklenburg Investment Company Building on Brevard Street. Proud of their accomplishments, Second Ward’s residents began to call their neighborhood Brooklyn, after New York City’s fashionable new borough.

There, in the spaces they had created for themselves, they worked and watched for opportunity.

Look for Part 2: Community advancement and civil rights, in the our next paper.

BIDDLE HALL AT BIDDLE UNIVERSITY.

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE ROBINSON-SPANGLER CAROLINA ROOM, CHARLOTTE MECKLENBURG LIBRARY

Disfranchisement, Jim Crow and the Lost Cause Elite whites wasted no time consolidating their power. In 1900 they persuaded voters to approve an amendment to the state constitution that allowed the use of poll taxes and literacy tests to limit who could vote. While the amendment did not mention race, it was targeted at African Americans. Local voter registrars were given the power of creating the literacy tests and determining who had passed. They gave easy tests to whites and near-impossible ones to Blacks. These restrictions, combined with the ongoing threat of violence, proved devastatingly effective. By 1903, African Americans made up 39% of Charlotte’s population, but only 2% of registered voters.

To consolidate their hold over the state, white leaders wove white supremacy into every aspect of daily life, building a system that became known as Jim Crow. New laws and regulations forced African Americans to drink from separate drinking fountains, live in separate neighborhoods, ride at the back of streetcars, and even use separate Bibles in courtrooms.

Charlotte’s first monument, a soldier’s memorial sponsored “by the women of Charlotte,” went up in Elmwood Cemetery in 1887 and remains there today. Three new monuments were added in the 1910s, including a “common soldier” statue at Mt. Zion Church in Cornelius. An imposing granite marker was placed on Kings Drive in 1929, lauding Confederate veterans for the way that they “preserved the Anglo-Saxon civilization of the South and became master builders in a re-united country.”

To Leave or Stay As the twentieth century dawned, North Carolina’s African Americans faced hard choices.

Many decided to abandon the South, joining the Northern exodus that would become known as the Great Migration. U.S. Congressman George White bluntly stated his reason for departing: “I can no longer live in North Carolina and be a man.”

Those who chose to stay turned inward, focused on self-improvement and self-reliance. African Americans “must exercise much prudence, great

You can learn more about North Carolina’s African Americans in the late nineteenth century, the Wilmington Massacre and the white supremacy campaigns in these books.

Karen L. Cox, Dixie’s Daughters: The United Daughters of the Confederacy and the Preservation of Confederate Culture (University of Florida Press 2003, new edition 2019).

Janette Thomas Greenwood, Bittersweet Legacy: The Black and White “Better Classes” in Charlotte, 1850-1910 (University of North Carolina Press, 1994).

Glenda Elizabeth Gilmore, Gender & Jim Crow: Women and the Politics of White Supremacy in North Carolina, 1896-1920 (University of North Carolina Press, 1996, new edition 2019).

Thomas Hanchett, Sorting out the New South City: Race, Class, and Urban Development in Charlotte, 1875-1975 (University of North Carolina Press, 1998, new edition 2020).

Jill Snider, Lucean Arthur Headen: The Making of a Black Inventor and Entrepreneur (University of North Carolina Press, 2020).

David Zucchino, Wilmington’s Lie: The Murderous Coup of 1898 and the Rise of White Supremacy (Atlantic Monthly Press, 2020).

INFO@QCNERVE.COM

NEWS & OPINION FEATURE

THOSE SHE LEFT BEHIND

On the 30th anniversary of a brutal murder in Charlotte, a family still has no closure

BY LYNN THOMAS, NANCY VERRUTO, AND EMILY TRASK

To mark the 30th anniversary of the murder of Kim Thomas, her family and friends have come together to honor Kim’s life, help keep her memory alive, and find justice for her. Our new website www.whokilledkimthomas.com will be a central repository for remembrances of Kim, material related to the murder investigation, and a point of contact for anyone who would like to stay up to date on the case. We would like to thank Queen City Nerve for the opportunity to tell Kim’s story.

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“Thirty years have passed and no one has been held criminally responsible for my sister Kim Thomas’ murder. This is not okay. My unwavering and fervent quest for justice for Kim will only end with a conviction. Darrell Price, sergeant of the Cold Case Unit in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police, keeps Kim’s case active. In the near future, he will be presenting it to renowned experts to gain additional insights. There are new technologies that may help with determining the time of death and potentially uncover new evidence. Kim is gone, but she is definitely not forgotten; she left many powerful waves and ripples that are still palpable and evident every day.” -Lynn Thomas Kim Thomas has been dead almost as long as she was alive. She was born on June 8, 1958 and if alive today, she would be 62 years old. Today, 30 years since her senseless murder — one of the most brutal Charlotte has ever seen — there are still more questions than answers for those who were touched by her life ... and death.

To this day, Kim’s case remains unsolved; no one has been prosecuted for her murder. What we do know is that on July 27, 1990, this passionate, vibrant, and loving woman was forever silenced — drained of life, her throat slashed during the attack.

Her head was nearly severed from her body with more than 50 cuts to her neck, leaving just her spine

and some soft tissue. all these years can only be alleviated once the crime How do you measure a life — especially one is solved. It’s like a play that doesn’t ever finish.” that was taken in such a violent manner? With Louis and his wife Helen both died without seeing cases like Kim’s, we become so focused on the justice for Kim. circumstances surrounding the victim’s death that we forget how they lived — who they were to those A Morning Like Any Other who loved them then and love them still.

The week leading up to Kim Thomas’ death It’s an overwhelming shock when someone’s life seemed relatively ordinary. Kim, her husband, ends in this way; the lasting effects can be felt for Edward Friedland, and their son, Elliot, had posed years — even across generations. It’s these aftershocks — the palpable absence, the hole, the emptiness — that can be most difficult over the longterm.

There were the little quirky things about her personality that we often took for granted until she was gone: the sound of Kim’s voice, the very tone and cadence when she spoke, her scent, her laugh, the mischievous sparkle in her eyes. Though her years on Earth were brief, the seismic and colossal waves of Kim’s life and death are still reverberating.

“She was the person I loved most in the world,” recalls Kim’s sister, Lynn.

Sally Gordon, another close friend of Thomas told Charlotte Magazine KIM THOMAS WITH HER SON, ELLIOT, IN 1990. in 2006, “When she PHOTO COURTESY OF NANCY VERRUTO was passionate about something, she just dove right into it.” for professional photographs and taken their first Kim’s son, Elliot, was only 10 months old when family vacation since Elliot had been adopted. On she was murdered; he will never know just how the night before her murder, Thursday, July 26, Kim’s much she loved him. And her niece, Carolyn, who best friend Nancy Verruto recalls having a lengthy shares similar mannerisms, interests, and style with phone conversation with Kim. As they both sipped Kim, will never know her stubborn, feisty, outgoing wine and prepared dinner, they discussed that Elliot and delightful aunt. had been a bit sick, but still made plans to meet In a 1997 Dateline interview, Kim’s father, Louis the next day and take their children to the Jewish Thomas, shared: “The pain I feel and have suffered Community Center pool.

At 8:45 p.m. that same evening, Kim turned on her video camera, as she did frequently to record various life moments. In fact, the particular tape she used that day started at the end of May with a video of Elliot taking some of his first steps with the aid of a walker.

Fast forward to July 26: Eddie is shown holding a small bird, covered in soot, and wrapped in a sheet. It and a few other birds had apparently taken up residence in their chimney. Eddie holds up the bird for the camera and continues outside to release it as Kim follows along, still filming. It’s dusk, a dim light coming through the trees, and we can see the bird is gently placed down on the deck.

Kim remarks that she hopes the rest of the birds can get out. We hear crickets in the background as she says, “Oooh, what a wonderful night.”

Eddie goes somewhere off camera, and Kim walks down into the tree-filled yard, her dog Rags trotting behind her.

She points the camera at the base of one tree and exclaims, “A mister frog is in his home!”

We can see Rags walk over to investigate before they move back into the house. Kim says to Ed: “I hope the rest of those birds can get out of there.

Maybe we should leave the flue open?”

His response is inaudible. The camera is jostled around, and at 8:46 p.m., we hear her say, “This thing is all out of tape.” That was the last recorded proof of life from Kim Thomas.

Her husband recounted that when he left the house the next morning on July 27, just before 8 a.m., Kim and Elliot were waving to him from the door as he drove off. Her friend Nancy started calling Kim around 9 a.m., but there was no answer, which was unusual.

Starting to worry just a bit, she made several attempts to reach Kim that morning. The answering machine was not turned on so she couldn’t leave a message.

Nancy went to the pool in the afternoon as they had planned, assuming that Elliot was probably still sick and Kim had decided to stay home. Nancy headed to Kim’s house later that afternoon, but for some unknown reason, she instead turned around to finish her errands and get home before rush-hour traffic.

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Kim had a hair appointment at 11:45 a.m. and had arranged for a babysitter. The sitter called five times to confirm, starting around 8:45 a.m., but there was no answer.

Kim never made it to the salon. She had plans to take Elliot to a Gymboree class before the hair appointment, but again, never showed up.

Lynn responded, “I don’t think Mom or Dad will be happy about that.”

Kim giggled and said, “Okay, fine, I’ll wait a day!”

So she waited, but no longer than a day.

For all of her restlessness, the main constant in her life, according to friends and family, was Kim’s zest for life and the fierceness with which she loved.

She tried to help those around her to be the best they could and encouraged others to live life “big and authentically,” recalled her sister Lynn.

“When she was passionate about something,” says her friend Sally Gordon, “she just dove right into it.” It was her role as Elliot’s mother that she was most passionate about — according to her writings, he seemed to feed her soul.

Kim made numerous recordings for friends and family members that now provide insights into

To Know Her Was To Love Her Friends and family describe Kim as larger than life, smart, passionate, if not impetuous. Her sister Lynn says she was good at everything she did from a young age, whether it was school or sports or music.

Kim played both the clarinet and piano and both teachers would remark at how naturally gifted she was but would add that she lacked the discipline to put in the practice to become great.

This seemed to be a theme in her life; she would try something she was interested in, become good but not great then move on to the next venture that fascinated her.

As an adult, Kim similarly tried her hand at many things. She attended The University of Rochester, where she met her soon-to-be husband, Edward Friedland, and graduated with a degree in Psychology.

After going on to complete her Masters degree in Music, Kim moved around with Eddie as he worked to establish himself as a nephrologist.

