Days before the November 4 general election for Greensboro City Council, a former co-worker of District 3 candidate April Parker is publicly raising allegations of sexual harassment, inappropriate touching, and verbal abuse they say caused a toxic work environment.

Jesse Hoyle worked under Parker at Elsewhere, a downtown Greensboro museum and arts nonprofit, in 2021 and 2022. Parker was the organization’s managing director at the time. Hoyle, who is nonbinary and uses they/them pronouns, reached out to The Assembly to detail experiences with Parker and provide documentation of an internal investigation into their complaints.

“When I saw she was running for office, I struggled with whether I should say anything publicly,” Hoyle said in an interview. “But I think voters deserve to know who is running for office. And I don’t want anyone to be in that situation again.”

Hoyle alleges that Parker smacked and grabbed their buttocks at the museum in July 2021. “I immediately let her know that was unacceptable, but she did not take me seriously,” Hoyle said. “She basically laughed it off.”

Elsewhere, a museum and arts non-profit in downtown Greensboro. (Joe Killian for The Assembly)

In a statement to The Assembly, Parker does not deny the incident occurred, but said she apologized at the time and learned from the experience. She described Hoyle as a friend and said the physical contact was made “in a moment of celebration” before an event and “was not received as intended.”

“A year prior, in the isolation of the pandemic, we had built a working friendship through the art fellowship program,” Parker wrote, “which later evolved into a professional relationship when I moved into a management role.”

“I immediately apologized in July,” Parker continued. “I learned of the investigation in November then participated fully in the workplace training process, and remained in my position for another year following the investigation.”

Hoyle disputes that, saying the incident came after a long period of workplace tension and that Parker did not apologize or meaningfully address the incident until the investigation.

Matthew Giddings, who was executive director of Elsewhere at that time, said he was not present when the incident occurred but “witnessed April take full accountability” for the situation.

“She took the necessary steps to amend the situation and to critically examine what occurred in order to glean and apply the lessons from it, personally and professionally,” Giddings wrote in a statement to The Assembly.

“I immediately let her know that was unacceptable, but she did not take me seriously. She basically laughed it off.”

Jesse Hoyle

Others who witnessed the smacking incident and its aftermath have a different recollection.

Charis Fleshner, then an artist in residence at Elsewhere, told The Assembly she watched the interaction and “was taken aback.”

“That’s not something that should happen at a workplace,” Fleshner said. “And I remember April’s tone being very much that she was dismissing what Jesse said. She wasn’t actually offering an apology or acknowledging it was inappropriate. I didn’t feel like it was being taken as seriously as it needed to be.”

Both Hoyle and Fleshner described the incident as part of a pattern of Parker’s inappropriate and confrontational workplace behavior.

In a January 5, 2022, email to those involved and their supervisor, then president of Elsewhere’s board, Travis Laughlin, documented an internal investigation into Hoyle’s complaint and other incidents involving Parker. The organization did not have an established Human Relations department or clear policies and procedures around sexual harassment at that time, Giddings said. The investigation began after Hoyle discussed the situation with a board member months after the incident, and said the working environment had become too toxic to continue working there.

Laughlin wrote that the investigation made it “clear that one incident of inappropriate touching” had occurred on July 2, 2021, and that “there is one additional documented instance on August 18, 2021, in which April’s actions (verbal attack at staff meeting) contributed to a challenging/toxic work environment.”

He also wrote that an investigation into Hoyle’s allegation of inappropriate sexual commentary “was inconclusive.”

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Hoyle was removed from Parker’s supervision after the investigation concluded, according to the email, and Parker would be provided management training. The organization would also update its sexual harassment policies to clearly detail how such incidents should be addressed, Laughlin wrote.

“[T]raining and workshops will be provided for the entire staff on effective and respectful communication,” he wrote. “Consistent with the organization’s ongoing efforts to create and execute an action plan on how to be an antiracist organization.”

Laughlin ended the email by writing it was “imperative” no one retaliate against anyone as a result of the investigation.

