Mountain Xpress 02.01.23

GET YOUR GROOVE ON

Despite pandemic setbacks, Asheville still offers a wide range of dance classes that get feet tapping and spirits soaring. Xpress looks at some new studios and classes on offer, as well as why local instructors and students find dance so fulfilling.

COVER PHOTO Courtesy of Misa Terral

COVER

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COPYRIGHT

Spend tax dollars on infrastructure

Regarding the Asheville Tourists’ owner requiring Asheville to upgrade the stadium to the tune of $30 million, I think tax dollars could be better spent on infrastructure — perhaps an upgraded water system? [“Safe at Home? A Look Back at Asheville’s Precarious Pro Baseball History,” Jan. 18, Xpress]

If residents want to have a baseball team, either pay for upgrades through ticket prices or develop an amateur team. Not all residents benefit from having a baseball team. All residents benefit from a water system that works or a transportation system that adapts to the growing community.

— Glenn Taylor Arden

TDA should pay for McCormick Field upgrades

Regarding the current and future existence of minor league baseball and Asheville [“Safe at Home? A Look

Back at Asheville’s Precarious Pro Baseball History,” Jan. 18, Xpress]: The Tourism Development Authority is the party that needs to pony up the money!

No exceptions, no need to discuss, unless the state legislature does not want to give up the money. And there also needs to be a new contract to use the stadium — $1 is just stupid!

— Reuben DeJernette

Youngsville, La. (formerly of Asheville)

Build a new stadium with better parking

[Regarding “Safe at Home? A Look Back at Asheville’s Precarious Pro Baseball History,” Jan. 18, Xpress]: For that much money, they should just build a new stadium in a part of town with better parking where they want more people to go.

Having to cross Biltmore Avenue to get to the stadium is not fun.

— Rob Simon Asheville

The dangerous combination of children and guns

The weapon was a 9 mm handgun legally purchased by the child’s mother. The 6-year-old found the gun on the top shelf in a bedroom closet and shot his teacher last month in Newport News, Va. Sounds shocking, but actually, since 1999, there have been 11 cases in which the person pulling the trigger at school was no older than 10. In most cases, the shooting was unintentional.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, guns are now the No. 1 killer of children

in the U.S., surpassing car accidents. The proliferation of gun sales within the last three years has led to greater accessibility and likelihood of injury or death by gun. An estimated 4.6 million children live in homes where guns are loaded and unlocked. In 2022, there were 301 unintentional shootings by children, resulting in 133 deaths and 180 injuries, according to Everytown for Gun Safety.

Such tragedies have occurred in our area. Last September, a woman in Spartanburg, S.C., was fatally shot by her 3-year-old when the child gained access to an unsecured firearm. On Christmas Day 2021, a 3 1/2-year-old child in Edneyville accidentally shot herself and died when she found a handgun in her brother’s truck.

All of these deaths and injuries were preventable.

Teaching children not to touch guns is important, but the ultimate responsibility lies with adults. In the home, biometric safes accessible only by the adult owner are as easy to access as a nightstand drawer if needed in an emergency. Outside the home, guns for protection shouldn’t be left in glove boxes or purses where the gun can be accessed by children. As we learn from the Newport News shooting, hiding a gun on a closet shelf is not secure.

In Hendersonville, I lead a gun safety program called Be SMART for Kids, a nonpolitical, structured, consciousness-raising effort that teaches parents concrete steps they can take to keep their children safe from gun injury or death.

SMART stands for:

S — Secure your gun in a safe or on your body.

M — Model responsible behavior (talk to your kids).

A — Ask about the presence of guns in homes where your children go.

R — Recognize the role of guns in suicide.

T — Tell others to Be SMART.

CARTOON BY RANDY MOLTON

Wise choices by adult gun owners will save lives.

— Kim Chao Hendersonville

Editor’s note: Chao notes that she’s the Be SMART coordinator in Hendersonville and offers presentations and educational materials to organizations and concerned citizens groups. She can be contacted at besmarthendo@gmail.com. In Asheville, contact besmartasheville@ gmail.com.

A cause for celebration

The Irish make up one of the largest groups of settlers in our North Carolina mountains. Many of these were Scots Irish who could not stay in either land but were tenacious here. Part of Eileen McCullough’s book, More Than Blarney: The Irish Influence in Appalachia (Old Fort, NC: Wolfhound Press, 1997) tells their story. In her informative, well-written book, she writes about the similarities between the people of Ireland and Appalachia. (Does celebrating St. Patrick’s Day count?) If you feel a fondness for Ireland, land of your forebears or not, there is good news.

In February, Ireland celebrates a new national holiday — the first honoring a woman. St. Brigid’s Day, traditionally falling on Feb. 1, will now be held on the first Monday of the

month, or on Feb. 1 if it is a Friday, still giving people the long weekend.

According to The Sunday Times, the Irish government named this “10th Bank Holiday after the patron saint as part of the pandemic bonus to thank the public in general, and frontline workers in particular” for “enormous sacrifices made by Irish people during the COVID pandemic and (to) highlight better times ahead.” Ireland has three official patron saints: St. Brigid, St. Patrick and St. Colmcille (or Columba). I’ll bet St. Brigid would like this new official holiday. She was generous. She is much loved in Ireland by those who know of her.

Sometime before St. Brigid (c. 451- 525) there was a pagan goddess, Brigid. With the coming of Christianity, some of St. Brigid’s characteristics may have been attributed to her from the pagan agrarian goddess Brigid. Feb. 1 is also the date of the ancient festival of Imbolc — a time when planting can begin (after the festivities!). It was considered the first day of spring — a festival an earth mother goddess would have loved. Indeed, among other things, goddess Brigid was known for springtime, poetry, healing and fire. Some believe that a sacred fire was kept on a hilltop in Kildare before Christian times in

CARTOON BY BRENT BROWN

BMW - Mercedes - MINI maintenance - repairs upgrades

Ireland for the goddess Brigid, who protected herds and grains. St. Brigid started a monastery in Kildare and continued to protect the fire. A perpetual flame burns in Kildare town square today.

So, a new holiday — spread the word! What will you do to celebrate St. Brigid’s Day? Lighting a candle and setting out a Brigid yard flag might be it for me this year, but, just so you know, legend says that St. Brigid turned water into beer!

— Carol Diamond Candler

Taking heart from messages about beauty

A few years ago, I was walking down the street when I glanced at a telephone pole, and I saw a glint of silver. When I looked closer, I saw that it was a silver sticker with the words “You Are Beautiful” printed on it in black letters.

Seeing this sticker made me feel lighter about my appearance. I saw these stickers all around town, and I was touched that someone would leave this message for a stranger to find. I was also grateful that there was some voice, even if it was just a sticker, contradicting the negative body image that our modern world is constantly pushing.

It’s essential that there are positive messages about body image in the world to contradict negative ones because otherwise, young women’s self-esteem just keeps getting bombarded by societal expectations. When faced with million-dollar advertising industries, cultivating a positive body image can feel impossible, but it is in moments like these, when simple stickers remind people that they are beautiful, that we can see ourselves in a positive light, that we remember it is possible.

So the next time you feel insecure about how you look, remember — even if there isn’t a sticker nearby — you are beautiful.

— Juniper Finneron Seventh grade student Asheville

Please keep Tourists baseball in Asheville!

I grew up in a baseball family. My father was a minor league pitcher

and one of my treasured mementos is a photograph of him sitting in the dugout talking to Babe Ruth. Baseball was always in the background on TV in my youth.

But I didn’t really become a serious fan until I was an adult when my husband, Paul, and I lived in Minnesota and cheered the Minnesota Twins to two World Series championships. When we moved to Asheville 18 years ago, we began going to see the Asheville Tourists at McCormick Field. We were amazed to learn about the stadium’s storied history. It opened in 1924! Ty Cobb and Jackie Robinson played there as did so many other amazing baseball players before hopefully going to The Show. We all stop what we are doing, put our hands on our hearts and sing the national anthem before the game begins. And, of course, “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” during the seventh inning stretch. Tourists games are simply a great family activity! There is something for the kids between almost every inning. Baseball and sports in general are among the few things we can all enjoy without any political divides. That’s increasingly tough to find these days.

After the planes hit the World Trade Center towers on 9/11, the world shut down, and it wasn’t until baseball resumed a few weeks later that we began to feel a glimmer of hope that things would be all right again.

That’s what I’m getting at. McCormick Field is an integral part of Asheville history and tradition.

Yes, tradition. You can’t put a price on that. And yet there are those who are trying to do just that.

We haven’t seen much response in the paper about the stadium, but it’s probably because it was announced around election time and right before the holidays. But we assure you, come spring we are going to want to see baseball in Asheville again.

I can’t even get my head around $30 million or how we can find a way to get it, but I’m pretty sure there’s enough people with that kind of money to preserve our honored tradition in our wonderful city!

Play ball!

— Trish Howey Leicester

Digging deep

BY PHYLLIS UTLEY AND AMEENA BATADA

For those of us who are already working locally to reduce food waste, there is some good news out of Washington. For those of us participating in existing food systems — meaning all of us – there are some serious issues yet to consider.

On Jan. 5, President Biden signed into law the Food Donation Improvement Act of 2021, with implications for Asheville and Buncombe County. The bill strengthens the 1996 policy by improving federal oversight and requiring the U.S. Department of Agriculture to explain safety and labeling requirements to maintain protection. It also expands liability protections to food sold at a reduced price (to cover cost of handling) and to donations made directly to individuals.

The new policy has the potential to make a difference in our community, where several restaurants, grocery stores and others already donate to community organizations that distribute food and offer community meals. Hopefully, more institutions will make food donations to organizations, such as through the nonprofit Food Connection, and directly to community members. Ideally, they will reduce or eliminate the food waste they create.

This may seem like a win-win situation, and yet for the authors of this piece, it requires that we return to the bigger question: Why, with such abundance of food, is any one member of our society still without healthy food?

ADDRESSING RACIST AND CLASSIST SYSTEMS

We know that food donations and assistance will not fully address food insecurity. We must address classist and racist systems and structures through policy change, food sovereignty and food justice. What do these concepts mean for us locally? Let’s consider the following.

In our county and region, the Asheville Buncombe Food Policy Council and Food Justice Planning Initiative, respectively, are coalitions advocating for policy and program changes to strengthen local food systems. Several member organizations are engaged in and reimagining local food systems in this area.

Community-led farms and organizations are engaging in food sovereignty and cultural reclamation in areas where urban renewal and gentrification have and continue to

Groups work to strengthen and reimagine local food systems

and employs youth gardeners, holds cooking demonstrations and educational programs, and offers a legacy art trail and self-guided community walking tour, with benefits going to a new resource center. Several members of the Shiloh Community Association play a significant role in the garden.

The Asheville-Buncombe Food Reparations Coalition is a group of Black leaders, representatives from Asheville’s legacy neighborhoods and community organizations, and other stakeholders that convened in 2021 to “determine reparations recommendations for the city of Asheville and Buncombe County to address harms caused to food security in Asheville’s Black neighborhoods by urban renewal policies.” The coalition is engaged with food and racial and economic justice movements at the city and county levels, including the Racial Justice Coalition and the Asheville-Buncombe Reparations Commission, and is connected to national and international work.

threaten food traditions. The farms are both traditional — bringing back and highlighting current farming practices that are rooted in Indigenous traditions from these, African and other American lands — and liberatory, breaking free of industrial food systems in favor of cycles that prioritize and support growers and producers from communities that have been historically marginalized by dominant systems.

FROM THE GROUND UP

Here’s a look at some of these local community-led initiatives.

Southside Community Farm in Asheville’s Southside neighborhood seeks to “prioritize the needs of Black people and other community members of color and to celebrate diverse cultures and foodways” and to “co-create a web of food sovereignty in which community members have tangible power over their local food system.”

The farm hosts a BIPOC farmers market, a free grocery program, a youth garden program, a community orchard and a free seed library. The farm grows medicinal plants, with a focus on herbs and folk medicine of African Americans, and following the vision of leadership team member and longtime resident Roy Harris, plans are underway for a mobile market.

Peace Gardens and Market in the Burton Street community in Asheville is “a destination where community is built — a place where we learn, grow, build, create and heal together,” envisioning “a culture of sustainability that is inclusive and just – where play and work are equal, where trauma is trans-

formed, where the world is inspired and love is expanded.” Founders and managers/artists DeWayne Barton and Safi Martin invite community members to visit and gather at the space, which through its sculptural installations present opportunities for learning about the racialized history of the area, along with a chance to contemplate the roles of structural racism, and to heal and contribute. They sell “value-added” products such as jams, jellies, pickles, salsas, relishes and sauces, and they are currently planning a community health and business incubator called Bluenote Junction.

Shiloh Community Garden offers a gathering place for members of the Shiloh community, which was displaced nearly 150 years ago from its original location when George Vanderbilt bought the land for his mountain estate. The Shiloh Community Garden hosts various community events in its amphitheater and shelter, has a pop-up market, trains

THE POWER RESTS WITH US

While today we celebrate a national effort to reduce food waste and increase food security with the potential to influence the well-being of people in local communities, we also recognize that power to address the challenges in our food systems comes directly from us.

Led by the communities mentioned here and additional groups, we can inquire into and change our behaviors, illuminate and work to change the problems with the food systems, and support and contribute to food sovereignty and food justice in our communities right here.

Phyllis Utley is coordinator of the Asheville-Buncombe Food Reparations Coalition. Ameena Batada is co-director of the UNCA-UNC Gillings Master of Public Health program in place-based health and professor of health and wellness at UNC Asheville. X

Something to chew on

Here are a few short definitions of some food policy terms.

Food insecurity: “A lack of consistent access to enough food for every person in a household to live an active, healthy life.” — U.S. Department of Agriculture

Food justice: “ A viewpoint that looks at access to fresh, healthy, affordable food as a human rights issue, similar to the right to availability of clean air and water as a part of their basic human needs.” — N.C. Cooperative Extension

Food sovereignty: “The ability of communities to determine the quantity and quality of the food that they consume by controlling how their food is produced and distributed.” — Bureau of Indian Affairs

Foodways: “The cultural, social and economic practices relating to the production and consumption of food.” — Wikipedia

AMEENA BATADA AND PHYLLIS UTLEY

Painful Sex?

Get your groove on

New and established dance studios and classes help locals stay fit and feel great

Series

Physical Therapy can help

Dr. Rachel Butler (she/her) is a pelvic health physical therapist and sex educator who is an expert in treating painful sex and persistent pelvic pain. Her goal in life is to help vulva owners overtake pain with pleasure!

Her office is located in Black Mountain.

EUPHORIA AT UPHORA: As a woman of color owning a business, Maui Vang, front row, left, has made equity a central mission of Uphora Dance Fitness. The studio uses a revenue-sharing model among Vang and the instructors, who currently number around 25, rather than an hourly wage. This diverse group of dancers offers instruction in a variety of dance fitness and dance technique styles, as well as pop-up workshops. Photo courtesy of Vang

BY SARA MURPHY

smurphy@mountainx.com

For most of her life, Asheville resident Maui Vang was a self-described “wallflower.” The daughter of Laotian immigrants, she tells Xpress, “My culture is not very dance oriented.” In 2016, however, she discovered Zumba, the Latin-inspired dance fitness program.

“You’re exercising, but over time, you get better at dancing. And I worked up the courage to start branching out of the dance fitness world [into dance],” she says.

By last August, she was regularly driving across town to take Zumba, hip-hop and Latin dance classes at multiple locations. Dancing helped her release her growing discontent with her job as a financial adviser.

“When you are in the presence of talented dancers, it gives you hope and inspiration,” she says.

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Mention this ad for $25 off your 1st visit.

When Vang learned on Facebook that a local studio was closing, the entrepreneurial spirit she inherited from her parents kicked in. During her lunch hour, Vang swung by the building and got the landlord’s con-

tact information. Within days, she had assembled a business model for an adult dance studio and signed a lease.

Uphora Dance Fitness opened on Halloween weekend 2022. (Originally called Revel Dance Fitness, Vang recently changed the name due to a trademark issue.) She estimates about 600-800 people have taken a class at its Patton Avenue location near Rocky’s Hot Chicken Shack.

Uphora is not the only dance studio to open recently, however. In January, Becky Ewing and her son, Jeff, opened Momentum Dance & Events in Candler, which offers ballet, tap and jazz and has five adult classes per week. And even established dance studios, like the Asheville Contemporary Dance Theater, have added new classes since they reopened after the COVID19 lockdown.

“After the pandemic, people wanted to do something more with their bodies,” observes Susan Collard, director and founder of Asheville Contemporary Dance Theater, now in its 52nd year.

So, why is dance such a fulfilling form of wellness for many locals?

FITNESS VS. TECHNIQUE

When looking for a dance class, it’s helpful to know the distinction between dance fitness and dance technique. As Vang explains, dance fitness programs like Zumba are more repetitive when it comes to the steps used and the music played. (Many songs are unique to Zumba.) The instructor provides lots of cues to help people new to the steps follow along, although Vang says the ultimate goal is to keep moving.

“Even if someone shows up brand new [and] everybody’s going one way [and] they’re going the other, they don’t get corrected,” she says.

“You master the songs over time, and you get a good workout as well.”

Denise Rice Booher discovered Zumba in 2012 when an instructor offered classes after work at Leicester Elementary School.

“When I do Zumba, the hour passes fast. I don’t feel like I’m exercising at all,” she says. She loved it so much that she taught the class for two years, though nowadays she prefers to follow rather than lead.

After about a year and a half hiatus during the pandemic, Booher now goes to three Zumba classes a week at two different YMCA locations around town.

In dance technique classes, however, instructors critique and correct form. “The goal is to improve your technique,” Vang says. Uphora offers a variety of dance technique classes, including salsa, bachata, hip hop and even twerking. Often, students from the dance fitness side of the building check out what the dance technique side is doing, and vice versa.

“It’s this collision of different people there for different styles of dance, and it cross-pollinates,” Vang says.

Vang also tries to cultivate a similar diversity among dancers and instructors.

Inclusion and equity are foundational to Uphora’s mission, and Vang actively recruited a diverse group of instructors to her studio. In addition, she was committed to addressing what she considers the chronic underpayment of dance instructors in Asheville. Elsewhere, most are paid hourly, but she chose a revenue-sharing model for her nearly 25 instructors.

“[I wanted] to lift up the instructor community and shine a light on the craft and the work and the art that they do, and the value that they bring to our community,” she says.

CLASSICAL AND CONTEMPORARY

Dance technique classes appeal to many adults who took dance classes

in childhood. Rechelle Ray danced jazz, lyrical, hip-hop, musical theater and ballet in competitions as a child and teenager and was on the Cleveland State University Dance Team throughout college. When she moved to Western North Carolina, she was thrilled to discover Stewart/ Owen Dance, a contemporary dance studio that offers beginner and intermediate contemporary classes, as well as a senior class, at the Wortham Center for the Performing Arts.

“They offer some of the few classes in this town that focus on technique and foundational dancing,” Ray says. “Gavin [Stewart] and Vanessa [Owen’s] classes refueled my love for dancing again.”

While most of Asheville Contemporary Dance Theater’s New Studio of Dance focuses on training younger dancers, it also offers adult ballet and modern dance classes. But it’s the newest adult classes that are gaining traction. When the studio reopened after lockdown, Collard says, a student’s parent requested a movement class for adults. “She loved to dance, but she never had the opportunity,” Collard recalls.

To Collard’s surprise, the six-week class filled up quickly and has done so every season they’ve offered it. “I use the same skills that I use with my dance company to create movement: the elements of dance, space, time, shape and energy,” she says.

CONTINUES ON PAGE 12

Yoga and music

Whitney Shroyer, a certified yoga instructor, co-owns Purna Yoga 828 in West Asheville. He is also a local DJ, performing at several venues around town, as well as on Asheville FM. He speaks with Xpress about self-care, music’s role in health care and the respect he has for the history and tradition of yoga.

How central is yoga to your pursuit of wellness?