From Rochester, they moved to New York City, Miami, then eventually Charlotte. Kim had several jobs through the years, including as a voice-over artist with WNYC, a stockbroker, and broadcaster for Financial News Network in Miami. She also served on a task team for KIM WITH HER MOTHER IN ST. MAARTEN. creating new policies for Independent Adoptions in the Mecklenburg County Department of Social who she was. She would detail her daily activities Services and co-chaired the Southern Piedmont since their last correspondence and share new life Adoptive Families of America. milestones. She inquired about lives, wanting to Kim was the leader of the Charlotte chapter know about absolutely everything. of the National Organization for Women, and coIn a tape recorded for her friend Sherry at the authored a guide for pregnant women called A end of May 1990, Kim talks about their approaching, Charlotte Child with Nancy Verruto. shared birthday month in June and about the joy Once when her sister Lynn was visiting Kim in and inevitable exhaustion that baby Elliot had Miami, Kim lamented that she wanted to spend brought to her life. more time with her, but had to go to work the She continued to provide a thorough account next day. Right then and there, in the jacuzzi, she of the quiet, but otherwise pleasant weekend she announced: “Well, you know what? I’m not really had just spent with her family. After which, she happy being a stockbroker anyway, so I think I’ll proclaimed that she had a new life philosophy that quit tomorrow, then we’ll have more time to spend she was working on developing. together while you are here.”

“Do you want to hear it?” she asks in the video as if she may receive a response from Sherry. “Okay, here it is,” she continues: “Life — each day — is like a piece of art and you need to take the time to do the things you do in it. Treat your day as if you were creating a painting … you have to carefully select the colors for your palette. And you need to realize that each day has a beginning, a middle, and an end, and you should try to develop some rhythm to your day. So, try to live it in a full way and enjoy everything you’re doing while you’re doing it, cause you won’t be doing it very long! Sometimes it really rings true and I can do it and sometimes I can’t.”

Kim let out a quick laugh and moved on to the next topic.

In a card with a print of Monet’s “The Artist’s Garden at Vétheuil” sent a few months earlier to

attended the 10-year anniversary vigil and tearfully told her family that he was inspired to live his life more fully after seeing the community response to Kim’s death and learning of how she lived her life.

A Home Becomes a Crime Scene When Eddie returned home on the evening of Friday, July 27, he found his wife’s lifeless body in their dimly lit dining room, face down in a pool of blood. Without going to her, he called 911 and was told the medical team would be dispatched immediately.

He explained that as a doctor, he could tell she was already dead, using the term “inert.” Standing at least 15 feet away from her body, he stated he could see that she was “handcuffed and it looks like someone blew her brains out.”

Elliot was in his bedroom, distraught and soiled, but had no visible signs of injury, having been left alone in his crib for at least 12 hours.

Eddie then phoned his medical partner who arrived before law enforcement and immediately rushed over to Kim’s body. Ed told him there is nothing you can do, she’s dead. Ed’s colleague left, taking Elliot with him.

As the detective took Ed’s statement immediately after arriving on the crime scene, Ed continued to conduct business on his phone.

Within an hour of finding his wife’s body, Ed said to one of the detectives, “I have to find a way to get on with my life.”

Upon hearing about the horror that was unfolding at Kim and Ed’s house, Nancy and Michael Verruto hurried over along with a number of Kim’s friends. A friend asked Ed, “Is Kim OK?” He replied, “Kim is at peace now.”

When the Verrutos finally were able to get to Ed, he handed over Rags, nearly collapsing PHOTO COURTESY OF NANCY VERRUTO between them as he said: “She’s gone. That’s not Kim in there. A monster did this…” Again and her sister Lynn, Kim writes: “Ah well according to again over the days that followed, he would repeat: my new philosophy (well let’s say formalized not “A monster did this…” new) may you walk slowly in a garden of flowers Indeed, a monster did do this. and for several minutes you absorb the odors, colors, textures, and sounds so deeply that you become Who Killed Kim Thomas? part of the garden.”

Marion Gales, who was initially investigated Just a few months later, she would be gone. as a suspect in Kim’s murder, was known to have Even those who didn’t know Kim sought burglarized homes on Thomas’ and Friedland’s association with her after her death. Tales of street. acquaintance with Kim were told far and wide Gales was addicted to drugs, and a witness around Charlotte — about how they had grown up claimed to have seen him in the vicinity on the with her, attended scouts or camp with her — even morning of the murder. In the weeks prior to her though she didn’t grow up in the area. murder, he had also done odd jobs for Kim around A homicide detective who worked on the case their home.

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Suspicion quickly shifted from Gales to Friedland when an anonymous tip came in to CrimeStoppers revealing that Kim’s husband was involved in an extramarital affair with a nurse he had worked with.

He was later found to be involved in multiple affairs over the two-year span of his marriage.

At a neighborhood meeting, when asked if neighbors should be afraid, Chief Treadway responded they did not need to worry as they did not believe the attack was random.

In 1994, Friedland was charged with the first-degree murder of Kim. The charges were dropped soon after, when Dr. Michael Baden’s key testimony regarding Kim’s time of death was ruled inadmissible. Following the trial, Friedland filed a wrongful death lawsuit in civil court against Marion Gales and won an $8.6 million settlement. Not that anyone expected him to pay.

In the opening statement in the Friedland v. Gales case, Friedland’s attorney David Rudolf suggested: “Marion Gales was out on the street. He was out on the street looking for crack cocaine. And he was looking for money to buy crack cocaine.” The statement insinuates that Gales intended to steal

valuables to pay for his drug use, yet nothing was taken from the home.

Both men were investigated, but the district attorney was not convinced that he could prove beyond a reasonable doubt to a jury that either of them were Kim’s killer. In 1997, Eddie brought another civil suit — this time for malicious prosecution — against the City of Charlotte and the individual investigators. That suit was dropped four years later after being dismissed as in summary judgement by three state and three federal courts.

In essence, it was deemed a frivolous lawsuit.

In that case, CMPD Investigator Donald Rock testified: “Something didn’t fit because the house had not been ransacked. There were a lot of items there which typically if a burglar had come in he could have stolen, items, small TVs, small stereos, things of that nature. They were all in place. Nothing was missing … the house was — was extremely neat, nothing out of place which — which struck me as odd.”

Robert Ressler, an expert that spoke on behalf of Eddie during the trial, testified: “Keeping in mind that burglaries have to be done quickly, a burglar doesn’t have the luxury of spending two or three hours looking for things. And as a result, even if it’s not trashed or vandalized, drawers are pulled open,

and things are scooped out on the floor or, you know, everything is disrupted … none of that searching is present here. A closet door is open, a kitchen drawer is open, an office has some blood smears [on] some paperwork. It’s just not there.”

There was no evidence of forced entry and the house’s security system was proved to be working.

The killer brought gloves, handcuffs, and a cutting instrument. Investigation showed that the attack started in the master bedroom where Kim likely was sleeping in her usual position on her belly. She was handcuffed then stabbed on both sides of her neck. She then fled across the length of the house and the killer caught her by her hair, then made many penetrating cuts to her neck, causing heavy bleeding and resulting in her slipping in a pool of her own blood.

She repeatedly tried to stand up and fell several times, all while the killer attempted to decapitate her. While Kim was not sexually assaulted, her body was staged with her legs splayed open as if she had been. Her white silk pajama top, stained red with blood, was positioned above her buttocks. The signs of rage, fierce struggle and overkill left what some Charlotte homicide officers would call one of the most horrific and gruesome crime scenes they had ever seen.

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The murder was so well executed as to be premeditated, indicating the killer was organized and intelligent, rather than disorganized and frenzied like a drug-addicted burglar.

Kim’s murder initially appeared to be the result of a robbery gone wrong, since Friedland stated her jewelry had been stolen, only to locate it three weeks after the fact. There were large amounts of cash, credit cards, and other small valuables that were in full view and could easily be stolen. Kim was wearing a diamond pendant, diamond earrings, and a gold bracelet — all went untouched. Kim’s wedding band was the only item that was missing, and it has never been recovered.

Kim’s murder initially appeared to be the result of a robbery gone wrong, it has since become a case of justice gone wrong.

Kim Thomas’ death is still being actively investigated. If you have any information about the case, please contact Darrell Price, chief of Charlotte Mecklenburg Police Department’s Cold Case Unit at 704 -336-6614. To learn more, visit whokilledkimthomas. com or facebook.com/groups/JusticeForKim. INFO@QCNERVE.COM

NEWS & OPINION FEATURE

was, “actively monitoring the health conditions of the solitary suffered from anxiety, 80% from lethargy and passed in March, includes measures supporting home offender population, with a specific focus on frequent headaches, and 77% from chronic depression. confinements and early releases for certain categories cleaning, good hygiene practices, medical triage, Making matters worse, Butner cut phone time for of people, including those who are pregnant, who are appropriate testing, and tracking.” However, Butner inmates and blocked email addresses, the uncle says, at least 65 and have a 2020 release date, or who are has failed to protect too many incarcerated people limiting opportunities to connect with the outside as young as 50 and have underlying health issues. from COVID-19. world for help.

The CARES Act also orders federal facilities to provide To start, incarcerated people are being confined On March 26, the Director of the Federal Bureau incarcerated people with free telephone and video three to a cell. While the Centers for Disease Control of Prisons released a statement on COVID-19 noting communication. Moreover, the CARES Act includes (CDC) recommends that we all maintain at least a that 10 incarcerated people tested positive out of provisions that aid with the legal costs of vulnerable For Black Carolinians, all distance of 6 feet, Butner’s cells are approximately 1,460,000 in the federal system, and eight out of citizens. gains in this moment are 10 feet by 12 feet, with bunks and lockers taking up the 36,000 people on staff. “We believe that the low Still, at Butner, there are concerns that the relative a significant portion of each, making it impossible to number of cases to this point, in a system this large, facility is not following the proper protocol. In May, properly distance. is a testament to our effective planning and execution incarcerated people at Butner filed a class-action

BY SAVANNAH BAKER Additionally, people incarcerated at Butner are to-date,” they wrote. lawsuit pushing the prison to release its most expected to continue working on-site without the In April, the state had only tested 2% of vulnerable inmates and comply with CDC guidelines.