It is unclear whether any of those follow-up actions took place. Giddings told The Assembly he cannot remember whether Parker attended management training, if the organization’s policies were updated, or if the staff got communication training. Parker said she did attend a required training with an HR firm hired in the wake of the investigation. Laughlin declined to comment. 

The Assembly has reached out to current leadership at Elsewhere about the investigation and whether its policies and procedures changed in its wake, but did not get a response before publication.

Hoyle, who left the organization a few months after the investigation, said none of the steps outlined came to pass, and Parker’s behavior did not change. Other former Elsewhere employees said they also do not recall changes in response to the allegations.

Giddings left Elsewhere in October 2022. Parker left that November.

‘Tough Conversations’

While inappropriate touching and sexual language were the prime complaints, Hoyle said they were also disturbed by the way Parker used race as a cudgel against people with whom she disagreed on nearly any topic.


April Parker is running for a Greensboro City Council seat in District 3. (Courtesy of April Parker)

That included public tirades against Elsewhere employees for being insufficiently anti-racist and lectures about how much more she had suffered than they had, Hoyle said. (That was the topic of the “verbal attack” cited in the investigation as contributing to a “challenging/toxic work environment.”)

Giddings and Parker both said they did not recall the specific “verbal attack” referenced in the investigation. Parker spoke her mind on race, including in the workplace, Giddings said, but any such conversations and their tone need to be seen in the context of the time, which was the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder by Minneapolis police and tough conversations about race in workplaces across the country.

“My recollection of the staff is that they were very happy to talk about race if it was about somebody else,” Giddings said. “But they shut down when it was about them. Which is not uncommon, I would say, for a young white staff.”

Giddings, who is white, said he and Parker were taken aback by how difficult the staff found talking about race in their workplace, Giddings said, but thought they were working through that.

“People are probably less prepared than you think,” Giddings said, “and need a lot more hand-holding, a lot more training. At the end of the day, though, I’m shocked that with the understanding of April as a leader, an organizer, as a Black, queer human being… I don’t think anybody should have been surprised we were going to have really difficult conversations.”

“I learned of the investigation in November then participated fully in the workplace training process, and remained in my position for another year following the investigation.”

April Parker

But Hoyle, who is white, and other former employees said that is a misreading of the staff’s reaction. Most people were happy to have respectful, professional conversations around race and their work, they said, but Parker’s approach and behavior stepped well over those lines. They also felt she wanted to rebuild the organization in her own image, around her own political and social concerns. Commitment to her issues and activism from her colleagues was always insufficient, the former employees said.

“I don’t think anyone who was part of that organization was not anti-racist or did not want to do that work,” Hoyle said. “I know I did, and I have done that work. But it became something she used to attack anyone who disagreed with her on anything in any context. We were trying to do what we thought was important arts work, and she didn’t seem interested in that. It just made things very difficult.”

Fleshner agreed.

“During the time I was there, I didn’t see her show interest in the artists or their work, or offer to assist any of that,” she said. “It felt like she was using the organization for her own interests rather than serving the organization and its work.”

Days to the Election

Though Greensboro City Council elections are officially non-partisan, many of this year’s races have taken on a clear partisan bent, with both candidates and the local parties emphasizing candidate affiliations. In District 3, Parker, a Democrat, has often framed the election as an opportunity to “flip” the seat now held by Republican Zack Matheny.

Hoyle, who is now teaching college in Virginia, is an unaffiliated voter whose record shows they voted in Democratic primaries during their time in North Carolina. They said they aren’t looking to help Parker’s opponent.

“This isn’t about politics for me,” Hoyle said.

Hoyle and Parker haven’t had any interactions since their Elsewhere days, Hoyle said.

Parker said she dealt with the Elsewhere allegations years ago and is now concentrating on the last few days of her campaign.

“I have reflected deeply on that experience,” Parker said. “It was a humbling and transformative moment that reinforced for me how important it is to lead with accountability, care, and respect for every person I work alongside. I have grown both personally and professionally since that time, and I remain committed to creating environments where everyone feels valued and respected.”

Joe Killian is The Assembly's Greensboro editor. He joined us from NC Newsline, where he was senior investigative reporter. He spent a decade at The News & Record covering cops and courts, higher education, and government.