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Houston in the spotlight for Twitter feud between Mayor Sylvester Turner and high-profile rapper

Performer Bow Wow thinks Mayor Sylvester Turner "hates" his guts.

A weekend of parties at some popular clubs has once again cast the spotlight on Houston and spurred a Twitter battle.

On Saturday night, downtown nightclub Spire was forced to close early and was cited for failure to maintain exits open and unobstructed by the Houston Fire Department. The event featured hip-hop artist Trey Songz and celeb supporting acts such as Fabolos and was put on by promoter Larry Morrow.

Spire’s owner, Zach Truesdell, described the events exclusively to CultureMap news partner ABC13.

“What happened is, when people just bombarded the doors and came in, we had to lock up the doors,” Trusdell said.

That spurred action by HFD. “We couldn’t get a proper occupancy count. The exits were blocked,” Houston Fire Chief Sam Peña told ABC13. “The means of egress were impeded. There were chairs and tables and stuff in the path of the exit. We made a determination at that time that it was a fire hazard.”

Meanwhile, Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner has traded Twitter barbs with rapper Bow Wow following a large Friday performance at Clé, which is also owned by Truesdell. The show celebrated Morrow’s birthday.

As Bow Wow’s promotional team prepared for a Sunday show at Kamp Houston, Turner tweeted:

These events that are scheduled with @BowWowPromoTeam today in Houston are on our radar. Other bars/clubs that are operating as restaurants, beyond capacity and social distancing requirements, please expect visits.

To which Bow Wow responded in a tweet:

Safe to say the mayor of houston hates my guts. I cant believe i get the blame for a whole weekend. This is ridiculous.

Turner then retorted:

Let me be very clear. I don’t dislike @BowWowPromoTeam. While the city is in the midst of this pandemic nearly 2000 infected and 17 dying yesterday, this is not the time for concerts. Help us get past this virus and then do your thing. The same for other bars & clubs. st #COVID19

The Houston mayor also bristled at businesses he feels are skirting the rule that bars must convert to restaurants and serve food in order to stay in operation.
“I’m still getting some disturbing pictures of people hanging out in clubs that have been recategorized as restaurants,” Turner said on Saturday. “And let me tell you, they are not restaurants.” He added that he will call on TABC to crack down on the reclassifications.

For his part, Truesdell feels he and his ownership group has been unfairly singled out for their parties — primarily for the ethinc makeup of the events.
“I see the Clé party that made national news and I see the Spire party. It’s always just videos of Black folks,” Truesdell said to ABC13. “And I'm just not sure why that is when I know you go out to places and you see white folks partying and having a great time as well.”

Time will tell how events such as these will affect the TABC crackdown on local entertainment establishments that are pivoting during the pandemic.

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Thanks, Queen Bey

Pop icon Beyoncé donates $100,000 to University of Houston Law School

Photo by Erza Shaw Getty Images

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Pop megastar Beyoncé Knowles-Carter has donated $100,000 to the University of Houston Law Center Criminal Justice Clinic through her BeyGOOD Foundation. The gift will allow the clinic to hire fill-time faculty to head it, benefiting the students who study there.

“I am delighted that the BeyGOOD Foundation has made this very generous gift to the UH Law Center,” said Leonard Baynes, dean of the UH Law Center. “Not only will this funding help establish a full-time criminal justice clinic that provides pro bono legal services in our community, but it will also supercharge our already excellent criminal law and justice programming.”

The clinic is one of nine at UHLC. It helps students learn to navigate the criminal justice system, especially on behalf of clients that are underserved by skilled attorneys. People of color are affected disproportionately by a lack of good, ethical representation.

Beyoncé, the most decorated artist in Grammy history and easily the biggest musical star native to Houston, has a long history of advocating for criminal justice reform. She was a staunch supporter of the police reform following the deaths of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, asking law enforcement to “stop killing us” in a web post. In 2020, she penned an open letter to the Kentucky attorney general asking for justice in the death of Breonna Taylor.

Through her BeyGOOD Foundation, established in 2013, Beyoncé has focused mostly on expanding the prospects of Black-owned business and offering education opportunities to students. Forwarding the cause of legal representation in Texas while also helping out marginalized communities compliments her other philanthropic work.

“At UH Law, we envision a legal profession where ‘everyone has the opportunity to prosper,’ as BeyGOOD envisions, and we will achieve this vision by providing access to strong and effective legal representation in criminal proceedings,” Baynes said. “And together, through this gift, the BeyGOOD Foundation and UHLC will shepherd the next generation of criminal justice attorneys in the city of Houston, the state of Texas and the nation.”