I’ve been friends with D’Erikah since the summer proper sanitation equipment needed to clean their incarcerated people for COVID-19 — an alarming Our systems continue to fail Black and brown before ninth grade. My family had recently moved supplies. D’Erikah’s uncle says prison officials have percentage considering that the vast majority of people. Black people are disproportionately east from Charlotte to Duplin County. I had just made explicitly stated that sanitation equipment is “not incarcerated people nationwide are housed in state incarcerated and disproportionately die from the cheerleading team, and we were in a stunt group COVID-19. Our communities are together. She was the base, which suffering. These are our mothers, meant that I trusted her with my life fathers, sisters, brothers, aunts, — or, at least, my spinal cord. Our uncles, cousins, and friends within friendship grew that summer, out on these institutions. the grass in front of our small school in Just recently, D’Erikah and I the sweltering Southern heat. were talking about graduation.

After high school, D’Erikah and I Now, we’re trying to save the life split up. I went on to UNC-Chapel Hill of a loved one. In a time when and D’Erikah went to East Carolina people are staying home to protect University, two hours away. Today, I live themselves and one another from in Chapel Hill while she has since moved getting sick, Black people are also to Charlotte, where I grew up. For the forced to fight an oppressive system past four years, we’ve stayed connected that is killing us. From marching through group FaceTime with our other for the lives of Breonna Taylor and two friends at least twice a week. We George Floyd to advocating for our get into it about classes, relationships, incarcerated loved ones amidst a politics, emotions — really anything. global pandemic, when will Black In the past few months, we’ve talked a lives matter? Prisons, just like police lot about the stresses of graduating in SAVANNAH BAKER (CENTER, LEFT) SUPPORTING HER FRIEND D’ERIKAH DURING GRADUATION. PHOTO COURTESY OF SAVANNAH BAKER interactions, should not come with the midst of a global pandemic. a death sentence.

However, April 17 was different. That evening, I a priority” for incarcerated workers. He’s witnessed prisons. In Neuse Correctional Institution in Goldsboro, hopped on FaceTime like so many other nights, but retaliation from Butner’s safety department when a whopping 465 inmates, more than half the Savannah Baker is a recent graduate from the this time, my friend’s tone was more urgent. “I need inmates ask for chemical disinfectants and mops. population, had tested positive by then. One woman University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She’s served your help,” D’Erikah said, desperation in her voice.

Meanwhile, these same workers are only getting paid reported that her 57-year-old husband, who had less as Co-Chair of Criminal Justice Awareness and Action Her uncle had reached out to her about the 10 to 20 cents per hour — well below the $2 they than six months left in his sentence, was still being at UNC, which is dedicated to raising awareness about COVID-19 outbreak at the Federal Medical Center, need to pay for a “sick slip” to get their temperatures confined in a multiple-occupancy cell. systemic injustice within the criminal justice system; Butner in Durham County. Butner, as it’s called for checked.

By June, 657 incarcerated people and staff had and Co-President of B4 (Building Bonds Breaking short, is a correctional facility for incarcerated men When incarcerated people have expressed active cases within Neuse. As of July 20, more than B.A.R.S), a volunteer group that offers mutual support with special health concerns. concerns about contracting the virus, the uncle 4,000 people confined in the federal system had at detention centers in North Carolina and that is run Compared to previous conversations, this one says, Butner has threatened them with solitary tested positive, and 97 had died. This includes 25 through the Sonja Hayes Stone Center. She now serves brought a sense of distress. D’Erikah’s uncle spent the confinement, also known as “the hole.” There’s deaths at Butner alone, the most in the country. on the board of EmancipateNC. last seven years confined in Butner, serving over 70% widespread research showing that the isolation of Meanwhile, D’Erikah’s uncle joined the ranks of those of his sentence. She was worried that he wouldn’t solitary can cause a number of impairments, including thrown into solitary confinement for speaking out.

This story was produced in partnership with Just make it through the last quarter. hallucination, panic attacks, paranoia, sensitivity to The situation is dire.

Media, a new, national hub for grassroots storytelling At the beginning of the pandemic, the North external stimuli, and problems with concentration and The federal government has taken steps to address on the politics of policing and justice reform.

Carolina Department of Public Safety announced it memory. In super-maximum prisons, 91% of those in prisoner health and safety issues. The CARES Act,

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LIBERTY’S LEARNING CURVE

The School of Good Citizenship opens for the fall

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BY PAT MORAN

The sculpture was like an oasis of calm, a touch of whimsy amid the hustle, bustle, protests and heavy-handed security in Uptown around the 2012 Democratic National Convention. That was until spectators realized that the ice block letters slowly melting in the sun, never to return, spelled out the words “Middle Class.”

The temporary sculpture was the most visible facet of Morning In America, a series of installations

by LigoranoReese, an art and activism duo comprised of husband and wife Nora Ligorano and Marshall Reese. The project took its title from Ronald Reagan’s 1984 reelection campaign slogan.

“Reagan … slashed social programs, demonized poor and working people, and transformed the U.S. into a debtor nation, running up the highest budget deficits in American history,” reads LigoranoReese’s online explanation of their contribution to Charlotte’s DNC circus from eight years ago. “Thirty years later, the working and middle classes are still crumbling.”

Witnessing a symbol of American hopes and dreams inexorably dissolving in Marshall Park was the first time many Charlotteans encountered the iconoclastic work of LigoranoReese. It would not be the last.

In 2020, the two artists are back in Charlotte, at least virtually, to challenge assumptions, shake up the status quo and inspire people to make their voices heard.

The couple originally planned to craft another one of their ephemeral ice sculptures, this time carving the phrase “We The People” into the ice.

It would have been the centerpiece of The School of Good Citizenship, a six-day series of multidisciplinary art events and workshops occurring over three weekends in August to bookend the 2020 Republican National Convention (RNC) in Charlotte.

That plan had to be scrapped, ironically enough, because of the very conservative policies that LigoranoReese so often criticized and questioned.

Right-wing politicians’ refusal to act with urgency as the COVID-19 pandemic cut like a scythe through the nation ultimately sank their celebration of President Trump’s catastrophically corrupt and incompetent administration.

In June, miffed that N.C. Gov. Roy Cooper would not jettison basic health and safety standards to please the president, the Republican National Committee moved the bulk of its political convention to Jacksonville, Florida. In late July, the Florida iteration of the RNC was also abruptly canceled due to health concerns.

Some business aspects of the gathering will

they had initially planned. In fact, it was no longer feasible for LigoranoReese to come to a state recently designated as a coronavirus hot spot in a report the White House had tried to keep hidden from the public.

It looked like the artists’ multidisciplinary art festival and collaboration with local artists might dissolve into nothing, much like their transitory ice sculptures.

Instead, certain that art’s role is to inspire people in the public realm, they decided to forge ahead with an expanded program.

“That’s the value of public art,” Reese maintains. “It’s not just the statue commemorating an historical figure or event. Our society is in a profound moment because everybody is reevaluating the meaning of these monuments. We wanted to expand the audience, who we were talking to, who to bring into it.”

In the process, Charlotte and its people, institutions and artists became collaborators with LigoranoReese in mounting The School of Good Citizenship.

“When an artist makes a public project about a place, the location where you’re working will affect your choices of how the art JONELL LOGAN work develops,” Reese PHOTO BY DEOREN ROBINSON says. “Charlotte did that with us.” return to Charlotte, but it will not be the selfLuckily, LigoranoReese had done their homework aggrandizing blowout Trump craved. While many in in planning The School of Good Citizenship. On their the Queen City breathed a sigh of relief over these own, they contacted several Charlotteans plugged developments, the situation raised a quandary for into the arts, social justice and civic spheres, forging LigoranoReese. relationships with local organizations like The Light “At first, we were looking at each other saying Factory and Levine Museum of the New South. what are we going to do because we have this An early contact was Susan Brenner, a painter public art piece and we can’t be in public,” Ligorano and retired UNC Charlotte art professor. Brenner remembers. “How do you frame a festival about urged them to get in touch with Jen Edwards, social engagement during a pandemic?” chief curator at the Mint Museum. Edwards in turn It dawned on the pair that it was highly unlikely pointed LigoranoReese to Jonell Logan, a Charlottethat they were going to do an ice sculpture, as based curator and arts advocate.

After meeting Logan in Charlotte a year and a half ago, LigoranoReese hired her as project manager for The School of Good Citizenship.

“Jonell was the one who said, ‘You guys, don’t let [COVID-19] scare you,’” Ligorano remembers. “She told us to think about it as an opportunity.”

Instead Logan encouraged LigoranoReese to focus on their mission to bring people together and to elevate voices.

“It’s funny that they remember that,” Logan says, recalling her advice not to let the virus scare them out of the work. “COVID would normally be an opportunity to back out. This is a moment where people can feel disenfranchised and frustrated. If there is ever a moment to struggle through and to figure it out, this would be it.”

So, LigoranoReese embraced the opportunity to reshape their entire program. “[The pandemic] made us think that we didn’t need to concentrate all the events around August,” Ligorano offers. “We were able to open up the calendar and have a lasting effect leading up to the election.”

A Public Forum in a Pandemic While LigoranoReese have gone virtual for their slate of performances, workshops and exhibits, they have also gone big, scheduling events from June through October. Now The School of Good Citizenship can engage a broader, more diverse community around civic engagement through visual art exhibitions, public art, film screenings, spoken-word poetry, panels and artist workshops and discussions.

First up on the calendar is Seeing Voices: Community (Un)Heard at The Light Factory on Aug. 1 and 22. Following two weekends of workshops in June and July focusing on photographic storytelling and incorporating text into images, August’s Synthesis: Sewing The City encourages attendees of the first two sessions to share their work with the city through zines, postcards and projections.

Like the previous two Light Factory workshops, the upcoming one will be held on Zoom, Ligorano says.

“The participants [are] excited to be there and that excites us,” she says. “We think that’s success.”

Next up on the art festival’s docket is Counting UP! What Does Your Ballot Look Like?, which runs at the Levine Museum of the New South from Aug. 20 to Nov. 8. For the open call exhibition about voting rights, 20 artists have been selected to interpret what voting rights look like and mean today.

Logan’s input has been invaluable here,

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ARTS FEATURE

present Stories Beyond Borders, a collection of documentaries about the crippling impact of the attacks on immigrant families and communities in America.

LigoranoReese is hoping to screen both programs at a drive in, contingent on the severity if the pandemic come this fall.

On a yet to be determined date in the fall, The School of Good Citizenship will conclude with a Civic Saturday sermon and discussion at the Cone Center at UNC-Charlotte.

LigoranoReese pitched the sermon to the university which was enthusiastic about the idea, Reese offers. The two artists found a civic seminarian

festival dedicated to civic engagement, is also, in many ways, a culmination of the couple’s life work.

Ligorano and Reese met in 1977 when the LigoranoReese say, working with the artists and former was studying painting at the Maryland installers.

