Mountain Xpress 01.19.22 by Mountain Xpress

OUR 28TH YEAR OF WEEKLY INDEPENDENT NEWS, ARTS & EVENTS FOR WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA VOL. 28 NO. 25 JA N. 19 - 25, 2022

Local groups address need for homeless shelter space 10 Archetype Brewing introduces Beer Club 22

The H o me

Office Pros and cons of remote work

C O NT E NT S

WELLNESS

FEATURES

NEWS

FEATURES 10 INFLECTION POINT Community members address need for homeless shelter space

16 Q&A WITH JANET CONE UNCA athletics director talks goals for year ahead

PAGE 8 HOMING IN Working from home full time has its advantages, including no commute and the flexibility to deal with personal matters. But telecommuting life can also be isolating and blur the lines between home and work. Xpress talked to several Western North Carolinians who work remotely about their experience. COVER PHOTO iStock COVER DESIGN Scott Southwick

20 LOOK FOR THE HELPERS Local volunteers provide ‘emotional first aid’ for tragedy victims

3 LETTERS 3 CARTOON: MOLTON 4 CARTOON: IRENE OLDS

A&C

5 CARTOON: BRENT BROWN 22 MEMBERS ONLY Archetype pivots from Bottle Club to Beer Club

6 COMMENTARY 8 NEWS

A&C

12 BUNCOMBE BEAT 24 WHAT’S NEW IN FOOD Asheville Independent Restaurant Association hires new executive director

18 COMMUNITY CALENDAR 20 WELLNESS 22 ARTS & CULTURE 28 CLUBLAND

A&C

30 FREEWILL ASTROLOGY 26 AROUND TOWN Asheville Symphony embraces pop

30 CLASSIFIEDS 31 NY TIMES CROSSWORD

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JAN. 19-25, 2022

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STAFF PUBLISHER & EDITOR: Jeff Fobes ASSISTANT TO THE PUBLISHER: Susan Hutchinson MANAGING EDITOR: Thomas Calder ASSISTANT EDITOR: Daniel Walton ARTS & CULTURE EDITOR: Thomas Calder OPINION EDITOR: Tracy Rose STAFF REPORTERS: Able Allen, Edwin Arnaudin, Thomas Calder, Justin McGuire, Brooke Randle, Jessica Wakeman, Daniel Walton COMMUNITY CALENDAR & CLUBLAND: Justin McGuire, Andy Hall CONTRIBUTING EDITORS: Peter Gregutt, Rob Mikulak REGULAR CONTRIBUTORS: Mark Barrett, Bill Kopp, Cindy Kunst, Sara Murphy, Linda Ray, Kay West ADVERTISING, ART & DESIGN MANAGER: Susan Hutchinson LEAD DESIGNER: Scott Southwick GRAPHIC DESIGNERS: Olivia Urban, Eleanor Annand MARKETING ASSOCIATES: Sara Brecht, David Furr, Tiffany Wagner OPERATIONS MANAGER: Able Allen INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES & WEB: Able Allen BOOKKEEPER: Amie Fowler-Tanner ADMINISTRATION, BILLING, HR: Able Allen, Jennifer Castillo DISTRIBUTION: Susan Hutchinson, Cindy Kunst DISTRIBUTION DRIVERS: Desiree Davis, Henry Mitchell, Tiffany Narron, Kelley Quigley, Angelo Santa Maria, Carl & Debbie Schweiger

OPINION

Send your letters to the editor to letters@mountainx.com.

Maintaining a free society Hurrah for Mountain Xpress! Your Jan. 12 “Who Cares?” article was most welcome [“Side Effects: Local Handling of COVID Vaccine Troubles Breeds Medical Mistrust”]. In fact, your paper is the only one that I have found to counter the big government, Big Pharma and big media propaganda narrative. With all debate and discussion against the pseudo-vaccine jab stifled, your article took an act of courage. With your spot-on article, one must assume that you are not on Bill Gates’ big TV and big newspaper payroll. With more articles similar to this one, we could be informed about the futility of wearing face masks. Furthermore, we could be informed about the hidden corruption surrounding the COVID-19 vaccine rollout. I believe the Xpress is exactly what is needed for the free flow of ideas. Without our small-town publications, how else can we maintain a free society? Our founders must have had newspapers like the Xpress in mind when they framed the First Amendment. Keep up the good work, Mountain Xpress. — Anthony E. Ponder Mars Hill

Shelter has created crisis in East Asheville I moved to the East Asheville neighborhood of Oakley nine years ago to retire. For the past four years, I have witnessed an increase in the homeless population at on- and offramps of the highway. I attempted to help a woman living in her car in 2019 in a Bleachery Boulevard parking lot. I brought her necessities during Christmas 2019. By January, she was looking for another parking lot to live in because she was accosted in the middle of the night by homeless men demanding she let them sleep in her car. I met several men that hung outside a store in the same area that were later arrested for cooking meth in the woods next to the parking lot. I have stepped out of my car in another nearby parking lot and just missed stepping on an exposed needle. When I go to get dog food, there are usually two-four people sleeping on the walkway between two stores. The Ramada Inn transition in March 2021 has brought extreme violence and threat to my little neighborhood. When I heard that they were purchasing the buildings for a low-barrier shelter, I immedi-

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C A R T O O N B Y R AN DY M O L T O N ately wondered why I didn’t know this. I found out through Nextdoor and then through the East Asheville Safety and Wellness Facebook page. I believe in everyone having an opportunity to build their lives and find hope and security. Rationally, I know that drug abusers (most are homeless) cannot just switch off their addiction or dysfunctional behavior because they have a dry, warm place to lay their head. So I have watched as the low-barrier use of the Ramada since last March has created a crisis in East Asheville. East Asheville was a working-class oasis in a town that parties a lot and draws tourists as a transient economy. Now, I am terrified to shop in my area of Asheville. I am terrified of my home being broken into and fighting off a drug-addled human struggling to get their next fix. Yes, my neighbors are being robbed. Strangers knock on doors in the late evening asking for water or a phone.

Without a massive investment in social services for these homeless people, there will be no noticeable change in the safety of East Asheville. It’s not a new problem, and the solutions are not new, either. Perhaps they are just forgotten. What works? Rehab, ongoing therapy, opportunity to rebuild one’s self-esteem by working and learning a new trade or return to an old one. I believe a farm would be ideal for these souls. A farm that offers training and being productive running the farm. Offering daily group and individual therapy would help people to look at the issues that brought them to rock bottom. Gradually, as people graduate from this halfway house, there should be opportunities for them to work in a job that satisfies their living needs of shelter, community and a future. I feel that the City Council just dropped these people off in East Asheville to continue their downward spirals out of sight of down-

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MY STORY

When Plan A fails: Buying a house in Asheville Mountain Xpress recently asked the question, “Has Asheville’s development over the last year helped or hurt you, and how so?” [“Year in Review: Residents and Local Leaders Reflect on Asheville’s Growth and Tourism,” Dec. 22]. It helped me because I’ll soon have a place to live in a brand-new house. Here’s “A Housing Story” for you, Asheville. I left Asheville in 2004 and moved back in fall 2019, so I had Rip van Winkle moments coming back. I lived near Sunny Point Café when it opened in 2003 and paid $650/month for a house around the corner. When I moved back, I paid $1,530/month for another rental house in West Asheville. In spring 2020, our landlords considered selling the house, so I got a real estate agent and started looking at places for sale in early summer 2020. We wanted to stay in West Asheville, but after looking at the housing stock, I joked that everything was “Expensive Garbage” — over $300,000 for fixer-uppers. So, what do you do when you can’t find housing for your budget and tastes? You build a house, and my process started in summer 2020. We met a builder who already had a site with other houses planned on it. But by fall 2020, we and the builder grew tired of unclear direction from city staff. They went back and forth on a retaining wall for a private street extension, plus the number of houses allowed along a street frontage. That was Plan A, so we moved on to Plan B, a vacant lot literally down the street. It had a sewer line easement on it (no big deal) but also had stormwater pipes of unknown origin. “No thanks,” we said. We then scoured real estate listings for vacant lots — “Hey, here’s one right off Brevard Road!” We called our builder and visited the site, Plan C. As soon as we stepped on the lot, a guy came out of the neighboring house with a shotgun-in-hand walk and sternly said, “I have a verbal contract to buy this lot.” We noted the real estate sign in the yard, but the guy was adamant about buying the lot.

SCOTT ADAMS “I know another site nearby,” said our builder. So, we went down the hill to Plan D. By January 2021, we signed our construction loan, and site work started in March. Our landlords sold the house we’d been living in, so we moved to another rental house in April, waiting on construction of Plan D. Plan D should be ready for movein sometime in February 2022, when we’ll be moving into a new, 1,200-square-foot, three-bedroom, two-bath house for less than $368,000. Housing affordability is a real issue in Asheville, so “Asheville’s development in 2021” helped me secure a home of my own. So, looking for a home? Consider building your own — it’s good development that helps you and increases the city’s housing supply, a key element for improving housing affordability. If you see a porch sign reading “Plan D,” give a wave! — Scott Adams Asheville Editor’s note: Scott Adams is an urban planner who holds certification from the American Institute of Certified Planners and is a member of the city of Asheville’s Affordable Housing Advisory Committee. If you, too, have a personal story to share that connects with a local issue facing our community, let us know via letters@mountainx.com. X

Asheville to

town or the Montford area. The lack of transparency has me very upset. Why wasn’t the Oakley community involved in this decision? Of course, there was an outcry. Two people died, and a third overdosed in the Ramada just a few weeks ago. No one could even identify them. How has this helped anyone? — Dallas Triniti Asheville

MOUNTAINX.COM

In regard to reader Tom O’Brien’s recent letter [“Asheville’s Homelessness Predicament,” Jan 12, Xpress], I heard echoes of many of my own personal observations from the past few years. All his thoughts are well-taken and should be reread, so I’d just like to add something about homelessness in Asheville that has been troubling me for some time. As well-meaning as much of the city populace is when we take a look at the issue (I detest the millennial buzz phrase “We need to have a conversation about …”), I fear that at times an accompanying issue is being overlooked. Consider: When you hear the term “homelessness,” are the first images that come to mind rattily groomed, chain-smoking alcoholics meandering around Pritchard Park or their unwashed sign-wielding brethren lodged at medians and stop signs with their shopping carts? As unfortunately phrased that the previous sentence may be, I can guarantee you that it’s a description a lot of us subscribe to, even when we support

reach-out social agencies and feel good about ourselves. Over the past couple of years, I’ve had the chance to observe and talk with many, many teenagers and young adults in their early 20s who don’t fit the above scruffy/dirty stereotype, yet are perennially just a few drug incidents or financial disasters away from homelessness. They have typically disintegrated their social and familial relationships — we all need support systems, no matter how tough or independent we view ourselves — as well as experienced years of abuse and trauma, lost multiple jobs, amassed criminal records and more. So they feel their backs are permanently against the wall, and they give up. Misery has no beginning or ending date that can be offset simply by keeping a calendar in your smartphone and setting a Google alert. I probably once casually referred to this demographic along lines of “just teenage dope fiends” and maybe even assuming most of them will grow out of their self-abuse “phase.” Well, I was a dumbass. If those impressions turn out to be accurate for some of the crust punks, trust-fund kids and those with eventual job prospects, what percentage of them am I willing to give up on as simply another data set? Maybe they’ll just continue to age and turn out to be the next generation of Pritchard Park regulars. And anyway, I can’t do much about future “inevitabilities,” right? I’ve got my own life to live. In 2021, I frequently drove along I-240 and past the highly visible downtown homeless encampment. It ain’t there no more, tourists, so you can breathe easy. But while the tents were still there, I began noticing more

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Overlooked and steps from being homeless

field guide

OPI N I ON

C AR T O O N B Y IRE N E O L D S

CARTOON BY BRENT BROWN and more young people among the dwellers. I have no idea where they’ve moved on to now. But I plan to find out, because I do know that relocation doesn’t erase peril, and for some reason this notion haunts me deeply. As the late poet Jim Morrison might have put the matter, “What are you going to do about it?” — Fred Mills Arden

Weigh the costs of all-day masking for kids In Asheville City Schools and many others across the U.S., the current policy is that “face coverings will be required indoors by all individuals.” This is detrimental and does nothing to combat COVID spread — it is the opposite of “following the science.” Even the biggest COVID hawks (e.g., frequent CNN guest Dr. Leana Wen) have now admitted that “cloth masks are little more than facial decorations.” On these masks, gaps are 5,000 times the size of virus particles (on surgical masks, up to 1,000 the size) — indeed, [British engineering lecturer] Colin Axon noted that masks were “just a comfort blanket.” … With the near-zero benefit of masking in mind, we should “follow the science” and weigh the costs of all-day masking for kids: It’s uncomfortable,

inhibits learning and impairs social interaction and growth (consider how many of your favorite memories involve people’s faces — all of them?). Kids are at very low COVID risk to begin with. An unvaccinated child’s risk with COVID is the same as a vaccinated, healthy 30-year-old. The risks posed by RSV and flu are much greater, and we never made them wear masks for them. What’s more, children over 5 now have the choice of getting the vaccine! So: Let’s actually “follow the science” and give our kids some relief! — Max Peck Columbus Editor’s note: Wen’s full Dec. 20 tweet regarding faces masks reads: “1) First, wear a high-quality mask. Cloth masks are little more than facial decorations and should not be considered an acceptable form of face covering. The U.S. should require (& distribute) medical-grade surgical masks to be worn in crowded indoor spaces.”

Editor’s note Due to changing health recommendations related to COVID-19, readers are encouraged to check with individual businesses for the latest updates concerning upcoming events. MOUNTAINX.COM

JAN. 19-25, 2022

OPINION

Pulling the plug

“If we’d had an inclusive process, there could have been a viable solution.”

City schools get failing grade for closing Asheville Primary

BY STACY CLAUDE The Asheville City Board of Education’s extremely disappointing Dec. 13 vote to permanently shut down Asheville Primary School represents a significant loss for the entire city. This abrupt turnabout has left families, teachers and especially students reeling. In the space of a few weeks, we’ve gone from being assured that the school would remain intact — and would, in fact, expand to fifth grade next year — to facing imminent outright closure. Thus, under the pretext of a budget crisis and scarcity within the school district, the Board of Education and central office have pitted schools and families against each other. Failed leadership, years of financial mismanagement, a bloated central office that’s being paid for with mostly local funds and a total lack of long-term planning have left many parents and teachers completely disheartened about what used to be a sought-after and growing district. Perhaps the most difficult part of it all was seeing high school administrators and central office staff speak out against one of their own system’s school communities at the board meeting, particularly with so many children there watching and participating. Unquestionably, some speakers made insensitive comments, including microaggressions and worse, and it’s always appropriate to call those out. But no one can control what other people choose to say at the lectern, and what one individual says isn’t automatically true for everyone in the room. Notwithstanding the extreme ugliness that occurred at the meeting, however, the reasons given for the closure just don’t hold water. If they’d presented credible data demonstrating that closing Asheville Primary would benefit the district as a whole and that the money saved would be put toward an actual plan to close

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the achievement gap and specifically serve students of color, it would still have been hard, but I truly believe more families could have accepted it. Instead, recently appointed board member George Sieburg made a motion to close the school based, he said, on his feelings: “While [APS parents] feel that the Montessori program was a means toward eliminating the racial gap, I feel the opposite, which is why I voted the way I did.” And while Mr. Sieburg is entitled to his feelings, it’s misleading to suggest that proponents of the school are also relying solely on emotion. In fact, there’s a huge amount of data from other public school districts — notably including those in our neighboring state of South Carolina, a national leader in public Montessori programs — specifically citing their ability to help close the achievement gap. Asheville City Schools has had five years to support and grow this project, yet they chose not to. Meanwhile, the district has been failing to meet the needs of its Black students for over a decade. During all that time, what other solutions have been tried?