Asana and pranayama keep me flexible, smooth out my physical misalignments and keep my nervous system on an even keel. But it’s the “mind-body connection” created by a complete yoga practice that’s central to my ideas of selfcare. The longer I’ve studied yoga, the more the artificial distinction between “thinking me,” “physical me” and “creative me” dissolves, and the more integrated I feel in all aspects of my life and in the world around me.

What role does music play in wellness?

I don’t listen to music while I practice or play music when I teach. For me, music erases the distinction between the mind, body and spirit. When music connects to me as a listener, I have a physical, emotional and intellectual experience all at once. Music changes mood, affects the nervous system, inspires movement, evokes memory. It enlivens the core energetic self — it gets you in your soul. Music is its own wellness practice.

What are some common misconceptions that people have about yoga and its relationship to wellness?

There’s a common misconception that yoga is on one hand just exercise, and on the other hand an empty New Age embrace of bogus enlightenment. But for me, a yoga practice is an ancient Indian system of spiritual growth and evolution with both practical and esoteric goals. As a teacher, I work to stay aware that yoga is a tradition I have adopted that has millennia-old roots that need to be tended and respected. X

NATURE’S

Asheville’s

WHITNEY SHROYER photo courtesy of Shroyer

She’s been pleasantly surprised by the mix of ages in the classes, with students in their 20s participating alongside dancers in their mid-60s and early 70s.

“It all works. At the end of the class, everyone is feeling up,” she says.

“Contemporary dance for me has always meant breaking away from the normal dance regime and using my body and other dancers’ bodies in a more experimental way,” Collard adds. “Nothing is wrong as long as you’re moving your body.”

This season, ACDT will add a beginner-to-intermediate rhythm tap class for adults, taught by Anita Feldman, a former professor of dance and experimental tap dancer and choreographer.

EMPOWERMENT IN MOVEMENT

When it comes to dance, adults have far more options than just contemporary and ballroom dance — even at those traditional studios. At Momentum, for instance, Jeff Ewing offers a contemporary class in

release technique, a form of modern dance that emerged in the 1970s.

“This style is focused on the natural rhythms of biomechanics to achieve a high level of flow and freedom,” explains Becky Ewing.

For Alina Zarzycki, pole dancing and burlesque classes at Empyrean Arts give her a similar sense of well-being and empowerment.

“You feel more comfortable in your body,” says Zarzycki. She appreciates how she can leave class having learned new steps and skills.

“I look good doing it, and I feel good doing it,” she says of the body waves and hip rolls that pole dancing and burlesque classes offer.

WELLNESS IN COMMUNITY

For many of the people interviewed in this article, the opportunity to move with others — whether or not they touch — is a crucial part of what makes dancing such a special activity.

“I like to be around other people who are learning things with you,” Zarzycki says.

HEALTH CHECKUP

The benefits of psychedelics

Ehren Cruz is the founder of The SpArc, which offers transformational coaching and psychedelic facilitation. He speaks with Xpress about the benefits of psychedelics, misconceptions about his practice and music.

Why embrace psychedelics as an adjunct to life coaching?

Coaching is about helping people make the leap from surviving to thriving. The neuroplasticity that occurs with psychedelics can be pivotal in shifting mindsets and habits, opening one up to broader perspectives. Cathartic release and neurogenesis help people genuinely reconcile old, entrenched patterns to embrace the new with eyes toward the horizon. Psychedelics are not just for the unwell. For millennia untold, they have been used as powerful catalysts for self-actualization and personal growth.

What’s the most common misconception about what you do?

I’m not a psychedelic psychotherapist, although there are methods of deep listening, ethical stewardship and trauma-informed awareness that guide my sessions. I’m a psychedelic ceremonial facilitator: one who uses ancient ritual practices of sacred sound (rattles, gongs, bells, bowls, etc), scent (resins and woods) and holistic supportive practice (breathwork, meditation, visualization and affirmation) to create an ecosystem of empowerment, agency and transformation. This is framed with a powerful preparation, immersion and integration protocol.

What music is your favorite to listen to when guiding a psychedelic journey?

For years I produced festivals guiding thousands of listeners into ecstasies in carefully curated environments. I now use the same care in one-on-one and group immersions. My formula starts with subtle and tranquil music for relaxation, moves to bittersweet and nostalgic to facilitate remembrance and healing, lifts to tension release for catharsis and lands on euphoric triumphant to empower the journeyer onward. I love Poemme, Hammock, East Forest and Mardeleva in order of experience above. X

MOOD-CHANGING MOVES: Denise Rice Booher goes to Zumba at various YMCA locations three times a week. “Natalie packs out her classes because she makes everybody feel good,” Booher says of the instructor. “I can go to class and be in a bad mood and leave feeling great.” Photo by Denise Rice Booher

“Uphora offers a safe space to have fun and be your full self in community, [without] feeling judged,” Vang says.

For Amanda Levesque, a longtime resident who uses a wheelchair, dance enables her to connect physically with collaborators and artistically with an audience. Over the last decade, she has performed improvisational contact dance with her longtime collaborator Tom Kilby at the Asheville Fringe Festival. “I get to go on the floor and roll around, which I love,” she says. “I love the feeling of weight on my body.” As a wheelchair user, these sensations are ones she does not regularly experience.

Kilby moved away last year, so Levesque is collaborating with dancer and physical therapist Idelle Packer on a piece called “Inside Amanda.” “Dance means freedom, spontaneity, the ability to be myself and to embrace myself in a way other than with words,” she says.

Occupational therapist and death doula Misa Terral teaches a self-designed class she calls Soulpower Dance multiple times a week at Haw Creek Commons in East Asheville. “It incorporates conscious choreography, breath, emotions and voice with spiritual connection and intention,” she tells Xpress. Inspired by SoulSweat, a dance fitness program that emphasizes mindfulness as well as movement, Terral designed SoulPower as “a unique expression of my own personal growth spiritually, mentally and emotionally, as well as my love for dance, music and community.”

Kate Hurley Krause found SoulPower particularly uplifting in the early months of the pandemic, when Terral offered free online classes. “She brings emotional and

spiritual wellness into her classes,” Krause tells Xpress.

“SoulPower Dance with Misa is the highlight of my week,” Marissa Domanksi tells Xpress. “Not only do I love the music and choreography, I also love spending time with such a wonderful dance community. I walk out feeling refreshed and happy, and better equipped to flow with the ups and downs of daily life.”

LET IT GO: At Momentum Dance & Events, which opened in January, Jeff Ewing teaches contemporary jazz, hip-hop and release technique for adults each week. “Release technique is a contemporary form of modern dance [and] is focused on the natural rhythms of biomechanics to achieve a high level of flow and freedom,” explains Becky Ewing, Jeff’s mother and studio co-owner and co-director with him. Photo courtesy of Becky Ewing

EHREN CRUZ

photo courtesy of Cruz

Half measures

BY JESSICA WAKEMAN

jwakeman@mountainx.com

According to Ann Oliva, Asheville and Buncombe County could reduce homelessness by 50% in two years — if they heed the recommendations laid out by her organization, the Washington, D.C.based nonprofit National Alliance to End Homelessness.

Oliva, the nonprofit’s CEO, made that claim as she presented a new report commissioned by the city of Asheville. City Council and the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners met in joint session Jan. 25 to hear the findings at the Harrah’s Cherokee Center – Asheville.

“Within Reach: Ending Unsheltered Homelessness in the AshevilleBuncombe [Continuum of Care]” draws on months of research, online

surveys, focus groups and interviews with residents. Josh Johnson, a researcher with NATEH, says the nonprofit’s team engaged with over 1,700 people, including more than 250 people who had personal experience with homelessness. Of those respondents, 65% identified as property owners, and 14% identified as business owners.

NATEH’s report identified the top concerns that community members have regarding homelessness. These issues include “a lack of trust in the system,” “concern about the effectiveness of the current homeless strategy,” “public safety concerns” (including from people who are currently homeless), “insufficient affordable housing” and “uncoordinated care and services within a cumbersome system,” Johnson says.

The roughly $73,000 study was funded by the nonprofit Dogwood Health Trust. The full report is available at avl.mx/ccw; a recording of the presentation can be viewed at avl.mx/ccv.

The NATEH report is the second such assessment in two decades to produce a plan for solving homelessness in Asheville and Buncombe County. Looking Homeward: The 10-Year Plan to Reduce Homelessness, researched and written by local government, business and nonprofit leaders in 2005, predicted that the community would have “no homeless people living on the streets or in camps” and a “measurably reduced burden on courts, police, jail, EMS and emergency rooms,” among other results, by 2015.

COLLAB,

National

Homelessness emphasized that Asheville and Buncombe County’s service providers need to foster a “culture of collaboration” and have a sense of “shared accountability.” Photo by Jessica Wakeman

CONTINUUM COMMUNICATION

Much of the presentation focused on the shortcomings of how local governments and service providers currently collaborate to address homelessness. Those efforts “are not coordinated as a system so [are] not maximizing impact,” the NATEH report found.

“The most effective systems have strong leadership and strong structures, and there is shared accountability,” Oliva said. For a structure to function smoothly, she added, both service providers and the public must have clarity around “who has what piece of the puzzle” in terms of roles and responsibilities.

As a way to strengthen collaboration, the NATEH recommended overhauling Asheville and Buncombe’s Continuum of Care program. Currently steered by the

city’s Homeless Initiative Advisory Committee, the CoC program is tasked with implementing strategies to prevent homelessness and serving as a point of contact for federal funding opportunities, among other roles.

The committee has eight seats appointed by City Council and eight seats appointed by the county Board of Commissioners — an unusual structure, Johnson noted. Out of roughly 350 CoC programs nationwide, he said, he’d never seen a planning body structured that way.

The presentation cited Houston as a municipality with a more inclusive setup, allowing steering committee appointments to be made by other local stakeholders, and a more defined CoC structure. Oliva explained how Houston’s CoC program has multiple planning and implementation bodies for areas like veteran homelessness, youth homelessness and chronic homelessness.

The report recommended hiring a dedicated staffer within Buncombe County government to facilitate and lead cross-agency and intradepartmental work on homelessness. This full-time employee would have a projected budget allocation of $100,00$125,000. Oliva also recommended that the community allocate $24,000 annually to hire people with personal experience of homelessness for the CoC.

‘HOUSING SURGE’

Another key takeaway from the report is that “Community shelter capacity and rapid rehousing inter-

NOT COMPETE: CEO Ann Oliva of the

Alliance to End

ventions are inadequate.” Rapid rehousing is a form of rental assistance, which can be supplied either short- or medium-term, that connects an individual with a caseworker and access to supportive services.

The community has only 41 annual rapid rehousing slots for single, nonveteran adults, which doesn’t meet the current need, Johnson explained. Buncombe County’s shelter capacity also isn’t sufficient to support the current need, with only 105 year-round beds available for single, nonveteran adults, he continued. (Shelter capacity increases during the winter months when the Code Purple procedure, which is called when the temperature is 32 degrees or lower, activates additional beds at local shelters.)

“There is not enough affordable housing even for folks who have assistance,” Oliva told the assembled audience at Harrah’s. “Your system is stuck. The system is stuck in part because your affordability [isn’t] very high.”

Citing Zillow Economic Research, from the Zillow.com real estate site, Oliva said that rents had risen 41.7% in Asheville from March 2020 to October 2022. The lack of affordable housing, she continued, has led to “an overrepresentation of people of color” among the homeless population, as well as LGBTQ people and people with disabilities.

Among the short-term action items to address the affordable housing challenge, the report recommends the community “create a high-utilizer initiative.” Oliva explained that effort could consist of a housing-focused pilot program to

WITHIN REACH: CEO Ann Oliva, left, and researcher Josh Johnson from the National Alliance to End Homelessness presented the results of their study on solutions to homelessness in Asheville-Buncombe County to a joint meeting of Asheville City Council and the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners Jan. 25 at Harrah’s Cherokee Center – Asheville. Photo by Jessica Wakeman

rehouse up to 20 long-term shelter residents who require multiple supportive services. Successfully housing these individuals, she added, “can create some positive momentum in your community.”

The report also recommends that Asheville and Buncombe “promote a housing surge.” Oliva suggested the community try “a 100-Day Challenge” to house people experiencing chronic homelessness and to identify landlords to participate. The presentation noted that such an initiative “requires significant Rapid Rehousing investment.”

A major issue with affordable housing is a lack of units, said Mayor Esther Manheimer. In response, Oliva shared that in her experience

Facts and figures

The data used by NATEH relied on the results of the 2022 point-in-time count. The PIT count is an annual census of sheltered and unsheltered individuals that seeks to estimate the homeless population in a given region. The PIT count is always held in late January, and its findings are released by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in the spring. (The 2023 PIT count was held Jan. 31.)

Asheville-Buncombe County’s PIT count for 2022 found 637 homeless individuals. Among those, 405 people were sheltered and 232 people were unsheltered (living in locations not meant for human habitation, such as on the streets, in abandoned buildings or in cars). The majority of unhoused people who were unsheltered were single adults.

Last year’s PIT count identified 150 unhoused veterans; a majority of veterans were sheltered, either in an emergency shelter or a transitional shelter. It also identified 211 chronically homeless individuals. Chronic homelessness is defined by HUD as being unhoused “for at least a year — or repeatedly — while struggling with a disabling condition such as serious mental illness, substance use disorder or physical disability,” the NATEH website explains.

The annual PIT count has shown homelessness to be on the rise in Buncombe County. Overall homelessness increased by 21% from 2021, when 527 individuals were counted. The number of unsheltered homeless individuals doubled from 2021 to 2022, going from 116 to 232 people. X

working in other communities ahousing surge requires “a set of landlord engagement strategies.”

Johnson also added that “master leasing,” in which an entity such as a housing authority leases from a landlord and subleases to tenants, is a technique that has worked in

other communities to supply a housing surge.

BETTER TOGETHER

While the report and presentation shared plentiful facts and figures, there was a significant emotional appeal on behalf of the presenters to the community: work better together.

Oliva and Johnson repeatedly noted the passion and engagement of the community when it comes to solving homelessness, and the NATEH report indicated one of AshevilleBuncombe’s community values is to “be bold,” which it explained means “remain[ing] faithful to aggressive goals, strategies, and actions it commits to, even when there are tough decisions to be made.”

Elaborating further, Johnson implored the community to tap into that boldness. “We can’t be scared to make tough decisions,” he said. “Politics will not drive policies.”

Respondents to NATEH’s research continually voiced “historical issues of mistrust” in the community as an impediment to ending homelessness. “We can’t allow a history of issues to affect our future decisions,” Johnson said, drawing audience applause. X

Inside out WNC’s summer sports adapt in winter months

BY EDWIN ARNAUDIN

earnaudin@mountainx.com

When Nathan Malone was growing up in the Asheville area in the 1990s, athletes followed the seasons. At North Buncombe High School, he excelled at winter basketball — which he went on to play as a walk-on at Clemson University — but also competed in football each fall and baseball in the spring.

“That’s just what you did,” he says. “You didn’t play baseball or basketball year-round like you do today.”

Now the league director for the Western North Carolina Youth Sports Association, which offers baseball and softball for players throughout Buncombe County, Malone contends with a vastly different sports environment. Young athletes have become increasingly specialized in hopes of landing a college scholarship or getting discovered by a professional scout. And seasonal rules have largely been abandoned, at least for those who can afford it.

The colder months bring different challenges for various sports. Baseball players with the WNCYSA rely on Asheville Parks and Recreation for fields in spring and summer. But outside of those seasons, because the city doesn’t have dedicated indoor facilities for batters and pitchers, Malone finds himself referring players to such private companies as D-BAT Asheville, The Diamond Mine and 828 Sports Lab.

“It’s expensive. It’s clubs, it’s memberships, things like that. There aren’t a whole lot of [winter] options,” he says. “It just seems like everything has become about how much money somebody can make off of it, unfortunately.”

Local tennis and soccer players don’t have quite as difficult a time remaining active. Their activities are supported by city-owned facilities that remain operational year-round — though limits on those resources mean a certain amount of grit is often required.

GAME, SET, MATCH

From April through November, Asheville’s tennis community has access to the city-owned Aston Park’s 12 clay courts. Once freezing temperatures arrive, the moisture in the clay makes the surface slick, and the courts can be damaged by use. The city thus closes off the facility until warm weather returns.

Series

“If you are a member of the [Asheville] Racquet Club or the Grove Park Inn, you have indoor courts available where you can still do clinics or play doubles or singles, obviously at cost,” says Debbie Southern, president of the nonprofit Asheville Tennis Association. “But for those that don’t have it, that leaves 11 public hard courts in Asheville that are being shared with pickleball.”

Southern notes that those free courts are available on a first-come, firstserved basis and cannot be reserved. And the cost for indoor court time is steep compared with that for Aston Park: In 2022, hourly rates for the city courts were $6 per hour for locals, compared with $61 per hour plus a $15 guest fee at the ARC. Southern says most Aston Park players choose to be strategic and keep their skills sharp on the budget-friendly public hard courts.

“We watch the weather a lot,” she says. “We’re just hardy souls and we look for the [best] days. You might get to play three days in a row, and then maybe there’s four that you don’t play because of the weather.”

On those unplayable days, Southern stays in shape by ramping

up her yoga practice and weightlifting at home. She’s also been doing some hiking to stay active and hopes to rejoin the YMCA after dropping her membership early in the COVID-19 pandemic. Combined with semiregular tennis, she’s confident that her transition back to Aston in April will be a fairly smooth one.

“If you have played a lot consistently, and the winter comes and you’re getting to play twice a week, you’re probably keeping your game at a pretty good level,” she says. “It probably won’t be too difficult to come back in the warmer months and be at least where you left off.”

TURF PEACE

Both ARC locations were once home to indoor soccer, although those fields now have new uses. The two fields that composed the Pepsi Indoor Center, established in 1998, were transformed into four indoor tennis courts when the facility was sold and turned into ARC Downtown. And the one indoor soccer field at

ARC South now hosts four indoor pickleball courts.

But Mike Rottjakob, executive director of the Asheville Buncombe Youth Soccer Association, says no such facilities are necessary to keep the sport going year-round.

“We have a pretty moderate climate,” Rottjakob says. “Not that there aren’t days that are too cold for us to be outside, but when John B. Lewis Soccer Complex opened with a massive amount of artificial turf, the need to go indoors decreased.”

Unlike natural grass, which Rottjakob says holds water during the winter, artificial turf dries faster and provides a safer surface on which to play. The city-owned JBL currently has four fields and, according to Lynn Pegg, Parks & Recreation program manager for Buncombe County, three new turf fields will be ready for play at the Buncombe County Sports Park by the end of February.

The increase will help support an already robust local soccer scene that

SNOW BALL: Asheville Buncombe Youth Soccer Association players enjoy year-round play thanks to the turf fields at John B. Lewis Soccer Complex. Photo by Mark Bastin

8 session group program that addresses a fear of falling & teaches fall prevention strategies

Tai Chi for Arthritis and Fall Prevention:  Sun Style Tai Chi to improve relaxation and balance, increase activity, & prevent falls

Chronic Disease Self-Management Education Programs:

6 week group skill-building and education for those experiencing chronic disease or pain

Walk with Ease:

6 week program to safely build a walking routine for those who need support becoming physically active

Social Bridging Project:

one-on-one service engaging folks dealing with social isolation or loneliness

Health Coaching:

one-on-one service supporting clients with self-identified health goals

rarely stops. Training and league play have already resumed in ABYSA’s adult recreation league and Highland Football Club competitive program for youths. Once youth recreation participants start practicing the last week of February, nearly 2,000 players will be cycling through the fields.

Rottjakob says activities for the youngest players, those ages 4-6 are more likely to get canceled on a cold, wet day than those for older participants. But overall, he continues, having the artificial turf “has been a game changer for year-round programming.”

The surface also yields some magical moments that indoor soccer can’t provide. “When the field lights are on at JBL and the snow starts coming down, it’s surreal,” Rottjakob says. “There’s been some special, special nights out there, playing soccer in the elements.”

SERVING THE NEED

In terms of making year-round play accessible to more people, Southern doesn’t expect local government to build an indoor tennis facility, but she would like to see the number of outdoor hard courts increase. She notes that the city of Greensboro, about three times as populous as Asheville, has nearly 100 hard courts, and she’d prefer that tennis and pickleball use separate spaces.