Institute College of Art in Baltimore. That’s when the “Marshall and Nora laid the groundwork and couple became partners in life as well as art. were super active in the process,” Logan explains.

In 1992 they ventured into political art with a “I’m doing a lot of the support work and having series of editions called Pure Products of America, things executed. It’s logistics, like how do you take which takes its title from a line from William Carlos something from idea to manifestation?”

Williams’ poem “For Elsie.”

One lesson Reese has learned from the initial “The first line is, ‘The pure products of America public reaction to Counting UP! is that people are go crazy.’” Reese says. “We started making sculptural ready to embrace their power by speaking their objects that took off from the connection between minds. marketing, politics and morality.”

“I think that people The sculptural object was want to have an effect on a “Bible belt,” a modified New the forces that govern their Testament Bible on a belt lives and they want to be that you buckled around your heard,” he says. waist.

From Aug. 24-27, The “The bible covered your School of Good Citizenship ass, and it had a triangularwill present I Once Was Lost, plated Jesus belt buckle in Now Am Found, a musical front,” Reese offers. event that is close to its Flash forward to 1995 founders’ hearts. On those when LigoranoReese devised four nights, until recently one of the duo’s most infamous set aside in Jacksonville artworks. In response to for the now canceled RNC, the Republican majority musicians, singers and win in the Congress and the spoken word performers launch of their Contract with in Charlotte and across the America campaign, which the A LIGORANOREESE SCULPTURE IN MARSHALL PARK DURING THE 2012 DNC. country will present virtual two artists saw as a brazen choir concerts. student, UNC-Charlotte undergraduate Rebecca De marketing strategy, LigoranoReese made a product: In collaboration with choir masters including Luna, to deliver the sermon. The event will either Contract with America underwear.

David Tang, Jared Dougherty and Kevin Mayes, a be a public gathering or it will be streamed over the “It had the image of [former Speaker of the different chorus each night will perform songs of internet, or both.

House of Representatives] Newt Gingrich on the uplift and hope, culminating on the last night in a LigoranoReese hope the wrap-up of their crotch and the tenants of the Contract with America final upwelling of song. expanded arts festival will bring students and on the seat,” Reese remembers.

The reason LigoranoReese chose music is simple, others in Charlotte together to find common ground Three weeks later, the RNC threatened Reese says. around visibility, engagement and activism, themes LigoranoReese with copyright infringement. The “We were looking for something that was that have become increasingly important to the artists’ conviction that the Contract with America ephemeral and durational like the ice sculptures,” country and society. was merely a marketing strategy was actually being he offers. verified by the Republican Party.

In the fall, The School of Good Citizenship will I’ll Melt with You After being pilloried by the conservative media incorporate two film screenings into its program, Both Ligorano and Reese feel that The School of and declining multiple requests to appear on the Fox courtesy of Wilmington-based Working Films, a Good Citizenship is the logical extension of Melted News show Fox & Friends in New York, LigoranoReese documentary company co-founded by the late Away, their series of transitory ice sculptures. The nearly stumbled accidentally into what became Charlotte filmmaker Robert West. artists have done numerous ice sculptures through their signature series of public art works.

Revisioning Recovery: Films Uncovering the years at several political conventions in cities Reese had just negotiated a publishing deal the Roots of Disaster will screen on Oct. 2. It’s a across the nation. Each time they repeated the with Jim Kempner Fine Art Gallery in New York to collection of short films that examine the injustices process, they changed it, adding elements like get a series of criminal mugshots of George W. Bush and systemic forces that contribute to climate performances, spoken word, time-lapse video and administration members published as postcards. disasters, as well as positive responses and solutions live-streaming, Ligorano says.

After Reese sealed the deal and was leaving, the to the problem.

But The School of Good Citizenship, a public arts gallery manager asked him if he and Ligorano did A second screening on October 3 will

lawn sculptures.

“You don’t want to say no,” Ligorano says. So, the artists agreed to produce lawn sculptures and went home to figure out what the hell they had just agreed to do.

Ligorano hit upon combining ice sculpture and language, and so, Melted Away was born. Their first piece was “Democracy” in the garden of the Jim Kempner Fine Art Gallery in New York City in 2006.

More elaborate sculptures were to come, many in major municipal parks during the two major parties’ political conventions.

As additional events and artistic statements aggregated around the ice sculptures, LigoranoReese set their public arts and discourse sights higher, which brought them to The School of Good Citizenship and the quarantined Queen City this year.

Talk About the Passion LigoranoReese have high hopes for the current slate of projects that will take them and Charlotte well into the fall.

“We want to encourage people to vote in a very important election,” Reese asserts. “We’d like to see people realize that they can have an effect in public life and that their efforts can make change.”

Through the lens of art, LigoranoReese is framing civic engagement as a creative joy, Ligorano maintains.

“We hope that this has a lasting impact not only on the community but also the players,” she says.

Ligorano wonders what young women like Rebecca DeLuna, who will lead the Civic Saturday gathering, will be doing in a year from now. She hopes that DeLuna’s commitment sticks and becomes a habit, then becomes an inspiration for others.

“It’s really heartwarming to see this spark, this passion,” Ligorano says.

Logan says The School of Good Citizenship provides a great opportunity to think about collaboration.

“It’s a chance to look at what it means to bring people together in a time when we’re not physically able to engage,” Logan says.

“I think The School of Good Citizenship offers hope because it allows people to be able to intervene in forces [perceived as] beyond their control,” Reese says. “It goes back to the idea of giving people a voice. The one thing that makes me very happy is that Nora and I have created a structure that invites people to contribute their thoughts.”

INFO@QCNERVE.COM

MUSIC FEATURE

ALL THINGS CONSIDERED

Jah-Monte rethinks his place during a breakout year

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BY RYAN PITKIN

Local rapper Jah-Monte Ogbon moved into his new apartment on North Tryon Street last December, but when I visit him there on a Saturday afternoon in July, he’s already having second thoughts.

The complex is just outside the NoDa neighborhood, where in recent years it seems any business within a couple miles of the gentrified arts district is trying to co-opt and capitalize on the name. As much as police presence can be a burden in Charlotte’s more traditionally Black neighborhoods, it can be even more intense in areas where new white residents are moving in all the time and need to feel safe.

“I think it was a bad idea,” he says when I ask about the move. “I should move back to the east side. It’s good, but it be weird sometimes; police be outside, prices are going up, shit’s just different.

They’re trying to make it NoDa.” His doubts about his new living situation are indicative of a theme running through his life and career over the past year. As Jah-Monte has begun to see more success, he’s also begun to rethink some of the things that have defined his come up: his outspoken critiques of the local scene and the media that covers it, his longtime claim to the “Best Rapper in Charlotte” title, his outlandishly long song titles that read more like run-on sentences, and even his very presence in Charlotte, where he’s lived since arriving from Ohio at 11 years old.

When I come by his apartment, he’s just returned from a 24-day trip to Brooklyn, New York, where he’s been spending a lot of time over the last year, making music and connecting with local creatives.

Before COVID-19 hit, he was just about ready to move there. Now, as with many other aspects of his career, he’s rethinking that decision.

“There’s a lot of conversations being had around me, a lot of ideas,” he tells me. “Some people with my best interests are steering me in certain ways, so everything is kind of like in the air. My idea is to bounce back and forth from L.A. to New York, Atlanta and Charlotte.”

It sounds like an ideal situation for any rapper with a local presence, but as Jah-Monte has seen his name grow in cities beyond Charlotte — thanks to attention from national outlets like Pitchfork and regular radio play on Hot 97 in New York — it’s looking like a realistic plan for him moving forward.

In December, Jah-Monte dropped Infinite Wisdom, his fourth project of 2019, following up on Jewelry Rap, Alkaline Water, and God, Body & Soul, respectively.

Infinite Wisdom remains his most recent, and its momentum hasn’t broken yet. He’s been pressing

JAH-MONTE OGBON

vinyl records for his back catalogue of 2019 releases, as well, and has seen each release sell out online and in local shops.

Infinite Wisdom stays on track with Jah-Monte’s well-known style among Charlotte hip-hop heads, a grimy and boastful flow featuring nonstop witty one-liners over boom-bap beats.

In January, Pitchfork’s Alphonse Pierre published a write-up on Jah-Monte’s video for “Keep It or Sweep It But My Bitch Still Getting Oprah Winfrey Money.” The track wasn’t featured on the album; in fact, it was just one of many throw-away songs he’d been kicking out at a rapid pace throughout the year.

He filmed the video in a Topper’s Pizza because of their colorful walls, shot it on his own camera in one take and posted it. After Pitchfork reviewed

the video, it blew up, and Jah-Monte started to see his plays on YouTube, SoundCloud and all other platforms grow exponentially.

He learned a valuable lesson from the “Keep It or Sweep It” experience: If the music is raw, nothing else matters.

“It’s crazy that he posted that one out of everything,” Jah-Monte says of his first Pitchfork review. “He didn’t post nothing that was really thought out, just a one-shot video, so I’m like, ‘Yo, I don’t have to listen to people when they tell me my stuff gotta look like this, I have to do this, I have

And now Jah-Monte is ready to be more purposeful about the work he produces. His run-on song titles — “Vegan Chicken Over Rice With My Cougar Bitch Who Like Jada Pinkett Smith” is a favorite — are one aspect of that change.

“It’s just weird,” he says, laughing when I bring it up. “I did it to gain attention, I don’t know, I want to go back to regular titles. I’m about to take a break and come back normal. I had to do a lot of outlandish things but I don’t have to do it no more.”

Another thing he’s beginning to have second thoughts about is the “Best Rapper in Charlotte” moniker that he’s laid claim to for years, even as he’s done everything to prove it a credible claim.

The September album was originally going to be titled King of Charlotte, he says, but he’s walked that back after deciding it “would be the worst idea.”

He says that the folks who take the most offense to the claim are always the ones he has the most respect for, like when New Jersey rapper CRIMEAPPLE called him out for it on Twitter. His feelings on that are part of a broader issue he’s had with social media, where he posts critically on things he feels passionate about — including Queen City Nerve’s hip-hop coverage at times — only for folks to take it personal and hold it against him.

“Sometimes I think I’m tripping,” he says. “I know sometimes speaking out on certain things online, people don’t understand what you mean.

People don’t know how you feel, they just think you’re hostile but you don’t feel that way. I learned that this year.”