TALK IS CHEAP

If the system had truly wanted to do something, it could have supported, grown and collected data on Asheville Primary’s Montessori program. Instead, all we’ve been given are more empty words, beginning with the district’s tagline: “Excellence With Equity.” I’ve been showing up at board meetings ever since the school was established, advocating for expanding the program to higher grades (as I was initially promised when enrolling my child), asking the district to support and collaborate with families and, finally, simply trying to keep the school open. It certainly hasn’t helped that during this period, there have been three superinten-

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STACY CLAUDE dents, three principals and only two consistent board members — neither of whom has ever supported Asheville Primary. And meanwhile, one of the stated goals for both the Montessori magnet school and the system as a whole was to reduce or eliminate the achievement gap. Full stop: Despite never having been supported by the district, never being allowed to significantly increase enrollment and — amid constant uncertainty and conflicting communications about whether the district would expand to the next grade, relocate or shut down the school — families still came, and teachers still worked incredibly hard and did amazing things for kids. I can only speak for myself, but having worked closely with many other Asheville Primary families over the years, I’m confident that we want what’s best for all the district’s students, not just ours. Mr. Sieburg’s contention — in a letter to the school board, City Council and the county commissioners — that “the numbers speak for themselves” is flagrantly misleading. Claiming that it would cost “close to $54,000 per student” to repair the building is inaccurate, because not all of the cited repairs are urgent or even necessary to ensure student safety. And if they were realistically assessed and spread out over a number of years as part of a comprehensive financial plan for a school that was allowed to expand its enrollment, the outcome might have been very different. No one would expect the district to spend that amount of money per pupil for anything; this fundamentally misleading claim reflects the fact that this was all done so quickly and with no inclusive process.

MISSED OPPORTUNITIES

That’s just one small example of why we’ve been asking for a long-term plan for the school since 2017, but there are many more. When the superintendent says that closing Asheville Primary won’t solve the district’s budget crisis but will merely buy us a year or two, it’s obvious that there is no long-term plan, no big-picture thinking. And that begs the question: What comes next? Shutting down the next-smallest school? Laying off teachers? If we’d had an inclusive process, there could have been a viable solution. The district is obviously able to do that: Just consider the work the task force did to rename Lucy S. Herring Elementary School. Shutting down a school is a huge move: Why was there no task force in the case of Asheville Primary? No search for solutions? No stakeholder input beyond a public hearing held with less than 24 hours’ notice that closing the school was even being considered. What’s really going on here? Additionally, the building at 441 Haywood Road is full of history. Generations of families have sent their children there. It is centrally located, directly on a bus line, and has 15 classrooms already designed and licensed for preschool. Don’t we all want universal pre-K? It’s no secret that there’s a critical lack of affordable preschool options in Asheville. Creating a longterm plan and budget for keeping students in that building, leaving the Montessori magnet school intact and allowing it to grow while expanding pre-K would have been the most forward-thinking option for the future of our district — and our community. I’m sad about the school board’s decision. I’m really sad for my kids, who are struggling so much with this and asking questions I can’t answer. Are they going to be fine? Yes. Will whatever school they end up at be fine? Yes. But the point is, this is not just about my kids. And it’s a real shame that in April, when nationally known educational consultant Zaretta Hammond comes here to speak about equity, access and sustainability in public Montessori programs, our district has forfeited the chance to be held up as a wonderful example of those admirable goals. Stacy Claude has lived in Asheville for 18 years. She works in the local music industry and has two children in the city schools. X

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JAN. 19-25, 2022

NEWS

Homing in

The pluses and perils of working remotely

BY JUSTIN MCGUIRE jmcguire@mountainx.com Beth Lemmel’s clients are mostly folks who are new to the job market or reentering it after a hiatus. Before 2020, the people she counseled rarely expressed interest in getting a job that allowed them to work from home. “But now, all of a sudden, everybody wants one,” says Lemmel, who owns the Asheville-based Lemmel Employment Coaching. “Workfrom-home is such a buzz phrase right now.” When the pandemic shut down offices in March 2020, remote work became the new reality for many people. For some, the change proved temporary, and those folks have mostly reaccustomed themselves to the daily grind of showering, donning work clothes and battling traffic. Others are still waiting for their offices to reopen after multiple delays. And then there were those who never had the luxury of staying home in the first place. But for a select few, including those who’ve moved to this area because they have the flexibility to live anywhere, telecommuting has become the new normal. “Our region has always been a hot spot for remote work, but the pandemic has increased the availability of remote work as employers are being more flexible,” says Nathan Ramsey, director of the Mountain Area Workforce Development Board. “Remote work has opened up Western North Carolina to individuals and families who previously could not have lived here because their jobs were in a distant place.”

HOME COURT ADVANTAGE: Asheville’s Bobby Miller and his wife, Kelly Rackleff, have each been working from home for several years. “When the pandemic hit, there wasn’t a whole lot of change initially in our lives. We still woke up and we were still here.” Photo by Andy Hall The numbers bear out the idea that the Asheville area is a particularly desirable destination for those who long for a chance to escape commuter traffic, overly controlling bosses and intrusive office environments. For the year ending last August, 38.7% of all applications for paid Asheville job postings on LinkedIn were for remote work. That’s second among U.S. cities with fewer than 100,000 residents and almost twice the national average of 21.3%. Both Lemmel and Ramsey also caution, though, that work-at-home

options aren’t available or practical for everyone. “I’m seeing a lot of people get frustrated and come to me and say, ‘I gotta find something where I can work from home, and I can’t find anything,’” Lemmel reports. Telework is generally more available for people in higher-paying occupations and those with higher levels of education, Ramsey explains. And some jobs, such as those in the service sector, simply can’t be done from home, though many of these have become more difficult for employers to fill during the pandemic. Xpress spoke with several WNC residents who work from home full time. And while their specific circumstances vary widely, all of them cited advantages such as not having to commute and having more flexibility to deal with things like child care and other personal matters. But they also described challenges ranging from maintaining work/life balance to obtaining a reliable internet connection.

FREEDOM AND FLEXIBILITY

Brandon Baird and his wife, Becca Rohrer, had good jobs in Denver and no plans to leave the Mile High City — until the pandemic hit and both found themselves working from home. “It was brand-new for me,” remembers Baird. “I’d always worked in office and group work settings.” After several months, Rohrer’s employer decided to go fully remote. Around the same time, Baird took a new job that was also fully remote. Suddenly, the couple found themselves able, for the first time, to live wherever they wanted. For the WNC natives, who met as students at UNC Chapel Hill, the call of the Blue Ridge Mountains proved irresistible. They sold their house in Denver and moved to Hendersonville just after Thanksgiving. Like others interviewed by Xpress, Baird cited the lack of a commute as one of the new arrangement’s prime advantages. “I feel like it’s better for the environment, better for me,” he says. More than that, though, working remotely enables him to set his own schedule and generally be more independent than he was in conventional office environments. In his company, notes Baird, “Everyone has to get certain things accomplished, certain goals achieved. But it’s kind of up to you how you do that. It’s not somebody watching you in an office or making sure you’re in a seat for a certain amount of time.” For people with children, working from home can be a godsend. That’s certainly true for Bobby Miller and Kelly Rackleff; the Asheville couple have a 6-year-old daughter, and both parents work from home. “My job is somewhat flexible in that there are periods of time in between issues or addressing client needs that allow me to make my kid a sandwich,” says Miller, who’s served as office manager for a local landscaping company for more than two years. “The guy who owns my company is an extremely kind, cool person, and so he understands when I have to go pick up my child and he calls with an emergency and I’m like, ‘I’ll be back in 15 minutes,’” Miller explains. He and Rackleff work staggered schedules so that one of them is always available for parenting duties.

“I feel like it’s better for the environment, better for me.” — Asheville resident Brandon Baird 8

JAN. 19-25, 2022

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“We still have to get our work in, but we can kind of trade off a bit,” says Rackleff, who does bookkeeping and remote office management for a Florida company. “As long as there’s somebody with [their daughter], we can adjust the time needed to do it. If we were going into an office, we wouldn’t have that flexibility.” Being in a separate, designated home workspace rather than a busy office can also make it easier to concentrate. “I tend to have to take calls at all times of the day, given the international nature of our company and my role,” explains Ray Kirby, who moved from the Charlotte area to Laurel Park near Hendersonville in March 2020 after Citibank gave him the option of working remotely. “Working from home allows me to work around the meetings. I have a job that requires a lot of reading and reviewing, and having a quiet office at home is nice to be able to focus.” For some folks, though, the arrangement may offer simpler, more tangible advantages. Phyllis Kapsalis of Canton, who left a teaching job in Charlotte in November 2020 for a fully remote job with UnitedHealth Group, cites an occupational hazard of her former line of work. “Something my former teacher colleagues are very envious of: I can go to the bathroom anytime I want or need to,” she says. “As a teacher, bathroom breaks are few and far between.”

BLURRED BOUNDARIES

For all its advantages, working from home also comes with downsides, which sometimes come down to different aspects of what is essentially the same thing. A big one is the lack of separation between home and work life. “We’re kind of always at risk of being on: at night, on a weekend,” notes Rackleff. “Normally you’re not going to call an employee into the office over the weekend, but my office is downstairs, so it happens.” Baird agrees. “It’s great to be able to just kind of step right from the kitchen into the office and begin your workday, but it’s equally difficult, if you have something important you’re working on, to leave your work thoughts at work. For me, that is the eternal challenge.” For Kapsalis, a more basic issue — getting reliable cable internet service — has proved to be a bigger obstacle than she anticipated when she moved to Canton. Satellite options in the Haywood County town of about 4,400 people are costly and not reli-

“Working remotely requires a different type of discipline.” — Laurel Park resident Ray Kirby

HOUSE HUNTERS: Employment coach Beth Lemmel says people are seeking the option of working from home, at least part of the time, for a number of reasons. “There’s the flexibility, the fear of COVID, and I think people are wanting to be trusted to work more autonomously in their positions.” Photo courtesy of Lemmel able enough or secure enough for her line of work. “It has been an ordeal to get internet to my house even though it’s only 20 minutes from downtown Asheville,” she reports. “The rural parts of North Carolina are still getting overlooked.” Working from home can also make it difficult to build relationships with co-workers whom you know only through Zoom, Slack or email. That’s particularly true when your home office is in a different city. “The lack of contact with my team members does isolate me at times,” says Kirby. “It can be more challenging to build relationships and contacts outside of my direct team, and even as tenured as I am, it is hard to develop new lines of growth, as my network is limited to my direct co-workers.” For her part, Rackleff puts it more simply: “I kind of miss people.” Stephanie El-Hajj, who moved to Asheville’s River Arts District in December 2020 when her Texasbased company gave employees the option of working remotely, agrees that telecommuting can be isolating. “When it was just me in my apartment in Austin, I started to go bonkers,” she recalls. “I lived alone and didn’t have pets, so it was just me, my empty apartment and the standard gray walls that come with industrial apartments. It was terrible.” And meanwhile, finding ties outside of work also speaks to the deep human need for a sense of belonging.

To that end, El-Hajj began hosting through Airbnb after moving to Asheville. That’s created almost daily opportunities for personal interactions, she says. Working from home has also given El-Hajj increased incentive to look beyond the workplace rather than relying on co-workers for her social life. “This December, I helped build bikes for kids,” she says, adding, “I probably wouldn’t have had time to do that since the time was at 6 p.m. and I’d normally be in a car commuting.” Others agree that working from home hasn’t prevented them from forging connections to the greater Asheville community, though the pandemic has made this more difficult. Some, such as Baird, Rohrer and Kapsalis, are WNC natives with family and friends here. Miller, a veteran bluegrass musician, and Rackleff both have deep ties to the area’s vibrant music community. “The corporate jobs I had, to be honest with you, the only reason I was around the people that I was around is because I had to be,” Miller reveals. As a musician, he continues, “I’m around the people I’m around because they want to be with me — and I want to be with them.”

PRIVILEGED POSITION

Despite the substantial pandemic-induced shifts, a recent Gallup poll found that just 25% of full-time U.S. employees worked from home all the time. In other words, truly remote work is still not a realistic goal for most. Baird, for one, recognizes that he and his wife are in a privileged position. “There’s a lot of folks, including my own family, that don’t have that option,” he concedes. “Their only option is going to a physical workspace.” Yet while Baird and others say they don’t envision ever going back to working full time in an office, they would perhaps be interested in a hybrid arrangement. The Gallup poll found that about 20% of employees worked from home part of the time. “Working remotely requires a different type of discipline, as it is easy to drift to the extremes of not getting enough work done due to the distractions, or working all the time and

getting burned out,” Kirby observes. “If I had my preference, I would go into an office one to two days a week for meetings and just breaking up the routine.” Meanwhile, Lemmel, the employment coach, draws a distinction between fully remote positions, which enable one to work from anywhere, and a work-from-home job that’s within driving distance of an office where the employee may have to spend some time. The former, she says, are much rarer. At the same time, even employers who aren’t specifically advertising work-from-home positions may be more flexible due to the pandemic, she points out. “If you are going out there and you want a work-from-home job, you’re probably going to have to advocate for that,” she advises. “I wouldn’t go and Google ‘work from home’ or ‘remote work.’ I would go for whatever the job is that you feel is the best fit for you right now and then advocate for what you need.” X

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JAN. 19-25, 2022

NEWS

Inflection point

Community members address need for homeless shelter space

NEW IDEAS: Melanie Robertson, director of family ministries at Trinity United Methodist Church, hosts meetings of the Winter Shelter Steering Committee at the church. Photo by Jennifer Castillo

BY JESSICA WAKEMAN jwakeman@mountainx.com Asheville is gearing up to conduct its annual Point-in-Time count of unhoused community members Tuesday-Wednesday, Jan. 25-26. But even without the official numbers, which are typically released by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in June, it’s clear that the city is facing a new reckoning around homelessness. The Asheville Police Department has recently cleared multiple homeless encampments, including sites behind the Haywood Street Congregation, at Aston Park and on the French Broad Greenway; at a Jan. 11 City Council meeting, APD announced it would reduce the notice it gives campers to relocate from a week to no more than two days. The city’s plans for a low-barrier homeless shelter at an East Asheville Ramada Inn fell apart in the face of neighborhood opposition and funding partner concerns, and City Council shifted the project to permanent supportive housing with little public notice. Frigid temperatures further complicate the situation. The AshevilleBuncombe Homeless Coalition 10

JAN. 19-25, 2022

called Code Purple, an emergency shelter protocol for freezing nights, 16 times in November. But the city’s two Code Purple shelters, located at the Salvation Army for women and children and AshevilleBuncombe Community Christian Ministry’s Costello House (renamed from Steadfast House) for men, only opened Dec. 1. According to data presented at a Jan. 4 meeting of Buncombe County’s Affordable Housing Committee, Asheville has 256 beds for longer-term transitional housing, primarily at ABCCM, and 179 beds for short-term emergency shelter among various service providers. In 2021, Asheville and Buncombe County’s PIT count identified 527 unhoused individuals, including both those sleeping on the streets and those sheltered in emergency or transitional housing. Those numbers suggest the county is at least 90 beds short of having enough space. And the Rev. Amy Cantrell, co-director of the nonprofit BeLoved Asheville, believes 2021’s homeless population was undercounted compared with what her organization encounters on the street. “Many of us feel like the Point-in-Time count last year was very off,” Cantrell tells

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Xpress. (Brian Huskey, a community development analyst with the city, says Asheville is partnering with local agencies to improve the count of unaccompanied homeless youth this year.) “We don’t have enough emergency shelter and we’ve been advocating for that for a long time,” adds Cantrell. Everyone who works with unhoused individuals in Asheville agrees the situation needs urgent action. Members of the region’s nonprofit and faith communities are leading a number of immediate responses.

