Dennis Waddell, who lived in Terra Cotta as a boy, has opened the Terra Cotta Heritage Museum in a brick house at 504 Norwalk St, Greensboro, NC. Soon, The Super G Program will be coordinating a public tour with Dennis so that we can see the Museum and learn more about his mission to preserve the community’s history.
Here is a short clip from the video we are currently making.
I’m not sure when Kia and her daughter “Tink Tink” moved in, but they’ve been a part of the Super G family for quite some time. The only difference is: after three relocations, Kia’s booth is now next door to the residency spot. The family is quite nice, and Tink Tink spends plenty of time entertaining our residents Carly and Kay, so on your way in, stop and wave a friendly hello. They are some pretty cool people to learn from. Speaking of learning, Kia is just starting back to school and thinking about majoring in forensics. Ask her how the math is coming. I’m sure she has a lot to share 
From an interview with “Ash’ the Intern” on Feb. 10th. They discuss many things including schooling, cartoons, big squid and yellow oranges.
K: Hey, Carly, whats up?
C: Not much, just hangin’.
K: Hey Carly if you were to try to describe yourself to me in a nutshell…a nutshell that incased your interests and backstory, what would you say? to me?
C: First I might tell you that all that talk about nut shells made me feel kinda snacky, and that of all of the various nuts I prefer almonds, lightly salted. Then I would say something like, I like good fun, good food, good friends and good goofery. Right now I get paid to hang out with kids which I am pretty sure is one of the best jobs ever. In my free time I’m still working out how and who I wanna be. Books, walks and riddles are also good things. Does that sound about right?
K: And you like making and playing games too, huh?
C: Sure do, Kay, Sure do.
K: I think if I had to incase myself in a nutshell I would tell you that I was in my mid twenties, figuring out how to balance my time so that I can do the things that I love that don’t make me any money and also feed and house myself. I would say I was interested, generally, in art, agriculture and food politics, bikes, alternative ways of living…silliness and adventures…
Am I missing anything?
C: Naw, except maybe hanging out with your O’le pal Me and pondering all of the ways being a person is weird.
…Hey Kay.
K: Hey what?
C: Hey, so people keep asking me what we’re doing in Super G, I was just wondering, what exactly are we doing in Super G. You could try to put it in that same nutshell, or maybe it can go in its own nut shell. What do you think?
K: Lets put it in a separate one, because I think nuts go well in pairs…although I’m not exactly sure why. At super G I think we’re really interested in inviting people in to have a dialog around ideas of attachment, specifically around the attachments people have to material objects. I think you, personally, in an effort to sort through and process your Greensboro experience as you get ready to leave were really interested in letting go of a lot of your personal stuff and thinking about what exactly was so important about those things for you. That was the beginning, it seems like… the spark. Do you think this is the case?
C: Yeah, I guess that is where we started. Now we have a space to play, in a flea market none the less. What a great place to think about objects and peoples relationships to them. Flea markets are full of objects that have belonged to other people, and these people have imbibed these objects with all kinds of meaning, emotion and memory. These things are worth something clearly, and typically they are priced according to criteria like necessity or function. We started to wonder if we could find their worth based on some other criteria. How might we decide what they were worth if we couldn’t know their function?
K: Yea, would you buy something simply because it really incapsulated romance? Or an object that was loaded with nostalgia? Would you choose not to buy an item because the history of its ownership was riddled with feelings of obligation? Or worse, laziness?
Anyways, forgive me if it sounds like Im trying to sell you some packaged cheese…
C: No, no cheese.
But if you want to run to Super G, I would buy an obscure fruit. You can have half.
K: Thanks. You can have half of my giant squid jerky strip that I found there…I can’t eat the whole thing…this month…
C: Sick!
I think the primary interest and gravitation towards the Super G is trying to figure out its context. The concept of a residency can be easily understood, only its context is another thing to deal understand simply because we folks at the residency have plopped it down in the middle of Super G Mart: the flea market/multicultural grocery store. Herein lies the “Experiential” part of the plot: the area around it. To most, sitting a creative residency in the middle of a flea market– especially coupled with most people’s common perceptions of what creativity is supposed to be– is just strange. But strange is what makes us at the G residency so special: we’re gifting artists with the opportunity to do something completely uninhibited.