Similarly, Rottjakob feels that the costs of maintaining an indoor soccer facility are overly prohibitive and that the demand doesn’t currently exist, especially with the number of players that JBL serves.

“If it’s like a community-owned gymnasium or [something similar], then they can find ways to keep it going year round,” Rottjakob says. “But an indoor soccer center has to make a lot of money during a very narrow time of the year, which is why the prices have to be high for running the leagues and so forth.”

When it comes to baseball and softball, however, Malone with the WNCYSA thinks more can be done. He notes that some local parents regularly take their children to facilities in Charlotte or East Tennessee during the winter months to train, seeking an edge they can’t get in WNC. Even indoor athletic facilities that aren’t sport-specific, he says, could go a long way toward helping ballplayers stay competitive during the winter.

“I do feel like local government — city, county and I would even go as far as the schools — has somewhat of an obligation to help provide that,” Malone says. “There’s a lot of baseball, softball and even soccer [components] that can be utilized in a basketball gym.”

Wayne Simmons, program and operations manager for Asheville Parks and Recreation, says that a bal-

ance of options in the public and private sectors is important for a vibrant sports community. His department is developing a new master plan over the next year, with opportunities for public engagement. If the demand for more indoor facilities arises through public input, Simmons continues, the city will strive to provide them.

Challenges nevertheless persist. “Management of those spaces, both the initial construction as well as the ongoing upkeep in operations, it’s a little bit more expensive [than outdoor options],” Simmons says. “Here in Asheville, one of the bigger issues is just land for those types of facilities — finding flat land where you could

HEALTH CHECKUP

Making time for exercise

Fabrice Julien is an assistant professor of health and wellness at UNC Asheville. His interdisciplinary background includes training in public health, social medicine, sociology and political science.

Julien speaks with Xpress about creating schedules for physical activity, the benefits of exercise on a person’s mental health and ways individuals can avoid overwhelming themselves.

What advice would you give people struggling to fit exercise into their daily lives?

Before trying to fit exercise into your busy schedule, it is important for you to understand how you occupy your time. Creating a schedule of your daily activities helps you to identify gaps and periods of time when physical activity could take place. We often underestimate how much time we have for exercise, and this approach is a helpful tool in getting folks to understand they can make physical activity work for them.

How does staying physically active improve mental health?

Staying physically active reduces stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline in the body. When we have too much stress, this can have deleterious effects and can negatively impact one’s quality of life. Physical activity serves as an important buffer against these daily stressors and infractions. Physical exercise also increases endorphin levels, which can influence happiness and helps build self-efficacy.

Staying active is an important shield for one’s emotional and mental well-being.

What is your favorite way to approach your own physical health?

My favorite way to approach my physical health is to get active. In the past, I have struggled with finding the time to exercise, but recently I have found that mapping out and understanding my daily schedule helps me identify periods of my day when I can be active. The recommendation of 150 minutes of moderate exercise a week used to be daunting, but I now distribute the physical activity throughout my day in short sessions.

build those types of opportunities if the funding and resources were available.”

Simmons anticipates that the opening of the renovated Dr. Wesley Grant Sr. Southside Center, currently slated for the summer, will help ease the strain on the city’s three other gymnasiums. Though community members can rent these spaces for $75 per hour during operational hours and $100 per hour after hours for team practices, he believes more options are necessary.

“We’re looking at partnerships,” Simmons says. “We’re trying to maintain and strengthen our relationships with Asheville City Schools and Buncombe County Schools for opportunities to share space when it makes sense to provide more access.”

That’s great news for Malone, who fondly recalls winter workouts and practices in public school gyms with his baseball teammates. He says those options have decreased in recent years due to restrictions that both school systems’ representatives say stem from the COVID-19 pandemic. While access gradually returns, many of his players will be shooting hoops this winter and cross-training with another sport.

“We have some kids that swim, and they’re some of our most athletic kids, quite honestly,” Malone says. X

ACES WILD: Asheville Racquet Club offers indoor tennis at both of its facilities. Pictured here is ARC Downtown. Photo by Edwin Arnaudin

FABRICE JULIEN photo courtesy of Julien

What are the odds of a casino in Asheville?

State considers expanding legalized gambling

BY SALLY KESTIN AND ZANE MEYER-THORNTON AN ASHEVILLE WATCHDOG

bark@avlwatchdog.org

North Carolina can support as many as nine Las Vegas-style casinos with gambling throughout the state, including one in the Asheville area, according to a report commissioned by the General Assembly.

The new casinos would be in addition to the three already operating on tribal lands, an independent consultant, Spectrum Gaming Group, told lawmakers in a 2020 report that received little attention outside Raleigh.

Last year, online sports betting was the only gambling proposal to gain serious traction in the General Assembly, passing in the Senate but failing in the House by just three votes.

But the sports betting proposal is expected to resurface in the legislative session that started Jan. 25, and if it passes, other forms of statewide gambling could follow, legislators told Asheville Watchdog. According to the Spectrum report, those options could include video gaming machines in bars and authorized locations, as well as online lottery and casino gaming.

ASHEVILLE CASINO COULD GENERATE $113M

Spectrum projected the Asheville casino, if approved, could support 992 slot machines and 34 tables and generate $113 million a year.

“I think that if sports betting passes that there’ll be an effort to go to the next step,” said former Rep. John Ager, a Buncombe Democrat who stepped down in 2022 after four terms in the House. “I just can’t imagine North Carolina allowing nine casinos, but you know, these kinds of things have a life to them, and when you win a couple of preliminary rounds, maybe you could get there.”

State Rep. Sarah Crawford, a Democrat representing Wake County

who co-sponsored the sports betting bill while in the Senate, said, “I’m not sure if I’m ready to call [online betting] a gateway, but I think it definitely can help open up the conversations for other types of sports gaming.”

State Sen. Julie Mayfield, a Buncombe Democrat, speculated that Asheville would “not welcome” a casino.

“When you think of Asheville, you think of food, music, the environment, local art, downtown Art Deco, the river,” Mayfield said. “Gambling never comes into it. Never, ever.”

“I guarantee you,” Mayfield said, “the tribes would fight that tooth and nail.”

CASINOS SUPPORT TRIBAL ECONOMIES

Casino gambling is currently allowed in North Carolina only on tribal lands. The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians opened Harrah’s Cherokee Casino

Resort in 1997, about an hour’s drive west of Asheville, and in 2015 added the smaller Harrah’s Cherokee Valley River in Murphy.

In 2021, the Catawba Nation opened the Catawba Two Kings Casino in Kings Mountain, west of Charlotte. The tribes have pacts with North Carolina that require them to pay 6% of their gaming revenues to the state.

The casino in Cherokee has a hotel with more than 1,100 rooms, the largest in the state, and the casino is one of the highest grossing in the country, according to the Spectrum report.

Tribes typically do not disclose their gaming revenue, but Spectrum estimated that the two Cherokee casinos generated net revenue of about $900 million per year.

Gambling revenue has helped the Cherokee build schools, nursing homes and hospitals, and a portion of the revenue goes directly to tribal members through biannual payments.

Tribal member David Smith has owned Bearmeat’s Indian Den in Cherokee for more than 30 years. Before gambling, “it was just, do what you can with what you got,” he said. “In the wintertime it was so bad that I closed up for a month or two, January and February, because there wasn’t nobody traveling through.”

But “with casinos here, it has helped everything and everybody,” Smith said.

The biannual payments to tribal members 18 and older — the checks for one six-month period in 2021 totalled $8,840 per person — provide financial security that did not exist before casinos, Smith said.

“It’ll put you ahead,” he said. “You won’t have to worry about where your next payment’s going to be on your car, your next payment’s going to be on your TV or house or anything else. That helps us a lot.”

Principal Chief Richard Sneed and other Cherokee government officials did not respond to requests for comment from Asheville Watchdog on the possibility of North Carolina legalizing casinos statewide.

“If that did come to pass,” Smith said, “it would hurt. But you can bet your bottom dollar that the tribe will be on top of that and make sure if possible that doesn’t happen.”

’100% ABOUT THE MONEY’

The legislative battle to win support for online sports betting in North Carolina offers a glimpse into the high stakes of legalized gambling.

The wagering bill that almost passed last year would have authorized online and mobile betting for adults on professional and college sports, video game tournaments and amateur sports, although the House eliminated amateur and college sports at the last minute in June.

A 2018 U.S. Supreme Court ruling allowed states to legalize and regulate sports betting. More than 30 states plus the District of Columbia have since done so, including two of North Carolina’s neighbors, Virginia and Tennessee.

“We can join the tide or we can wait and let it go,” Rep. Wesley Harris, a Democrat from Mecklenburg, said during a June 2022 debate on the North Carolina House floor.

Proponents, including Rep. Crawford, say illegal betting is already occurring in North Carolina in the amount of $1.7 billion a year. “We are leaving just a ton of money on the table,” Crawford told Asheville Watchdog.

Opponents cite statistics on gambling addiction and stories of families split apart and financially ruined by gambling debts. According to the National Council on Problem

CASINO ROYALE: Casinos, like this one in Cherokee, are currently only allowed on tribal lands in North Carolina. Photo by Zane Meyer-Thornton, courtesy of Asheville Watchdog

Gambling, “The rate of gambling problems among sports bettors is at least twice as high as among gamblers in general. When sports gambling is conducted online, the rate of problems is even higher.”

In the House debate, some lawmakers described sports betting companies as predatory, hooking new betters with the lure of free wagers.

Former Rep. Ager initially supported the bill for the tax revenue it would generate but became persuaded of the harm it could bring and “how difficult it is for anybody to really make any money except the sports betting companies.”

“I didn’t really appreciate the amount of advertising they do,” Ager told Asheville Watchdog. “Then I got worried about, gosh, people are just putting this stuff on their credit cards, and how they’re going to pay for it.”

Sen. Mayfield said sports betting is “just about people with a lot of money making a lot more money to no societal benefit … It is 100% about the money.”

‘INUNDATED WITH LOBBYISTS’

Lobbyists for the gaming industry were “all over the place” leading up to the votes on online wagering, Ager said.

Sports betting giants FanDuel Group and DraftKings Inc. each had registered lobbyists — two in 2022, and seven in 2021, according to North Carolina’s lobbyist directory. Those lobbyists also represented big-name companies in the gambling industry, including BetMGM LLC and Bally’s Corp., owner of 14 casinos in 10 states.

“I don’t think there’s been a day that the sports betting lobbyists haven’t been coming to our offices talking to us about this bill,” Rep. Harris said during the June House debate.

Rep. Deb Butler, a Democrat from New Hanover, said in the debate, “We’ve been inundated with lobbyists.”

POLITICAL MACHINATIONS

Gambling makes strange bedfellows in North Carolina politics. Sports betting drew support and opposition from members of both parties.

Senate Bill 688 passed the Senate in August 2021 by a vote of 26 to 19.

The House voted twice on June 22, 2022, passing one version, SB 38, by a 51 to 50 vote, but less than a half hour later killing SB 688 by a 52-49 vote.

“The feelings about it are mixed on both sides of the aisle,” Ager said. “It’s a peculiarly nonpartisan kind of bill.”

Some Republicans joined liberal Democrats in opposing online wagering.

“These are very deeply faithful people,” Mayfield said. “They don’t support the vices in our society.”

During the House debate, Rep. Larry Pittman, a Republican from Cabarrus County, referenced two of the 10 Commandments, Jesus and Judgment Day. “When I stand before Him, I’m not going to have the taint of dirty money … on my hands,” Pittman said.

Proponents of sports betting sought to win support in the House with an

CONTINUES ON PAGE 22

ECONOMIC BOOST: David Smith points out new merchandise to Paula Many Nelson, his cousin and one of many local artists he showcases at Bearmeat’s Indian Den. Photo by Zane Meyer-Thornton, courtesy of Asheville Watchdog

amendment to designate some of the tax revenue for seven universities, including UNC Asheville and historically Black colleges and universities. Each school’s athletic department would have received up to $300,000 a year.

“The reason that the Republican leadership was willing to give all that money to the HBCUs is because they thought they could pick up a lot of African-American votes, which they did,” Ager said.

The leaders also needed some of the opposition to vanish. By the time of the House vote on the bill, Ager said, five Republicans had left the room.

“They ‘went to the bathroom,’” Ager said. “They didn’t vote at all.”

Ager may have been one of the swing votes. After initially supporting the bill, he changed his mind and voted against it.

Ager said a gaming industry lobbyist visited him after the vote. “He said, ‘John, we just need you to go to the bathroom.’”

In the Senate, Mayfield said, Republican leaders rarely introduce proposals that require Democratic support, as sports betting did.

“If enough members of their caucus don’t support a bill, for the most

part, it doesn’t go forward,” Mayfield said. “That alone … shows you how much money was behind it.”

FROM SPORTS BETTING TO CASINOS

Sports betting may just be the beginning of a larger attempt to legalize more gambling in North Carolina. A behind-the-scenes effort may already be under way, legislators told Asheville Watchdog

In 2019, legislators passed SB 574 titled, “An Act to Study the Status of Sports Betting and Whether or Not to Establish a Gaming Commission.”

The bill authorized the N.C. State Lottery Commission to examine the feasibility of sports betting, as well as on-site betting at horse steeplechases, and the creation of a commission to provide oversight of gaming. Nowhere in the legislation did it mention casinos, video gaming or online lottery games.

But Spectrum Gaming, hired to conduct the study, looked at all of those forms of gambling, along with pari-mutuel horse racing.

Lottery spokesman Van Denton pointed to one line in SB 574 that he said was the basis for the types of gambling considered: “Examine gaming activities currently prohibited, gaming activities currently authorized by the State, and the feasibility of the General Assembly authorizing new gaming activities.”

The scope of the study means “somebody’s pushing” other forms of gambling, Ager said.

“They knew well that all these other things would be considered,” he said.

Denton said the Lottery Commission paid Spectrum $452,650 for the report on “current and potential new gaming activities” and three others: one on steeplechase wagering, another on sports betting and another on problem gambling services in North Carolina.

Rep. Crawford said legislators often create studies like the one exploring new forms of legalized gambling “so that the state can get some good research about is this good for North Carolina? … And it starts to get the dialogue happening, not just with the public, but in the [Capitol].”

EXPANDED GAMBLING INEVITABLE

The report on current and potential gaming estimated that illegal gambling

in North Carolina, through bookmakers, online sites and gaming machines, is close to a $2 billion-a-year industry, “thus depriving the State of as much as $538 million in state gaming taxes.”

If North Carolina legalized more gambling, Spectrum projected, casinos would generate $422.6 million in taxes to the state by year three.

Casinos have become a popular revenue-generating source for many states. Before the 1990s, they were legal only in Nevada and Atlantic City, N.J. The U.S. now has more than 1,000 casinos in 42 states on Native American tribal land, on boats, in racetracks and city centers.

Spectrum determined that North Carolina could support up to nine casinos in the metropolitan statistical areas of Charlotte (three casinos), Raleigh-Durham, (two), and Asheville, Wilmington, Winston-Salem and Pinehurst (one each). The Asheville MSA consists of Buncombe, Haywood, Henderson and Madison counties.

Rep. Crawford said the casino debate is “a long way away,” but several legislators told Asheville Watchdog that some form of expanded gambling in North Carolina appears inevitable.

Sports betting will most certainly come up for a vote again in 2023, and Gov. Roy Cooper has expressed support for it, the lawmakers said.

“One of the arguments you can make is that the North Carolina Lottery has made gambling, because it’s state sponsored, more legitimate in people’s eyes,” Ager said. “And so maybe it has kind of put the wind behind the sails of these other ideas of raising money through casinos.”

Asheville Watchdog is a nonprofit news team producing stories that matter to Asheville and Buncombe County.

Sally Kestin is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter. Contact her at skestin@avlwatchdog.org. Zane Meyer-Thornton is an award-winning videographer, photographer, and editor in Asheville. Contact him at zanemeyerthornton@gmail.com

HITTING THE JACKPOT: A table from the Spectrum report shows projected casino revenues of more than $2 billion. Graphic courtesy of Asheville Watchdog

Working out

Area fitness centers emerge from COVID-related downturns

Series

BY JUSTIN M c GUIRE

jmcguire@mountainx.com

Danny Sharpe feels good about membership trends at Biltmore Fitness, the Asheville gym he’s owned since 2014.

“The last six months I’m extremely happy and optimistic,” he says. “Very happy.”

Mindee Mettee , senior general manager of Asheville Racquet Club, has similar thoughts about the club’s two fitness centers. And the folks at the YMCA of Western North Carolina estimate in-person workout usage shot up about 50% last year.

For many local gyms and workout facilities, the story’s the same. After

seeing membership plummet in 2020 and 2021, things took a positive turn in 2022. Most say they are at or near pre-COVID numbers.

“Now that people feel safer and they see that they are safe at the Y, they’re coming back and they’re bringing their families back,” says MaryO Ratcliffe, senior vice president of membership and marketing for the YMCA of Western North Carolina.

Still, the pandemic has had lasting effects on the way gyms do business, with virtual offerings, outdoor exercise and smaller exercise classes now a reality.

And some folks simply still aren’t ready to return to indoor workout spaces. A recent nation -

al survey by UpSwell Marketing found that nearly a third (27.71%) of all respondents had not yet gone back to their gyms since the 2020 shutdown. Of those, 26.9% had no plans to return.

“That is definitely still a thing,” says Matt Coomes , executive director of the YMCA of Western North Carolina.

GOING ONLINE AND OUTDOORS

When Gov. Roy Cooper issued an executive order shutting down gyms across the state in March 2020, the YMCA went virtual.

The group, which operates seven locations in three Western North Carolina counties, started by offering its popular exercise groups on Facebook Live.

“We had our instructors doing exercise classes in their garages, in their backyards, in their living rooms,” Ratcliffe says. “We had dozens and dozens all day. Our instructors have very devoted followings,

SCREEN TIME: The YMCA of Western North Carolina continues to offer the live and on-demand virtual classes it began in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Photo courtesy of the YMCA of Western North Carolina

and they wanted to keep that sense of community alive.”

When it became clear the shutdown was not temporary, YMCA officials knew a Band-Aid approach was not going to cut it. They soon started offering outdoor classes. In December 2020, they launched Virtual Y, which allowed members to access live and on-demand classes.

“We just have been able to offer people more options so that they can stay connected and stay healthy,” Ratcliffe says.

Outdoor classes and Virtual Y remain part of the YMCA’s offerings to members.

“We never did close our doors, really, because we always had ways that we could keep people engaged,” Ratcliffe says. “And I think that that helped them get through it.”

Still, membership numbers fell in 2020 and 2021. At the worst, membership numbers were down by about 60%. And in April 2021, COVID-related financial difficulties led the Y to permanently shutter its Fletcher branch.

Things started to pick up in 2022, and the Y’s overall membership revenue in January was about 83% of what it was in January 2020.

But some members, particularly seniors and people with preexisting conditions, still are hesitant to return to indoor exercise spaces, she says. The Y’s virtual options, along with smaller class sizes and the ability to check fitness center capacity in real time online, have eased some of those concerns, she explains.

SAFE AT HOME

Neomi Negron is one person who has no intention of going back to the gym.

Before the pandemic, the Asheville woman was a member of Anytime Fitness on Hendersonville Road. With trips to the gym no longer an option once restrictions hit, she started working out on a Peloton bike and using free-standing weights.

To her surprise, she found she loved working out at home.

“I like the cost of it better, that’s for sure,” says Negron, owner of Buggy Pops gourmet ice pops. “I feel more motivated because I don’t have to get dressed to leave the house. And I love the fact that I can shower immediately after and not drive home in the winter, all sweaty and cold.”

In addition, she says, she’s eating better because she’s able to prepare food at home rather than grabbing something on the go.

EXERCISE IN CAUTION: Outdoor classes have proven to be popular at the YMCA of Western North Carolina’s seven locations. Photo courtesy of the YMCA of

LOYAL MEMBERS

Asheville Racquet Club actually saw tennis membership numbers spike at its two locations in 2020 because people felt safe playing an outdoor sport. But like the YMCA

and others, it experienced big membership losses for its fitness centers.