COSTELLO HOUSE

Earlier this month, ABCCM announced its intention to operate Costello House at 141 Hillside St. as a seasonal emergency shelter for men from November to March. (The nonprofit’s Transformation Village can provide emergency space for women and children.) “Since 2017, I have proposed this to the city and the county,” the Rev. Scott Rogers, executive director of ABCCM, tells Xpress, saying that local leaders have declined funding support each time. Rogers notes that Code Purple shelters are only activated when

the weather is below freezing. But unhoused people still need emergency shelter when the weather is above freezing or when it’s raining. A winter shelter such as Costello House could provide that. On the night of Jan. 13, Costello House had 43 male guests; the shelter had space for 50 beds, Rogers says. ABCCM receives about $1,500 per night from city and county funding when it operates as a Code Purple shelter, Rogers says. He estimates a 24/7 winter shelter would cost about $60,000 per month. “For January, February and March, we can staff and feed and provide laundry services, showers, warmth and stability,” he says. “That also will help provide some connection to these folks to jobs and to longer-term housing.” As of press time, ABCCM’s webpage for Costello House appeals for funding from other churches. “ABCCM needs churches to come together again, as they have so many times, to solve an urgent need in our community,” the site reads. “ABCCM needs 52 churches or a combination of partnering churches to cover each week of the year.”

“ABCCM currently has enough staff for evening shelter but not enough for 24/7 day shelter,” the page continues, noting that donations of food, cleaning supplies and linens are also needed. It suggests $2,000 a month as a recommended giving level for Costello House — Open Door Shelter. Rogers says he’d like to see the community unite around existing ABCCM shelters, as well as the Salvation Army and West Carolina Rescue Ministries. “We already have a very robust and healthy network of shelter providers who already have training staff,” he says. “If we simply better funded and equipped them …. we’ve got enough expertise and capacity to welcome in everybody who’s in need right now.”

‘BUILDING THIS AS WE GO’

Other faith communities attempting to serve the unhoused population are learning as they go. Trinity United Methodist Church at 587 Haywood Road began to host a volunteer-run emergency Code Purple shelter Nov. 25 and operated for six nights until the city’s official Code Purple shelters opened Dec. 1. Building on the momentum of that temporary shelter, Trinity’s emergency shelter reopened Jan. 4 and has operated continually since. The goal of the Trinity shelter is to fill the service gaps of the Salvation Army and Costello House shelters, including families, single-father families, couples and people with pets, says Cantrell. Additionally, queer, gender-nonconforming and transgender people have expressed that they feel particularly welcomed at Trinity. “The people that need shelter look like humanity,” says Cantrell. “There’s lots of different types of needs. The shelter system has sort of been stuck, I think, in where it’s been for a very, very long time where you have a men’s shelter, a women’s shelter.” That configuration doesn’t take into account “the many different facets of what peoples’ lives actually look like as workers, as families, as people,” she explains. Trinity’s volunteers sign up for evening, overnight and day shifts via a spreadsheet. Its meals are organized the same way. Amanda Kollar, a parishioner at the forefront of the volunteer effort, says dinner plans often materialize the same day food is served — like the spaghetti dinner served one evening, donated by Cantrell. Kollar employs the metaphor of building a plane as it is flying. “Not only are we trying to figure out day to day what we’re going to have to eat, we’re trying to figure out how to organize the volunteers, what are our

SHELTERED: Leemon Burrell and his family came to the emergency shelter at Trinity United Methodist Church in November. Now he is staying at Asheville-Buncombe Community Christian Ministry’s Costello House, an all-male emergency shelter. Photo by Jennifer Castillo guidelines, what are the protocols,” she explains. Keeping the shelter financially afloat is also an ongoing process. “Our utility bill is going to go up exponentially,” says the Rev. Nancy Dixon, the church’s pastor. But offering the emergency shelter, she continues, has also brought resources to the church, like new friends. “Those kinds of resources are their own currency, if you will,” she says. Trinity is soliciting donations for its shelter on its website through Venmo. The church is exploring other financial options, but Dixon declines to elaborate further. “I believe our city and county officials want the best for our most vulnerable people, and they’re struggling to find what will work best for our community,” she says. “I’m excited by the conversations that are being had amongst all the nonprofit service providers and our government officials. Things are shifting.” On a recent Saturday night, the Trinity shelter’s guests included a young couple, a transgender individual and a man with a dog. One woman was eagerly sharing book recommendations, particularly ones about forgiveness. The guests made their own tacos and gathered around the dinner table with volunteers and their kids, who colored place mats with crayons and tossed a ball around. There was talk of watching a movie on Netflix together later in the evening, but most guests looked as if they wanted to rest.

‘A POLICY ISSUE’

Trinity volunteers formed a Winter Shelter Steering Committee in November as plans for the church’s emergency Code Purple shelter came together. The committee has since expanded its focus to bring community members and other churches, including Rogers from ABCCM and Grace Covenant Presbyterian Church, together to discuss larger solutions. It’s done so with the assistance of the recently formed nonprofit Accessing Needed Crisis and Critical Help Outreach and Resources and its director, Dan Pizzo. The committee has a core group from various mental health and harm reduction organizations, including RHA Health Services and the Sunrise Community for Recovery and Wellness, and has welcomed community stakeholders such as Rogers, Buncombe County Commissioner Jasmine Beach-Ferrera, City Council member Kim Roney, Community and Development Homeless Services Systems Lead Emily Ball and Asheville Mayor Esther Manheimer. Dixon, Trinity’s pastor, is optimistic that gathering stakeholders at the same table is the way forward. “I

have been told that the conversation amongst the service providers, the nonprofits, the government and the faith community has not felt this way for a long time — if it ever has,” she says. She thinks the recent clearing of homeless encampments has “opened up the conversation because it has presented a clearer picture of the struggles and humanity of our unhoused neighbors.” Kate Shem, a Grace Covenant parishioner, found her way to the Winter Shelter Steering Committee through BeLoved, which has a longtime partnership with her church. Shem notes that churches are able to activate volunteers quickly and can operate outside of nonprofit constraints. “But it’s also not the solution,” she says. She appreciates her church urging parishioners to meet current needs while also focusing on longer-term solutions. “This is a policy issue that the city needs to invest in,” Shem says. “The amount of money needed isn’t churches passing the offering plate around — this is sustainable money that needs an investment from the community.” X

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JAN. 19-25, 2022

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BUNCOMBE BEAT

APD data on homeless encampments shifts debate among Council members The battle over how the city of Asheville is managing its population of homeless residents intensified during the Jan. 11 meeting of Asheville City Council when members heard new data indicating that encampments pose a danger for the people living in them. The hourlong discussion, led by the city’s homeless services lead Emily Ball and Asheville Police Department Capt. Mike Lamb, centered on initiatives aimed at providing shelter to Asheville’s homeless residents and evaluating the city’s stated policy of clearing encampments. Lamb said the city has seen a “drastic increase” in illegal camping since COVID shelter-in-place measures were first announced in spring 2020. “We used to have smaller encampments, which has been common for several years in the city of Asheville, but we have not seen the size of the encampments that we’ve seen over the last two years,” Lamb said. “These larger encampments have created health and safety issues for people both in the camps as well as the surrounding areas.” During a presentation, Lamb cited APD data showing that 10% of overall crime in Asheville from Jan. 1, 2020, to Jan. 9, 2022 — including 14% of violent crime and 8.5% of property crime — occurred within 500 feet of an encampment. Within 1,000 feet, those numbers increase to 22% of overall crime, 25% of violent crime and 20% of property crime within the city. Lamb also noted that locations in and around encampments have been the sites of two homicides, 105 overdoses, 151 aggravated assaults

JAN. 19-25, 2022

BY THE NUMBERS: Asheville Police Department Capt. Mike Lamb presented data on crime and safety related to homeless encampments. Graphic courtesy of the city of Asheville and 25 rapes, among other crimes and safety issues over the last two years. Council member Sandra Kilgore called the statistics “staggering” and voiced concern about the abundance of needles and other health risks to children and other residents living or working near the encampments, while Council member Sage Turner said that the data was “very shocking and concerning.” Turner added that discussions about homelessness and public health and safety should include the people living within the encampments, as well as the community at-large. “There’s a lot happening in those encampments and I don’t, for one, feel comfortable with allowing them to continue,” Turner said. “It feels very hard to say that, because I also don’t believe that folks should be left without shelter. I believe that shelter is a human right.” Council member Kim Roney said the data was “unsurprising” given homeless residents’ lack of resources and called the displacement of those living in encampments a public health problem. City Manager Debra Campbell said either option — to allow the encampments or to remove them — creates a

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public health “dichotomy” that could create health and safety risks to the people living within the camps. “Oftentimes campers are both victims and perpetrators. And unfortunately there is a tremendous amount of … violent crime. This isn’t petty theft. This is violent crime,” Campbell said, noting, “If we allow the camps to occur, there’s a public health risk.”

APD PRESENTS ITS UPDATED POLICY FOR CAMP REMOVAL

Lamb said during the presentation that the city has several specific ordinances that restrict camping on public property, as well as trespassing and obstruction of sidewalks. He noted that the city’s long-standing approach to camp removal includes a seven-day notice to campers to vacate public property unless there is an immediate health or safety risk, such as evidence of violent crime or fire hazards. Lamb said the approach has worked for the last several years when people were camping in small groups, but recently the general weeklong notice to vacate properties has resulted in encampments growing larger and potentially creating

health and safety risks to those staying within them. As a result, Lamb said that the APD has updated its procedures for addressing camps that violate current city ordinances, reducing the seven-day notice instructing campers to leave within 48 hours, and within 24 hours if a health or safety risk has been identified within the encampment. “We think the goal ought to be that they be sheltered,” said Campbell. “And we are doing and coordinating with every entity that we can to get people shelter first and foremost and to minimize the risk, particularly as the camp grows. And the way that we mitigate the camp from growing is that we say, ‘You have to move or relocate within a short amount of time,’ because once we allow seven to eight days, unfortunately the camp becomes so large that it’s a risk, not only to the campers, but to the surrounding area, as well as to [city] staff.” During public comment, several members of the public pushed back against the city’s policy of removing camps, including Grace Martinez who asked that the city follow the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s

guidelines on encampments, which recommend allowing people who are living unsheltered or in encampments to remain where they are. Martinez also called for the city to immediately implement “sanctuary camping” at one of the city’s public parks that have sanitation facilities. “I legitimately don’t understand why we are [removing encampments] when we clearly know it isn’t working. We know that folks lack other options, and that makes clearing of encampments not only inhumane but unsustainable, ineffective and creates more long-term problems. … That is no solution at all,” Martinez said. “Where do you want them to go?” Council member Roney also criticized the removal of encampments, as well as Council’s decision not to fund a low-barrier shelter after receiving community pushback. “In the absence of an emergency shelter, which was a choice that we made — we’ve spent $3.5 million and yet lack a community asset to show for it — we now are going to chase these folks around town,” Roney said. “This [issue] is not going to go away by displacing people.”

A GROWING ISSUE?

“One of the things I hear from folks is that people come from outside of our region to Asheville because we offer services, because we are maybe a little bit more friendly, etc.,” said Council member Gwen Wisler. “One, is that true? And two, what do you think about that? It would seem that our priorities should be ‘our neighbors first.’” Lamb said that he recently encountered two homeless people who traveled to Asheville from the surrounding area to access city services, while Ball, the city’s homelessness lead, explained that Asheville’s homeless population was “a mixed bag” of locals and people from other areas in the region. “I think our community is a hub for people for a variety of reasons. Folks across the region are coming to Asheville to get a number of different needs met,” said Ball. “I do certainly think that we do sometimes have folks, as Capt. Lamb mentioned, who are coming to our community while homeless specifically seeking services. But based on our data, we primarily have folks who are originally from here or who became homeless here.” Ball added that as many as 76% of the residents of the Ramada Inn, which currently houses roughly 80 homeless residents, are from Buncombe County. She also noted that the city has funded several initiatives aimed at getting people off

of the streets, including committing $3.5 million in funding to create 285 units of permanent supportive housing through partnerships with Homeward Bound and Step Up. Council member Turner noted that while the investments are a step in the right direction to address the issue, even more funding and resources may not sufficiently address the growing need. “I think we have to have the really hard conversation about what is our capacity. What is our capacity to help those in our community? What is our capacity to take community members from other communities? What is our financial capacity? What is our social capacity?” Turner asked. “What are we going to do if we [meet] all of the short-term needs, all of the intermediary housing needs, all of the high access shelters, and we still have a problem that we can’t contain?” RESIDENTS DEMAND CHARGES BE DROPPED AGAINST JOURNALISTS Several members of the public also called for charges to be dropped against local journalists Matilda Bliss and Veronica Coit, two writers for the news website Asheville Blade, who were arrested by the Asheville Police Department while covering the Dec. 25 removal of the homeless camp and art installation at Aston Park. The arrests also caught the attention of the international nonprofit Committee to Protect Journalists, which posted a message of support for the journalists on its Twitter account. APD has not released a public statement on the arrests. Capt. Lamb noted during his presentation that most people his department encounters at camps are cooperative and move within the requested time frame, but that clashes with some members of the public who protest camp removals have led to arrests. “In most cases we do not issue any enforcement action against these campers, but occasionally, we do have activists — anarchists — who refuse to leave during camp cleanup or tent removal,” he said. Bliss, who spoke during the meeting, said she and Coit had identified themselves as journalists repeatedly before being arrested. Bliss noted that the APD had confiscated her phone during the arrest. “Let us remind you,” Bliss said, “whether Council or the city manager, or anyone else in city government, likes our coverage is irrelevant. In fact, if you don’t, it’s a good sign we’re doing our jobs.”