Despite stating in “Best Rapper in Charlotte Part 10” in July 2019 that he may never step foot PHOTO BY @UBUNTUGRAPHICS in the city again, I can tell how important the local scene is to him when he speaks about it. He has no to do that.’ It’s really just a matter of doing your own intention of leaving the Queen City behind for good, thing.” he says, but he strives to see a change in the way That’s what he plans to continue doing. He’s people place competition over collaboration. got two more albums worth of music ready to “In Charlotte, nothing is word of mouth. release, with his first full-length of 2020 dropping Nobody’s ever like ‘Yo, this person told me about in September and the second coming in November. you,’” he says. “Everywhere else there’s more After that, he plans to take a small break and plan acceptance … I think we could kill that narrative, his next move. that nobody in their own hometown is gonna be While his inextinguishable work ethic over the respected. I think we can change that. But there’s a last two years has paid off for him, the success has lot of clout holding that comes into it; people that’s made him comfortable enough to slow things down. more poppin’ than another artist don’t want to share “I recorded a lot of music because I put myself what they have. If we could kill that…” in a weird mindset. It was just kind of like, outwork He trails off, leaving me to envision any number everybody else around you and that’s how you get of potential avenues for Charlotte hip-hop to take. noticed,” he says. “It’s kind of toxic in a way.”

One more thing to reconsider.

However toxic it may have been, it worked.

RPITKIN@QCNERVE.COM

We’re kind of opening, kind of not, so not all of these are virtual events as we were highlighting at the beginning of the lockdown, but plenty are. COVID is still going strong, so party at your own risk.

CHARLOTTE PRIDE WEEK

What: COVID-19 can’t keep Charlotte Pride down, so the celebration is virtual this year. “Queer Liberation is not Exclusive to the US” on July 30 focuses on the voices of Latinx individuals who have fought for liberation within Latinx countries, hoping to provide a more global understanding of what the global movement for LGBTQ+ individuals looks like.

The Charlotte Pride Livestream Festival on August 1 is a special eight-hour livestream featuring local entertainers, artists, and speakers, as well as special messages, spotlights, and video content from local LGBTQ organizations, movements, and leaders.

It’s a truly local, virtual celebration of our entire community. The Charlotte Pride Parade Livestream on August 2 is a special two-hour livestream featuring Charlotte’s community-submitted virtual marching contingents and floats.

More: July 30, 6 p.m.; Aug. 1 & Aug. 2, 1 p.m.; charlottepride.org/virtualpride/

MUDDY TURTLE TALKS: ARE THE CHILDREN OKAY?

What: Join QC Family Tree and Hannah Hasan & Epoch Tribe for a live, virtual storytelling event.

Muddy Turtle Talks is an award-winning storytelling series that features the true stories of the experiences of those living in the Enderly Park neighborhood in Charlotte. This event will be comprised of all youth storytellers sharing stories about home, school, community, and much more.

More: Free; August 1, 6 p.m.; tinyurl.com/MuddyTurtle

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NO MORE STOLEN LIVES RALLY & MARCH

What: From the rally’s FB page: “Join the Charlotte Community as We Stand Together to Find Solutions to stop the killing & violence in our communities. If you have lost a family member or loved one to violence please come out. Bring pictures and signs with their names so we can lift them up in remembrance and say, “No more. We have lost enough.” For more information email: seekingjusticeclt@gmail.com.

More: August 2, 6 p.m.; Black Lives Matter Mural, South Tryon Street between 3rd and 4th streets; tinyurl.com/NoMoreStolenLives

THE PEOPLE’S PLATFORM: COMMUNITY ASSEMBLY

What: Hosted by the Charlotte Coalition of AntiRacist Artists, the Community Assembly pledges to codify the will of the people through an event that is part protest, part performance art, and part civic meeting. The coalition reminds creatives that theater is a rehearsal for the revolution, a revolution is an act of creation and creation emerges through the practice of imagination.

More: July 31, 5 p.m.; Romare Bearden Park, 330 S. Church St.; tinyurl.com/PeoplesPlatform

GROOVE 8 LIVESTREAM

What: Hosted by the Evening Muse, Charlotte jazz/funk collective Groove 8 will livestream its first concert of 2020, performing songs from their catalog for their fans. Expect some surprises and special guests. It’s all part of the band’s 15th anniversary celebration. Also keep your eyes peeled and your ears tuned for further livestream shows hosted by the Muse: Soulful urban pop artist Toby Lightman on Aug. 6 and Christy Snow on Aug. 7. NoDa resident Snow pledges that 100% of her proceeds will go to the Muse More: $12 and up; July 31, 8 p.m.; Aug. 6, 8 p.m.; Aug. 7, 8 p.m.; tinyurl.com/Groove8

WILDLIFE GARDENING: SONGBIRDS & TERRESTRIALS

What: Living in a metropolitan area doesn’t have to mean you can’t experience nature up close and personal. It just means you have to create an environment that fosters those encounters. And in doing so, you help protect a wide variety of wildlife and provide endless hours of enjoyment for yourself.

In this three-hour session, instructor Judith Walker (Mecklenburg Audubon Society, UNCC Emeritus Faculty) will take a look at the triangular relationship between plants, insects and animals such as birds, reptiles, amphibians and yes, even mammals. She’ll discuss the basic habitat needs of wildlife and how to begin redesigning your backyard (or even a patio) using native plants.

More: $40; August 10, 6 p.m., August 12, 7:30 p.m.; tinyurl.com/WildlifeGardening

ELONZO WESLEY: ‘COVID DAYS’

nominated folk activists Che Apalache and regional favorites Chatham County Line. About the artist scheduled for Aug. 1 we once wrote that “Cicada Rhythm conjure up the Southern twilight when the buzz of insects washes in waves through the trees, and that eerie but comforting moment of stasis before the world transforms.” Aug. 8 features boundary-bending bluegrass trailblazers Fireside Collective.

More: $10 and up; Aug. 1, 8 p.m.; Aug. 8, 8 p.m.; crowd-less.com; @crowdless; paypal.me/crowdless

‘FEEDING A REGION’

What: Carolina Farm Trust presents their Feeding a Region virtual premiere followed by a panel discussion. Feeding a Region is a short film that Carolina Farm Trust produced over the past year to showcase their vision of feeding the Carolinas with food from local farms, starting in the Charlotte Metro area — including three of their current urban farm sites. Following the film, five panelists will discuss the importance and challenges of strengthening our local food ecosystem. The Urban Farm at Aldersgate had its first harvest last month and people are already lining up to volunteer.

More: Donations accepted; Aug. 6, 6 p.m.; tinyurl.com/FeedARegion

What: Elonzo Wesley is the brainchild of singer songwriter Jeremy Davis. Beginning as a solo artist, David pivoted to performing as part of a full string band. Davis spent his childhood in the woods and fields of South Carolina’s low country. That region’s sense of the land — it’s closeness and its history — comes through in Davis’ heartfelt Americana.

The band will be streaming from Petra’s, one of their favorite Queen City venues. Tune in. Jam out. Stay ADRIAN CRUTCHFIELD DAY: ‘GIVE AIRSTREAM well.

LOVE’ What: This Charlotte based modern jazz quartet More: Donations accepted; Aug. 7, 7 p.m.; What: Prince’s go-to saxophone player, who worked features Andre Ferreri on Guitar, Mark Stallings at tinyurl.com/ElonzoCOVID with the consummate pop, funk and soul artist piano and synthesizer, Al Sergel on drums and Dave from 2011 until Prince’s untimely demise in 2016, Vergato playing acoustic and electric bass. Airsteam Adrian Crutchfield has a rich musical life outside of has been the vehicle that allows these musicians to NO CONTACT CONCERT SERIES his contributions with the genius of Paisley Park, introduce new music and hone-in on their original What: Midwood Entertainment’s collaboration encompassing jazz, R&B, pop, funk, soul and hipwith Codex Sound continues, offering livestreamed compositions. The quartet performs fusion, modern hop. Crutchfield celebrates the influence of Africanjazz and smooth jazz — and even their smooth full band performances. Shot at Codex Sounds American music and the artists who have driven jazz swings. You can catch the band in a suitable 14,000-square-foot warehouse in Hickory, the No social change, awareness, pride and the celebration Contact Concert Series trades iPhones and living socially-distanced club show at Middle C, or as a rooms for a professional stage and lighting rig, of a diverse nation, all while encouraging peace and livestreamed gig. love for one another. This uplifting and fulfilling More: Free-$30; Aug. 8, 6:45 p.m. & 8:45 p.m.; concert hall quality audio inputs and 12 video show will be streamed live from the Cube.

Middle C Jazz, 300 S. Brevard St.: middlecjazz.com/ cameras. It’s almost like going in person to a live show – remember those? – if you had managed to More: $5; Aug. 11, 8 p.m.; show/airstream/ buy out the entire hall and you’re the only audience tinyurl.com/CrutchfieldLove member there. Drawing on Midwood Entertainment president Micah Davidson’s impressive roster, NCCS has assembled a line-up that will include Grammy-

FOOD & DRINK FEATURE

THE SECRET GARDEN

Diners find a vegan oasis in EastSide Local

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BY PAT MORAN

Stewart runs the cafe with Brenda Gambill, who also runs vegan/vegetarian catering company Over the Moon Raw Food and develops EastSide Local’s recipes in the kitchen. The two women joined forces 35 years ago to start writing songs for a rock ‘n’ roll band and have been a force ever since.

EastSide Local is not Stewart’s first gig in retail and food service. She managed Common Market in Plaza Midwood for close to five years, and she was front-of-house manager at South End restaurant Pewter Rose from 1999 to 2007.

But she didn’t start out in the restaurant industry. Stewart trained as a singer, actress and musician; she’s proficient on guitar and banjo. In 1986 Stewart graduated from the University of North Carolina Charlotte where she studied dance and drama. She performed with the Charlotte Shakespeare Company and the Tarradiddle Players,

Tucked into an east Charlotte strip mall, at the end of a long sunlit patio, is perhaps Charlotte’s best-kept vegan secret. Visitors to the hip yet unpretentious café EastSide Local Eatery in the Eastway Shopping Center are in for some of the city’s best vegan and vegetarian fare, though that comes with a side order of apparent contradictions.

The café specializes in meatfree dishes, but the owners didn’t plan on serving food in the first place, setting their sights instead on opening a juice bar. Discerning diners trek across the country to hang out here, but many locals are still surprised that the eatery has been their neighbor for almost two years. The popular Impossible Burger — done up Carolina style with veggie chili, mustard, slaw and a choice of cheese or vegan cheese — is prepared in this tiny, 600-squarefoot café at the end of the patio.

