🧵 In Today’s Edition
1. Greensboro’s New Pop-Up Board Game Business
2. An Update on Campus Voting Sites
3. What We’re Reading
On The Board
Amy Iuppa sat in an alcove at Bitters Social House, her eyes closed. Around her, Evie Ladyman, the evening’s storyteller, moved from person to person, revealing clues to each player. Ordinarily, Iuppa preferred to play the storyteller role for these sessions. But tonight, she was to be a townsperson, or would it be a minion, or maybe even a demon?
A dozen people had gathered at the cocktail bar to play Blood on the Clocktower, a popular game in which the players are tasked with finding the killer among them. Ladyman, along with her brother, Jesse, explained the rules and delved into the depths of the game in which players interact with each other to determine who among them is a townsperson, a minion, or the demon.
The game came out in 2022, when board games—beyond traditional titles like Monopoly, The Game of Life, and Risk—have become increasingly popular. In the past decade, titles like Catan and Ticket to Ride have boosted the once family-oriented pastime into one shared by kids and adults alike.
“Sometimes it’s a challenge because people don’t know what board games are,” said Anna McMullen, co-founder of Copper Lantern Café, a pop-up board game café which hosts the Blood on the Clocktower events. “They think it’s Monopoly or Chess, which is true, but there’s a vast world of board games.”
McMullen, Evie and Jesse Ladyman, and Nathalie Parker founded Copper Lantern Café last June. Inspired by businesses like Emerald Tavern Games & Cafe in Austin, TX, where people play board games while enjoying food and drink, the group decided to start their own version.
Read the full story here.
— Sayaka Matsuoka
Thanks for reading The Thread, a 3x week newsletter written by Greensboro editor Joe Killian and reporters Sayaka Matsuoka and Gale Melcher. Reach us with tips or ideas at greensboro@theassemblync.com.
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UNCG, NC A&T Will Not Have Early-Voting Sites this Year, per State Board of Election Vote
Members of the North Carolina State Board of Elections voted Tuesday not to include two Greensboro universities as early voting sites this year.
In a 3-2 vote along party lines, Republicans on the state board voted in favor of the majority plan passed by the Guilford County Board of Elections in November. That plan, which also passed 3-2 along party lines—with Republicans in the majority—includes 10 sites for elections starting in February.
At the time, the Republicans argued that 10 sites is an increase from eight, which has been the norm in comparable years.
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In November, the two Democrats on the Guilford County Board of Elections pushed for the inclusion of N.C. A&T State University and the University of North Carolina at Greensboro as early voting sites. When their plan failed to garner enough votes, the Democrats proposed a minority plan, which included the two campuses as well as three additional sites.
Because the vote was not unanimous, the two proposals went before the state board on Tuesday.
Last month, N.C. A&T and UNCG students, along with election experts, spoke to the Thread about the need for early-voting sites on college campuses. They stressed the importance of access for voter engagement as well as consideration for those without reliable transportation.
During Tuesday’s vote, Siobhan O’Duffy Millen, a Democrat on the state board of elections, said the vote was “a war on students.” Republican board chair Francis De Luca voted “emphatically, yes.” Early voting begins on Feb. 12.
Read our original story on campus voting sites here.
— Sayaka Matsuoka
What We’re Reading
Rest In Power: Willena Cannon, a longtime Greensboro Civil Rights activist, died Saturday at the age of 85, reports WFMY. Cannon participated in the 1963 Woolworth’s protests and helped plan the 1979 “Death to the Klan” rally before the tragedy that became known as the Greensboro Massacre. Cannon worked to improve housing conditions in the city for more than 45 years through her work with Greensboro’s Healthy Homes Division.
Raising $1 Billion: JetZero announced Tuesday it has surpassed $1 billion in funding commitments toward a $4.7 billion, 14,560-job manufacturing plant and headquarters at Piedmont Triad International Airport. The News & Record has more.
Bringing Law to the Queen City: Elon University plans to open a full-time law school at Queens University in Charlotte as the two institutions merge, WFDD reports. Elon Law already has its home in downtown Greensboro. If approved by the American Bar Association, the new law program would be Charlotte’s first since the Charlotte School of Law closed in 2017.