— Brooke Randle X

City of Asheville wants to hear from you! This letter represents an update to the June 10, 2020 concurrence request letter, documenting revised amounts of impact. A concurrence letter signed and dated June 10, 2020, reported the project would require the use of approximately 0.03 acres of permanent easement from the 9.24-acre park to construct the sidewalk as well as 0.07 acres of temporary construction easement. Subsequently, drainage designs were modified during the final design phase, resulting in an increase in the amount of permanent easement required. Based on final designs, the project would require 0.08 acres of permanent easement from the park, which represents an increase of 0.05 acres. In addition, the amount of temporary easement required would drop from 0.07 acres to 0.06 acres.

To learn more and to provide comments please visit: https://publicinput.com/ JohnstonBlvdImprovements

Comments are due by Monday, February 14, 2022.

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Asheville settles lawsuit over ACSF scholarships Without discussion at its Jan. 11 session, City Council voted unanimously to resolve a lawsuit brought by WNC Citizens for Equality, led by former Council member and Buncombe County Republican Party Chair Carl Mumpower, that alleged the city was wrong to distribute funds for two racially based scholarship programs operated by the Asheville City Schools Foundation. Council’s action, which was one of several consent agenda items, amended two earlier agreements with the Asheville City Schools Foundation that provides funds for two foundation scholarship programs. The amendment alters the eligibility requirements for the scholarships and adds language prohibiting discrimination. WNC Citizens for Equality charged that the scholarships — described in the ACSF 2021-22 scholarships catalog as being for Black or minority students — excluded otherwise eligible applicants on the basis of race. In exchange for resolving the lawsuit, the revised agreements require the scholarships to give preference to “first-generation college students,” with no mention of racial requirements. The new language also prohibits ACSF from discriminating with regard to race, among other characteristics, when determining recipients of city-funded scholarships. Speaking with Xpress, City Attorney Brad Branham said that the city had acted within its legal authority, but by agreeing to amend its donation agreements with the Asheville City Schools Foundation, the city incurred no financial liability or legal costs associated with the lawsuit.

CHANGE-MAKER: The city of Asheville settled out of court with WNC Citizens for Equality — led by former Council member and Buncombe County Republican Party Chair Carl Mumpower — to stop distributing funds to two racially targeted scholarship programs operated by the Asheville City Schools Foundation. Photo by Pat Barcas “The updated language was the result of negotiation between all parties involved and their legal counsel, and the city is pleased that this compromise will allow the foundation to maintain the scholarship program,” Branham said in a Jan. 13 email. “This resolution

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allows the city to now turn its full attention to other matters of importance to our community, such as the pending reparations program now underway.” Copland Arnold Rudolph, executive director of Asheville City Schools Foundation, said that the

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settlement does not change the scholarship process for students. “The ACSF scholarship process remains exactly the same, and we currently have more scholarship opportunities for all qualifying students than we did three months ago. We are blessed to live in a community where so many people are called to support all students who want to pursue their dreams,” she told Xpress. “ACSF and the city of Asheville have real, critical equity work in front of us. We are now able to focus 100% on that work.” Mumpower declined to comment on the settlement, but in an email exchange with Xpress in November about what he wanted people to understand about the lawsuit, Mumpower said, “We should all be very careful to avoid stepping back on the extraordinary progress we have made on racial equality.” Mumpower partnered with the Rhode Island-based Legal Insurrection Foundation and the conservative activist group Judicial Watch on the lawsuit. Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said in a Jan. 12 press release that the settlement should serve as a “wakeup call to those activists and allied politicians pushing the extremist leftist agenda to segregate and discriminate based on race.” Fitton wrote, “Our clients, a group of Asheville residents, including high school students, courageously challenged this blatantly discriminatory and illegal scholarship program in federal court. Thankfully, the city of Asheville did the right thing in quickly ending these indefensible race-based scholarship programs.”

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JAN. 19-25, 2022

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— Brooke Randle X

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JAN. 19-25, 2022

FEA T U RE S

Q&A with Janet Cone, director of athletics at UNC Asheville The UNC Asheville athletic department is a modest NCAA Division I program by comparison to other top-level programs in North Carolina, such as the North Carolina Tar Heels or Duke Blue Devils. However, the Bulldogs’ longtime athletic director Janet Cone is a mover and shaker among college sports administrators. Cone is a former women’s basketball coach at Samford University; St. Leo University; Western Carolina University; and Mars Hill University. Past honors include being named the Division I-AAA Athletic Directors Association’s 2019 Builders’ Award — an accolade for athletic administrators who build college programs from the ground up — and the 2013 Under Armour Athletic Director of the Year. Besides directing the UNC Asheville program, Cone also helped create the Asheville Buncombe Regional Sports Commission, which

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attracts many national events. She has served as a former chair and continues to be a founding board member of the commission. She also recently finished a five-year stint serving on the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Committee, which selects and seeds the 64-team brackets for March Madness. During her tenure at UNCA, Cone has overseen significant physical improvements to Bulldog facilities, including the opening of the Wilma M. Sherrill Center, which houses Kimmel Arena, a new tennis venue and the expansion of the Karl Straus Track Facility. She is currently spearheading a campaign to build on-campus baseball and soccer stadiums. Xpress recently spoke with Cone about student-athletes during COVID, mentorship and goals for 2022. This interview has been condensed for length and lightly edited for clarity. COVID shut down intercollegiate athletics from fall 2000 to spring 2001. What were your biggest challenges during that period and what’s your greatest focus now in the athletic department? During the first wave of COVID there were three things we focused on: finding a way to bring student-athletes back to campus safely, developing protocols for them to practice safely and also protocols so they could compete in games. By last spring, all of our sports were back in competition. We also did some reorganization, with a huge emphasis on the mental health of our athletes. Certainly, the last two years have been a much different experience for student-athletes. Of course, COVID is still around us, so we have much the same goals this year. We just need to stay calm and focus day to day on several areas such as diversity and inclusion, health protocols and competing successfully in the Big South Conference. Your athletic department features a rather unique mentor program. Tell us about it. It’s called the Leaders to Leaders Mentorship program. For the past five or six years, we’ve paired community leaders with our student-athletes. We are so blessed to have professionals who either grew up here, moved here and came back to Asheville. We offer this to any student-athlete who wants a mentor to help guide them in a particular future career. Right now we

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SLAM DUNK: Janet Cone joined the athletic department at UNC Asheville 18 years ago and has been a part of many student-athletes’ lives. Photo courtesy of Cone have about 70 student-athletes in the program. If he or she plans to pursue a career in law, their mentor might be a local attorney. Or if they want to get involved in communications, maybe it’s a PR specialist. It’s backpacks to briefcase. It’s just a great add-on when we recruit. And the mentors say they get more out of the program than the students do. What did you find so attractive about UNC Asheville, and why have you chosen to stay here so long? When I took the job 18 years ago, I was attracted because of the chancellor’s great vision for athletics and I truly believed my skill set could help fulfill that vision. Now I’ve worked for four different chancellors and have been able to make a difference in so many young student-athletes’ lives. I’ve also worked with so many great coaches who are committed to helping their athletes both in the classroom and on the field. I have had other opportunities, but I’ve stayed here because I still think I can make a difference. That has been my motivation. Asheville’s population is steadily growing. Yet the UNC Asheville basketball teams haven’t shown much increase in home attendance. With NCAA Division I status and a new arena, why do you think the community doesn’t show more interest? I think it’s two things. Even though we’re the only Division I program in town, Asheville is a city with many things to do. Whether you want to kayak, hike, get involved in live music or art, there’s a lot going on here. Also, we have to do a better job of telling our story, so people will connect and want to come over here. We’ve

got a great arena that’s easy to get to. If I’m new to Asheville, it’s a great way to meet people. It’s fun, family entertainment. And if you’re a die-hard basketball fan, here’s your chance to get really up close and personal. There isn’t a bad seat in the house. As a member of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament Selection Committee, your national profile has risen. What lessons have you learned in that role? Explain the process you and the other members go through each season to select the 64 schools for March Madness. It’s like being on an elite team of people that are really focusing on doing the best job they can to absolutely choose the best 64 teams. It’s not something you just do in March. It’s a year-round thing, a lot of work. But it’s worth it. I have some great teammates, and I meet a lot of people across the country, including CBS and Turner executives, coaches and other athletic directors. But to me, the most important aspect was just having the opportunity to represent UNC Asheville and the Big South Conference. What are your goals and vision for the athletic department in 2022? Our goals remain the same. We want to provide the best Division I experience as possible for our student-athletes so they can reach their potential in both athletics and academics. We also want to provide folks in Asheville the best possible experience as a fan or mentor. We want to get better every day. We want to continue to graduate our student-athletes and win on the scoreboard.

— Bob Rose X

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JAN. 19-25, 2022

COMMUNITY CALENDAR JANUARY 19-27, 2022

SPOKEN & WRITTEN WORD

For a full list of community calendar guidelines, please visit mountainx.com/calendar. For questions about free listings, call 828-251-1333, opt. 4. For questions about paid calendar listings, please call 828-251-1333, opt. 1.

Miss Malaprop's Storytime Recommended for ages 3-9. WE (1/19), 10am, Registration required, avl.mx/7b9

Online Events = Shaded WELLNESS Montford Tai Chi Hosted by local acupuncturist Tyler White. All ages, every Thursday. TH (1/20, 27), 9:30am Free, Montford Recreation Center, 34 Pearson Dr Introduction to Tai Chi Taught by Roger Byrd. TH (1/20, 27), 10:30am, Free, Asheville Community Yoga Center, 8 Brookdale Rd Queer & Trans Yoga Class For everyone who identifies outside the lines and hasn't felt comfortable in a traditional yoga space. TH (1/20), 6pm, avl.mx/b1t LGBTQ Sweat Your Prayers A safe space for the LGBTQ community. All are welcome, sliding scale. SA (1/22), 9:30am, Haw Creek Commons, 315 Old Haw Creek Rd Bipolar and Depression Support Group Contact Renee Bazile for more information, 828-367-7660. SA (1/22), 2pm, 1316 Ste C Parkwood Rd Sparkle Time - Holistic Senior Exercise Aerobic, strengthening, balance and flexibility. Proof of vaccinations and booster required. W (1/19, 26), M (1/24), 10:30am, Avery's Creek Community Center, 899 Glennbridge Rd SE Arden

Keith Flynn and Charter Weeks The authors will discuss their book Prosperity Gospel. TH (1/20), 6pm,Registration required, avl.mx/b3q

Quest4Life 5Rhythms Waves Class Weekly instructional classes based on Gabrielle Roth's work. Masks are required. No dance experience necessary. TU (1/25), 7pm, $12-22, Terpsicorps Academy, 1501 Patton Ave

Malaprop's Notorious HBC (History Book Club) Participants will discuss Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA by Tim Weiner. TH (1/20), 7pm, Registration required, avl.mx/9s9

Yoga and the 12 Steps of Recovery (Y12SR) Addresses addiction as a mental, physical and spiritual disease. WE (1/26), 8:30am, Asheville Yoga Center, 211 S Liberty St

ART Unearthing Our Forgotten Past Explores the Spanish occupation of Fort San Juan and the native people who lived in the Joara area of WNC. Sponsored by the Western NC Historical Association. Thurs-Sat, 10:30am-4pm, Smith-McDowell House Museum, 283 Victoria Rd Gallery Group Show: Revanant Response to the pandemic and a “post-pandemic” world. Showing artists are local sculpture artist Julie Slattery, Copenhagen artist øjeRum, Dan Hillier and Netherlands’ artist Juul Kraijer. Through March. Weds-Sat, 11a.m-4pm Continuum Art, 147 ste C, 1st Ave E, Hendersonville Gestures: Mid-Century Abstraction from the Collection Explores works in a

SIZE DOESN’T MATTER: Momentum Gallery’s annual Small Works/Big Impact exhibition runs Monday-Saturday, 10 a.m.-6 p.m., and Sunday, noon-5 p.m., through Saturday, Feb. 19. The show assembles intimately scaled works in a variety of media by gallery artists and special guests. Photo courtesy of Momentum Gallery variety of media that speak to abstract experiments in American art making during the middle of the 20th century. Daily 11am-6pm, Thurs til 9pm. Closed Tuesdays. Asheville Art Museum, 2 S. Pack Square Modernist Design at Black Mountain College Highlights the Asheville Art Museum’s collection of design from Black Mountain College. Daily 11am-6pm, til 9pm Thurs. Closed Tuesdays. Asheville Art Museum, 2 S. Pack Square Ruminations on Memory On view in conjunction with A Living Language: Cherokee Syllabary

and Contemporary Art. Daily 11am-6pm, til 9pm Thurs. Closed Tuesdays. Asheville Art Museum, 2 S. Pack Square Walter B. Stephen Pottery: Cameo to Crystalline Featuring art pottery and functional vessels from each stage of Stephen’s career. Daily 11am-6pm, Thurs til 9pm. Closed Tuesday. Asheville Art Museum, 2 S. Pack Square A Living Language: Cherokee Syllabary and Contemporary Art Highlights the use of the written Cherokee language, a syllabary developed by Cherokee innovator Sequoyah. Daily 11am-6pm,

Thursdays til 9pm. Closed Tuesday. Asheville Art Museum, 2 S. Pack Square

11am-6pm, through Jan. 31. Asheville Gallery of Art, 82 Patton Ave

A Hand in Studio Craft: Harvey K. Littleton as Peer and Pioneer Features Harvey and Bess Littleton's collection from the early days of the Studio Glass Movement and the height of the American mid-century Studio Pottery Movement. Daily 11am-6pm, til 9pm Thursdays. Closed Tuesdays. Asheville Art Museum, 2 S. Pack Square

Visual Art Evening A night of light art, design and critique for any public or private high school student or art teacher from Buncombe or nearby counties. Three workshops will follow an overview of the arts at WCU. Email bethmoore@wcu.edu with questions. Sponsored by WCU School of Art and Design. TH (1/20), 6pm, Free, WCU at Biltmore Park, 28 Schenck Pkwy, Suite 300

Stained with Glass: Vitreograph Prints from the Studio of Harvey K. Littleton A wide circle of artists in a variety of media— including glass, ceramics, and painting—were invited to Littleton’s studio in Spruce Pine to create prints using the vitreograph process developed by Littleton. 11am-6pm daily, til 9pm Thurs. Closed Tues. Asheville Art Museum, 2 S. Pack Square ᎢᏛᏍᎦ ᏫᏥᏤᎢ ᎠᎵᏰᎵᏒ Weaving Across Time Showcases the works of nine Eastern Band Cherokee basket makers . Mon-Fri through Apr. 22, 11am Center for Craft, 67 Broadway Mountain Inspirations January show featuring three new artists: Jan Smith, Mandy Kjellstrom and Raymond Byram. Daily from

JAN. 19-25, 2022

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Nocturne A collection of works in a variety of media that celebrates the drama and mystery of the night. Daily 10am-6pm, Sundays noon-5pm. Through Feb. 19. Momentum Gallery , 24 N. Lexington Ave Small Work/Big Impact An annual exhibition that assembles intimately-scaled works in a variety of media by gallery artists and special guests. Open daily 10am-6pm, Sundays noon-5pm. Through Feb. 19. Momentum Gallery , 24 N. Lexington Ave

ART/CRAFT STROLLS & FAIRS Mini Market Pop Up A variety of local vendors selling arts, crafts and artisanal

products. SU (1/23), 11:30am, Highland Brewing Downtown Taproom, 56 Patton Ave

COMMUNITY MUSIC Virtual Jazz Hour Featuring composer and pianist Michael Jefry Stevens. WE (1/19), 6:30pm, Free, avl.mx/b34 Creation Care Alliance: January Jubilee Happy hour with singalongs, fiddle tunes songs of hope and reflection. TH (1/20), 6pm, avl.mx/xmasjb9 David LaMotte An evening with an award-winning songwriter, speaker, author and native of Black Mountain. SA (1/22), 7pm, $25, Black Mountain Center for the Arts, 225 W. State St, Black Mountain American Spiritual Ensemble A group comprising more than a dozen classical singers. TU (1/25), 7:30pm, $42, Diana Wortham Theatre, 18 Biltmore Ave

Notorious HBC Host and Malaprop’s bookseller Patricia Furnish will discuss a range of books across different periods of history. TH (1/20), 7pm, Registration required, avl.mx/9s9 Emöke B'Racz presents Hungarian Refugee, in conversation with Charles Lee Malaprop's founder B'Racz will discuss the book with Malaprop's bookseller Charles Lee. SU (1/23), 5pm, Registration required, avl.mx/b3r Mary Elizabeth Pope presents The Gods of Green County in conversation with Jill McCorkle The authors discuss Pope's book. Sponsored by Malaprop's. TH (1/27), 6pm, Registration required, avl.mx/b3s

BENEFITS 13th Annual Asheville Hot Chocolate Races Choose from 2 kids fun runs; Marshmallow Dash, 1K Kids Hill Climb or three different professionally timed distances; 5k, 10k or Half Marathon. The race benefits the Isaac Dickson Elementary School PTO. SA (1/22), 7am, $20-65, Isaac Dickson Elementary School, 125 Hill St

CLASSES, MEETINGS & EVENTS Master Gardener Virtual Plant Clinic Email HaywoodEMGV@ gmail.com with a detailed description of the problem, plant or insect. Send clear digital photos if possible. Or call (828) 456-3575 and describe your home gardening issue to the receptionist.