But to get one, or anything else THE ECCENTRIC IF SMALL INTERIOR OF EASTSIDE LOCAL. on EastSide Local’s extensive menu, you first have to find the place. which eventually became part of Children’s Theater “People usually walk down the sidewalk and of Charlotte. In 1990, The Charlotte Observer called they don’t know where they are,” says café co- Stewart “One of the area’s most visible stage owner Gina Stewart. “We have this beautiful patio actresses.” and garden, so we look like a garden shop.”

In 1994, Stewart appeared in the one-woman Every day, at least two or three people stumble show The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the upon the café asking how long the establishment Universe. In addition to professional local and has been at the shopping center and expressing regional theater, Stewart jumped into film and surprise that it’s there, Stewart maintains. television work during Charlotte’s production boom There’s a lot of greenery interspersed among in the 1990s and early 2000s. She appeared in The socially distanced seating as we head down the Walking Dead, Homeland, and Banshee. Stewart is patio to pick up a pair of burgers on a recent particularly proud of the work she did on American afternoon. Prints of tarot cards and other artwork Gothic, a chilling cult horror series executive adorn the patio. produced by Sam Raimi (The Evil Dead).

Some of the art is for sale, particularly a half“I was on Dawson’s Creek so I had some acting dozen hand-crafted bird houses hanging on the moments with some of that cast,” Stewart says. wall.

“That was kind of fun.” There were also several small but interesting character parts in a spate of madefor-television movies, she offers.

Concurrent with her acting career, Stewart played in rock ‘n’ roll, Americana and punk bands.

She was a member of Fetchin’ Bones, The Blind Dates and Volatile Baby, but her longest running musical project was as lead singer, guitarist and songwriter for the band Doubting Thomas. Gambill was also a member of Doubting Thomas from the outset, playing violin and percussion and singing.

The regional band, which was formed in 1988 and played its first gig in 1989, released five albums and two EPs. REM’s Peter Buck guested on Doubting Thomas’ debut album Blue Angel. The follow-up, Two, included vocal contributions on one tune by Emily Saliers of Indigo Girls. In a 1998 interview with South Carolina newspaper The State, Stewart called the band’s third album Who Died and Made You King?, “More soulful and Motown-influenced than anything else we’ve done so far.”

Their discography also includes a compilation EP called Cut It Out and a live album.

After 15 years, the band wrapped, though Stewart says the members have attempted since to schedule a reunion show, the most recent PHOTO BY PAT MORAN attempt being a gig at the Neighborhood Theatre that was called on account of COVID-19.

In 2007, Stewart was sitting in her Plaza Midwood home, purchased soon after her college graduation when a Plaza Midwood address was far from desirable, looking for work and hitting a wall.

“There was nothing in Charlotte, not even bagging groceries,” she remembers. So, she went to New York to do an off-Broadway show called Good Old Girls. The show had a three-month run, then she came home.

The economy was crashing, so with nowhere to go and nothing to do she went to Common Market to get a cup of coffee. She asked the market’s owner Blake Barnes if he was looking for help. It turns out he did, so Stewart stepped into the role of market manager. Gambill was working the juice

bar at Common Market at the same time. She and Stewart constantly talked about opening a raw foods restaurant, but the plans never got off the ground. Instead, the partners turned to corporate jobs. Gambill went to work for the Blumenthal while Stewart went on to the Charlotte Symphony.

But the café dream refused to die, and salvation, or a kick in the butt, came through the guise of Penny Craver and Charlotte’s vital resource for film lovers, VisArt Video.

Craver, then the owner of Plaza Midwood restaurant Dish, approached Stewart and Gambill and suggested it was time to pull the trigger on their juice bar. The three women launched EastSide Local, and to this day are still partners and owners of the café.

“We wanted a coffee shop, smoothie bar and juice bar, and we found this little place here, and I loved the fact that VisArt was close,” Stewart remembered.

The three women started construction for their café at the Eastway Shopping Center location. Then Stewart was approached by Charlotte attorney Mickey Aberman, whose firm had managed Doubting Thomas. He had also become the owner of VisArt, almost by accident.

On New Year’s Eve 2010, Aberman had entered VisArt, then at its old location on East 7th Street in Elizabeth, to rent a movie. Seeing people pulling armloads of movies off the shelf, Aberman learned that the store was liquidating its stock prior to going permanently dark. Aberman got the store owner’s number, then ducked into the children’s video section to place a call. He halted the video fire sale and bought the store on the spot.

Now Aberman needed a manager at VisArt to replace the one that had left. Specifically, he wanted someone to open a screening room for local, art and cult films at the video store as the business transitioned to nonprofit status. Since EastSide Local was under construction, and not scheduled to open soon, Stewart accepted the position as VisArt’s new manager.

She got the screening room going and all was going well, she reports, until the COVID-19 pandemic swept through the country.

In the meantime, EastSide Local had opened prior to the pandemic, and the coffee shop owned

by Stewart, Gambill and Carver was turning into a full-time restaurant.

“Brenda [Gambill] started creating a couple of things on the menu and people loved it,” Stewart says. “We decided we were going to do allvegetarian.”

FOOD & DRINK FEATURE Stewart considers herself primarily vegetarian, but not vegan because she loves cheese. She says she prefers good, organic food, and she loves animals. That said, Stewart’s not opposed to people eating meat.

“I think people are on the spectrum of where they are about all of their habits,” Stewart maintains.

“I’m happy to create a good option for people who want to make some changes. If it’s one day a week that’s fine with me.”

With EastSide Local’s menu, people would hardly miss the meat anyway. In addition to the aforementioned customer favorite, the Impossible Carolina Burger, the café serves a homemade Impossible Biscuit for breakfast that is completely vegan. Gambill modifies vegetarian Impossible meat into an Impossible sausage, and then adds vegan cheese along with some secret ingredients to create the café’s number one seller.

The Shamrock, a green smoothie containing pineapple, mango, spinach and banana, is also popular. In addition, EastSide Local has also created their own coffee blends. One is the EastSide Pride dark roast.

“Then we do Blue Star coffee which is named after a blue star that was over the water tower in Huntersville,” Stewart offers. “My sister and I talked for many years about making a coffee that celebrated that.”

And you can’t really have proper coffee without donuts, Stewart insists. The café is partnering with baker Kacie Smagacz and her Move That Dough Baking Company. Smagacz specializes in vegan donuts.

“She is doing all of her baked goods out of here, and she’s making [the café] her home,” Stewart says, which means that there are fresh doughnuts every Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

“On Sunday we really emphasize the coffee and donuts,” Stewart says.

Stewart gives kudos to Common Market’s Blake Barnes for inspiring her to follow a flexible business model. Barnes’ business model with Common Market has always been to serve the community by listening to what people wanted and then giving it to them, Stewart maintains.

“That’s where my thinking comes from,” she offers. “Open up, do what you want to do, and the community will tell you what it needs.”

What EastSide Local has told Stewart is that

NOW OPEN FOR TAKE-OUT & DELIVERY! DELIVERY AVAILABLE THRU DOORDASH & GRUBHUB

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HOURS OF OPERATION Tuesday-Thursday, Saturday: 3pm - 8pm Friday: 12 pm - 8 pm ( 7 0 4 ) 9 6 9 - 2 5 5 0 | L A B E L L E H E L E N E R E S TA U R A N T. C O M

300 S TRYON ST, CHARLOTTE, NC

people want healthier food that’s reasonably priced, she asserts. Whether people are vegan, vegetarian or otherwise, they want a break from meat at least a couple days a week, and they want it to taste good.

Plus, people want a cool place to hang out, meet people (within reasonable pandemic protocols and precautions) and have good coffee.

Stewart has also worked to create a synergy between EastSide Local and VisArt. People are starting to rent a movie from VisArt and then swinging by the café for some food.

“Pull up one time and we’ll bring it all out,” she says. “A one-stop shop.”

Stewart’s involvement in both businesses may have jump-started the cooperation between the two establishments, but now the collaboration has gained traction of its own accord.

“There’s a real spirit of working together,” Stewart maintains. Both businesses offer delivery and pick up, with EastSide Local delivering through Postmates, Door Dash and Chow Now. Tuesday through Saturday the café is open 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday’s operating hours are 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. VisArt is open every day 12 p.m. to 8 p.m.

Despite the pandemic, Stewart sees Eastway Shopping Center pulling together and becoming

a community. She gives props to the shopping center landlord’s John Turner for fostering a sense of community and adventure.

“When we met with him he said he wanted to support small local businesses and he wanted to create a potentially cool spot,” Stewart says. “Even with COVID it’s starting to happen, awkwardly and stumblingly.”

She notes that the recently displaced Plaza Midwood Dairy Queen team is coming to the shopping center soon, along with an independent restaurant Royal African Cuisine. Those businesses will join Tommy’s Pub, Armada Skate Shop and essential oils shop Taj Essentials in the shopping center.

“There’s some really cool stuff here, and if it continues, it’s going to be great,” Stewart offers.

“Plus, you can park here.”

As for EastSide Local, Stewart pledges to keep taking care of the fundamentals.

“What I want to do is give people a place of realness,” Stewart offers. “We’re selling a vibe more than we’re selling food. The food and the coffee are excellent, but it really is about people.”

PMORAN@QCNERVE.COM

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LIFESTYLE PUZZLES

LIFESTYLE PUZZLES SUDOKU

BY LINDA THISTLE

PLACE A NUMBER IN THE EMPTY BOXES IN SUCH A WAY THAT EACH ROW ACROSS, EACH COLUMN DOWN AND EACH SMALL 9-BOX SQUARE CONTAINS ALL OF THE NUMBERS ONE TO NINE. ©2020 King Feautres Syndicate, Inc. All rights reserved.

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PG.18 PUZZLE ANSWERS

TRIVIA TEST

BY FIFI RODRIGUEZ

1. GENERAL KNOWLEDGE: What is the birthstone traditionally associated with the month of July?

2. MOVIES: What was the name of the artificial intelligence system in “The Terminator” movie series?

3. CHEMISTRY: Which element has the chemical symbol Pt? 4. HISTORY: Which two boxers were matched in 1974’s “The Rumble in the Jungle” contest in Zaire?