Also like the Y, the club moved exercise classes outdoors and started offering online classes.

And now, as COVID fears have eased, the club has increased in-per-

HEALTH CHECKUP

Misconceptions about sex therapy

Jenny Shealy is an Asheville-based licensed clinical social worker and certified sex therapist. She also holds a certificate in interpersonal neurobiology. She speaks with Xpress about understanding pleasure, misconceptions about sex therapy and the joys of connecting with nature.

How has the pandemic impacted people’s experiences of their sexuality?

The pandemic has helped us expand our ideas of what “sex” actually is. People who didn’t live with their partner(s) during the beginning of the pandemic figured out how to connect, both sexually and nonsexually, through virtual ways like sexting or video dates. This challenging time motivated many people to begin exploring their own sexuality through solo sex, rather than partnered sex. And the benefits? Understanding and expressing your own pleasure creates better sex!

What’s a misconception about sex therapy or sex therapists?

While sex therapy focuses on sex, sexuality, intimacy and relationships, you will also talk about your whole life during a session. Your relationship with sex is affected by everything else going on in your world. Context is everything.

Sex therapy never involves nudity or sexual contact or behaviors with the therapist or in the therapy room. This dynamic can help people learn how to talk about sex without sexualizing the situation. Where do you go to unwind?

The N.C. Arboretum is my favorite place to walk. I always feel better when I’m moving my body and connecting with nature. It’s a double win! X

son programs substantially in all departments, says Mettee, the senior general manager. For instance, it now has eight stand-alone pickle-

CONTINUES ON PAGE 26

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JENNY SHEALY photo courtesy of Shealy

Balance and joy

Chad Johnson, the founder of Chad Johnson Acupuncture, talks about bringing the body into balance, misconceptions about acupuncture and cultivating joy.

What role do acupuncture and other non-Western therapies have to play in wellness?

Acupuncture and traditional East Asian medicine play a crucial role in wellness as we work with symptoms to navigate to the root cause. When we treat the root cause, we bring the body back into balance and symptoms resolve.

Many of the diagnostics used in treatment would be considered subclinical in a traditional Western clinic. For example, a subtle tenderness on the arch of the foot might go unnoticed on bloodwork. This mild form of kidney disharmony, left untreated, can become high blood pressure, adrenal fatigue, urinary problems, etc.

Diet and lifestyle can be fine-tuned to support health rather than hinder vitality and contribute to injury. (Think standard American diet and overtraining injuries.) In the colder months, a cold green smoothie in the morning may hinder digestion and muscle function, whereas warm oatmeal would have a more nourishing effect.

What are some misconceptions about what acupuncture can and can’t do for your health?

There is sometimes a misconception that you must believe in acupuncture for it to work. Acupuncture works by removing blockages in the body which are found by palpation. Both the patient and practitioner can feel the positive changes at the same time. Whether the patient believes or not doesn’t change the outcome. This wins over skeptics every time.

A big misconception is that acupuncture is mysterious and esoteric. Acupuncture is an ancient medicine (3,000-plus years old) that is rooted in deep observation of the human body and nature. It works directly with the organs and the myriad of other systems in the body. It is holistic medicine working simultaneously on the body, the mind and spirit. It is a practical medicine, it is a poetic medicine. It can be both. The results are tangible and can be easily felt by both patient and practitioner. The shared goal is to restore harmony and access greater vitality.

What does wellness mean to you, and how do you pursue it?

To be well is to have a balance of mind, body and spirit. To create balance, I start with the diet. I rest more. And I try to play more.

Most people think of resting as lying on the couch and watching TV. Mental rest and spiritual rest are what is needed by most of us during these times. We can do this by unplugging from electronics and connecting to ourselves and to nature. We can walk in the woods, draw, read or write poetry, spend time with animals, garden, even simply staring out the window with a cup of tea will work. Additionally, we would do well to practice breathing daily, hydrate well, get enough sleep, be gentle with ourselves and cultivate joy.  X

ball courts and hundreds of pickleball members.

“We are very fortunate at ARC to have a very loyal membership base,” she says. “The members that were able to continue paying during COVID supported us, and those that were unable have come back to us. Our current membership base has exceeded our 2019 membership numbers.”

STAYING OPEN

Sharpe, the owner of Biltmore Fitness, made headlines in May 2020 when he temporarily reopened his gym in defiance of Cooper’s executive order. He reopened for good a few weeks later, and people started coming back in droves. At least at first.

Sharpe wasn’t trying to make a political statement. Rather, he says, he could not understand why gyms were forced to close while places selling liquor and cigarettes and other nonessential businesses remained open.

“You can go to those places, but you can’t come into a gym to improve your immunity and your quality of health?” he says. “We’re adults; give us a little bit of consideration. This is how we stay healthy.”

Sharpe, who has owned the gym since 2014, strictly enforced mask mandates while they were in place. He makes sure machines are thoroughly wiped down after use, encourages social distancing and no longer holds fitness classes.

The business was able to keep many of its members initially, he says, but by the fall of 2020, cancellations increased as financial hardships started to take their toll on many local people. At the worst, Biltmore Fitness saw its membership numbers decrease by about 40%-50%.

But things have taken a turn for the better in the second half of 2022 and into 2023. “This is the best January I’ve ever had as far as membership sign-ups,” he says. He estimates membership numbers are up about 90%-95% of what they were in January 2020.

Sharpe says the numbers are encouraging from a business perspective but also because he believes it is vital for people to have a place to go for exercise.

“The people that don’t work out on a consistent, regular basis, they don’t understand the mental health side of this,” he says. “It’s therapy for many, many people. And during that shutdown, I didn’t lose it, but so many people did. It just broke my heart.”

CHAD JOHNSON photo courtesy of Johnson

HOME OPTION: Neomi Negron says she is in the best shape of her life now that she exercises at home rather than going to a gym. Photo by Rachel McIntosh Photography

Elizabeth Garbarino, MD

Grace Evins, MD

Northridge Farms proposes 577 units for Weaverville

City of Asheville

The public will be able to provide input on two zoning map amendments at the Planning and Zoning Commission meeting 5 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 1, which will take place in person at City Hall’s first-floor North Conference Room at 70 Court Plaza. A pre-meeting of the same body to review the agenda, which is open to the public but does not allow public comment, will be held at 4:30 p.m. in the fifth-floor Large Conference Room.

The Design Review Committee meeting previously scheduled for Thursday, Feb. 16, has been canceled

PLANNING AND ZONING COMMISSION

Residents can submit comments over email and voicemail until 24 hours prior to the meeting or provide in-person comment during the meeting itself. Instructions on how to attend and comment, as well as the full meeting agenda, are available at avl.mx/8b6.

Zoning Map Amendments

The following two zoning map amendments are not listed in Asheville’s development portal because, according to city planner Will Palmquist, they are straight rezonings without any conditions or site plans. Permit information is provided below.

234 Hendersonville Road Rezoning (234 Hendersonville Road, 28803)

The law firm McGuire Wood & Bissette requests a rezoning on behalf of Monark Patel, president of Milan Biltmore Two Inc., which owns the Clarion Inn Biltmore Village on 234 Hendersonville Road.

Currently, the property covers two zones, Office and Highway Business. The application requests that the entire parcel be rezoned to Highway Business. No changes to the site are proposed.

The public record for the permit can be accessed at avl.mx/ccn. 43 Redfern St. Rezoning (43 Redfern St., 28806)

Larry Ward of Ward Enterprises & Ventures LLC in Leicester requests a rezoning from Institutional to Residential MultiFamily Medium Density District (RM-8) so that West Asheville Baptist Church can sell a 0.29-acre property as a residence. The church is located at 926 Haywood Road, but this parcel was zoned Institutional because the church used the property for meetings.

The permit can be accessed at avl.mx/ccm.

Buncombe County

Three projects requiring special use permits will be on the agenda at the Buncombe County Board of Adjustment meeting, taking place at noon Wednesday, Feb. 8. The in-person meeting will be held at the Board

COMING TO WEAVERVILLE? The proposed Northridge Farms development would have 577 units: 118 single-family homes, 163 single-family townhomes and 296 rental units. Graphic courtesy of Buncombe County

of Commissioners Chambers, 200 College St.

Information on how to attend and apply for comment can be found at avl.mx/anq. No email or voicemail comments will be accepted.

Northridge Farms SUP (74 Gill Branch Road, Weaverville)

Travis Fowler of Brevard-based First Victory Inc. requests a special use permit on 88.12 acres in Weaverville to construct 577 housing units across 197 structures. The proposed development would include 118 single-family homes, 163 townhomes or casitas and 296

On Jan. 25, the Woodfin Board of Adjustment began to hear an appeal lodged by the Citizens for Responsible Land Use, a neighborhood organization opposing a proposed 116-unit development on the Elk Mountain ridgeline. Xpress first covered the proposed development from Atlantabased HS Robinhood Owner LLC and the CRLU’s mobilization against it last September. (See avl.mx/ccq.)

The appeal was lodged on behalf of Jessica and Alex Bernstein and

multifamily apartments across 11 buildings. The single-family homes would be for sale; all other units would be rented out.

Proposed amenities include playgrounds, pools and clubhouses for each section of the development. Primary access to the development will be via Northridge Commons Parkway. A December 2022 traffic analysis by Asheville-based firm Gannett Fleming proposed no traffic changes beyond the development’s existing plans to extend the roads at Northridge Commons Parkway, Northcrest Road and Gill

Branch Road until they connect to the site.

The permitted density on the site’s R-3 and CS zones is 12 units per acre; the development’s density is 6.54 units per acre.

Project documents can be accessed at avl.mx/ccs.

Prestige Subaru SUP (107 S. Bear Creek Road, Lower Hominy Township)

Raleigh-based Anderson Bear Creek LLC and Nowell Bear Creek LLC request a special use permit to build a Level 2 Planned Unit Development on 36.58 acres. This

Woodfin board hears Elk Mountain appeal

the CRLU, who were all represented at the hearing by Asheville attorney John Noor. Robinhood was represented by Josh Portnoy of Atlantabased firm Hatteras Sky.

Bernstein and the CRLU maintain that Woodfin town manager Shannon Tuch incorrectly designated the development as a “multifamily building” as opposed to a “group development.” The former designation allows the development to circumvent review by the Board

of Adjustment, meetings of which allow public comment.

The appeal also maintains that Tuch was incorrect in allowing the development to be subject to the regulations in place when the developer first submitted an application on May 17, 2021 – one day before new regulations were enacted that would have significantly impacted the original site design. Robinhood argues that subsequent revisions to its plans

Prestige Subaru dealership will consist of a roughly 59,000-squarefoot vehicle sales and maintenance building and a roughly 1,500-square-foot car wash (not for public use).

The dealership would also include outside lounging areas and a dog park. Two access roads connecting to South Bear Creek Road would be constructed, as would two sidewalks.

Project documents can be accessed at avl.mx/c9b.

Ridgecrest Camps Cabin Extension SUP (1 Ridgecrest Drive & 290 Yates Ave., Black Mountain)

Phil Berry, executive director of Ridgecrest Summer Camps, requests a special use permit to construct two new cabins at Camp Crestridge and seven new cabins at Camp Ridgecrest. Each cabin would be 800 square feet, the same size as existing structures.

The entire property is 967 acres. Camp Crestridge, the summer camp for girls, is on the northern part of the property, and Camp Ridgecrest, the boys’ camp, is on the southern part.

Project documents can be accessed at avl.mx/ccp.

Black Mountain Home for Children SUP Revision (80 Lake Eden Road, Black Mountain)

Jim Harmon , president of the Black Mountain Home for Children, Youth and Families Inc. is applying to revise the plan for a Planned Unit Development II. The original plan to construct a single-family modular home on 48.9 acres was approved in May 2019. The new plan would see the addition of a 5,598-square-foot student life center on the property near the existing group home.

Project documents can be found at avl.mx/cco.

— Sara Murphy X

should be seen as an extension of that original application, whereas Bernstein and the CRLU believe those revisions should be considered as new plans subject to the new requirements.

The Woodfin Board of Adjustment met from 5-9 p.m. each day Jan. 25-27 to consider the appeal but did not reach a final decision. The board has continued the hearing until Thursday, Feb. 9, according to CRLU secretary Ben Irvin . X

Buncombe seeks more input on 20-year roadmap

Ask a child what Buncombe County should look like in 20 years, and the responses will range from the hilarious to the heartfelt.

Sam , age 9, wants an arcade with a pool, a free ice cream parlor and an “awsom bilding” with free gum and Nerf guns. Sidney , age 4, wishes the county had more playgrounds. Maya , age 10, hopes residents will care more about the environment and stop littering.

Their responses were among the roughly 200 collected on postcards from kids as part of Buncombe’s comprehensive planning process. The county’s first such effort of its kind is meant to inform land

use policy, infrastructure, community services and other local government efforts over the next two decades.

The draft plan, released in December, is now in the fourth and last phase of its development. County officials are seeking a final round of input from the community before the plan’s approval by the Planning Board and Board of Commissioners, currently slated for May.

“We are asking that residents review the details of the draft and provide feedback on whether or not we got it right,” says Gillian Phillips , Buncombe’s long-range planning division manager.

Upcoming opportunities for engagement

COLLABORATE AND LISTEN

Phillips says the community has been helping to shape the plan since work began in the fall of 2021. Input started with residents being asked to list up to five words or phrases that best described their visions for the county in 20 years, and multiple polls on the plan have been posted to the Engage Buncombe online feedback portal.

Through the first three phases of the process, says Phillips, over 2,900 residents participated. Beyond the online activities, opportunities to comment included 14 in-person, drop-in or virtual meetings specifically about the plan, 36 community outreach events and 75 relevant board and committee meetings.

Buncombe also made a point of reaching out to youths, both through the postcard project and by visiting county and city schools. Since the plan covers a span of 20 years, Phillips adds, getting young people involved was critical. “It’s apparent from the conversations we had with the kids that they

are smart and will let you know what’s important to them if you ask,” she says.

Elementary students, Philips continues, were overwhelmingly in favor of more community swimming pools. Middle schoolers, she says, tended to focus on environmental issues and land use.

“I think the county has done an exceptional job in getting people’s voices heard,” says Nancy Waldrop , who sat on the plan’s 23-member steering committee and chairs the county Planning Board. (The committee disbanded in December 2022 after completing its official duties.) She says she was particularly impressed by the diverse representation on the steering committee and credits her colleagues with driving a lot of community engagement.

BUNCOMBE SPEAKS

Among the most pressing issues highlighted by the community, according to the data and several

GIVE IT A LOOK: Black Mountain resident Carlos Espinosa, left, reviews materials from Buncombe County’s comprehensive planning process at the West Asheville Library with county planner Haylee Madfis. Photo by Sean Connor

of the plan’s leaders, are lack of affordable housing, lack of public transportation and losing natural areas and agricultural lands to new development. The biggest concern, flagged by 67% of residents surveyed, is rising cost of living.

Andrea Golden helped represent that concern through her seat on the steering committee. As the co-director of PODER Emma, a community group working to prevent the displacement of mobile home residents from the Emma neighborhood, she wanted to ensure “the plan speaks both to the current realities and for people’s vision for the future.”

“Before I joined the committee, we conducted an extensive neighborhood-based research project, where we talked to a few hundred people to make sure we were bringing the most pressing perspective,” she says. “And for our community, the No. 1 need expressed was affordable housing.”

Kit Cramer , another steering committee member and president and CEO of the Asheville Area Chamber of Commerce, says she focused mainly on the business community and “ensuring that their voice is heard.” She sees current land restrictions in Buncombe County and access to child care as some of the main challenges facing local entrepreneurs.

Cramer also emphasized the importance of working with other counties in the region to manage Buncombe’s growth. She said over 56,000 people come from 12 surrounding counties to work in Buncombe each day; that work -

er influx has increased by 25% between 2009 and 2019.

“We’re lucky to be dealing with issues of growth as opposed to the other way around,” adds Cramer.

WHAT’S NEXT?

The draft plan Buncombe wants residents to examine stands at nearly 200 pages. Reviewing such a large document can be daunting, but steering committee member Jennifer Caldwell-Billstrom identifies a few starting points for those looking to weigh in.

“I encourage neighbors to dig into the vision themes and goals presented in the draft plan,” she says, as well as review its growth, equity and conservation map, which is a tool for assessing future land use and zoning changes. The executive summary of the plan includes all of those items and runs to a more digestible 15 pages.

To participate in the process, residents can visit avl.mx/cbe. The Engage Buncombe portal includes a new survey on the plan, a virtual exhibit on the work so far and details about upcoming in-person engagement opportunities. The deadline to offer feedback is Monday, Feb. 13.

One of the county’s main goals, says Waldrop, was to get quality feedback from as many residents as possible and to gain a better understanding of what their community’s future looks like to them. “I am thrilled,” she says, “because I think that’s happened.”

— Sean Connor X

CONCEPT ART: The roughly 200 postcards collected from Buncombe County children as part of the comprehensive planning process illustrated both desires for the present and visions of Buncombe’s future. Illustration courtesy of Buncombe County

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Asheville joins Buncombe County surveillance system

Even as the Asheville Police Department wrestles with staffing shortages, it’s finding a way to get more eyes on the city’s streets. An agreement between Asheville and the Buncombe County Sheriff’s Office, approved by City Council in a 4-1 vote Jan. 24, will allow the APD to use a county-operated camera network to monitor the public.

Council member Kim Roney was the sole vote against the agreement. Sage Turner, who was participating by phone, was not able to take part in the vote remotely, and Sheneika Smith was not present. The item had appeared on Council’s consent agenda, which normally contains noncontroversial or routine issues but was pulled out for a separate discussion and vote.

As explained by Assistant City Manager Ben Woody, the Fusus Unified Intelligence Platform allows real-time surveillance of security cameras located throughout Buncombe County. For an annual fee of $30,000, the APD would gain access to those cameras within city limits, with the exception of those on Buncombe County Schools property.

While Woody didn’t specify exactly how many cameras would be covered by the agreement, Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Aaron Sarver told Xpress that about 1,500 of the system’s roughly 1,800 cameras are placed at BCS locations. The vast majority of the remainder are on county-owned property, Sarver continued, with “less

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than 20” on the exteriors of downtown businesses.

The agreement also allows the Sheriff’s Office to place cameras on city property and link them with Fusus. City Manager Debra Campbell said cameras are currently planned for City Hall, Pritchard Park and the

intersection of Lexington Avenue and Hiawassee Street; additional cameras would require separate approval by Campbell’s office.

Buncombe County would store footage from the cameras for 72 hours, automatically deleting it after that point. The city and the APD would be able to access the cameras and footage in a way “similar or the same as Buncombe County’s in terms of an internal process,” Woody said, with operation, auditing, data management and access requests managed by the Sheriff’s Office. No facial recognition software would be used to analyze Fusus footage.

City Attorney Brad Branham added that the recordings gathered by Fusus would fall under the same laws as those governing police body camera footage, which are specifically excluded from the public record.

ed the use of the system and increasing police presence in her neighborhood.

“We need a little more security over there. And we have a lot of cameras, but it seems like when something happens in our community, they never know what happened,” Davis said. “I want to know why the cameras are there. Who are they for? Because my house got shot. And I haven’t heard anything. … It doesn’t feel like a safe place.”

“The important thing from our perspective, in addition to ongoing camera surveillance when there’s an issue going on, we think that police presence is very important,” added Asheville Housing Authority Executive Director David Nash. “And we want to begin to make sure that the voices of our residents are being heard, instead of just statements in the community that our properties are overpoliced. I think they are, in fact, underpoliced in some ways.”

Meanwhile, West Asheville resident Grace Barron-Martinez said that the camera system had the potential to violate First, Fourth and 14th Amendment rights regarding free speech, unreasonable searches and seizures and privacy.

“I don’t know about you, but I’m certainly not a subject matter expert on [artificial intelligence], and I feel that with this, we are opening a Pandora’s box that we will not be able to reel back in,” she said.