While Lois and Jody baked away in the G cubicle, I spent some time meeting with the Experiential portion of the G: its vendors. I met Susie, who, from just a little chat, found out that she and her husband runs their space which is made up of leftover items from a massive store they once owned. By the end of the chatting, she inviting me to her Vietnamese Baptist church. Talk about interesting.
I’ve been trying to pin down the definition of the Super G’s “Experiential Residency” portion of the project for visitors and all others looking for a clearcut definition– because when the window is open for you to do as you please, your mind goes blank trying to fill a space with no restrictions. So far, this is what I’ve come up with: The Super G Experiential Residency Program is an intensive three-week challenge for the resident to utilize the resources of a small space, and the opportunities within a diversely confined community as effectively and creatively as possible. As intensive as those words sound, the program is anything but. Just ask Jody and Lois about the scones.
- Ash the Intern
“Unlike physical architecture, however, social architecture is mainly created in the imagination and expectation of its participants. It can be created, destroyed or refashioned very quickly and fluidly, under some conditions it can endure. Social architecture is a kind of living form, in a continuous act of self-creation: what Niklas Luhman and other theorists have termed autopoeisis.”
From an interview with Sal Randolph – you can read it here
Reflections from Lois
Our experiential experience is finished and looking back it was a refreshing exciting, pleasant, rewarding adventure. Donovan and Lee gave us their time, support and encouragement to be able to realize our project. We owe a huge thank you to Harold, the manager of the Flea Market, who was so helpful in seeing that we had what we needed to set up and feel at home in our space. What made our experience most special were all the new friends we made with the flea market “family.” The vendors were our biggest supporters and they were so kind and friendly to us “new girls on the pathway.” We will miss their company!
I’m a 74-year-old retired educator and new grandmother who was “recruited” by my energetic, imaginative youngest daughter Jody to take part in her vision of helping “to bring the community of Greensboro together” through providing a learning experience. I taught Jody and anyone else who was interested how to make Scottish scones in our booth in the Super G Flea Market. We then enjoyed tea and hot scones with our students and guests. Getting to know this community at the Super G Grocery and Flea Market, a fascinating place, was an extraordinary experience. It was a true pleasure for us the share their lives and concerns!
I was remiss in publicly acknowledging my daughter Jody at our last “seminar.” It meant a great deal for me to be included in one of her projects and for her to allow me to be a working partner with her. It was a wonderful mother-daughter experience.
I was encouraged by our visitor provide scone making “tips” that need emphasis. They are as follows:
The recipe we used needs special attention to NOT over handling the dough. The photos early in the blog show it is barely mixed while in the bowl and then is kneaded by hand just until it is patted into a cutable shape.
We discovered that the dough could be cut into 2-inch squares if you don’t have a circular cutter. A small juice glass with a sharp rim dipped in flour can also be used to cut the scones. 2 inches is good for teatime and a 3-inch cutter makes better breakfast size scones. Cutters are usually sold in nests with 4 sizes.
A batch of 2-inch size makes between 18-22 scones depending on the height you pat out the dough.
We strongly recommend you go online for oodles of information. Type in either “making scones” or “substituting whole wheat flour for white flour” to find a wealth of information.
Try recipes with egg in the dough. Also try giving the scones an egg or milk wash on top right before putting them in the oven.
Be sure to remove the scones from the baking sheet immediately because the bottoms toughen sitting on the hot pan.
When preparing whipping cream for the topping add a splash or capful of vanilla and anywhere from a teaspoon to a tablespoon of sugar depending on the amount of cream you are whipping.
The Super G is a wonderful source for a wide selection of teas, herbal, green and traditional and Suzie in the flea market has a very tasty green that she suggests adding a bit of fresh ginger. Drinking this mixture every day, she will tell you, will help you live to 90. We found everything we needed for the scones except the cream of tartar, which is carried at every big grocery store.
- Lois