5. ANATOMY: What is the common name for the hallux?

6. AD SLOGANS: Which product is featured in the advertising slogan “Obey your thirst”?

7. GEOGRAPHY: Which four U.S. states start with the letter “I”?

8. TELEVISION: What city was the setting for the 1990s sitcom “Home Improvement”?

9. MUSIC: Which female singer had a No. 1 hit in the 1970s with the song “You’re No Good”?

10. MEASUREMENTS: How many tablespoons are in 1/4 cup?

CROSSWORD ACROSS 1 Farm output 5 Mosey along 10 Father 14 Verbal tests 19 Despise 20 Slow -- (Asian primate) 21 Spoil 22 Bo of “Bolero” 23 Magnetic pull 26 Certain Arab 27 Place for online small talk 28 Author Dinesen 29 One of Nixon’s daughters 30 Hack down 31 Crow cry 32 Clear skies and 70 degrees, say 35 Smell -- (suspect something) 37 Novelist Zora -- Hurston 39 Stopover site 40 Santa Fe-to-Denver dir.

41 Horned viper 44 Annex 45 Sanctify with oil 48 SFO posting 49 What a happy couple makes together 54 Suffix with journal 56 Liberal arts subj.

57 With 90-Down, totally mistaken 58 Creepy quality 60 Rented living spaces: Abbr.

64 Screening airport org.

65 Appear to be 67 Fit snugly 68 Target rival 69 Notions that an imp might get

72 Habanero, for one 74 Pays mind to 75 Infant bed 79 Brand of nonstick cookware 80 Org. for drs.

81 Admin. aide 82 Like rhythmic verse 84 Mag bigwigs 85 Thither 86 Victory sign 88 Big sum given for finding a lost pet, perhaps 91 Conan’s TV home 94 Understood by very few 96 Roth -97 Uvea’s organ 98 Granola tidbit 99 “Law & Order” spinoff, informally 100 Italian port 102 Low pair in poker 106 It’s painted to make something seem better than it is 111 A Stooge 114 Inclined (to) 115 Oscar winner Helen 116 Emu relative 117 Food symbolizing America 119 Ed with Emmys 120 Equitable market practices 123 Thieve 124 News bit 125 Brother, in Paris 126 Slaving away 127 Not on time 128 Shot callers 129 Mended 130 Pot tops

DOWN 1 Ballroom dance 2 Quite 3 Ontario city 4 Saucy 5 Big maker of food cans 6 Label for the Jackson 5 7 Hat’s edge 8 Actress Tyler 9 Suffix with journal 10 Non-poetry 11 Of hearing 12 Finicky 13 Ending for meth14 Scenting substances 15 Send, as payment 16 Weaver of mythology 17 Lax 18 Place for downhillers 24 Oval part 25 Bill depicting Lincoln 29 Lendl’s sport 32 Soup scoop 33 Fathers, informally 34 Nintendo console 36 Greek “T” 38 Water, to Yves 42 Condition of equilibrium 43 Heaped up 45 Sale proviso 46 Fraction of about 11% 47 Forest cat 49 “You --!” (“Oh yeah!”)

50 Comes after as a result 51 Swirly marbles 52 Shorn wool 53 Suffix with script 55 Pack tightly

GOOD-LOOKING BEGINNERS ©2020 King Feautres Syndicate, Inc. All rights reserved.

59 Fixed price 61 Tropical fruit 62 Aftershock 63 Hair bit 66 Actress Plimpton 68 Actor Grammer 70 1999 Ron Howard satire 71 Clear kitchen wrap 73 Father, in Madrid 76 Have supper 77 PC readout of a sort 78 Not as tough 82 “Quo Vadis” director -- LeRoy 83 TV producer Michaels 87 Like trade winds 89 China’s -- Zedong 90 See 57-Across 91 Certain rigging support 92 Coffee shop employee 93 Less lax 95 Quart fourth 100 Avocado dip, for short 101 Measure of current flow 103 American elk 104 Sedating substance 105 Blood vessel openers 107 Walk (on) 108 Furious 109 Part of CEO 110 Tenures 112 Decided 113 Part of REO 117 Highest point 118 Plus others: Abbr.

120 Pine relative 121 A bit askew 122 Hosp. body scan

LIFESTYLE COLUMN

AERIN IT OUT FINDING LOVE IN NEW PLACES

Bouncing between sidepieces while my true love is in quarantine

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BY AERIN SPRUILL

Since COVID-19 clamped down on the Queen City, we’ve seen our fair share of change in the nightlife landscape. As I’m writing this, just last week one of my old favorites, Fitzgerald’s in Uptown, announced they’d be closing for good. WHAT?!

That was a staple of my stomping grounds when I was runnin’ amok in my early Uptown years. I began to think about how many of those spots I used to love would be closing in the near future — spots that I promised I’d pay a much-needed revisit once I was let back out into the wild.

But just as quickly as the regret settled in, there was a silver lining.

Since my beloved watering hole The Corner Pub has been closed, I’ve looked at our relationship as “taking some time apart to figure out who we are” until we can be reunited once again.

In that time, I’ve managed to fall for two major new contenders: Cedar Street Tavern Bar (Boyfriend #2) and Pub at Gateway (Boyfriend #3). And the best part (or worst, depending on how you look at a love triangle) is that each one is within walking distance of Boyfriend #1.

Talk about a walk of shame!

But hey, I’m not the only one whose relationship is in quarantine turmoil.

Boyfriend #2 had been waiting in the wings for quite a while. The aroma of alcohol and way too many strangers hit me as soon as I walked through the door *inhaled* Hmmm, it smelled just like home. He’s as worn and as comfy as a vintage leather couch, but he was still a novice to me, which invited me to take a seat.

His food doesn’t taste like home base, but he’s fun, plays good music, pours stiff drinks, and waits on you hand and foot while relaxing on the patio. Not to mention, many of his friends are people I met through Boyfriend #1, so quickly, he transitions from being a stranger to someone I’ve known my whole life.

After a couple of dates, the bartenders knew my name and the fact that I was always going to order a cider, water, and/or a shot special.

He’s taken the edge off in the interim of being away

from Boyfriend #1, but also makes it hard to want to leave, especially when he has to say goodbye early (and now he has an even earlier closing time of 11 p.m. every night).

Fortunately, on the nights he closes early, or when I get bored of him, I can run into the arms of Boyfriend #3.

The third boyfriend isn’t as large as number two, but in this case, size really doesn’t matter. Tucked in between Bisonte Pizza Co. and Little Village Grill, I may have overlooked this sidepiece if I hadn’t been introduced to him a year or so ago.

He was cute or whatever the first time we met, but it wasn’t until taking a break from Boyfriend #1 that I realized he was actually quite the looker. Then I tasted his food again, saw how cheap my bill was, and realized I’d found a keeper, not a manstress.

Familiar faces from the patios of the other two boyfriends greet me at the door and make me feel welcomed.

After 13 years, he’s perfectly worn like an old t-shirt — consistent but not boring, aged but cozy, and you’ll never throw him away. The conversation is engaging but

lasts only as long as it is productive. He creates the perfect environment for both the person looking for a long-term relationship or a person like me who wants just to hit and quit it.

Spark, flame or longtime lover, he’s always prepared for me to ask for The Italian or Turkey Tomato Basil to go 30 minutes before closing time, knowing it’ll probably be a while before he sees me again. He still makes every togo plate with love.

I never would’ve guessed I’d be in this situation.

Three lovers, one closed for business and the other two ready and willing to fulfill my every need. Two places not far from home that are virtually strangers disguised as my beloved.

Dorothy was right, there’s no place like home, but these laidback, neighborhood lovers that breed “regulars,” keep my belly full and my whistle wet come damn near close.

No, I will never say goodbye to my first real love.

These two sidepieces can’t replace Boyfriend #1, but they’ve kept me 6 feet of safe and warm during Phase 2.

Their willingness to love me despite knowing I’ll be running back into the arms of my previous lover has provided me with the temporary escape I’ve needed. Hell, maybe we could consider a solid post-COVID love triangle.

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By Lucie Winborne • There is symbolism in Disney’s Cinderella mosaic. The company says that “guests can see that each of Cinderella’s stepsisters appears with her own special facial tint. One sister displays a red tint to show that she is ‘red with rage,’ while the other sister displays a green tint to show that she is ‘green with envy,’ as they watch Cinderella try on the glass slipper to reveal a perfect fit.”

• Eating more candy in one sitting causes fewer cavities than spacing it out through the day.

• “The Hound of Heaven” poet Francis Thompson is listed as a Jack the Ripper suspect. Although there is no physical evidence to back up this bizarre claim, independent researchers say the imagery in Thompson’s poetry, plus his background as a medical student, are valid grounds for suspicion!

• Sorry, but that cream filling in Twinkies isn’t cream at all — it’s vegetable shortening.

• Due to heat expansion of its iron, the Eiffel Tower can “grow” by up to 6 inches in the summertime.

• Need one more reason to hate Mondays? Scientists have found that even if you maintain a steady weight, you’ll weigh the most on that day of the week.

• Only a quarter of the Sahara Desert is sandy.

• High heels came into circulation in roughly 10 B.C. They were worn by men of the Persian Cavalry not as a fashion statement, but to help their boots stay in their stirrups while riding horses.

• In the 18th century, King George I of England declared pigeon poop to be the property of the Crown because it could be used to make gunpowder. *** Thought for the Day: “I slept and I dreamed that life is all joy. I woke and I saw that life is all service. I served and I saw that service is joy.” — Kahlil Gibran © 2020 King Features Synd., Inc.

LIFESTYLE

HOROSCOPE JULY 29 - AUGUST 4

AUGUST 5 - AUGUST 11

ARIES

(March 21 to April 19) A bit of Arian LIBRA (September 23 to October 22) Dealing with ARIES (March 21 to April 19) Don’t gnash those contrariness could be keeping you from getting all someone who has let you down is never easy. But pearly whites because you might have to delay the facts. Turn it off, and tune in to what you need the sooner you’re able to clear up this problem, the your plans. This could give the Lucky Lamb a better to hear. It could make all the difference this week. sooner other problems can be successfully handled. perspective of what’s been done, and what still needs doing.

LIBRA

(September 23 to October 22) Taking logical approaches to pesky workplace issues can help resolve even long-standing problems. A shift in policy might catch you by surprise. Be alert to signs of change.

TAURUS (April 20 to May 20) Getting an answer SCORPIO (October 23 to November 21) A “friend” to a vital question involving financial matters might who is willing to bend the rules to gain an advantage TAURUS (April 20 to May 20) Scoring financial SCORPIO (October 23 to November 21) Your take longer than you’d expected. A new factor might for both of you is no friend. Reject the offer and stay bullseyes is easy for the focused Bovine who knows kindness and compassion are exactly what are the ins and outs of the marketplace. But even with needed in dealing with an awkward situation in the have to be dealt with before anything can move on your usual straight and narrow path. your success record, caution is still the watchword. early part of the week. Share the weekend fun with forward. Be patient. family.