Prior to her nay vote, Roney argued that placing the issue on the consent agenda hadn’t allowed enough time for Council and members of the public to discuss the program.

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“Generally, [with] what I will call law enforcement information, there is a process by which someone can, under certain circumstances, request to either be able to view or to have that information disclosed to them,” Branham said. “But it is a separate process from public records. Otherwise, it is restricted from public view, just like body cam footage.”

Members of the public who spoke on the item were split on whether the camera system would increase safety and reduce crime. Tiffany Davis, a resident of Hillcrest Apartments, support-

“My concern around this is, now we have more clarity that hundreds of residents in Asheville are going to be on camera for 72 hours with our staff without an internal policy,” she said. “I think this is a really important tool that our community may need for community safety. … What is the difference in having a community conversation about this instead of [putting it] on the consent agenda?”

“I think if [the Environment and Safety Committee] wants to take up the issue of whether or not the police department should have an additional policy about how this footage is managed on our side, or whether or not there’s even a need for that, I think go ahead and have that conversation,” responded Mayor Esther Manheimer, referencing the Council committee that oversees the APD. “But I think we can move ahead with this.”

— Brooke Randle X

EYE IN THE SKY: This security camera on the roof of the Miles Building, home to the Xpress offices, is part of the Fusus system to which the Asheville Police Department will now have access. Photo by Thomas Calder

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What are fentanyl test strips?

In October, the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners heard that the county’s rate of overdoses has exceeded the North Carolina average every year since 2016. And in 2021, the latest year for which data is available, Buncombe saw 45 overdose deaths per 100,000 people, compared with 36 overdose deaths per 100,000 people statewide.

But the root of the problem isn’t unique to the county, says Ginger Clough, health promotions supervisor for the Buncombe County Department of Health and Human Services. Fentanyl, a synthetic opioid, is “the driver behind overdose deaths locally in Buncombe, in North Carolina and in the country,” she explains.

That’s the reason fentanyl test strips, which check for the presence of fentanyl in other substances, are “a significant piece of an overall harm reduction approach,” Clough continues.

In a medical setting, fentanyl is used for sedation, like during wisdom teeth removal, or prescribed as a pain medication for individuals requiring around-the-clock relief. It’s highly powerful — 50-100 more potent than morphine, according to the NCDHHS.

But fentanyl can also be manufactured cheaply and illicitly, and it’s added as a filler, also known as an adulterant, to other drugs such as methamphetamine, MDMA, heroin and cocaine. The added cheap fentanyl can make those drugs — which are of more expensive street value — stronger than a user expects, potentially leading to an overdose.

“By testing, people can make a plan of care around safer use to reduce the risk of an unintentional overdose,” says Clough.

The latest edition of Xpress’s WTF — “Want the Facts?” — series looks at the history, legality and use of fentanyl test strips in the Asheville area.

WHEN DID BUNCOMBE COUNTY START DISTRIBUTING TEST STRIPS?

In 2019, Gov. Roy Cooper signed the Opioid Epidemic Response Act, which legalized the distribution of fentanyl test strips. Buncombe County’s Safe Syringe Program began that year, which distributes fentanyl test strips along with sterile syringes, the overdose reversal drug naloxone, sharps containers and alcohol wipes.

During fiscal year 2021-22, BCDHHS distributed 1,637 fentanyl test strips, according to Clough. The department has distributed 969 from October through Jan. 27. (The strips cost rough-

ly $1 each, according to the Legislative Analysis and Public Policy Association.)

Free test strips are available on demand at the Buncombe County Health and Human Services office, 40 Coxe Ave., weekdays 1- 4 p.m.

HOW DO TEST STRIPS HELP?

Distributing fentanyl test strips is part of an evidence-based strategy to reduce overdoses. The strips let individuals test their drugs for a potent substance that could kill them, explains Lance Karner, harm reduction coordinator for Sunrise Community for Recovery and Wellness.

“If somebody is partying on the weekends, using cocaine at the bar, and they want to make sure that their supply is safe to use, that’s when you would [use a test strip],” he says.

Karner likens supplying fentanyl test strips to “having a condom bowl” at a bar or club, in the sense that the materials make the safety measure more accessible to people.

“Let’s be real — people are using drugs in the bathroom at a bar,” he says. “Being able to test it before you use it, because you just bought it from a random person at the bar, is really beneficial for people who might just be trying to indulge on the weekends.”

WHAT’S THE LEGAL STATUS OF TEST STRIPS?

Many states, including North Carolina, criminalize the possession of drug-testing equipment as drug paraphernalia. The state defines paraphernalia as “all equipment, products and materials of any kind that are used … [for] testing, analyzing … or otherwise introducing controlled substances in the human body.”

But North Carolina does exempt the possession of fentanyl test strips “for personal use,” according to an assessment of drug-checking equipment laws nationwide compiled by the Network for Public Health Law.

“I’m not aware of any charges from the Asheville Police Department for possession of fentanyl test strips,” says Capt. Joe Silberman of the APD. “And I don’t really see that as something we would pursue … because we don’t want to persecute somebody solely for their addiction.”

The amount of fentanyl test strips delineating “for personal use” is unclear, Silberman says. But generally speaking, a police officer’s inter-

PARTY CITY: Asheville’s bars and restaurants are availing themselves of the fentanyl test strips provided by Buncombe County so that customers can test any drugs they might use, says Sunrise Community for Recovery and Wellness harm reduction coordinator Lance Karner.

pretation of a “user amount” versus an amount signifying an intent to sell drugs depends on the amount of the illicit substances and the specific drug paraphernalia present.

For example, “a syringe, a tourniquet, a spoon and they had a handful of test strips — that to me is a user amount,” Silberman explains. “If you caught somebody with an amount [of test strips] with other items like a blender and an amount of fentanyl that exceeds a gram — maybe exceeds 5 grams — you’re into the ‘possession with intent to distribute’ area,” he continues.

But it’s not common to find strips for testing drug purity on those who are selling drugs, Silberman says. “We don’t find fentanyl test strips on drug dealers. We find guns.”

ARE TEST STRIPS BECOMING MORE COMMON?

Asheville’s reputation as a party destination means fentanyl test strips are in demand. “Lately, we’ve seen an increase in bars and restaurants in Asheville express an interest [in receiving harm reduction materials],” Karner from Sunrise says.

Some establishments may put the test strips in the bathroom, he says, while others might keep them behind the bar. “The test strips have been almost a bigger hit for [establishments] than the Narcan,” a brand name for naloxone.

“Most of our harm reduction community partners have test strips supplies,” adds Clough with Buncombe County. “The opioid settlement funds are making [it possible] that the county can give out more supplies to our partners.”

The county’s partners include Sunrise Community for Recovery and Wellness, Western North Carolina AIDS Project, Steady Collective and Holler Harm Reduction, she says.

WHAT SHOULD TEST STRIP USERS KEEP IN MIND?

Silberman from the APD cautions that people who use illicit drugs shouldn’t believe their substances are completely safe because they’ve tested for the presence of fentanyl.

“On the one hand, I’m not going to tell somebody not to use [test strips],” he tells Xpress. “But on the other hand, we’re deeply concerned that it might give [drug users] a sense of false security.

Silberman notes that fentanyl test strips only detect the presence of fentanyl, not the amount. That amount matters, because users can develop a tolerance to small quantities. And the strips don’t identify other adulterants, such as sugar or the anesthetic lidocaine, that may have been put in the substance.

“If they just tell you [the drug] is or isn’t fentanyl, I worry,” Silberman explains. “My concern with the strips is, would it give somebody who’s suffering from addiction a false sense of security?”

— Jessica Wakeman X

Photo courtesy of Justin Shytle

Q&A: Local pharmacist earns statewide award for community work Series

For Shawn Taylor, helping is a way of life. Winner of the 2022 Ambulatory Care Pharmacist of the Year Award, she splits her time between teaching students at Wingate University’s Hendersonville campus, assisting low-income patients at the Appalachian Mountain Community Health Centers and traveling to work with underserved rural Honduran populations through the nonprofit Shoulder to Shoulder.

“My whole life, I wanted to be a helper in some way,” she says. “I landed on pharmacy as the best option for me. Pharmacists are known as the most accessible health care professionals who folks can find in a community pharmacy.”

In 2010, Taylor finished her education at the University of South Carolina and relocated to Asheville for a postgraduate residency at the Charles George VA Medical Center. The following year, she accepted an associate professor position at Wingate University. “By sharing with learners my approach to treating patients and interacting and serving the community, I can have a lot bigger impact,” she explains.

Taylor’s community expanded to Honduras in 2012, when she took her first trip with Shoulder to Shoulder. Since 2015, she’s regularly brought twothree students with her during these weeklong visits.

Students also accompany Taylor as she works with local low-income residents at Appalachian Mountain Community Health Centers. “I have a really strong belief that just because folks are in a lower socioeconomic status

or have experienced some event that’s left them in a less than desired place in their lives, they still deserve the best treatment and access to care,” she says.

The Ambulatory Care Pharmacist of the Year Award is given by the N.C. Association of Pharmacists to a pharmacist showing moral character, good citizenship and high professional ideals while making significant contributions to their area of practice. “I feel like I’m just doing my job and I got awarded, which is really wonderful,” Taylor says. “And it’s so well appreciated to be recognized by your peers in the state. It reinforces what I’m doing.”

Xpress sat down with Taylor to discuss her work in Honduras and how alternative treatments and pharmaceuticals can work together.

Editor’s note: This interview has been condensed and lightly edited.

Xpress: What propelled you to begin traveling to Honduras?

Taylor: I had some experiences with work in other countries through my church growing up. So, it had been on my mind for a long time that I wanted to switch gears and serve in a fully medical capacity. I identified Shoulder to Shoulder through some friends that had also worked with them down in Honduras. They have a U.S. contingent and a Honduran contingent. This organization in particu-

lar is founded on integrating into the community and working with systems that already exist in rural Honduras. What made you decide to include your students on these trips?

A big component of being a good pharmacist is learning how to problem-solve, and what better way than to take away all the resources you’re used to and solve a problem? In some instances, different medications aren’t available. There’s a lack of internet resources, so they have to either know the information or go to a textbook. Sometimes the electricity goes out. There’s obviously a language barrier component as well. It adds a lot of different obstacles that you’ve got to navigate around. It’s really cool to watch how they solve problems in that type of setting.

Part of the experience that the students have on rotations is spending time with me at Appalachian Mountain Community Health Centers. And then they spend time with me at the clinic in Honduras, and they compare what it’s like being in poverty and how to treat patients and how it differs depending on the resources that might be available. The different government programs, grants and funding that we have here might not always be available there.

Asheville is a town that has a large number of skeptics when it comes to pharmaceuticals. What are your thoughts on the concerns and issues surrounding this?

I actually teach a lot of our integrative medicine curriculum in the pharmacy school. This includes teaching the students how we add alternative medicine strategies to some of the more traditional medication therapies. For example, one of my classes learned about all the benefits of yoga and then went to a beginner practice together.

From a patient standpoint, I think it’s really important to understand what’s happening in their bodies. Let’s say you have a heart attack. You’re going to get discharged from the hospital on a classic cocktail of medications to prevent a secondary heart attack. Oftentimes, those prescriptions are written, and certainly, there’s education given, but many patients don’t understand what’s happened in their body and where each one of those medications fits to prevent them from having a secondary event.

My appointments as a certified pharmacist practitioner tend to be 40 minutes to an hour long — however

SERVING THOSE IN NEED: Pharmacist Shawn Taylor prepares an antibiotic for a patient with an infection during a 2015 trip to Honduras. Photo courtesy of Taylor

much time it takes to help the patient understand what’s happened in their body, what’s the potential to happen in their body, how each medication fits and what the side effects of the medication are. That’s a really big reason that patients are concerned about putting all these chemicals in their body.

My role is making sure they understand what could happen from a negative standpoint, where they should time the medication in their day or if they should take it with a meal to avoid or mitigate some of the potential adverse reactions. And then, ultimately, turning it back to them. Asking, “Now that you’ve heard all this information, how does that feel?” I might be the expert on drugs, but the patient is the expert of their body. It takes both of us to come up with the best solution.

What do you feel is your biggest success up to this point?

I think that I’m an approachable person that is able to meet folks where they’re at whether that’s a patient or student and spend time with them really trying to understand who they are as people — whether it’s solving a problem that a patient may have or just giving a listening ear to a student. I think being someone that’s seen as an advocate is probably my greatest

accomplishment, and I think that has led to a lot of the success that I’ve had in my career.

What advice would you offer people regarding wellness?

I serve on our well-being committee at the university, so the emphasis is on improving the well-being of our medical professionals. If we are not well ourselves, it’s really hard to promote wellness to our patients. Just today in the integrative medicine class, we were discussing how diet influences our well-being, not just physically but mentally. What are the things that, as a student, you could tweak a little bit or changes that you could make that might support your sleep quality or your energy levels and that may help you be more successful on exams? A lot of students will make the comment, “I’ll get around to that. I’ll make time for exercising when I finish pharmacy school. I’ll get a more balanced diet when I finish pharmacy school.” And I tell them that it just gets busier after you graduate. It’s a different busy, it’s not taking exams every week, but you will have different pressures and expectations from your employer. Being able to establish those habits early on will lead to a lifelong, healthier self.

— LA Bourgeois X

Our voucher program has provided financial support to more than 70 clients seeking therapy. Training and Pop up clinics have increased people’s interest in working on their wellness and seeing positive outcomes. If you are interested in supporting our efforts visit www.atherapistlikeme.org/donate

I empower breast cancer survivors to lose weight without dieting so they can feel stronger, be confident in the clothes they love, and live a kick ass life after cancer.

Holistic Health Coach Free Consultations

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Share Friedman, NC LCMHC # 12786

Taproot Integrative Counseling, PLLC info@soulbirther.com • 828-484-1610 (voice/text) soulbirther.com • Telehealth sessions only (at this time)

FUTURE PROGRAMMING

• Wellness Workshops

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• Professional Development Trainings

• Voucher Member Training

• Voucher Application (Opening in February)

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A Therapist Like Me is a non-profit, 501(c)3 dedicated to connecting clients and therapists with shared intersections, advancing therapists of color, providing financial gifts to uniquely diverse clients from historically marginalized communities for psychotherapy, reducing societal stigma surrounding mental health, and supporting our community.

COMMUNITY CALENDAR

FEBRUARY 1 - 9, 2023

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.

 Online-only events

 Feature, pages 50-51

 Feature, page 53

 More info, pages 54-55

 More info, pages 56-57

WELLNESS

Narcotics Anonymous

Meetings

Visit wncna.org/ basic-meeting for dates, times and locations.

Sparkle Time Holistic

Exercise

Aerobic, strengthening, balance and flexibility.

WE (2/1, 8), MO (2/6), 10:30am, $5, Avery’s Creek Community Center, 899 Glenn Bridge Rd, SE

Tai Chi for Balance

Improve balance through gently strengthening core muscles. All ages and beginners welcome.

WE (2/1, 8), 11:30am, Dragon Phoenix, 51 N Merrimon Ave

Tai Chi for Beginners

For all ages and abilities. Yang 10 and 24 forms along with Qigong Exercises.

TH (2/2, 9), 11:30am, Dragon Phoenix, 51 North Merrimon Ave

Nar-Anon Family Group Meeting

Weekly meeting for family and friends of addicts. Use Door C.

TH (2/2, 9), 7pm, 1316D Patton Ave

Asheville Aphasia Support Group

Every Friday in Rm 345. No RSVP needed.

FR (2/3), 10am, WCU at Biltmore Park, 28 Schenck Pkwy, Ste 300

Yoga for Everyone Community class for all ages and abilities. Class will be in English, but instructor can speak Spanish. Registration required.

SA (2/4), 9:30am, Black Mountain Presbyterian, 117 Montreat Rd, Black Mountain

Magnetic Minds:

Depression/Bipolar

Support Group

Weekly meeting for those who suffer with depression, bipolar and other mental health challenges. Email depressionbipolarasheville@gmail.com or call

or text (828)367-7660 for more info.

SA (2/4), 2pm, 1316 Ste C Parkwood Rd

Wild Souls Authentic Movement Class

A conscious movement experience in a 100-year old building with a community of like-minded women at all life stages.

SU (2/5), Dunn's Rock Community Center, 461 Connestee Rd, Brevard

Winter Flow

This class is designed to build heat in the body and release excess kapha during the winter. Expect strength building as class is working toward headstands in the spring..

Bring your mat.

SU (2/5), 11am, One World Brewing West, 520 Haywood Rd

Medical Qigong

Classical Qigong exercises to promote the flow of Chi in the body for a healthy lifestyle.

TU (2/7), 9am, Dragon Phoenix, 51 N Merrimon Ave

Ben's Friends

Offering supportive community to food and beverage industry professionals struggling with addiction and substance abuse. Every Tuesday.

TU (2/7), 10am, Avenue

M, 791 Merrimon Ave

Well Played Wellness

Game Night

In partnership to host monthly game nights with Aurora Studio and Sunrise Community for Recovery and Wellness, providing pathways to wellness from substance use and mental wellness challenges.

TU (2/7), 6pm, Well Played, 162 Coxe Ave

WNC Prostate Support Group

A forum for men, caregivers, family members, and partners. For info (828)419-4565 or wncprostate@gmail. com or wncprostatesupport.org

TU (2/7), 6:30pm, First Baptist Church of Asheville, 5 Oak St

TOY STORY: *Assembly Required: Asheville Designer Toy Expo, will be held Saturday, Feb. 4, 11 a.m.- 5 p.m., and Sunday, Feb. 5, 11 a.m.-4 p.m., at The Grey Eagle.

Pictured is “Wood Robot Invasion,” a creation specifically made for the event by local artist Edwin Salas. Photo courtesy of Edwin Salas Performance Studio

ART Night/Visionary

A five-person exhibition featuring contemplative works on paper, panel and canvas by Josephine Close, Renato Órdenes San Martín, Kyung Soon Park, Christina Haglid and Eli McMullen. Through Feb. 26. Gallery open Tuesday through Saturday 10am and Sunday 11am.

Tyger Tyger Gallery, 191 Lyman St

Beyond the Binding Opening Reception

A community art show collaboration with the Black Mountain Libraryto repurpose old books to make art. The show will run through Feb. 28, Monday through Friday, 10am-5pm.

FR (2/3), 5:30pm, Black Mountain Center for the Arts, 225 W State St, Black Mountain

The Nude: Beauty, Grace and Form -

Celebrating the Human Figure Opening Reception

Local artist Joseph Pearson wants to strip away all reservations and preconceived notions that audience members may have about the human flesh.

See p53 SA (2/4), 5pm, Pink Dog Gallery, 348 Depot St

Sherrill Roland: Sugar, Water, Lemon Squeeze

Through sculpture, installation, and conceptual art, Roland engages visitors in dialogues around community, social contract, identity, biases, and other deeply human experiences. Open 11am, closed Tuesdays. Through Mar. 20.

Asheville Art Museum, 2 S Pack Square Smoky Mountain Impressions

Featuring works on of the Great Smoky Mountains by four new gallery members: Gail Drozd, Patricia Hargrove, Natalie Ray and Christine Schlageter. Opening reception Friday, Feb. 3, 5-8pm. Gallery open daily 11am, exhibition runs through Feb. 28.

Asheville Gallery of Art, 82 Patton Ave

COMMUNITY MUSIC

Odeya Nini and Zach Cooper

A member of the Grammy-nominated new music ensemble, Wild Up, with local support from Grammy-award winning composer, Zach Cooper, performing music for solo contrabass.

FR (2/3), 7pm, Black Mountain College Museum & Arts Center, 120 College St

Adventure Armenia

Benefit

Music of JS Bach, Wilhelm Peterson-Berger, Claude Debussy, Albert Roussel and Katherine Hoover. Kate Steinbeck on flute and Deweitt Tipton on piano.

SU (2/4), 3pm, First Presbyterian Church, 40 Church St

The Land of Sky Chorus Rehearsal Men of all ages and from all backgrounds welcome.