Introduction to Medicare - Understanding the Puzzle How Medicare works, the enrollment process, how to avoid penalties, and ways to save money. To register, visit the Council on Aging of Buncombe County’s website www.coabc.org or call 828-277-8288. WE (1/19), 2pm, Free, Registration required, avl.mx/9hz Hominy Creek Comfort Makers Work on projects that provide comfort items to anyone struggling, including quilts, crocheted or knitted blankets, Hospice pillows, chemo port pillows and beanies/ hats. All are welcome to assist. TH (1/20), 10:30am, Enka-Candler Library, 1404 Sandhill Road, Candler Silent Vigil: Immigration Reform Sponsored by the Progressive Alliance of Henderson County. FR (1/21), 4pm, Hendersonville Historic Courthouse Square, 1 Historic Courthouse Square Roundtable Sessions for Women Entrepreneurs An inclusive and

supportive environment where the focus is on getting insight and solving problems. SA (1/22), 10am, $26, Focal Point Coworking, 125 South Lexington Ave Suite 101 Swing Dance Classes & Social Dance Presented by Swing Asheville - two levels of swing dance classes followed by an open dance. No partner needed. SA (1/22), 6pm, Cork & Keg, 86 Patton Ave Webinar: Park Visitation Trends Alexa Viets, chief of resource management and interpretation for the Blue Ridge Parkway, will lead the 30-minute presentation exploring the trends in park visitation. TU (1/25), 11am, Free, avl.mx/b4c Hearing Loss Association of America Information Session Lise Hamlin, director of public policy for HLAA, will lay out the Public Policy agenda for 2022, including Medicare expansion to cover hearing aids and other accessibility issues. TU (1/25), 6:30pm, avl.mx/b43

National Popular Vote Webinar Presented by National Popular Vote's National grassroots director, Eileen Reavey. TU (1/25), 6:30pm, Registration required, avl.mx/b42 Citizen Scholar: The Beatles & Gender w/ Lisette Gallaher Sponsored by Blue Ridge Public Radio. TH (1/27), 6:30pm, Citizen Vinyl, 14 O Henry Ave

FOOD & BEER River Arts District Winter Market Local produce, cheese, breads, meats and more. W (1/19, 26), 3pm, Pleb Urban Winery, 289 Lyman St ASAP Winter Farmers Market SA (1/22), 10am, A-B Tech Conference Center, 340 Victoria Rd

OUTDOORS 2022 Virtual Hiking Challenge The Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy Virtual Hiking Challenge sets a goal for you to complete 60 miles in 60 days at your own pace. Sign up online before Feb. 1. Hemlock Volunteer Day and Educational Hike at Looking Glass Rock The hike is approximately 6.2 miles and features over 1,500 feet of elevation gain, making it a very strenuous hike. Along the way, staff will educate participants about all things hemlock. SU (1/23), 9am, Pisgah National Forest

SPIRITUALITY Online Baha’i Sunday Devotional All are welcome at this informal Sunday gathering via Zoom. SU (1/23), 10am, avl.mx/a4t

y l p m i S beautiful It’s time to share student art & writing for the 2022

Kids Issues! Visit avl.mx/b47 or email kids@mountainx.com Deadline: Jan. 28

to our 2022 monthly meetings on the from 3:30pm - 5:30pm *ASL and Spanish interpretation provided* Scan me with your camera to subscribe to our newsletter and learn more about our upcoming meetings!

@buncombetaskforce www.bcviolenceprevention.org Our goal is to promote healthy relationships where people live, learn, work, play and worship, ultimately reducing the perpetration of sexual violence, intimate partner violence, and child abuse.

a nuestras reuniones mensuales del 2022 el

de 15:30-17:30 *Se ofrece interpretación al lenguaje de signos americano y al español*

Escanéame con tu cámara para suscribirte a nuestro boletín y aprender mas sobre nuestras próximas reuniones.

@buncombetaskforce www.bcviolenceprevention.org Nuestro objetivo es promover relaciones sanas donde la gente vive, aprende, trabaja, juega y rinde culto, reduciendo en última instancia la perpetración de la violencia sexual, la violencia de pareja y el maltrato infantil. MOUNTAINX.COM

JAN. 19-25, 2022

WELLNESS

Look for the helpers

Local volunteers provide ‘emotional first aid’ for tragedy victims BY JESSICA WAKEMAN jwakeman@mountainx.com Deaths, injuries and fires are all in a day’s work for emergency service workers. They may also be part of a shift for Trauma Intervention Programs of WNC volunteers, who provide emotional first aid to family, friends and bystanders after traumatic events. This is the message that Hendersonville Fire Department Deputy Fire Chief Justin Ward imparted to a Zoom class of potential TIPWNC volunteers Tuesday, Jan. 11. During the six years TIPWNC has supported HFD, Ward says, the most common reason volunteers are called is for cardiac arrest. Drug overdoses, suicides and house fires round out the top four scenarios. First responders have immediate and potentially life-saving responsibilities when arriving at a traumatic event, says Mandy Atkission, the CEO of TIP nationwide and a trainer for the WNC affiliate. However, people who are close to the victims — the survivors — can be in a state of shock or confusion. “Emergency responders try really hard to be very compassionate and very caring and provide informa-

BACKUP: A slide from the presentation a representative from Hendersonville Fire Department shared with a class of Trauma Intervention Programs of WNC volunteers. Image courtesy of Jessica Wakeman tion,” Atkission explains. “But at the same time, they have this job that they have to do, and they can’t stop what they’re doing in order to meet the needs of the family.” In the Jan. 11 class, Ward noted that Hendersonville is home to many retirees who may not have family living nearby. Oftentimes after a tragic event, like the death of a spouse, it can take a while for family to arrive from afar.

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Atkission sees TIP volunteers as unburdening first responders in the moment and giving them peace of mind when leaving a scene. “For an emergency responder to be able to get back in his patrol car or get back on the fire rig, knowing that 80-yearold Mrs. Jones is not sitting all alone until her daughter from Atlanta arrives, is a great mental relief for them, too,” Atkission explains. “It’s very difficult for them to just say ‘Sorry, Mrs. Jones, but there’s another call, we’ve got to go’ and leave her with a dead husband in the room until the funeral home gets there.”

HELPING HEARTS

In the aftermath of public tragedy, a quote from Fred Rogers, star of the children’s TV show “Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood,” often makes the rounds on social media. “When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, ‘Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping,’” he said. Rogers could have been speaking about the volunteers for TIP. The organization’s 25 current WNC volunteers work 12-hour shifts, and coverage is 24/7. According to Atkission, TIPWNC responds to an average of 22 calls per month, primarily in Buncombe County. The nationwide program, existing in over 250 cities, came to Buncombe County and Hendersonville in November 2015; Atkission plans

to expand to Henderson and Transylvania counties this year. Municipalities served by TIPWNC pay 12 cents per capita, and the program is also funded by grants, including support from the nonprofit WNC Bridge Foundation and Buncombe County Health & Human Services. Volunteers for TIP are not credentialed as mental health counselors. They are trained to provide emotional first aid, also called psychological first aid. The American Psychological Association calls psychological first aid “an initial disaster response intervention with the goal to promote safety, stabilize survivors of tragedy and connect individuals to help and resources.” Atkission says the words to focus on are first aid. “Counselors deal with emotions, and support groups deal with emotions,” she explains. “How we’re different is we’re that first line.” It’s work that volunteers find challenging but rewarding. “Being able to help someone, on what is often one of the worst days of their lives, is really just to me a very compelling way to help and to reach out to people in our community,” says Andrew Celwyn, an Asheville-based TIPWNC volunteer since 2018.

LOGISTICAL SUPPORT

TIP is only dispatched through the 911 system. A first responder can request a volunteer through the 911 dispatcher, who then connects with the TIP dispatcher on duty. Volunteers average a 20-minute response time, Atkission says. The organization trains police, fire departments and EMS to scan a scene upon arrival and assess whether it may be necessary to call the volunteer on-duty. Survivors needing emotional first aid aren’t always showing obvious grief reactions such as crying; someone “standing in the background quietly,” explains Atkission, may be traumatized by the situation. Buncombe County is fortunate to have numerous supportive resources, such as victims’ advocates and support groups, Atkission says. Much of this information is available online — for example, the Buncombe County Sheriff’s Office directs crime victims who are seeking reimbursement for medical expenses and lost wages to the N.C. Department of Public Safety Victims Compensation Services. But, she points out, “people don’t know about those things because they haven’t had to use them.” TIPWNC volunteers can assist with navigating the red tape, as well as directing people to mortuary services. They can also set expectations.

She gets her soccer skills from her mom. “Usually, one of the first things that I tell families when I arrive on scene is ‘I’m sorry, but this is probably going to take a lot longer than you think it’s going to take,”“ Celwyn says. He explains that an unattended death requires a police investigation, and that can involve detectives taking photographs, contacting a coroner and having someone sign off on the death certificate. Other people need basic questions answered, particularly those who have not experienced a trauma such as a death before. A trauma survivor may assume that police ask questions about an incident, such as the death of a child, because they think that person is guilty, Atkission says. A TIP volunteer can explain that asking questions is part of the information gathering that law enforcement is required to do. Volunteers can also assist with logistical challenges, like if a victim has lost their phone or wallet in a car accident. Other aid includes helping a survivor gather their loved one’s medications and important documents, get to a hospital or locate an animal that has been evacuated from a fire.

LEARNING TO LISTEN

TIPWNC’s biannual, 55-hour training occurs over a 10-day period. In an early class, volunteers learn to introduce themselves to first responders and survivors on a scene. As the training progresses, the students role-play responses for responding to a suicide, baby death, car accident, heart attack and elderly death. Victims often want to know why they aren’t receiving more information from first responders, Atkission says. A volunteer can explain that law enforcement may hold back information about a crime scene because it hasn’t been verified. In another class, first responders teach correct behavior — everything from not touching objects at a scene that may be evidence to not driving over fire hoses. Some students drop out during training when they realize “this might be more than I bargained for,’’ Atkission explains. During the Jan. 11 class, Ward, the deputy fire chief, warned that emergency services respond to “gruesome, out-of-theordinary things,” and shared a slide with disturbing images from the public domain: someone with a gunshot, a dead child, individuals who had overdosed and an injured animal. TIP trainers will also eliminate potential volunteers who seemingly hold a grudge against law enforcement, as well as anyone who has had a recent trauma. The volunteer

application asks whether a person has experienced previous traumas and asks to discuss them. “We don’t need them re-traumatizing themselves,” Atkission explains. “Maybe they came home and found their son hanging in the garage, and then they’re going to get a call where somebody’s son is hanging in the garage — that’s really traumatic.” It’s also crucial for volunteers to be able to practice deep listening. A common reaction to hearing another person’s sad story is to offer support by connecting with a similar experience (“I lost my husband last year, too.”) But empathizing is not actually what survivors need immediately after a traumatic event, Atkission says. “We need people who are going to arrive on scene and be listeners, not talkers,” Atkission says. Empathizing is important eventually. But during the first two or three hours after a tragedy, the victim feels “so raw, their world is just turned upside down,” she continues. “Nobody can even closely understand what’s happened to them, is how they feel.” Adds Celwyn, “I say that 90% of the training is learning what not to say, which is really important, because there are a lot of cliches about death that can make a situation more difficult.” Volunteers say they find it rewarding to help someone in a moment of tragedy, Atkission says. But unlike social workers or counselors, TIPWNC volunteers only walk beside an individual’s pain for a short period of time; the emotional involvement may be less pronounced. Once a volunteer joins the organization, she notes, they average three years before moving on. There is no ideal profile of an emotional first aid provider. But “a desire to help people one-on-one” is the most important quality, Atkission says. “We’d rather not be needed than not be called.” X

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JAN. 19-25, 2022

ARTS & CULTURE

Members only

Archetype pivots from Bottle Club to Beer Club

BY EDWIN ARNAUDIN earnaudin@mountainx.com For three years, Archetype Brewing’s Bottle Club provided members with special packaged releases, private tastings and other perks. Today, the brewery’s braintrust is ready for something new. “We want our taproom to extend into people’s living rooms and we want people to think of our taproom as their living room,” says Drew Fowler, Archetype’s marketing director. “The Bottle Club, partly due to the COVID-19 pandemic and partly due to pricing, meant that we were not engaging our customers ... as much as we wanted to. We wanted more reasons to get together. More reasons to celebrate. More reasons to drink beer.” Thus arose the Archetype Beer Club, which seeks to build on the successes of Bottle Club while shedding that initiative’s more limiting components. Gone are the timeline

LIQUID LOGIC: Archetype Brewing’s Will Sargent pours beverages at a Bottle Club event. For 2022, the endeavor has morphed into Beer Club, which seeks to build on the prior initiative’s best parts. Photo by Sally Tanner

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and quantity requirements that often made Bottle Club a headache for the staff. The need for the brewery’s bartenders to remember the club’s numerous details is also a thing of the past, thanks to a partnership with Greenville, S.C.-based software company Indulj, whose app serves as the hub for all of Beer Club’s information and redemption options. With those less appealing elements eliminated or streamlined, and with Beer Club doubling down on celebrations, the Archetype team will have more freedom to be creative, pivot and surprise its most loyal customers with specialty brews, exclusive benefits and unique experiences. “Basically, it’s the best of both worlds without as much of the stress on us,” Fowler says. Beer Club memberships are $175 per person, accepted on a rolling basis and last for one year from sign-up. The list of perks (which went into effect on Jan. 1) features plentiful gatherings that make use of both of the brewery’s Asheville taprooms, including exclusive events at Archetype – North’s Tap Lounge and

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a massive annual party on July 26 to celebrate the birthday of Carl Jung, the inventor of archetypes and a large part of the Beer Club backstory. Fowler admits that, at first glance, the rundown may appear a little too heavy on events. “I think a lot of people read the benefits and kind of think, ‘Where’s the beer?’ But it’s everywhere,” he says. “We focused more on the experiences in our announcement, but all of the experiences include beer. I think our members will love the different brews we provide them with throughout their membership.” Additional rewards include a customized Archetype Beer Club branded hat with one’s individual membership number. And $25 from the membership fee will be donated to the brewery’s current N0H8 nonprofit partner, The Campaign for Southern Equality. As of press time, Beer Club memberships have raised $600 for the cause. “I’m also excited about all the chances to get our customers out of their seats and into our brewery’s production setup,” Fowler says.