SAGITTARIUS (November 22 to December 21) GEMINI (May 21 to June 20) Use your good sense

After all the effort you’ve been putting in both on GEMINI (May 21 to June 20) Watch that tendency to see what might really be driving a colleague’s the job and for friends and family, it’s a good time to to over-romanticize a situation that should be given SAGITTARIUS (November 22 to December 21) workplace agenda. What you learn could lead to a indulge your own needs. The weekend could bring a closer scrutiny. Better to be suspicious now and ask Keeping your focus straight and true is a good way new way of handling some old problems. for an explanation, rather than face a sad surprise of getting your points across. Save any variations pleasant surprise. later. for a later time. The musical arts are important this weekend.

CANCER (June 21 to July 22) A change of mind CAPRICORN (December 22 to January 19) You

might want to do something new this weekend. CANCER (June 21 to July 22) Bruised selfClose your eyes and imagine what it could be, and confidence can make things difficult unless you CAPRICORN (December 22 to January 19) then do it, or come up with the closest practical accept the fact that you have what it takes. Ignore Reject advice to cut corners in reaching your goal. alternative. the critics and concentrate on believing in yourself. Better to take a little more time to do the job as you promised. You’ll gain new respect for your honesty Good luck. and integrity.

LEO (July 23 to August 22) You revel in golden AQUARIUS (January 20 to February 18) Your opportunities this week. One cautionary note, good deeds bring you the appreciation you so well LEO (July 23 to August 22) Congratulations on what though: Be careful to separate the gold from the deserve. But, once again, be careful of those who you’ve accomplished. But this is no time to curl up AQUARIUS (January 20 to February 18) Don’t glitter before you make a choice. Someone you trust might want to exploit your generous nature for their for some serious catnapping. Your rivals are probably allow a troublesome situation to grow so big that it can help. own purposes. already working on plans to overtake your lead. will be increasingly difficult to deal with. The sooner you speak up, the sooner everyone will be able to VIRGO (August 23 to September 22) Marriage PISCES (February 19 to March 20) Trolling for VIRGO (August 23 to September 22) Your benefit. might once again turn out to be a good thing. True, most of your co-workers might not like the delay, but as before, they might appreciate what follows from it.

Pg. 21 JUL 29 - AUG 11, 2020 - QCNERVE.COM

is important this week, as are other partnerships. compliments isn’t necessary. You earned them, and Don’t let yourself be overwhelmed by sentiment. you’ll get them. Concentrate this week on moving Instead, try to steer a path between emotion and ahead into the next phase of your program. common sense.

adventurous side wants to play a more dominant role this week, and you might want to oblige. Try PISCES (February 19 to March 20) Confronting to arrange for some getaway time with that special someone who is making a lot of mistakes could be person. the kindest thing you can do both for that person and for anyone who could be adversely affected by the errors.

BORN THIS WEEK:

BORN THIS WEEK: You absolutely glow when

Meeting new people usually means you’re making new friends. People want to be reflected in your shining light.

you see beautiful things, and everyone around you is warmed by your light.

2020 KING FEATURES SYND., INC.

LIFESTYLE COLUMN

PG.19 PUZZLE ANSWERS

SAVAGE LOVE FRIENDS IN DEED More or less-bians

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BY DAN SAVAGE

I’m a twenty-something more-or-less lesbian in an East Coast city. I’m primarily into women, and I’m only interested in relationships with women, but I’m sometimes attracted to men and have enjoyed sex with men in the past. For various reasons, I decided a few years ago not to pursue physical stuff with men anymore and I publicly identify as a lesbian. This worked great pre-pandemic, but now, with a tiny social bubble and no dating prospects, I find myself feeling very attracted to a male friend/ coworker. He’s 30-something, single, straight, and we’ve hung out a few times since COVID (only outside, and while socially distanced). As far as work goes, neither of us has a management role, we’re in different departments, and we rarely interact professionally. So, hypothetically, the coworker part wouldn’t be an ethical issue if we were to get involved.

I have a feeling he’d be down for a casual pandemic thing … although it’s possible I could be projecting. But I have no idea how to broach this subject. He’s a respectful person and we work for a very progressive organization, so he’s not going to flirt with me since I identify as gay. I don’t know how to bring up in casual conversation that I sometimes like sleeping with men, Dan, and my usual approach to flirting involves a lot of casual physical contact, which obviously isn’t possible right now. What should I do? Should I just let this go? Even though we don’t work closely together, there’s obviously the potential for professional issues if feelings got hurt, and celibacy is obviously a responsible option during this pandemic. But COVID-19 lockdowns and restrictions are going to continue and he and I seem well enough suited to keep each other company. I was single and celibate for a while before the pandemic and am feeling desperate to touch another human being.

If it’s not a terrible idea, how do I flirt with him without endangering public health, messing up our friendship, or making our work situation incredibly awkward in the event that he’s not into me?

CRAVING ORGANIC VIABLE EARTHLY TOUCHING

There’s no way to ensure that a sexual and/or romantic relationship with a coworker (or anyone else) won’t end badly — and a little awkwardness would be the least of your worries if this proposed arrangement ended badly. But if your relationships and breakups are generally drama-free, COVET, and if you’ve been friends with this guy long enough to know that his relationships and breakups have been mostly drama-free, I think you should tell him how you’ve been feeling.

Ask him if he’s interested in finding a COVID-19 sex buddy, as the Dutch call them, and if he is, tell him you would like to apply for the position.

While most couples meet online these days, COVET, roughly 10% of opposite-sex couples — which is what you two would be — still meet through work. And while you’re not interested in anything romantic or long-term, couples that meet through work remain the most likely to marry. Which means work relationships don’t always end in tears and/or pink slips and/or lawsuits. (Although they do sometimes end in divorce.)

People who find themselves attracted to coworkers need to be thoughtful about power dynamics, of course, and cognizant of company policies where workplace romance is concerned. And it sounds like you are being thoughtful and it doesn’t sound like either of you have power over each other and are unlikely to ever be in positions of power over each other.

And life is short and this pandemic is going to be long.

So the next time you get together for some socially distanced socializing, COVER, open your mouth and tell this guy what you’ve been thinking. If he’s as liberal and progressive as you make him out to be, he’s no doubt aware that human sexuality is complicated and that while many of us can find a perfect fit among the most commonly understood set of labels, many of us pick a label that doesn’t fit perfectly because it comes closest to capturing some combo of our sexual and/or romantic interest and desires.

Don’t think of this ask — don’t think of this disclosure — as walking anything back, COVET, but of expanding and complicating what he already knows about you. You remain homoromantic — you’re only interested in other women romantically — but you are sexually attracted to both men and women sexually. In other words, COVET, your heart is lesbian but your pussy is bi.

If he’s up for being your COVID-19 sex buddy, swear to each other that you’ll handle the inevitable end with grace and compassion. For while awkwardness can’t be avoided, COVET, stupid and unnecessary drama certainly can. And it’s been my experience that promising in advance to act like grownups ups the chances of everyone

TRIVIA ANSWERS: 1. Ruby 2. Skynet 3. Platinum

4. Muhammad Ali (winner) and George Foreman 5. Big toe 6. Sprite

acting like grownups.

Similarly, simply saying, “Well, this might get awkward,” in advance of awkwardness or, “This is awkward,” if things should get awkward reduces the strength and duration of awkwardness by at least half.

Finally, a note to all the guys out there reading this who think COVET’s question gives them license to hit on women who identify as lesbians: No, it doesn’t. Don’t do that. If there’s a lesbian-identified-but-not-averse-to-alldick dyke in your life … if you work or to go school with a homoromantic-but-bisexual woman who identifies as a lesbian … and if that woman is even remotely interested in fucking you, she will let you know. And even if your hunch is correct — even if your dickful thinking is spoton and that one lesbian you know does wanna fuck you — being disrespectful enough to make the first move instantly disqualifies both you and your dick.

This is a letter from a gay guy. If one of my regular kinky playmate friends were to gag and hood me and then fuck me while wearing a condom, would that reasonably be expected to prevent COVID-19 transmission?

HOPING OR OTHERWISE DETERMINED

7. Idaho, Illinois, Indiana and Iowa 8. Detroit 9. Linda Ronstadt 10. Four

protect you from HIV and other sexually transmitted infections. The biggest risk, according to health departments from sea (NYC Health) to shining sea (British Columbia Centres for Disease Control), is kissing — we’re being urged to forgo “kissing and saliva exchange” with randos for the moment — so kinky fuckers who get off on wearing masks, gags, and hoods have a built-in, hardwired advantage. But no kissing before the hood goes on.

Please settle a debate with my “friend.”

I’m correct in that your staff comes up with the clever names of those who submit letters to your Savage Love column, right? My “friend” holds the delusional belief that the clever names are created by the letter writers themselves. Please settle this with a confirmation that I am correct.

FRIENDSHIP RISKED IN ENTIRELY NEEDLESS DISPUTE

A million or so years ago I began shortening sign-offs created by the letter writers — I began making acronyms out of them — to cut my word count and save space.

Readers noticed what I was doing and began creating sign-offs that, when acronymized, became words that playfully referenced their questions. It quickly became something “Savage Love” readers looked forward to — something they like as much or more than my dick jokes — and it wasn’t long before readers were letting me know they were disappointed when sign-offs didn’t result in clever acronyms.

So nowadays when readers don’t go to the trouble of creating clever sign-offs for themselves, I do it for them. I would say I come up with roughly half the sign-offs that appear in the column, FRIEND, which means you and your friend are both right.

You’re less likely to contract COVID-19 if you’re hooded and gagged and it’ll be even safer if your kinky playmate wears a mask too. But you should be hooded and gagged before your kinky playmate arrives, HOOD, because if gets close enough to hood and gag you himself then he’ll be exhaling all over you and inhaling whatever you’re exhaling. And that — inhaling what other people are exhaling — is the risk we all need to avoid right now.

And while COVID-19 has been found in semen, the jury is still out on whether semen presents a significant risk On the Lovecast, Dan interviews an activist from of infection. (Unless a dude shoots so hard his semen is “Love is Not Tourism.” www.savagelovecast.com; mail@ aerosolized and his sex partners are in danger of inhaling savagelove.net; Follow Dan on Twitter @FakeDanSavage. his spunk into their lungs.)

That said, COVID-19 isn’t the only thing we need to worry about, HOOD, so he should wear a condom to

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Pg. 23 JUL 29 - AUG 11, 2020 - QCNERVE.COM

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