TU (2/7), 6:30pm, Care Partners Main Campus, 68 Sweeten Creek Rd

Tom Rush & Matt Nakoa

Guitarist/vocalist Tom Rush’s career has spanned more than 50 years and touched the lives of such iconic performers as James Taylor, Garth Brooks, Joni Mitchell, and Jackson Browne. Coupled with award-winning songwriter, singer, and multi-instrumentalist, Matt Nakoa.

TU (2/7), 7:30pm, Brevard Music Center, 349 Andante Ln, Brevard

Performance: Vijay Iyer Multimedia collaborator, system builder, rhapsodist, historical thinker and

Arboretum Reads

Meet for tea and conversation to discuss

Rest is Resistance: A Manifesto by Tricia Hersey.

TH (2/2), 2pm, NC

Arboretum, 100 Frederick Law Olmsted Way

Poetry Open Mic

Hendo

A poetry-centered open mic that welcomes all kinds of performers every Thursday. Performances must be no longer than ten minutes. 18+

TH (2/2, 9), 7:30pm, Shakedown Lounge, 706 Seventh Ave E, Hendersonville

Dark City Poets Society

This meeting is open to writers of all experience levels looking for feedback on their poetry.

TU (2/7), 6pm, Black Mountain Library, 105 N Dougherty St, Black Mountain

Enly and the Buskin’ Blues Launch

With author Jennie Liu. See p50-51

TU (2/7), 6pm, Malaprop’s Bookstore/ Cafe, 55 Haywood St

THEATER & FILM

TheaterWorksUSA presents Junie B.’s Essential Survival Guide to School

multicultural gateway,” composer-pianist Vijay Iyer is one of the leading music-makers of his generation.

TH (2/9), 7pm, Black Mountain College Museum & Arts Center, 120 College St

LITERARY

Bright Star Touring

Theatre Presents: African Folktales

Characters from a wide range of cultures in stories that celebrate the various folk tale traditions of Africa.

Ages 3+

WE (2/1), 4pm, Weaverville Library, 41 N Main St, Weaverville Storytelling on the Mountain Share or listen to a five minute true life story. If you are interested in being a storyteller, email Jim at jamesrludwig@gmail.com or Claudia at claudiagreen. green@gmail.com.

WE (2/1), 5:30pm, Homeplace Beer Co., 6 S Main St, Burnsville Poetry Open Mic withhost Caleb Beissert

All forms of entertainment welcome at this weekly poetry-centric open mic.

WE (2/1, 8), 8pm, Sovereign Kava, 268 Biltmore Ave

Abe Lincoln and Uncle Tom in the White House

A re-imagination of events the night before Abraham Lincoln signs the Emancipation Proclamation, when he is mysteriously visited by Uncle Tom, the fictional character in Harriet Beecher Stowe’s abolitionist novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 7:30pm, through Feb. 18; also 3pm on Feb. 19. Presented by Diffrent Strokes Performing Arts Collective. See p56 Wortham Center for the Performing Arts, 18 Biltmore Ave

Aquila Theatre presents Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar Fresh from his success on the battlefield, a triumphant Caesar returns to Rome a virtual dictator, prompting his close circle to decide that he must be stopped — through whatever means necessary.

SA (2/4), 8pm, Wortham Center For The Performing Arts, 18 Biltmore Ave

MEETINGS & PROGRAMS

Laurel Chapter of the Embroiderers’ Guild of America

"Almost six years old" children's book character Junie B. and friends deliver the definitive word on surviving and thriving in school. Recommended for grades K-4.

WE (2/1), 10am & 12pm, Wortham Center for the Performing Arts, 18 Biltmore Ave

North Carolina Stage Company presents Every Brilliant Thing

Based on true and untrue stories, and told with the help of the audience, this play is a life-affirming story of how to achieve hope through focusing on the smallest miracles of life. Content Warning: Contains brief descriptions of depression, self-harm, and suicide.

Recommended for audience members ages 14 and older. If you or somebody you know is struggling, please call 988, the Suicide and Crisis Hotline.

Various dates and times through Feb.

North Carolina Stage Company, 15 Stage Ln

Frankenhoooker Movie Night Free movie, free popcorn. Heckling encouraged.

WE (2/1), 8pm, The Odd, 1045 Haywood Rd

The program will focus on needle felting and will be taught by Carlie Holdredge, the chapter VP. Visitors welcome. If interested, contact Mary Ann Wyatt at (828)5517719 or Janet Stewart at (828)575-9195.

TH (2/2), 9:30am

Southside Card Game Night Families and community members play card games like bid whist/ spades, Apples to Apples, Uno, and more. Light refreshments served.

TH (2/2, 9), 6pm, Dr. Wesley Grant Sr. Southside Center, 285 Livingston St

What the NC Carbon Plan Means to You

Join the Western North Carolina Sierra Club and Beyond Coal Campaign Representative Mikaela Curry to learn about the plan developed by the NCUC and what it will mean. For more information, contact WNC Sierra Club Chair Judy Mattox at judymattox15@gmail. com or (828) 683-2176.

TH (2/2), 7pm, Online, visit avl.mx/977

Landscaper Meet & Greet

Local landscapers will be on hand to talk, show pictures of their work, and set up appointments.

SA (2/4), 10am, Reems Creek Nursery, 76 Monticello Rd, Weaverville

Sanctuary Saturdays

Join others in the community for a free hot lunch in a warm and safe setting. Use the restroom, charge your phone, be part of a conversation, play cards, rest - all are welcome.

SA (2/4), 11am, First Presbyterian Church Asheville, 40 Church St

Dog Adoption Event

With Mountain Pet Rescue.

SA (2/4), 1pm, Cellarest Beer Project, 395 Haywood Rd

Quantum Physics and Spirituality

With speaker Bill Combs discussing how we can benefit from understanding both of these schools of thought.

SA (2/4), 1pm, Mountain Magic Studio, 3 Louisiana Ave

Ready for Kindergarten

Get more information about school options and how to prepare your children. The Lego Movie will be shown 2-4pm. Enjoy free pizza, soft drinks, and a Kindergarten Readiness

Kit. Organized by the Buncombe Partnership for Children.

SA (2/4), 1pm, Asheville

Pizza & Brewing Co., 675 Merrimon Ave

Facial Gua Sha Workshop

A hands on class where you will learn the history and theory behind this ancient practice along with learning proper technique. Taught by Ashley Kuper, L.Ac.

SA (2/4), 3:30pm, East Acupuncture Wellness Boutique, 2296 US 70, Swannanoa

What the Heck is Human Design?

In this 90-minute workshop, break down the basics and identify the most important aspects of your chart.

SU (2/5), 4pm, Mountain Magic Studio, 3 Louisiana Ave

Creation Care Alliance

2023 Annual Symposium

This time is designed with creation care

professionals, volunteers, lay leaders, and clergy in mind. Gain new language and tools to inspire your congregation and community to care for the environment (people, non-human creatures, and the planet) interwoven with space for rest, relationship, and prayer.

MO (2/6), Montreat Conference Center, 401 Assembly

Dr, Montreat

Sew Co./Rite of Passage Factory Tour

See the inside operations of a local sewing studio. On this 30 minute micro-tour, learn about sustainable and transparent business practices, and hear about production processes and client collaborations.

MO (2/6), 11am, Rite of Passage Clothing & SewCo, 240 Clingman Ave Ext

Become a Volunteer Court Advocate for Children In Need

Seeking volunteers for Guardian ad Litem advocates, trained community volunteers who are appointed by a district court judge to investigate and determine the needs of abused and neglected children petitioned into the court system. Visit volunteerforgal.org or call (828)259-6603.

MO (2/6), 1pm, First Baptist Church of Asheville, 5 Oak St

AniMondays

Watch anime movies, play anime video games, and make anime arts and crafts. Each fan will be entered to win cool anime prizes. This is a free program for kids and teens ages 6-16. MO (2/6), 6pm, Dr Wesley Grant Sr. Southside Center, 285 Livingston St

WNC Repair Cafe

Volunteers with tools and supplies provide hands-on help to fix broken household objects at no cost while helping patrons develop the confidence and skills to make their own repairs

in the future.

TU (2/7), 5pm, Asheville Tool Library, 80 Cowan Cove Rd

Sewing Club

Bring your machine or borrow one and be taught how to use it.

WE (2/8), 5:30pm, The Burger Bar, 1 Craven St Wireless Wisdom for Safer Internet Connections Community forum on electromagnetic fields (EMF) sponsored by SafeTech NC.

WE (2/8), 7pm, Online, visit avl.mx/ccu

Cocktail Classes: Stirred, Not Shaken

Take a deep-dive into classic stirred martinis: from the dry to the dirty.

TH (2/9), 7pm, Oak and Grist Distilling Company, 1556 Grovestone Rd, Black Mountain

Valentine's Burlesque Dance Class

During these two classes, you will learn and get to know the basics of classic burlesque dance as well as perfecting a dance routine.

TH (2/9), 7pm, Black Mountain Center for the Arts, 225 W State St, Black Mountain

LOCAL MARKETS

RAD Farmers Market Winter Season

Providing year-round access to fresh local foods, with 25-30 vendors selling a variety of local wares. Handicap parking available in the Smoky Park lot, free public parking available along Riverside Dr. Also accessible by foot, bike, or rollerblade via the Wilma Dykeman Greenway.

WE (2/1, 8), 3pm, Smoky Park Supper Club, 350 Riverside Dr Weaverville Winter Market

Local vendors including fresh fruits and vegetables, crafts, body products and more.

WE (2/1, 8), 3pm, 60 Lakeshore Dr, Weaverville

FESTIVALS & SPECIAL EVENTS

White Squirrel Day

White squirrel Pisgah Penny will give her best prediction on both the end of winter, and the results of the upcoming Super Bowl.

TH (2/2), 10am, Railroad Depot, 390 Railroad Ave, Brevard National Girls and Women in Sports Day Annual day of learning and encouragement designed to expose women and girls to a variety of activities that will inspire them to lead through active, healthy lifestyles. Open to women and girls ages 6 and up. For more information, contact Colt Miller at (828) 707-2376 or cmiller@ ashevillenc.gov.

SA (2/4), 10am, Carrier Park, 220 Amboy Rd

*Assembly Required: Asheville Designer Toy Expo

Celebrating the pop surrealistic, turn-of-thecentury art movement, this expo is for independent designers, bootleg and art toys, artists and collectors.

SA (2/4) & SU (2/5), 11am, The Grey Eagle, 185 Clingman Ave

Galentine's "Treat Yo'self" Event

Local, women-owned businesses convene for a pampering and shopping event. With warm beverages by Matcha Nude, light bites, and jün by Shanti Elixirs; and Raffle for a Cause: donations from local businesses, with all proceeds going towards Project Dignity, a local non-profit that provides period products for girls in low-income, homeless, and domestic violence situations.

SA (2/4), 1pm, River Mill Lofts, 300 River Mill Dr

Black History Month Celebration

Join Burton Street friends and neighbors

for dinner and a movie highlighting the accomplishments of Black Americans. Call (828)254-1943 for more info.

SA (2/4), 5pm, Burton St Community, 134 Burton St Community Clothing Swap

With unclaimed clothes going to Asheville Humane Thrift Store.

See p54 SU (2/5), 8am, Retro Coffee, 2619 Sweeten Creek Rd

Tryon Resort Holiday Ice Skating

Enjoy ice skating, see festive light displays,

eat, and shop. With skate rentals available by the hour, various times through Feb. 14, 2023. Visit avl.mx/c73

Tryon International Equestrian Center, 25 International Blvd, Mill Spring

BENEFITS & VOLUNTEERING

Food Is Love: Food Donation Dr for MANNA FoodBank

Focusing on collecting healthy, nonperishable foods for distribution to those in need in Western North Carolina. Items of need include

low-sodium canned vegetables, canned tuna and chicken, low salt nuts, no sugar added fruits, shelf stable milk, whole grain pasta, brown rice, oatmeal, canola and olive oil, peanut butter, low sodium soups, canned and dried beans, and low sugar cereals. Collection bins will be in the Asheville Outlets food court. Monetary donations can be made at MANNAFoodBank. org. Through Feb. Asheville Outlets, 800 Brevard Rd

Museum Fundraiser: Seven Sisters Peaks Hike

On this strenuous hike,

participants will hike the 9.5 mile while learning the history of the peaks’ nomenclature, social history, geography, and ecology.

SA (2/4), 8am, Swannanoa Valley Museum & History Center, 223 West State St, Black Mountain

Fe-BREW-ary Drag Brunch Season Kickoff

A family-friendly drag show benefitting local nonprofit Sunrise Community for Recovery and Wellness.

SU (2/5), 2pm, Green Man Brewery, 27 Buxton Ave

HEALTH CHECKUP

The evolution of the local vitamin and herb scene

Bill Cheek, who co-owns Nature’s Vitamins & Herbs with Mike Rogers, shares insights on the most popular vitamin and herbs in Asheville, the changing landscape of the business and ways he stays healthy.

What are the most popular vitamins or herbs that you sell in Asheville, and what are they used for?

The most popular are magnesium, vitamin B12, B-complex, vitamin D3 — all of which support healthy body functions. Red yeast rice helps with cholesterol. Zinc, quercetin, N-actyl cysteine and vitamin C work as immune boosters. Hemp CBD helps with anxiety, sleep and pain. Melatonin, valerian are also helpful for sleep. And turmeric is great for inflammation.

How has herbal medicine evolved in Asheville since you’ve worked here?

We opened in 1996. America was hungry for products and information back then. We sold tons of books; now, the internet has replaced books. In 1996, we were one of the few outlets for high-quality supplements and solid information; now products are everywhere, online, even at flea markets.

A positive from all this is that supplement companies are more reliable and offer better quality control and testing. But health needs never change! We all still need good nutrition, hydration, exercise, relaxation and the practice of kindness.

Where do you like to go to relieve your stress?

My gym, the riverfront trails, any river for some good paddling and the multitude of great trails and waterfalls. Get outdoors! X

Women, Your Wellness Matters

BILL CHEEK photo courtesy of Cheek

Tanya Tracy, MPT & Pilates instructor

is my passion to help heal

and empower them to find

Did you know that there are more than 2000 sweat glands and 4000 pores in your feet? It’s no wonder that detoxifying footbaths have been used in Ayurvedic and Eastern traditions for thousands of years! Benefits:

Cooking for change

Meal prep program targets community health

BY AMBER NIVEN

amberadamsniven@gmail.com

Shaniqua Simuel is on a mission to change lives through food. She is not a nutritionist or a dietitian; instead, she considers herself a community-based advocate and enjoys helping others think about their relationship with food.

Last year, Simuel started a wholefood meal preparation program called Change Your Palate following the deaths of her grandparents, who were instrumental in her upbringing. Her grandmother died at 58; her grandfather was 65 when he passed.

Losing her maternal grandparents to nutritional diseases catalyzed a personal journey discovering the powerful relationship between food and community. Simuel originally attended Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College to study culinary arts. Yet stumbling upon a public health meeting on campus led her down a different path. She knew that diet and lifestyle contributed to her grandmother’s passing, and now she was hungry to learn more about helping others prolong life through prevention. After reflecting on her personal “why” and talking to her counselors, Simuel switched from culinary arts to forensic pathology and earned an associate degree in science and phlebotomy certification.

Upon receiving her master’s degree in public health from Campbell University in 2019, Simuel traveled to Ethiopia to serve in the Peace Corps. In Ethiopia, she experienced firsthand the immense benefits of healthy eating. Even under stress from being in an unfamiliar environment and her new role as a health educator, Simuel tells Xpress that she felt great and noticed a change in her hair and nails. She credits the locally grown whole food for making her feel like she had a fresh “restart every day.”

Series

FOOD AS MEDICINE: Shaniqua Simuel sets up free cooking demonstrations where people can watch her prepare meals, taste test and ask questions. Photo courtesy of Simuel

CHANGE YOUR PALATE

The COVID-19 pandemic cut Simuel’s time in the Peace Corps short, forcing her to return to Western North Carolina as the

world shut down. Despite a tough transition, Simuel arrived home inspired and ready to kick-start her idea, Change Your Palate.

Simuel reached out to Phyllis Utley, A-B Tech’s diversity recruiter, to share her vision of a meal prep program. Utley, who she calls “a pillar in the Black community,” recommended she apply for a grant from CoThinkk, a philanthropy nonprofit. She was awarded the grant

in the fall of 2021, which allowed Change Your Palate to become an LLC in June 2022.

Change Your Palate originated from Simuel’s graduate capstone project. “I wanted to address food insecurity with those who had Type 2 diabetes or hypertension and do something similar to Hello Fresh or Blue Apron, but with food pantry food,” she says. Simuel worked closely with eight families over three months, educating them about nutrition, and guiding them in their cooking and eating habits. She worked with the Harnett County food pantry, a popular food pantry near Campbell University, to find individuals who had Type 2 diabetes or hypertension and were willing to be a part of her research for the meal kits.

Simuel incorporates in-season, locally grown whole foods, creates recipes that are diabetic- and hypertension-friendly and packages the meals. She also sets up free cooking demonstrations where people can watch her prepare the meals, taste test and ask questions. Customers can purchase a four- to six-serving meal kit for $30-$45 for home cooking.

Since establishing Change Your Palate in June, Simuel has partnered with local nonprofits and organizations, including AshevilleBuncombe Institute of Parity Achievement and the AmeriHealth Caritas North Carolina. ABIPA’s community health workers helped deliver the first 80 meals of Change Your Palate; AmeriHealth Caritas hosts Simuel’s free cooking demonstrations and taste tests at its wellness center, giving her a platform and opportunity to connect with those in need. ( Tiera Beale, the wellness center administrator cites jackfruit pulled pork as a popular dish. “The directions were easy, and the class was fun, which made everyone excited to try it at home,” Beale says.)

Through ABIPA’s nutrition arm, Simuel also helps others through the Healthy Opportunities Pilot, a new federally funded comprehensive program seeking to show the impact of providing nonmedical needs such as housing stability and food security, to Medicaid beneficiaries.

Simuel says she witnesses growing confidence in the people inspired to make small personal changes through her program. She enjoys

SIMPLE CHANGES: Simuel is concerned about people taking medications to feel better rather than considering how their diet and lifestyle might contribute to poor health.

hearing stories about their small victories, like reading labels or simply thinking differently about grocery shopping. She notices her customers making a connection between “the food in front of them and how it was going to affect them afterward.”

These small shifts make Simuel the most hopeful: “I like to see us making small, consistent changes instead of trying to make this huge, big one.”

SOUTHERN SOUL FOOD AND LIFESTYLE

Growing up in the South, Simuel is no stranger to cooking and eating Southern cuisine. She learned how to prepare cornbread and collard greens from her grandpa. However, she’s learned over time that some traditional ingredients and preparations can cause health problems.

A 2020 study published in the Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health confirmed that people with diabetes who were born or living in the South have a lower quality of life and a significant threat to life expectancy. “I wasn’t raised eating kale or avocado,” she says while discussing the disconnect many Southerners have with food and health. Instead, Simuel remembers being overfed and “loved with food.” In the South especially, food brings people together, Simuel says. She’s concerned that people take

medications to heal and feel better rather than considering how diet and lifestyle could contribute to poor health.

Now Simuel advocates for the well-being of her community, especially people of color struggling with Type 2 diabetes or hypertension. Although her primary focus is on people of color, these issues affect everyone. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one out of three adults has prediabetes, with the majority unaware they have it. Within five years, prediabetes can turn into Type 2 diabetes if people do not take action.

A large part of Simuel’s work through Change Your Palate is championing food education, and she carefully considers the steps someone might need to reach health goals. “I’m intentional during my cooking demos to use things that don’t require a lot of money,” she says. “For example, someone may not have a juicer. I’m borrowing one!” She explains as she’s planning on showing different methods to juice so that people can take action with what they have on hand.

Simuel tells Xpress that she is currently learning about trauma-informed nutrition — the idea that childhood experiences with food influence and shape our current relationships with food.

SHILOH COMMUNITY GARDENS

When Simuel isn’t indoors wearing her chef hat, she can be found in the garden getting her hands dirty. Simuel helps run the Shiloh Community Garden along with Chloe Moore and Lydia George. Members of the Shiloh community in Asheville — including Simuel’s late grandfather, Moses Simuel, former president of the Shiloh Community Association — established the garden.