“Whether joining us for canning days, staff tasting sessions, brewing beers, helping to name beers and barrels or even writing the messages printed on the bottom of cans, customers will have more access than ever.” Despite these new and improved aspects, Beer Club remains one of just a few local opportunities of its kind. New Belgium Brewing Co.’s Cellar Club and Sierra Nevada Brewing Co.’s Alpha Hop Society remain active, though endeavors by Hi-Wire Brewing and Sideways Farm & Brewery have gone dormant. The scarcity of such groups makes sense to Fowler, who notes that beer and bottle clubs create complications that don’t have to exist without them. He adds that the cost-benefit analysis can make them seem unnecessary and that living in Asheville with its U.S.-leading breweries per capita is already akin to being in a beer club without the dues. “That’s why our Beer Club is focused so heavily on experiences,” Fowler says. “If you love beer, why not brew it? If you love beer, why not taste the beer with the guy who

brewed it? If you love beer, why not party with people who love it, too? For us, it comes back to our mission. We want our taprooms to be a community hub. Beer brings people together — why not invite as many people into that story as possible?” For more information, visit avl.mx/b37.

FLAGSHIP GENEROSITY

In the words of Peter “SpiderMan” Parker’s uncle Ben, great power comes with great responsibility, and as Asheville’s longest-running craft brewery, Highland Brewing Co. is no stranger to newer industry peers looking to its team for guidance on various matters. Along with making quality beer and operating with an independent, family-owned approach for nearly 30 years, Highland has been generous with charitable giving — most recently with the second yearly “Give Back with Gaelic” campaign, which supports the hospitality industry across the brewery’s Southeast distribution footprint. “We have deep roots in the Western North Carolina community and beer on shelves and on tap across five states,” says Leah Wong Ashburn, Highland’s president and CEO. “With this campaign, we wanted to share our values and impact the people and communities wherever our beer is sold.” In collaboration with its wholesalers over the last four months of 2021, the brewery raised $20,000 from sales of its flagship Gaelic Ale and donated the funds to seven nonprof-

its. That number is down from 12 beneficiaries in 2020, a narrowing that Ashburn says was enacted to increase the campaign’s impact. The N.C. Restaurant Workers Relief Fund, Food Bank of Central & Eastern North Carolina and Second Harvest Food Bank received aid within the state, while the South Carolina Restaurant and Lodging Association, Virginia Restaurant and Hospitality Relief Fund, Tennessee Action for Hospitality and Georgiabased The Giving Kitchen also benefited from the initiative. “We worked with these same nonprofits last year and are now honing in on one per state outside of North Carolina,” Ashburn says. “The initial selections were based on recommendations from our wholesale partners and our own conversations with each organization to gain understanding and energy behind the effort.” Wherever possible, the funds will go to support hospitality worker relief funds created by these organizations over the last two years. Some of the beneficiaries, like Giving Kitchen and Tennessee Action for Hospitality, are wholly focused on providing support and grants to hospitality workers. “The campaign came out of our desire to support our colleagues in the hospitality industry amid all of the volatility of the pandemic,” Ashburn says. “More than two years later, the world looks different, and our giving will also evolve. We will continue to give and have announcements to come.” X

SIZABLE DONATION: Highland Brewing Co. founder Oscar Wong, left, and President/CEO Leah Ashburn Wong celebrate a successful second yearly “Give Back with Gaelic” campaign. Photo courtesy of Highland Brewing Co. MOUNTAINX.COM

JAN. 19-25, 2022

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FOOD ROUNDUP

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In October, when Kim Murray, co-owner of Creekside Taphouse, first learned that Jane Anderson was stepping down from her longtime position as executive director of the Asheville Independent Restaurant Association, her immediate reaction was “Those are big shoes to fill!” At the time, Murray, an active AIR board member for nearly a decade, had not thought of pursuing the position, despite talk from fellow members suggesting that she consider the role. Instead, she agreed to assist in the interview process. But when a suitable candidate did not emerge, she began to reconsider her stance. “Restaurant people are a whole different breed, with very unique personalities and issues,” she explains. “Our board is restaurant owners, so to work with them and members it takes someone with know-how about the industry and Asheville. The further we got, the more I thought I could do this. I believe in this organization, and I want to see it continue to grow and thrive.” After much discussion with Anthony Dorage, co-owner of Creekside Taphouse, Murray accepted the position as AIR’s new executive director, where starting Monday, Jan. 31, she will represent, support and advocate for over 100 locally and independently owned restaurants. According to Murray, her top priorities will be to continue to address the workforce challenges facing the industry, as well as recruiting new members, increasing cultural diversity and bringing back AIR’s annual fundraiser Taste of Asheville in some form. Her familiarity with its operations, continues Murray, offers her an insider’s view on the position’s responsibilities. “Jane [Anderson] has been the point person for so long,” Murray says. “Whenever something came up, it was always: ‘Call Jane, she’ll know what to do.’ And she did. The position is so important to our industry, and I’m honored to take it on.”

Banking on the future Another local organization will also pass the leadership baton on Jan. 31, when Claire Neal assumes the role of chief executive officer at MANNA FoodBank. Hannah

INCOMING: Kim Murray, veteran restaurateur and longtime board member of the Asheville Independent Restaurant Association, will assume the role of AIR executive director on January 31. Photo by John Warner Randall has held the position for nearly six years. During her tenure, Randall has led the organization through multiple natural disasters and emergency responses, most notably the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Under her leadership, the nonprofit also launched MANNA Community Market, a mobile pantry initiative that reaches isolated pockets of people living with food insecurity in rural parts of WNC. Neal, a native of North Carolina, is currently the CEO of Lifelong in Seattle. With nearly 20 years’ experience developing equity-focused health programming, Neal earned a doctorate in public health through the executive doctoral program in health leadership at UNC Chapel Hill. As Neal assumes her role, MANNA is embarking on a much-needed facility expansion and continues to navigate the fallout from the ongoing pandemic-accelerated food crisis. “I look forward to bringing my experience in public health initiatives to the strong foundation firmly in place at MANNA,” says Neal. “Food insecurity is a public health issue, and I’m energized to join MANNA and the entire community doing lifesaving work for families across the region.”

The Key to a New Barbering Career Tea-tail Dry January is halfway through for those who’ve opted to forgo alcohol during the first month of 2022. If your resolve needs a revival, Asheville Tea Co. has some nonalcoholic “teatails” to help you power through. Inspired by the classic gin and tonic, the company’s Appalachian G&Tea can be poured over ice, topped with tonic water, flavored with a squeeze of lime and garnished with fresh mint leaves. Another option is Asheville Tea Co.’s Hibiscus Mojito tea. Influenced by the classic Cuban cocktail, it’s a blend of regionally grown lime basil and mint with organic hibiscus; drink it hot or pour it over ice, add a teaspoon of elderberry syrup and top with tonic water for another tasty “tea-tail.” The Asheville Tea Co. line is sold in local retail outlets and online at avl.mx/ad8.

Trail of cheers

Add the Asheville Mocktail Trail to your Dry January calendar and sign up for a guided experience with Asheville Rooftop Bar Tours or go rogue and hit one or more of the five watering holes that will feature craft mocktails through the end of the month. Participating bars include The Montford Rooftop Bar, 199 Haywood St.; The Blackbird, 47 Biltmore Ave.; Goldfinch, 122 Cherry St., Black Mountain; Pillar Rooftop Bar, 309 College St.; and Hemingway’s Cuba, 15 Page Ave. Each bar will have a special mocktail, including a piña colada, Blackbird Crush, The Red Herring, Ginger Peach Spritz and Strawberry Express. To sign up for the guided tour, visit avl.mx/5rl.

Gutsy move

Naomi Mikami, chef and owner of WakuWaku Eatery, wants to help people recover from six weeks of sausage balls, pie, mashed potatoes, gravy, cookies, ham, yeast rolls and cheese — so much cheese. In her first newsletter of 2022, she invites readers to “reset your stomach and conditions from the busy holiday season.” Her January menu of obanzai — a traditional style of Japanese cuisine native to Kyoto — relies on more low-calorie, high-fiber and mineral-rich foods such as konnyaku, tofu and root vegetables. Four premium obento meal options available through Jan. 31 are described on the restaurant’s website and can

be ordered by email or phone, for pick up at 674 Merrimon Ave. or the restaurant’s satellite location at 191 Lyman Street, No. 165. To view the full menu, visit avl.mx/b2r.

Cold comfort

Turnips and cabbage and squash, oh my. ’Tis the season for winter produce, and three Buncombe County tailgate markets and its vendors are braving the cold with weekly winter tailgate markets. Find your fresh and local root vegetables, greens, mushrooms, eggs, meats, cheeses, breads, baked goods, condiments, honey, fermented foods, seafood, prepared foods and beverages at the following markets: ASAP Market at 340 Victoria Road on the A-B Tech campus Saturdays from 10 a.m.-1 p.m.; the River Arts District Farmers Market inside and outside Pleb Urban Winery, 289 Lyman St., on Wednesdays, 3-5:30 p.m.; and the Weaverville Tailgate Market, indoors at the Weaverville Community Center, 60 Lakeshore Drive, Wednesdays, 3-6 p.m. For those seeking winter markets in neighboring counties, there are more than a dozen options. A complete list with locations and operating hours can be found at avl.mx/b2s.

Encore performances The Summer of Chow Chow 2021 has concluded, but two of the ticketed cooking demonstrations can now be enjoyed online at no cost. Chef Katie Button’s “Paella Cook-Along” can be viewed at avl.mx/b2t with an available recipe list found at avl.mx/b2u. Chef J Chong presents a “Farmers Market Cook-Along” is at avl.mx/b2v. The ingredient list and instructions are available at avl.mx/b2w.

— Kay West X

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JAN. 19-25, 2022

A R TS & CU LTU R E

ROUNDUP

Around Town

Asheville Symphony embraces pop

ROAD SHOW: Hannah Zazzaro will be the featured vocalist when the Asheville Symphony’s chamber orchestra performs at Highland Brewing Co.’s event center on Tuesday, Jan. 25. Photo by Peter Vann Some people like to listen to works by Mozart; others prefer the sounds of Freddie Mercury and Queen. And that’s perfectly OK with Daniel Crupi, executive director of the Asheville Symphony Orchestra. “Not everything needs to be a funnel to our classical series,” he says. “My hope is to show people that the Asheville Symphony can represent both of these musical traditions and that no matter where or when they attend an ASO performance, it will be an inspiring artistic experience.” To that end, the symphony is launching its ALT ASO flexible chamber series, which will take the orchestra on the road to various locations, starting with Highland Brewing Co. on Tuesday, Jan. 25, at 7 p.m. Though the inaugural performance has already sold out, future concerts are scheduled for The Orange Peel on April 26 and the Asheville Art Museum on June 21. “I am very interested in creating artistic experiences that are authentic to Asheville itself, and Highland Brewing, The Orange Peel and the Asheville Art Museum are about as unique and local as you get,” Crupi says. The inaugural Jan. 25 event will feature a chamber orchestra and vocalist Hannah Zazzaro performing the music of Giuseppe Verdi, Georges Bizet, Dolly Parton, Lady Gaga, Guns N’ Roses, Nirvana, Queen 26

JAN. 19-25, 2022

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and some surprises to be announced from the stage. “Asheville already has several outstanding chamber music organizations in Pan Harmonia and the Asheville Chamber Music Series — we are not trying to duplicate their efforts through the ALT ASO series,” Crupi says. “Instead, my goal is to fill a niche that did not already exist: chamber orchestra-sized ensembles of 20-25 players, plus conductor and soloist, in unique venues.” For more information on the series, visit avl.mx/b3a.

Health and history The Western North Carolina Historical Association will present a Zoom panel, “Vaccines and Public Health in Western North Carolina: Past and Present,” on Thursday, Jan. 20, 6-8 p.m. Three historians will discuss past pandemics and public health crises, including smallpox, polio and the 1918 flu, in Western North Carolina and Appalachia. The speakers include David Cockrell, instructor of history at Guilford Technical Community College; Patricia Bernard Ezzell, senior program manager in the Tennessee Valley Authority’s human resources and communications division; and Richard Eller, instructor of history at Catawba Valley Community College.

Also on the panel will be Maryam Ahmed, professor of biology at Appalachian State University, and Michael Opata, assistant professor of biology at Appalachian State University. The two will address COVID-19, vaccines and responses to the pandemic. The event is free and open to the public, but donations are accepted. Registration is required. To register or get more information, visit avl.mx/b3k.

The trying game Isis Music Hall will host an album release party for Jordan Scheffer’s Until We Try on Friday, Jan. 21, at 8:30 p.m. Scheffer will perform along with Kinobe, a Ugandan multi-instrumentalist, vocalist and composer. Scheffer, an Asheville native and UNC Asheville student, is a vocalist, percussionist, pianist and writer who combines American roots, West African and Afro Caribbean funk rhythms in her music. She won the 2017 Blind Idol talent competition in Raleigh at age 18. Until We Try is a collection of covers, including multiple Bob Marley numbers and several songs by Nigerian/ French artist Aṣa. For more information or to purchase tickets, visit avl.mx/b3c.

Mind over matter Mentalist Jonathan Pritchard will present his Asheville Mind Reading Show at the Wortham Center for the Performing Arts on Saturday, Jan. 29, at 6 p.m. “The 70-minute theatrical ‘mind reading’ experience explores the power of human imagination and shows you what lives beyond the impossible,” states a press release from the Wortham Center. “It is a mixture of applied psychology, showmanship, comedy and moxie.” Pritchard, a Marion native, has performed for Fortune 500 companies and has done thousands of shows at Universal Studios in Orlando and the Magic Castle in Los Angeles. He also appeared on “America’s Got Talent.” For more information or to buy tickets, visit avl.mx/prwe.