The garden is a special place for Simuel. In February 2022, she learned how to prune fruit trees correctly in order to revitalize three pear trees her grandfather had planted over a decade earlier. By June, the trees began to show signs of new life and were fully grown by September — just in time to harvest a cooking demonstration.

On the fall equinox, Simuel hosted a cooking demo at the Shiloh Community Garden. She made a homemade pound cake glazed with pears from the trees, honoring her grandfather. As she shared her story, she gazed upon the crowd, taking in the moment as ripe with meaning as the pears were with their juice. She reflects, “At that moment, I knew I was right where I needed to be.” X

Healthy ecosystems

Laura Lengnick is the founder of Cultivating Resilience. She is also the author of the award-winning book Resilient Agriculture: Cultivating Food Systems for a Changing Climate.

She speaks with Xpress about food’s role in our individual and collective health as well as the foundation of healthy food ecosystems and the power of silence.

What is the role our food plays when it comes to wellness?

Food is essential to wellness because of the simple fact that we need to eat to stay alive, but food contributes to our individual and collective well-being in many other important ways. Food is a powerful connector to our past, present and future. The choices we make about what, when, how and why to eat recall the food traditions of our ancestors, respond to the challenges of these times and shape the possibilities for our future.

How do resilient food systems impact individual and collective wellness?

Resilient foodways promote individual and collective wellness by following the three rules of resilience to cultivate the health of land, people and community. These rules describe the kinds of relationships that form the foundation of healthy ecosystems: mutually beneficial, regionally self-reliant and regenerative. These rules also remind us that individual well-being is rooted in the well-being of others.

What do you do to relax or unwind when stressed?

A brisk walk around my neighborhood, 10 minutes of weeding in my garden or even just a quiet moment spent enjoying a cup of tea on my back porch lifts my spirit and settles my mind. X

Photo courtesy of Simuel

LAURA LENGNICK

photo courtesy of Lengnick

Activate, catalyze, amplify

Center for Craft broadens impact with new five-year plan

BY EDWIN ARNAUDIN

earnaudin@mountainx.com

If the Center for Craft was a person, it would be nearly 27 years old. And like that experienced adult on the cusp of 30, the Asheville-based nonprofit is especially mindful about the future.

The organization began as a public service center for the University of North Carolina system. But in 2013, it transformed into its current status as an independent nonprofit, dedicated to empowering and supporting artists, organizations and communities across the country through grants, fellowships and programs. As part of this move, the center purchased its historic 1912 building at 67 Broadway.

Despite its decadelong run as a nonprofit, Stephanie Moore, the organization’s executive director, says the center’s identity has continued to evolve.

“It’s taken about 10 years for the organization to catch up with that separation from the university system to be able to be independent and to define a strategic direction without those strings attached,” she says.

Nevertheless, Moore continues, the center remains committed to colleges and universities. “We’re trying to make sure that higher education has the resources and support to prepare students and present good scholarship in craft and also to move forward supporting how craft is showing up in communities across the country,” she explains.

The Center for Craft seeks to accomplish those goals with Craft Matters: A Five-Year Plan. The new strategic direction is centered on

activating resources, catalyzing craft communities and amplifying craft’s impact. And while this work is set to run through 2028, Moore says she and her colleagues hope the accomplishments create a lasting influence far beyond the next half-decade.

MEETING OF THE MINDS

Since 2002, the Center for Craft has organized a biennial Craft Think Tank to discuss pertinent industry

topics with a range of people. And that inaugural gathering established a number of goals that Marilyn Zapf, director of programs, says were gradually met over the previous two decades.

Among the significant boxes checked was the production of a textbook on American craft history — Janet Koplos’ and Bruce Metcalf’s Makers: A History of the Studio Craft Movement, published in 2010 — and the center’s Research Fund, which has supported 223 projects in 39 states, Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia. The accomplishments were meaningful, but at the same time, the craft ecosystem continued to change.

“We needed to understand how the field is evolving and how new trends were arising,” Zapf says. “This led to us to want to host another seminal convening to understand these trends.”

In order to discourage the spread of COVID-19, the 2021 Craft Think Tank was held virtually that October and brought together what Zapf describes as “leaders, artists and thinkers from all over the country.” The distillation of the partic-

ipants’ insights greatly informed Craft Matters.

“It was things like the emphasis less on a field of higher education and more on how craft is evolving in different communities of practice — higher education being just one of many ways and communities that craft is a part of,” Zapf says.

Also inspiring the shift to supporting nonacademic paths were discoveries gleaned via the Rapid Response Grants that the Center for Craft offered early in the COVID-19 pandemic. The nonprofit disbursed increments of $5,000 to needy organizations and artists throughout the U.S., and in the process its leaders learned that their reach wasn’t as great as they’d thought.

“A majority of those people had never heard about the center,” Moore says. “We realized there was this huge segment of the population that wasn’t aware of our grantmaking or the work we’d done.”

WORK IN PROGRESS

Moore notes that Craft Matters is the first plan that the Center for Craft’s board of directors and staff

COMMUNITY COMMITMENT: Basket maker Mary W. Thompson, a member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, is one of numerous artists with whom the Center for Craft has partnered. Photo by Bear Allison

have created together in the nonprofit’s 25-plus years. Carlo Cuesta and Lindsey Burdick from Minnesotabased consulting firm Creation in Common facilitated the yearlong process. Moore describes the work as “very labored” but also highly investigative in terms of “thinking inward about what is an achievable plan.”

Once completed, Craft Matters was turned into a stylish document by Futures Bright, an Asheville-based design firm. Moore describes the presentation as “sort of rough” and resembling scribbled notes, which she feels accurately represents the Center for Craft’s new direction in ways that a more polished, straightforward presentation could not.

“To me, a strategic plan is a living and working document and something that you play with as you set benchmarks for the future,” Moore says. “But we have no idea in some ways about what this plan will do and where it will take us. I think there was high anticipation and high aspiration in the plan developed by board and staff, but there’s a lot of learning moments that we’ll have to get through to be on the other side of five years.”

In terms of tangible action steps that are likely to bear fruit sooner than others, the Center for Craft is hiring a new staffer to complement its long-running grant programs. Moore says the goal is to broaden the pool of applicants that can apply for grants and ensure that the application process is accessible to a wide constituent base.

As for aspirations with longer timelines, Moore points to the potential for craft “to encourage and revitalize cultural tradition” and promote healing in communities that have been marginalized and/or experienced war and other traumas. The topic is a complex one and an area that she says will involve “a lot of listening and learning” on the staff’s part.

“We were very good at working in higher education. Many of the staff have master’s degrees. We know how to write theses and develop scholarly presentations,” Moore says. “But really working with communities, I think, is a skill and a knowledge that we’re going to have to practice to achieve it.”

STARTING LOCAL

Fortunately, the Center for Craft has a long history of inclusion to build on. Programming, exhibits and grant opportunities consistently feature and address the needs of underserved communities. And projects such as the 2022 ᏔᎷᏣ The Basket — a partnership with members of the Eastern

COAST

ness professor Ameena Batada to help guide them.

“Dr. Batada has begun to map out how craft enhances social, emotional, physical and economic well-being,” Zapf says. “There’s so many ways that craft impacts our lived experience as a shared community, and we’re starting by listening with our Asheville community.”

The Center for Craft held a well-attended listening session with community members in November, when the nonprofit was reminded of craft’s vibrancy in Asheville in terms of connecting local residents. Of particular note to Zapf was a knitting circle whose members advise one another on which local doctors to consult.

“Craft is helping us knit this social fabric together in ways that we may know intuitively, but we haven’t really begun to understand empirically,” she says. “We’re really excited to lead with Asheville and our local communities to [better] understand [the process], and maybe this work can help other communities advocate for additional resources.”

Band of Cherokee Indians that resulted in a parklet outside the nonprofit’s building that features indigenous craft — express a deep desire to engage with the region’s history.

“I think that listening and learning with communities is a commitment to ongoing relationships,” Zapf says.

She notes that she and her colleagues didn’t view ᏔᎷᏣ The Basket as a one-off collaboration but an initiation to deepen and broaden their relationship. In turn, it’s led to partnerships with multiple EBCI organizations.

Zapf adds that while the concept of craft’s role in community vitality is new for the nonprofit, it’s not a new concept — and it has a local resource in UNC Asheville health and well-

Moore is also encouraged by insights gained from a recent “CBS Sunday Morning” segment about a group of New York City potters. In addition to exploring the craft, she says the program “got down to the root of happiness and what makes people happy,” and reminded her that craft makes people feel more fulfilled.

“And that experience is not necessarily part of the educational system anymore. And it’s not necessarily part of the tools that parents have at their disposal because we’ve gotten so far away from understanding craft’s value beyond just a commercial object,” Moore says.

“I think that is a really powerful statement for where we are as a society — that we have this tool at our disposal to create happiness and connections with one another in a world that’s becoming extremely isolating.” X

TO COAST: The Center for Craft supports creators across the U.S., including Brooklyn-based artists Julian Goldman and Victoria Manganiello — recipient of a 2020 Materials-Based Research Grant. Photo courtesy of the artists

‘The crown jewel’

The Bill and Alice Hart Collection has created quite the stir at UNC Asheville.

Donated to the university’s Special Collections last fall, the large private library has since prompted Gene Hyde, head of special collections and university archivist, to call it “the crown jewel” of his department’s holdings. Meanwhile, UNCA history professor Dan Pierce “can’t say enough” about how important it is for scholars and the general public alike.

“It’s the comprehensive nature of the collection,” Pierce says. “There’s just no place that has a collection that really encompasses just about everything that was ever produced on the [Smoky Mountains]. And it’s not just the Smokies but Western North Carolina in general.”

DEEP ROOTS

A native of Sylva, Alice Hart can trace her heritage to some of the first European settlers in what would later become Jackson County, and she also has a long lineage in Madison County. Bill Hart grew up in Weaverville and is a sixth-generation descendant of James Reeves, who settled in Sandy Mush circa 1798 and was one of the first 800 settlers in Buncombe County.

Since the beginning of their relationship, the pair have enjoyed visiting Great Smoky Mountains National Park, where they first developed a keen interest in regional flora and fauna. This, in tandem with their other ties to the area, inspired them to make a pact soon after they wed in 1960.

“We realized that we’d probably spend our lives here,” Bill says. “And

Bill and Alice Hart Collection bolsters UNCA’s historical holdings

because of our backgrounds and our heritage, we decided we’d devote ourselves to learning whatever we could about Western North Carolina.”

Further fueling that interest is the Harts’ backgrounds as educators. Alice served as a teacher, principal and in multiple administrative roles with Buncombe County and Asheville

City Schools; Bill taught high school history before turning to a career in human resource management, consulting and training. But neither expected that this commitment to lifelong learning would result in an unprecedented private collection.

BOOK BY BOOK

In 1965, Bill checked out three books from his local library: Land of High Horizons: An Intimate Interpretation of the Great Smokies by Elizabeth Skaggs Bowman (published in 1938); The Great Smoky Mountains by Laura Thornborough (1937); and The Great Smokies and the Blue Ridge, edited by Roderick Peattie (1943). The information gleaned from these texts made such an impact on him that he decided to purchase his own copies.

Since that time, Bill and Alice have developed meaningful relationships with former local booksellers, including Nancy Brown of Bookmart in Biltmore Village and Miegan and

Chandler Gordon, owners of The Captain’s Bookshelf.

“My relationship with [the late] Chan Gordon was such that he and I would conspire to find really valuable books for Bill,” Alice says.

“Sometimes Chan would call me if he knew [Bill’s] birthday was rolling around or Christmas [was near], and he would present an opportunity.”

Over the decades, the Harts’ collection continued to grow, and in 1995 they built a new home in Fletcher’s Cane Creek Valley with a dedicated library featuring 103 linear feet of shelf space. The collection soon became what Alice describes as “a magnet” for scholars, and the Harts opened their home to Janet McCue (Back of Beyond: A Horace Kephart Biography), Rose Houk (Pictures for a Park: How Photographers Saved the Great Smoky Mountains), Pierce ( Great Smokies: From Natural Habitat to National Park) and others to conduct research for their books.

MOVING MOUNTAINS: From left, Bill Hart, Alice Hart and Janet McCue celebrate the donation of the Bill and Alice Hart Collection to UNC Asheville’s Special Collections. Photo by Gene Hyde

Among the 1,200-plus monographs and 26 linear feet of ephemera and other materials that UNCA now has, Pierce is particularly impressed by the numerous first editions of “very important books,” unusual items such as railroad brochures from the 1920s and various promotional literature about the national park from that era. In addition, there are more than 100 vinyl records of old-time, bluegrass and regional music.

“[Bill and Alice are] both from pretty rural areas, and they’re kind of shaped by the stereotyping of Appalachian people and definitely want to send a message that there are plenty of smart, capable, intelligent, creative, entrepreneurial people in Western North Carolina,” Pierce says. “That’s part of their mission in terms of preserving all this.”

MOVING DAYS

In considering the future of their library, the Harts reflected on their

Prized possessions

As one might expect from such a vast library, the Bill and Alice Hart Collection includes several notable rare items.

Perhaps the hardest to find is The Cherokee Physician or Indian Guide to Health as Given by Richard Foreman, a Cherokee Doctor, published in 1849 and, according to Bill, the first book with an Asheville imprint.

“It looked like it had been crammed in a crack in a log cabin somewhere,” he says. “But I was able to get a reprint so I didn’t have to handle it.”

Another memorable acquisition is Twenty Years of Hunting and Fishing in the Great Smoky Mountains by Samuel J. Hunnicutt. Bill was walking by a now-closed bookstore on Wall Street when a copy of the 1926 publication caught his eye.

“It was in the window for $10,” Bill says. “They’re probably worth $1,000, if you could find one. There are a lot of cases like that.”

He and Alice have also long been interested in the photographer George Masa. Though Bill notes that Masa’s 1933 Guide to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, co-authored with George W. McCoy, is “not terribly valuable,” he nevertheless considers it “a very cherished possession.” X

friendships with Pierce, Hyde and Special Collections assistant Ashley Whittle and, in summer 2021, sided with preservation over profit.

“We knew that we had a very valuable collection,” Alice says. “Individual books — if we sold them — would’ve brought a lot of money. But the value of it was the collection, and we realized that we wanted it to stay as a collection, and we wanted it to serve in some way at UNCA.”

Prior to the move, the couple’s collection had been arranged categorically on their shelves into a dozen groups, including “Great Smoky Mountains National Park,” “Cherokee and Indigenous History and Archeology” and “Asheville and the Civil War.” Over the course of a month, Hyde and Whittle transferred the collection from the Hart home to UNCA, where the archivists were careful to keep the organization intact.

They also made sure to bring along another perk of the collection.

“Often, Bill would discuss a book or piece of ephemera, his deep knowledge making these conversations a series of master classes about the provenance, history and context of an item,” Hyde says. “In order to capture Bill’s narrative gift in describing books in the collection, we made a series of videos in which he selects important works from each group in the collection, annotating and providing context to major works and authors.”

THE GIFT THAT KEEPS ON GIVING

As the Harts hoped, the collection thoroughly enriched their connections to their ancestral home, as well as the people who contributed to the region’s history. And while a fair amount of people outside their family have also had transformative experiences by consulting the couple’s library, that number is about to grow exponentially with their recent donation.

“We were so fortunate because basically any academic library in the country would’ve wanted this collection,” Pierce says. “Anybody who does research on this region is going to use that collection. There’s just nothing else like it out there.”

Pierce himself is among those who’ve already been taking advantage of the campus addition. The professor is working on a book about the history of Western North Carolina and notes it’s been wonderful to not have far to go to access whatever research materials he needs. He adds that UNCA history majors are required to write a capstone paper and that having the collection on campus will be a boon to students for decades to come.

“There’s an endless number of thesis topics that can be researched using that collection,” Pierce says. “We don’t limit what they do. We’ve had students travel all over the place and do research on Japanese internment camps and you name it. But most end up choosing something Western North Carolinarelated, so it’s a great opportunity for them.”

Though the collection has a new home, the Harts have retained what Bill calls “an essential library” of roughly 1,000 books on WNC history — all of which are duplicate copies so as not to withhold anything from UNCA.

Maintaining a home collection comes as a particular relief to the

Hart’s 18-year-old grandson, Will Hart, who has spent time in the family library since he was an infant. Of all their relatives, Alice says, her grandson “probably gulped more than anybody else about the library leaving.” But once Will spoke with Hyde and Whittle about their plans for the collection, he became convinced that it was in the proper hands.

“I think it’s good that people, not only just in Western North Carolina but anyone from anywhere in the country that wants to learn about this area or just some of the regional history, they have access,” Will says.

“I think that’s important.”

To learn more, visit avl.mx/cbf.

— Edwin Arnaudin X

TAKE A PAMPHLET: Among the numerous items in the Bill and Alice Hart Collection are these Great Smoky Mountains publications dating from the 1920s and ‘30s. Photo by Gene Hyde

SPIN IT: In addition to printed material, the Hart Collection also includes over 100 vinyl records of regional music. Photo by Gene Hyde

Buskers abound

Young adult novel brings Asheville’s street-music scene to life

BY JASON CHEN

jc.jchen@gmail.com

Local author Jennie Liu is used to writing works with urgent social messages.

“I like to write about people at the margins,” says Liu. “My first two books are about social issues in China. They’re about the fallout of the one-child policy and how it’s affected people over there.”

But with her latest young adult novel, Enly and the Buskin’ Blues , Liu will likely surprise loyal readers. The story abounds with buskers, bullies, a menacing pet pig and various homages to the characters and colorful businesses that populate downtown Asheville.

Liu will celebrate its Tuesday, Feb. 7, release with a 6 p.m.

book launch party at Malaprop’s Bookstore/Cafe. She says she hopes readers will laugh while they read her latest publication, though she still intends to leave them contemplating some of the deeper issues local residents face in the Land of the Sky.

ALTAMONT 2.0

Liu credits her son, Eliot Boniske , with inspiring her new approach to storytelling. “I used to bring my kid books from the library, and I always thought they were great. They were always about kids in hardship overcoming some major thing, and he was like, ‘Oh, you always bring home these sad stories where the kid’s struggling with something awful. Why don’t

SOUND OF MUSIC: Buskers, bullies, a menacing pet pig and various homages to the characters and colorful businesses that populate the Asheville downtown area show up in local author Jennie Liu’s latest young adult novel.

you write something like Diary of the Wimpy Kid ?’”

Honoring the spirit of her son’s request, Enly and the Buskin’ Blues tells the story of Enly Wu Lewis, a half-Chinese American boy who lives in a fictionalized version of Asheville called Altamont — a nod to the name Thomas Wolfe assigned to the Asheville-inspired, fictional town in his 1929 novel, Look Homeward, Angel . Aspiring to attend an expensive music camp in Atlanta, Enly purchases a melodica, a hand-held free-reed instrument, and begins busking to earn the $2,800 tuition fee.

Although not biographical, many of the story’s details were influenced by her son’s experiences.

“My kid’s Spanish teacher had brought her accordion to school to play for the kids. [Eliot] came home and said, ‘I want to use my Chinese New Year money to buy an accordion to busk downtown.’ And I just thought that it was great ... for him to busk and start earning some money for college.”

Later, her son’s piano teacher, Chuck Lichtenberger , introduced Boniske to the melodica. In her book’s author notes, Liu writes that the minute this musical instrument was brought into the mix, “My story radar clicked on.”

THE PLOT THICKENS

Liu’s novel promises an exciting plot for readers looking for a page turner. While busking one day,

Enly is tipped with a lottery ticket that turns out to be a $3,000 winner. However, when two scheming high schoolers nab the ticket, Enly and his older brother, Spencer, must scheme a heistlike plan to get it back.

But what might delight readers most is Liu’s meticulous reimagining of her beloved mountain town. Readers familiar with the city will recognize countless nods to its most recognizable businesses and historical buildings. Finkelstein’s becomes Lichtenberger’s pawn shop; Vanderbilt Apartments turns into Olmstead Apartments; Asheville Discount Pharmacy is Mountain Discount Pharmacy; and Mellow Mushroom becomes “the pizza place across on O. Henry Avenue.”