Candlemas concert Fiddle player and jazz musician Andrew Finn Magill will be the featured artist for the 2022 Candlemas concert taking place at St. James Episcopal Church in Hendersonville on Sunday, Jan. 30, at 4 p.m. The concert event, now in its 32nd year, will raise funds for three local organizations working to alle-

viate hunger in Henderson County: Interfaith Assistance Ministry, the Hendersonville Rescue Mission and The Storehouse. The yearly benefit concert, presented by the St. James Outreach Commission, celebrates the ancient Christian holiday of Candlemas, commemorating Mary’s return to the temple at Jerusalem to present her son to God. St. James Episcopal Church is at 776 N. Main St., Hendersonville. Tickets are $25 each. To purchase tickets online, go to avl.mx/b3b.

The best medicine Slice of Life Comedy Open Mic Night at Pulp Lounge, located in the basement of The Orange Peel, will feature a performance by Asheville comedian Morgan Bost on Thursday, Jan. 20, at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $8 for members/$10 for new members. Then on Thursday, Jan. 27, at 7:30 p.m., Slice of Life Comedy returns to the game room at Asheville Pizza & Brewing Co., 675 Merrimon Ave. Hosted by Ryan Cox, the event will feature Moira Goree, Jess Cooley, Katy Hudson and John Hawley. Tickets are $12 ($10 for locals). Pulp Lounge is at 103 Hilliard Ave. To purchase tickets for the Jan. 20 show, visit avl.mx/b3d. To purchase tickets for the Jan. 27 event, go to avl.mx/b3e.

Museum acquires artworks The Asheville Art Museum recently acquired 25 new artworks for its collection, including 14 by Cherokee Nation or Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians artists who were not previously represented at the museum. The works also feature nationally recognized artists. All acquisitions were created in the 20th and 21st centuries. “These artworks contribute directly to the museum’s commitment to collecting from and supporting contemporary Indigenous artists, especially those with connections to the unceded land upon which the museum sits,” the museum says in a statement. John Henry Gloyne, Christopher McCoy, Tara McCoy, Rhiannon Skye Tafoya, Jakeli Swimmer and Alica Murphy Wildcatt of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, and Jeff Edwards, Kenny Glass and Jennie Wilson of the Cherokee Nation are among some of the artists featured in the new acquisition.

— Justin McGuire X

MOVIE REVIEWS Local reviewers’ critiques of new films include: BELLE: Part Beauty and the Beast, part Ready Player One, Mamoru Hosoda’s animated feature is a feast for the senses and makes its peers from the Class of 2021 look like flip books. Grade: A-minus —Edwin Arnaudin THE 355: Early January isn’t exactly known for quality cinema, and this female-centric spy thriller does its best to maintain that reputation. Reeking of studio interference, the shoddy script treats agents Mace (Jessica Chastain), Marie (Diane Kruger), Khadijah (Lupita Nyong’o) and Graciela (Penélope Cruz) as means to an end instead of genuine human beings. Grade: C-minus — Edwin Arnaudin

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JAN. 19-25, 2022

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The featured icon indicates which venues or artists require proof of vaccination for upcoming shows. Due to the evolving nature of the matter, the list may not be comprehensive. Before heading out, please check with all venues for complete information on any vaccine or negative COVID-19 requirements. For questions about free listings, call 828-251-1333, opt. 4.

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 19 12 BONES BREWERY Robert's Totally Rad Trivia, 7pm 185 KING STREET Trivia Night, 7pm ALLEY CAT SOCIAL CLUB Asheville's Best Karaoke, 8pm ARCHETYPE TAP LOUNGE + VENUE Locals Night, 4pm ASHEVILLE BEAUTY ACADEMY • Well Played Board Game Nightk 7pm • Hissy Fit Comedy Takeover: Atlanta Comedy Showcase, 9pm CASCADE LOUNGE Wednesday Bluegrass Jam, 5pm CITIZEN VINYL Open Folk, 6pm

FLEETWOOD'S Terraoke! Karaoke w/KJ Terra Ware, 6pm HI-WIRE BREWING BIG TOP Free Weekly Trivia Night, 7pm HI-WIRE BREWING RAD BEER GARDEN Game Night, 6pm HIGHLAND BREWING CO. Well Crafted Wednesdays w/Matt Smith (singer-songwriter), 6pm ICONIC KITCHEN & DRINKS Marc Keller (acoustic), 6pm OFF THE WAGON All Request Piano Show, 8pm OKLAWAHA BREWING CO. French Broad Valley Mountain Music Jam, 6pm

ONE WORLD BREWING WEST Latin Night Wednesdays, 7pm RENDEZVOUS Albi (vintage jazz), 6pm SILVERADOS Open Mic, 7pm Open Mic Wednesday w/Marc Keller, 7pm SOUTHERN APPALACHIAN BREWERY Jason DeCristafaro's Weekly Wednesday Jazz Night & Jam, 5:30pm SWEETEN CREEK BREWING Witty Wednesday Trivia, 6:30pm THE OMNI GROVE PARK INN The B's (jazz, standards), 7pm TRISKELION BREWING CO. TriskaTrivia, 7pm TURGUA BREWING CO Trivia Night w/Pub Trivia Nerds, 6pm

MAKE TONIGHT A WONDERFUL THING: Asheville-based Steely Dan tribute band Dirty Logic will perform at Asheville Music Hall Thursday, Jan. 27, at 9 p.m. The 11-piece band is composed of members of both national and regional acts. Photo by Bo Jolley 305 LOUNGE & EATERY Bob Sherill (singer-songwriter), 1pm

THURSDAY, JANUARY 20

ALLEY CAT SOCIAL CLUB Open Mic w/Lincoln, 8pm

131 MAIN Aaron LaFalce (soul, rock, pop), 6pm

BOLD ROCK HARD CIDER Robert's Totally Rad Trivia, 7pm

185 KING STREET Ages Past (bluegrass), 7pm

CONTINUUM ART Singer Songwriter Open Mic, 6pm

ISIS MUSIC HALL & KITCHEN 743 • Asheville Sessions w/ Ellen Trnka (blues, jazz), 7pm • Italian Night w/Mike Guggino & Barrett Smith (world)k 8:30pm JACK OF THE WOOD PUB Bluegrass Jam w/Drew Matulich & Friends, 7pm OKLAWAHA BREWING CO. Billy Litz (roots, blues, ragtime), 7pm ONE WORLD BREWING WEST Meat & Potatoes (blues, indie rock, soul), 7pm THE GETAWAY RIVER BAR Karaoke w/Karaoke Jackazz, 8pm THE ODDITORIUM Nixil, Paezor, Urocyon (metal), 8pm TRISKELION BREWING CO. Seth & Sara (acoustic duo), 7pm

FRIDAY, JANUARY 21 185 KING STREET Songs From the Road Band (bluegrass), 10:30pm 305 LOUNGE & EATERY Geriatric Jukebox (oldies), 5pm ALLEY CAT SOCIAL CLUB House After Dark w/DJ Soulistk (dance), 9pm BREWSKIES Karaoke, 10pm BURNTSHIRT VINEYARDS Myron Hyman (classic rock, blues), 3pm CATAWBA BREWING SOUTH SLOPE In Flight Duo (world, jazz, funk), 7pm CORK & KEG The Uptown Hillbillies (honky tonk, classic country)k 8pm DRY FALLS BREWING CO. David Payne (acoustic), 7pm

JAN. 19-25, 2022

MOUNTAINX.COM

FLEETWOOD'S Safety Coffin, Kael Jackson and The Third Eye Paradigm & Her Pilots (garage, blues, psych), 8pm GINGER'S REVENGE CRAFT BREWERY & TASTING ROOM Descolada (country, folk), 7pm HIGHLAND BREWING CO. Ben Bjorlie Trio (jazz, funk), 7pm ISIS MUSIC HALL & KITCHEN 743 • Beth Snapp Band (acoustic, Americana, folk)k 7pm • Jordan Scheffer (Americana), 8:30pm JACK OF THE WOOD PUB The Well Drinkers (bluegrass), 8pm OKLAWAHA BREWING CO. Last Full Measure (folk, blues), 8pm ONE WORLD BREWING 5j Barrow (folk rock), 8pm ONE WORLD BREWING WEST Isaac Hadden Organ Trio (jazz, funk), 7pm SALVAGE STATION Big Something w/Little Stranger (rock, pop, funk)k 8pm SILVERADOS Ryan Perry Band (country), 9pm THE GETAWAY RIVER BAR Getaway Comedy: Nathan Owens, 8pm THE GREY EAGLE The Pink Stones w/ Teddy and The Rough Riders (country rock) k 9pm THE ODDITORIUM Bumpin' Uglies Presents Emo Night, 8pm THE ORANGE PEEL Parker McCollum (country)k 8pm TRISKELION BREWING CO. Trevor Darden (acoustic), 7pm

WXYZ BAR AT ALOFT Zach Meadows (singer-songwriter), 7pm

SATURDAY, JANUARY 22 185 KING STREET Hearts Gone South (country, honky tonk), 8pm ALLEY CAT SOCIAL CLUB Asheville's Best Karaoke, 8pm ASHEVILLE BEAUTY ACADEMY Totally Exhausted Womxn of Atlantak 7pm BREWSKIES Pool Tournament Saturdays, 7pm BURNTSHIRT VINEYARDS Rory Jagdeo (acoustic), 2pm BURNTSHIRT VINEYARDS CHIMNEY ROCK J. Stephens (singer-songwriter), 2pm

SALVAGE STATION Big Something w/Little Stranger (rock, pop, funk)k 8pm SILVERADOS Dirty Dead (Grateful Dead tribute), 9pm SUNNY POINT CAFÉ Albi (vintage jazz), 6pm THE GREY EAGLE 12th Annual Django Reinhardt Birthday Celebrationk 7pm THE ORANGE PEEL Mustache the Band (country)k 8pm TRISKELION BREWING CO. Rich Nelson Band (rock), 7pm WXYZ BAR AT ALOFT DJ LC Tamagotchi, 7pm

SUNDAY, JANUARY 23 185 KING STREET Open Electric Jam w/ the King Street House Band ft. Howie Johnson, 5pm

CORK & KEG Chronic Life (jazz)k 8pm

BURNTSHIRT VINEYARDS Everydays (Americana), 2pm

CROW & QUILL The Krektones (surf rock, exotica)k 8pm

FLEETWOOD'S Tommy Stinson (rock), 8:30pm

DRY FALLS BREWING CO. Mojomatic (blues, rock), 7pm

HIGHLAND BREWING COMPANY Soul Jazz Sundays w/ Taylor Pierson Trio, 3pm

GUIDON BREWING Paul Edelman (Americana), 6pm

HIGHLAND DOWNTOWN TAPROOM Blues and Brews w/ Charlie Mojo, 1pm

HIGHLAND BREWING CO. Katrina Fortier Duo (Top 40 folk), 7pm ISIS MUSIC HALL & KITCHEN 743 The JackTown Ramblers (bluegrass), 8:30pm OKLAWAHA BREWING CO. High Flying Criminals (funk, soul), 8pm ONE WORLD BREWING WEST The New Lefties (acoustic cover band) k 7pm

JACK OF THE WOOD PUB • Bluegrass Brunch w/ Supper Break, 12pm • Quizzo Pub Trivia w/ Jason Mencer, 7:30pm OKLAWAHA BREWING CO. Jason Lyles (Americana), 4pm ONE WORLD BREWING WEST • Sunday Jazz Jam w/ The Fully Vaccinated Jazz Trio, 1pm • Kid Billy (roots, blues, ragtime), 5pm

THE ORANGE PEEL Caravan Palace (electronic)k 8pm

MILLS RIVER BREWING Trivia Night, 6pm

TRISKELION BREWING CO. Johnnie Blackwell (rock, blues), 3pm

OKLAWAHA BREWING CO. Team Trivia, 7pm

MONDAY, JANUARY 24 BREWSKIES Open Jam w/Tall Paul, 7:30pm DOUBLE CROWN Country Karaoke, 10pm LITTLE JUMBO The Core (jazz)k 7pm OKLAWAHA BREWING CO. It Takes All Kinds Open Mic Night, 7pm ONE WORLD BREWING WEST Monday Mashup w/ Grant Green Jr. (jazz), 7pm SILVERADOS 8 Ball Tournament, 7pm THE GETAWAY RIVER BAR Trivia by the River w/ James Harrod, 8pm THE GOLDEN PINEAPPLE Robert's Totally Rad Trivia, 8pm THE GREY EAGLE Boy Harsher w/Hiro Kone (dark wave, synth) k 8pm THE JOINT NEXT DOOR Mr Jimmy & Friends (blues), 7pm

TUESDAY, JANUARY 25

ONE WORLD BREWING WEST Grateful Family Band Tuesdays (Dead tribute), 6pm TRISKELION BREWING CO. Irish Session (Celtic), 7pm

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 26

ISIS MUSIC HALL & KITCHEN 743 An Evening with Nellie McKay (songwriter)k 7:30pm OKLAWAHA BREWING CO. French Broad Valley Mountain Music Jam, 6pm ONE WORLD BREWING WEST Latin Night Wednesdays, 7pm RENDEZVOUS Albi (vintage jazz), 6pm SILVERADOS Open Mic, 7pm

185 KING STREET Trivia Night, 7pm

SOUTHERN APPALACHIAN BREWERY Jason DeCristafaro's Weekly Wednesday Jazz Night & Jam, 5:30pm

ALLEY CAT SOCIAL CLUB Asheville's Best Karaoke, 8pm

SWEETEN CREEK BREWING Witty Wednesday Trivia, 6:30pm

12 BONES BREWERY Robert's Totally Rad Trivia, 7pm

ARCHETYPE TAP LOUNGE + VENUE Locals Night, 4pm ASHEVILLE BEAUTY ACADEMY Beauty Parlor Comedy: Mo Alexanderk 7pm ASHEVILLE MUSIC HALL Disclaimer Stand Up Comedy (open mic), 8pm BIG PILLOW BREWING Big Pillow Talk - Live Music Wednesdays, 6pm CASCADE LOUNGE Wednesday Bluegrass Jam, 5pm

THE GREY EAGLE Ryley Walker (singer-songwriter)k 8pm THE ODDITORIUM Lavender Blue, Collin Miller & Corey Parlamento (indie, soul, blues), 7pm TRISKELION BREWING CO. TriskaTrivia, 7pm TURGUA BREWING CO Trivia Night w/Pub Trivia Nerds, 6pm

THURSDAY, JANUARY 27

CITIZEN VINYL Open Folk, 6pm

131 MAIN Aaron LaFalce (soul, rock, pop), 6pm

305 LOUNGE & EATERY Bob Sherill (singer-songwriter), 1pm

HI-WIRE BREWING BIG TOP Free Weekly Trivia Night, 7pm

185 KING STREET Keturah Allgood & Friends (Americana), 7pm

ALLEY CAT SOCIAL CLUB Industry Night, 7pm

HI-WIRE BREWING RAD BEER GARDEN Game Night, 6pm

FRENCH BROAD RIVER BREWERY Robert's Totally Rad Trivia, 7pm

HIGHLAND BREWING CO. Well Crafted Wednesdays w/Matt Smith (singer-songwriter), 6pm

305 LOUNGE & EATERY Bob Sherill (singer-songwriter), 1pm

HIGHLAND DOWNTOWN TAPROOM Luna Mother (acoustic), 6pm

ICONIC KITCHEN & DRINKS Marc Keller (acoustic), 6pm

ALLEY CAT SOCIAL CLUB Open Mic w/Lincoln, 8pm ASHEVILLE BEAUTY ACADEMY Classic Beauties Drag Showk 9pm

ASHEVILLE MUSIC HALL Dirty Logic: A Tribute To Steely Dan, 9pm ASHEVILLE PIZZA & BREWING CO. GameRoom Standup Comedy Show, 7:30pm BOLD ROCK HARD CIDER Robert's Totally Rad Trivia, 7pm DOUBLE CROWN Gospel Night w/ Provisionk 9pm GINGER'S REVENGE CRAFT BREWERY & TASTING ROOM Gluten-Free Comedy (open mic), 6pm HIGHLAND BREWING DOWNTOWN TAPROOM Drag Music Bingo w/ Divine the Bearded Lady, 6pm ISIS MUSIC HALL & KITCHEN 743 Asheville Sessions w/ Reggie Headen (soul, funk, jazz), 7:30pm JACK OF THE WOOD PUB Bluegrass Jam w/Drew Matulich & Friends, 7pm OKLAWAHA BREWING CO. Josh Dunkin (acoustic), 7pm ONE WORLD BREWING WEST Matt Waters & The Recipe (acoustic, soul, songwriter), 7pm THE 2ND ACT Russ Wilson & The 2nd Act Orchestra (swing), 7pm THE GETAWAY RIVER BAR Karaoke w/Karaoke Jackazz, 8pm THE GREY EAGLE Jeremy Boger and The Golden Eagles (rock) k 8pm THE ODDITORIUM Terraoke Karaoke Takeover, 8pm THE ORANGE PEEL Railroad Earth (Americana)k 8pm

MOUNTAINX.COM

JAN. 19-25, 2022

FREEWILL ASTROLOGY ARIES (March 21-April 19): In October 2021, the Vancouver Canucks hockey team played the Seattle Kraken team in a Seattle arena. A fan named Nadia Popovici noticed that the Canucks’ equipment manager Brian Hamilton had an irregular mole on the back of his neck — possibly cancerous. She found a way to communicate her observation to him, urging him to see a doctor. In the ensuing days, Hamilton sought medical care and discovered that the mole was indeed in an early stage of melanoma. He had it removed. In the spirit of this inspiring story, Aries, I invite you to tell the people in your life things they should know but don’t know yet — not just what might be challenging, but also what’s energizing and interesting. Be their compassionate advisor, their agent for divine intervention. TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Canadian-Jamaican songwriter and recording artist Kreesha Turner isn’t a mega-star like Beyoncé or Rihanna, but she has had a successful music career. What’s the secret to her constant creative output? Here’s what she has said: “I love to surround myself with people who are the best at what they do. My idea is I want to be a sponge and absorb everything they teach, experience their energy, view them in their element, and have the opportunity to ask them questions.” The coming year will be one of the best times ever for you to emulate her strategy, Taurus. And now is a perfect moment for formulating plans to make it happen. GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Gemini author Lisa Cron says that when we’re telling a story, we should give each successive scene “new information, rather than rehashing things we already know. Never tell us the same fact twice. Because it’s boring and stops the flow of the story. Never tell us the same fact twice. Because it’s boring and stops the flow of the story.” In accordance with astrological omens, Gemini, I suggest you apply this counsel to everything you say and do in the next three weeks. Don’t repeat yourself. Keep moving right along. Invite novelty. Cultivate surprises and unpredictability. CANCER (June 21-July 22): Years ago, I reluctantly gave up my music career. To do so was sad and hard. But it enabled me to devote far more time and energy to improving my writing skills. I published books and developed a big audience. I’m glad I did it. Here’s another redemptive sacrifice I made earlier in my life: I renounced the chaotic pleasure of seeking endless new romantic adventures so I could commit myself to a relationship with one particular woman. In so doing, I learned a lot more about how to be a soulful human. I’m glad I did it. Is there potentially a comparable pivot in your life, my fellow Cancerian? If so, the coming weeks and months will be a favorable time to make a move. LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Leo actor Claudia Christian has appeared in over 50 films, including many in the science fiction genre. She has played a variety of roles in movies with more conventional themes. But as for the sci-fi stuff? She says, “Apparently, I’ve been typecast: I’m a Russian bisexual telepathic Jew.” If Christian came to me for astrological advice right now, I would suggest that the coming months will be an excellent time for her and all of you Leos to slip free of any pigeonholes you’ve been stuck in. Escape the mold! Create niches for yourself that enable you to express your full repertoire. VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): The coming weeks will be a favorable time to meditate on your job and your calling — as well as the differences there may be between your job and your calling. In fact, I regard this as a phase when you can summon transformative epiphanies about the way you earn a living and the useful services you provide to your fellow humans. For inspiration, read this quote from photographer Margaret Bourke-White: “Even while you’re in dead earnest about your work, you must approach

JAN. 19-25, 2022

it with a feeling of freedom and joy; you must be loose-jointed, like a relaxed athlete.” LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Author Marguerite Yourcenar wrote, “All happiness is a work of art: The smallest error falsifies it, the slightest hesitation alters it, the least heaviness spoils it, the slightest stupidity brutalizes it.” If what she says is true, it’s bad news, isn’t it? She makes it seem like cultivating joy and well-being is a superhuman skill that few of us can hope to master. Personally, I am not as stringent as Yourcenar in my ideas about what’s required to generate happiness. But like her, I believe you have to work at it. It doesn’t necessarily come easily and naturally. Most of us have never been taught how to cultivate happiness, so we must train ourselves to do it and practice diligently. The good news, Libra, is that the coming weeks will be an excellent time for you to upgrade your happiness skills. SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): In 1891, a cultural organization commissioned Scorpio sculptor Auguste Rodin to create a statue of beloved French author Honoré de Balzac. The piece was supposed to be done in 18 months, but it wasn’t. For seven years, Rodin toiled, producing over 50 studies before finally finishing the piece. We shouldn’t be surprised, then, that one of his mottoes was “Patience is also a form of action.” I’m recommending Rodin-like patience to you in the coming weeks, Scorpio. Yours will be rewarded long before seven years go by. SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): “I am ashamed of confessing that I have nothing to confess,” wrote author Fanny Burney. Actor Jennifer Lawrence said, “I started to write an apology, but I don’t have anything to say I’m sorry for.” I nominate these two souls to be your role models for the coming weeks. In my astrological opinion, you are currently as immune to karmic boomerangs as it’s possible to be. Your guilt levels are abnormally low. As far as I can determine, you are relatively free from having to answer to the past or defend your actions. How do you plan to make maximum use of this grace period? CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): “New truths become evident when new tools become available,” declared Nobel Prize-winning medical physicist Rosalyn Sussman Yalow (1921–2011). She was referring to developments in science and technology, but I think her idea applies to our personal lives, too. And it so happens, in my astrological opinion, that the coming weeks will be a favorable time for you to acquire new tools that will ultimately lead you to discover new truths. AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Self-help teachers and New Age gurus are fond of using metaphors about opening doors. They provide a lot of advice that encourages us to knock on doors, scout around for doors that are open just a crack, find keys to unlock doors and even kick down doors. I will not be following their lead in this horoscope. In my opinion, the coming days are an excellent time for you to heed the contrary counsel of author Paulo Coelho: “Close some doors today. Not because of pride, incapacity or arrogance, but simply because they lead you nowhere.” Once you carry out this assignment, Aquarius, I believe you’ll start finding interesting new doors to open. PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): In 2017, Piscean film director Jordan Peele released his debut film, Get Out. It was a success with both critics and audiences. A year later, Peele became the first Black screenwriter to win the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. As he accepted the Oscar, he said, “I stopped writing this movie about 20 times because I thought it was impossible.” Personally, I’m glad Peele didn’t give up his dream. Here’s one reason why: He will serve as an excellent role model for you throughout 2022. As you reinvent yourself, Pisces, don’t give up pushing ahead with persistence, courage and a quest for what’s most fun.

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MARKETPLACE

BY ROB BREZSNY

REAL ESTATE & RENTALS | ROOMMATES | JOBS | SERVICES ANNOUNCEMENTS | CLASSES & WORKSHOPS | MIND, BODY, SPIRIT MUSICIANS’ SERVICES | PETS | AUTOMOTIVE | XCHANGE | ADULT Want to advertise in Marketplace? 828-251-1333 advertise@mountainx.com • mountainx.com/classifieds If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Remember the Russian proverb: “Doveryai, no proveryai,” trust but verify. When answering classified ads, always err on the side of caution. Especially beware of any party asking you to give them financial or identification information. The Mountain Xpress cannot be responsible for ensuring that each advertising client is legitimate. Please report scams to advertise@mountainx.com REAL ESTATE LAND FOR SALE MOUNTAIN PROPERTY WITH VIEWS FOR SALE Beautiful mountain property located in Swannanoa. Private and 10 minutes from Asheville. 25.7 acres of gorgeous mountain property with building sites. $259,000. Call Wayne at Purcell Realty at 828-279-8562 for more information.

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SALES/ MARKETING

SALES PROFESSIONAL Mountain Xpress is looking to add a new member to our sales team. This is a full-time position with benefits. Ideal candidates are personable, organized, motivated, and can present confidently, while working within a structure. Necessary skills include clear and professional communications (via phone, email, and in-person meetings), detailed record-keeping, and working well in a team environment. While no outside sales experience is required, experience dealing with varied and challenging situations is helpful. The position largely entails account development and lead generation (including cold-calling), account management, assisting clients with marketing and branding strategies, and working to meet or exceed sales goals. If you are a high energy, positive, cooperative person looking to join an independent, community-minded organization, please send a resume and cover letter (no walk-ins, please) explaining why you are a good fit for Mountain Xpress to: xpressjob@mountainx.com

RESTAURANT/ FOOD $2,000 SIGN-ON BONUS BISTRO & KITCHEN TEAM MEMBERS Dining Team Members $2000 Sign-On Bonus 0136 Deerfield Bistro & Cafe. Start a new career with a 5 Star Retirement Community. $2000 Sign-On Bonus Paid out in increments over the first six

months. Starting Pay $14.00 for Bistro Servers, Cafe Attendants, Cooks, Dishwasher, Cold Prep & Dietary Full-Time and Part-Time positions Hours to suit your busy schedule. Customer Service/food service experience is preferred but not a requirement. Please apply at: https://deerfieldwnc. org/careers/ DISHWASHERS PT & FT: SIERRA NEVADA BREWING $1,000 SIGN ON BONUS + BENEFITS The Dishwasher, who reports to the BOH Supervisor, is a member of the kitchen team who will receive and organize products; wash and sanitize equipment, plates, utensils, and spaces; stock equipment as needed in order to maintain proper BOH operations for the continuity of the guest experience. https:// sierranevada.com/careers/ LINE COOK: SIERRA NEVADA BREWING $1,000 SIGN ON BONUS + BENEFITS The Line Cook is a member of the kitchen team, who will work closely with all other positions in the Back of the House operations to prep, cook, and expedite food to the guests ordering onsite, delivery, and to-go.The Line Cook, who reports to the BOH Supervisor Team, operates grills, fryers, broilers, and other commercial cooking equipment to prepare and serve food. https://sierranevada.com/careers/

DRIVERS/ DELIVERY

MOUNTAIN XPRESS DELIVERY Mountain Xpress is seeking an energetic, reliable, independent contractor for part-time weekly newspaper delivery. The contractor must have a safe driving record, a reliable vehicle with proper insurance and registration, and be able to lift 50 lbs. without strain. Distribution of papers is on Tuesday afternoons and typically lasts about 7-8 hours per week. Occasional Wednesday morning delivery is is sometimes needed or an option. E-mail distro@ mountainx.com. No phone calls or walk-ins please. Central Downtown Asheville route.

MEDICAL/ HEALTH CARE HIRING: DENTAL ASSISTANT We are looking for a highly motivated individual to work under the supervision of the

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HUMAN SERVICES LEAD LEARNING CENTER ASSISTANT This position will assist the after school & Summer Enrichment Program Manager in planning and implementing after school and summer enrichment programming in Learning Centers and other community based sites. https:// childrenfirstcisbc.org/ STUDENT SUPPORT SPECIALIST Children First Communities in Schools is looking for someone who has experience in education, mentoring or social services and can help us continue to improve

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THE N EW Y OR K TI M ES C ROSSWORD P UZ Z LE how we serve people of color. Specifically, we are seeking candidates that are representative of the communities that we serve. Student Support Specialists have the ability to form their plan based on what the school and students most need. We are looking for an organized, self-starter who can receive feedback and adjust accordingly. Interested applicants will need to submit a cover letter, resume and three professional references by email to employment@ childrenfirstbc.org.

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edited by Will Shortz | No. 1215

ACROSS

1 13

5 Is down with

8 Loved, loved, loved

14 “SOS!” 15 Place for pigeons to sit 16 Unit of 17-Across 17 See 16-Across 18 Shade akin to cream

23 Firework’s path 24 Like the anagram “I’ll make a wise phrase” for “William Shakespeare” 25 Journeys for people who are relocating 32 Boast 34 Landed 35 “City Without Walls” poet 36 Early DVR device 37 Accumulating bank deposits? 39 One responsive to voice commands 40 Writer ___ Rogers St. Johns 42 Cut of a dress, maybe 43 Large number 44 Some court winners 47 “___ but a scratch!” 48 Obama ___ (2009-17) 49 High-end Italian scooter 51 Sign in some clothing stores … or a hint to 19-, 25- and 44-Across 57 Louis-Dreyfus of “Veep” 58 Japanese noodle 59 Centers of activity

48 51

19 Speculations that don’t pay off 22 Start of a tax form

PUZZLE BY JESSIE BULLOCK AND ROSS TRUDEAU

1 “___ fair in love and war”

13 Edible part of a taro plant

60 Citizen of Muscat 61 Meadows 62 Head of a brewery? 63 Messed around (with) 64 Subject of Netflix’s “Have a Good Trip” 65 Followers of morns

DOWN 1 Type of horse known for endurance riding 2 High regard for one’s hometown, say 3 Act high and mighty toward 4 Gertrude who wrote “Rose is a rose is a rose …” 5 “Take this!” 6 Draft choices 7 Expectorated 8 Canadian birthplace of Rae Dawn Chong and Michael J. Fox 9 Young love 10 Make tweaks to 11 Boots from Down Under 12 Difference between icky and picky?

14 Some fine cigars

41 Battle of Britain attack

20 ___-Latin (language of the Vatican)

45 Low island or reef

21 Shortest month of the year

46 Cry between “ready” and “go”

24 Assume the role of

50 Bacteriainhibiting drug

26 Beethoven’s “Für ___”

51 ___ wrestling

27 Cather who wrote “O Pioneers!”

53 ___ and void

52 Skin-care brand 54 Volume of Horace

28 Website?

55 Answer to the riddle “What can go up and down without moving?”

29 Un-screwup-able 30 Longhaired feline 31 Piques

56 Popular game with virtual people, with “The”

33 Leading role in the “X-Men” films 38 Abolitionist Thaddeus

57 Scribble (down)

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JAN. 19-25, 2022

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