Asheville’s downtown geography is not the only thing that Liu captures. At its heart, Enly and the Buskin’ Blues honors the city’s spirit, particularly its citizens’ passion for music. Buskers line the streets of Altamont. At one point in the book, a character resembling Abby Roach , aka Abby the Spoon Lady, makes an appearance “clacking and stomping away, crooning an oldtime song.”

Enly also finds a great deal of support along the way. In one example, a longtime Altamont street musician encourages the story’s young protagonist to work on his visual presentation. In another, friends add a couple of dollars into his tip jar to help spark additional support.

Photo courtesy of Lui

HEAVIER NOTES

Yet, despite the fun nature of Liu’s latest work, she remains a writer committed to tackling weighty topics and promoting social change.

Within the pages of Enly and the Buskin’ Blues , the author calls attention to the rising cost of living in Asheville and the town’s changing nature as a booming tourist destination. Enly’s mother, the story’s protagonist notes, “had to work so much because our little mountain town, Altamont, had gotten ridiculously expensive now that it’d been found out.”

The challenges her characters face are ones that many in Asheville will have experienced firsthand. Amid a conversation about her latest book, Liu recounts a recent exchange she had with a former neighbor, who told the writer that she and her family had been given a 30-day notice following a spike in rent.

“That’s just been on my mind,” the authors say, “the whole gentrification thing.” And it is apparent in her latest work, which, despite its lighthearted narrative, doesn’t shy away from heavier notes.

Photography: Carol Spags Photography

Poetry Contest

Xpress announces a 2023 poetry contest in celebration of April as National Poetry Month.

Are you poet living in Western North Carolina? If so, consider submitting an original, previously unpublished work for this year’s contest. This year’s theme is all about hope. Where do you go in Buncombe County to find your moment of zen or sense of purpose? Do you gravitate toward hiking trails or do you prefer a swimming hole? Or are you more likely to find your peace of mind in a local bookstore or cafe?

Wherever it is, we want to read about it in the form of a poem.

All poems should be no longer than one typed page in a 12-point font. Again, only previously unpublished works will be considered.

The contest is currently open for submission and will close at midnight on Wednesday, March 8. Email the poem in the body of the message to tcalder@mountainx.com. The subject line should read “Xpress 2023 poetry contest.” Include the author’s full name and contact information in the email. Only one submission is allowed per person. There is no cost to enter.

A winning poem will be determined by local, award-winning poet Michael Hettich. The winner will be published online and in print in the final issue of our annual Sustainability series on Wednesday, April 26. The contest is not open to Xpress employees or freelance contributors.

Contact Thomas Calder at tcalder@mountainx.com with any questions

Transcending the taboo

Art exhibit seeks to demystify the nude

BY PHILLIP WYATT

For his latest group show, The Nude: Beauty, Grace and Form — Celebrating the Human Figure at Pink Dog Creative, local artist Joseph Pearson wants to strip away all reservations and preconceived notions that audience members may have about the human flesh.

“We want to take that negative connotation out of ‘naked,’” the artist says. “Nakedness can be viewed as a unifying factor for humans. No matter race or religion, everyone shares the same organs despite their background.”

Celebrating the human figure, The Nude: Beauty, Grace and Form opens at Pink Dog Gallery in the River Arts District on Saturday, Feb. 4, 5-8 p.m.

“We hope folks will come in here, see the naked body, see there’s nothing vulgar about it and see the work and effort artists put in to see the beauty of the human form in different ways,” Pearson says.

MOST COMPLEX

Drawing or painting the human form is one of the staples of art education, Pearson notes.

“The human figure is the most complex form in nature. Once you understand the basic fundamentals of the human figure — movement, shapes, form, emotion — you’re able to translate that into everything else you do,” Pearson explains. “Everything else is really, really simple compared to the human figure.”

Pearson says he has been an artist since age 4, when he first discovered the concept of the human form as art in the pages of the Sears, Roebuck & Co. catalogs. He would copy the illustrations of models clad in various fashions to practice figure drawing, quickly realizing he had developed a new passion for the arts.

“I saw fashion illustrations, and there was just something about the idea that somebody can make a human figure out of lines and shapes,” he says. “The figure has been my passion ever since. I can do landscapes and still lifes, but it doesn’t give me the same gratification or allow me to say what I want to say.”

REMEMBER MICHELANGELO

For centuries, the Catholic Church served as one of the world’s most important collectors and patrons of the arts. When the written word of God seemingly wasn’t enough to captivate audiences, the church commissioned art as a visual means of celebrating Christ and strengthening its holy message.

Many of these contracted works featured naked religious entities signifying beauty, fertility, welfare and justice, Pearson says.

“All those beautiful figures, clothed or unclothed, couldn’t be painted without understanding the human figure,” he says. “Look at the Venus [paintings] throughout history. They’re not just naked women for the sake of being naked.”

By the 19th century, the symbolism and iconography of the nude form in Western culture began to shift. Such works were interpreted as lewd rather than pure in nature. Pearson faults the hypocrisy of religious followers as the culprit for such a cultural change.

“We artists, we’re concerned with expressing the innate beauty of the human form, and they’ll look down on us and criticize us,” he says. “I stopped catering to people’s insecurity and ignorance behind that

because it insults my profession. Michelangelo couldn’t have done David if he didn’t understand the human figure. Da Vinci couldn’t have painted the Mona Lisa if he didn’t understand anatomy and how light plays off the human figure.”

BOTH SIDES OF THE EASEL

For his latest exhibit, Pearson will be joined by fellow Asheville artists Bonnie Currie, Cyrus Glance, Skip Rohde, Josh Tripoli and Leaflin Winecoff. Pearson notes that he met most of the featured artists during a weekly model sketch group meetup at Rusty Lotus Dojo, a shared artist space in downtown Asheville akin to a speakeasy of sorts. With no signage and no public address, artists learn of the space through word-of-mouth.

Each week, a model will pose for a two-hour sketch session for a diverse group of local artists, ranging from beginners to seasoned members of the arts community. Models of all gender identities and body types participate.

“Our group is kind of unique in that it was started by models instead of artists,” says Winecoff, who along with being an artist, is a model and the co-director of Rusty Lotus Dojo. Often in popular culture, she notes,

the perception of a nude drawing course includes a naked female model surrounded by male artists. “I feel like we’re subverting the trope of a bunch of men gathering around to draw a nude woman.”

Winecoff was introduced to figure drawing while in high school. By the time she was in college, the artist decided to face her fear on the other side of the easel as a model.

“I was really just shocked because I really only felt naked for maybe three minutes and after that it kind of fell away. It was really empowering to feel comfortable while being vulnerable,” Winecoff says. “It’s been really healing for a lot of models.”

SOMETHING OLD, SOMETHING NEW

Whereas Pearson uses ink wash, chalk, pastel pencils and traditional canvas and paper, Winecoff prefers older materials such as textbooks, music scores and Bibles, drawing her figures on the aged pages with marker.

A self-proclaimed painter at heart, she used to feel as if she had to force herself to draw the human figure. She simply did not like the texture and feeling of pencil on paper. Despite her disdain for conventional paper, Winecoff persisted with drawing, knowing the practice was essential in developing and sharpening her artistic talent.

Once she found the right material, figure drawing no longer seemed like a chore.

Winecoff says she prefers the feeling and movement of marker on the thicker paper old books provide. They are also cheaper to purchase than new sketchbooks and canvases, and they reduce waste as upcycled works of art.

“I really see it as a practice in seeing, which winds up being almost more of a meditation practice,” Winecoff says. “There’s something that’s very therapeutic about practicing seeing what’s in front of you instead of referring to what’s in your brain.” X

WHAT

The Nude: Beauty, Grace and Form — Celebrating the Human Figure at Pink Dog WHERE Pink Dog Gallery, 348 Depot St. WHEN Saturday, Feb. 4, 5-8 p.m. Exhibit continues through Saturday, April 1. Free.

HONORING THE HUMAN FORM: Joseph Pearson is one of six Asheville artists featured in the exhibit The Nude: Beauty, Grace and Form — Celebrating the Human Figure at Pink Dog Creative. Photo by Phillip Wyatt

What’s new in food

Fermenti launches brick-and-mortar in North Asheville

After years spent dolling out probiotic-rich fermented foods across Western North Carolina markets, stores and festivals, Meg Chamberlain is ready for something more permanent.

“Fermenti has dropped anchor in Asheville,” she says.

The business’s first brick-and-mortar at 175 Weaverville Highway, Unit G, will celebrate its grand opening Saturday, Feb. 4, 4-7 p.m.

“This new location is perfect for several reasons,” Chamberlain says. “We are neighbors to some incredible local bakeries like Butterbug’s, Morsel Cookie Co. and Dogwood Cottage Bakery. Plus, we are next door to Tacqueria Fast, which has excellent tacos. So, the foodie in me feels at home.”

As part of the celebration, Fermenti will offer free samples of its award-winning vegan fermentations, including kimchi, sauerkraut and Sichuan carrots. Salsas, hot sauces and special small-batch ferments will also be available to sample.

These products, along with fermentation kits and proprietary probiotic-rich pickle dust, jalapeño salt and kimchi spices, will be available for purchase inside the store. Chamberlain is also eager to unveil a new line of drinkable ginger and turmeric brines available in 12-ounce bottles.

Additionally, the new brick-andmortar will serve as the meeting place for Fermenti’s Fermenting Club, which offers community and discourse with fellow fermenters. “I want to showcase other local fermenters, ferments, tools, artisans and food makers who utilize ferments in their products,” says Chamberlain.

But what excites Chamberlain more than anything is the store’s ability to offer a miniature, year-round version of her annual WNC Fermenting Festival.

“It’s my baby, and we have gotten bigger, better and have raised more money for the Beacon of Hope food bank every year,” she says. “Having a safe space to anchor fermentation in Asheville is incredible and allows us to really showcase collaborations with other local food makers and artisans.” For more information, visit avl.mx/cce.

Pintxo party

Matt Brown, chef de cuisine at La Bodega by Cúrate, is teaming with chef Ryan Bartlow of Ernesto’s in New York City, to bring the tastes of northern Spain to Asheville on Wednesday, Feb. 1, 6-9 p.m., for a special Pintxo Party. Brown and Bartlow have hand-selected a number of classic pintxo dishes originating from Spain’s Basque Country to enjoy during an experiential wine dinner.

What exactly is pintxo, you might be asking?

“A pintxo is an individual bite, just for one,” answers Félix Meana, co-owner of Cúrate and La Bodega. “It can come on a skewer with a toothpick on top or on a small toast point.”

Guests, Meana hopes, will come to appreciate not just the tastes of pintxo cuisine but the essence of the pintxo experience as well.

“Pintxo culture is a rare phenomenon,” he elaborates. “To enjoy pintxos, one must be standing and socializing, mingling around the space as they would at a party. The menu is developed with care but designed to be enjoyed progressively

through the evening — an element that adds to the experience.”

Selections de la Vina wines, poured by La Bodega’s friends at Sour Grapes, are on deck to complement the evening’s bites.

La Bodega by Cúrate is at 32 S. Lexington Ave. Tickets are $115 per person. Visit avl.mx/ccf for more information.

Beans and jeans

Retro Coffee is gathering clothing through Friday, Feb. 3, for its Sunday, Feb. 5, Community Clothing Swap, 8 a.m.-3 p.m. Those who contribute adult clothing in good condition (no shoes, hats, accessories or children’s clothing) will receive $1 off a coffee, tea or pastry of choice.

“The motivation for the event is to bring the community together with an event that will help everyone clean out and refresh their closets in an environmentally conscious way,” says owner Clare LeCroy. Those participating can leave with up to 10 items and are recommended to bring a reusable shopping bag. Any unclaimed clothing will be donated to the Asheville Humane Thrift Store.

“One hundred percent of proceeds go back to animals in need at the Asheville Humane Thrift Store,” says LeCroy. “I also adopted my dog from a Humane Society, so it’s an organization close to my heart. I hope people take away a sense of community and some new clothing to refresh their closet for the new year.”

Retro Coffee is at 2619 Sweeten Creek Road, Suite 50-60. Visit avl.mx/ccg for additional information.

Bao Down

Bun Intended, Root Down and the Salvage Station plan to let the good times roll during a celebratory Mardi Gras-inspired pop-up dinner Tuesday, Feb. 7, at 6 p.m.

Chefs Erica Glaubitz (Bun Intended) and Dano Holcomb (Root Down) have collaborated to create a five-course menu featuring special dishes that deftly fuse the experience and expertise of each chef with the tastes and flavors traditionally associated with the Mardi Gras celebration. Each course will feature a dish created by each chef for a total of 10 unique dishes.

Expect the likes of smoked alligator satay, Thai boudin balls and tiger cry salad from Bun Intended; meanwhile Root Down will offer such dishes as rabbit liver pate, shrimp remoulade and catfish and grits. Guests are encouraged to come hungry and to save room for king cake.

READY, SET, FERMENT! Fermenti CEO Meg Chamberlain, left, prepares to open her first brick-and-mortar location. She will celebrate its grand opening on Saturday, Feb. 4. Photo courtesy Fermenti

Salvage Station is at 468 Riverside Drive. Tickets are $60 per person. Visit avl.mx/cci for additional information.

Fungus among us

Asheville Truffle Experience 2023 kicks off Friday, Feb. 10, beginning an entire weekend of fungal fun and cordyceps-centered curiosity.

Through Sunday, Feb. 12, guests will explore the mystery and reverence of truffles, a prized ingredient in cuisines around the world, with various educational sessions and experiences stimulating all senses.

The festivities commence at 5 p.m. Friday in the upstairs lounge of Bouchon with truffled appetizers and sparkling beverages. New tastes and conversations will be followed by an 8 p.m. screening of The Truffle Hunters at the nearby Warner Studios.

Culinary demonstrations, educational sessions, a wine-paired dinner by chef Michel Baudouin (Bouchon, RendezVous) and even a truffle hunting trip led by actual truffle-sniffing dogs round out the weekend’s events as part of this experience.

Visit avl.mx/prty for schedules, menus and additional info, and avl.mx/b51 for event registration.

Old friend, new beginning

After 32 years serving as one of craft beer’s most enduring stalwarts, New Belgium Brewing Co.’s flagship beer, Fat Tire, has been reborn as a crisper, lighter and reimagined version of itself.

“Fat Tire has spent three decades at the center of the craft beer movement,” says New Belgium CEO Steve Fechheimer in a news release. “Now, it’s time to widen the circle and inspire the next generation, too.”

In the same release, Fechheimer states, “It’s our sincere hope that beer fans — whether they love the planet, simply love great beer, or both —– will embrace the chance to change along with us.”

New Belgium’s Asheville brewery is at 21 Craven St. Visit avl.mx/cch for additional information.

Asiana Grand Buffet closes

For nearly two decades, Asiana Grand Buffet was synonymous with all-you-can-eat-style Asian cuisine and free birthday buffets in Asheville. Last month, the owners took to social media to announce the restaurant’s closure.

EmPOWER up

EmPOWERing Mountain Food Systems has announced three new sources of funding to help increase business opportunities for food and farm businesses across southwestern North Carolina. These supplemental sources aim to help bring together producers, schools and regional partners to support the expansion of the local food supply chain, primarily across the Jackson, Macon, Haywood, Swain, Cherokee, Clay and Graham counties, and the Qualla Boundary.

The first of these sources comes from the Local Food Procurement Assistance Program, a nationwide grant funding program from the U.S. Department of Agriculture supporting the continuation of the Harvest Health produce prescription program. EMFS will collaborate with the N.C. Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services and Carolina Farm Stewardship Association to continue this program alongside Vecinos, which helps supply Latino families with fresh local produce.

“We want to sincerely thank all our patrons, vendors and team members who had contributed to 18 amazing years of great memories and success,” reads the online post. “Thank you for the many years of business, support, but most of all, your cherished friendships. We truly enjoyed serving you!”

No announcements have been made regarding the future of Asiana Grand Buffet’s former location at 1968 Hendersonville Road. Stay tuned for updates.

An additional $205,350 from the Dogwood Health Trust will allow EMFS to continue providing health education and cooking classes along with each box of food delivered in the Harvest Health program. EMFS partner Community Food Strategies has also been awarded a USDA grant to support food council work.

To receive project updates, sign up for the EMFS newsletter at avl.mx/ccj.

— Blake Becker X

NIGHT OF BITES: La Bodega by Cúrate chef de cuisine Matt Brown prepares a plate of pintxo — individual bites best enjoyed while socializing. Photo courtesy of Katie Button Restaurants

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Around Town

Different Strokes Performing Arts Collective centers conversations about race

At a time when the very of idea of teaching Black history is coming under fire in some quarters, Stephanie Hickling Beckman wants to put the issue front and center.

negative and insulting stereotype, particularly held among many Black communities.”

The performances will feature Asheville actors Scott Fisher, Jon Robinson , Simone Snook and Lateasa Bond as well as Chapel Hill’s Solomon Gibson III.

Each performance except the last one will feature post-show discussions with the audience.

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“I had been considering, for the last couple of years, the idea of doing a series of plays that centered around private and group conversations about race between people of the same or mixed racial dynamics,” says Beckman, the founder and managing artistic director of Different Strokes Performing Arts Collective.

The result is the theater group’s entire 2022-23 season, which launched in August with Blood at the Root and continues this month with Abe Lincoln and Uncle Tom in the White House. The latest production will run Thursday, Feb. 2-Sunday, Feb. 19, at the Tina McGuire Theatre at the Wortham Center for the Performing Arts.

Written by Carlyle Brown and directed by Beckman, the show is a reimagination of the events the night before President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation on Jan. 1, 1863. Lincoln is visited by Uncle Tom, the fictional character from Harriet Beecher Stowe’s 1852 novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin , and the two talk through the night.

“I just hope audiences walk away from this play inspired to do their own research about Abraham Lincoln, the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation and the 13th Amendment,” Beckman says.

The show will run ThursdaySaturday, Feb. 2-Feb.4, Feb. 9-Feb. 11, Feb. 16-Feb.18 , 7:30 p.m., and Sunday, Feb. 19, 3 p.m.

The Wortham Center for the Performing Arts is at 18 Biltmore Ave. For more information, visit avl.mx/cc5.

Music pictures

Last year, music journalist Bill Kopp launched Music to Your Ears, a monthly discussion series at Asheville Guitar Bar. Talking to experts about artists like John Lennon , Steely Dan and Pink Floyd proved to be so much fun that Kopp began looking for his next project.

“It is essentially a play about the value and power of conversation in making a difference in the world,” Beckman explains. “In addition to serving as a history lesson of sorts, the play offers some insight into the misnomer of Uncle Tom as a

“I was thinking, ’What else can I do?’” says Kopp, an Xpress contributor. “What else would be along those lines, but different enough from that?”

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A habitual viewer of music documentaries, Kopp hit upon the idea of teaming up with Grail Moviehouse to present Music Movie Mondays each month. The series launched with sold-out screenings of In the Court of the Crimson King in December and Concert for George in January.

The movie house will show Wattstax, a documentary about a 1972 Stax Records-sponsored concert at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, on Monday, Feb. 13, at 7 p.m. The 1973 film features performances by Isaac Hayes, Rufus and Carla Thomas, The Staple Singers and more.

Kopp likens it to Summer of Soul , the 2021 documentary about the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival that Grail Moviehouse showed last year. “We thought Wattstax would be a really good choice because anybody who enjoyed Summer of Soul is going to get a kick out of it,” he explains.

Kopp’s co-host for the viewing will be Asheville’s Sidney Barnes, a former staff songwriter for Motown Records who fronted the psychedelic soul group Rotary Connection.

The series will continue Monday, March 27, with Rock ’n’ Roll High School , a 1979 musical comedy featuring punk-rock pioneers The Ramones as themselves. Unlike the first three films, it is not a documentary. “We don’t want to get stuck in a rut,” Kopp says.

Movies Kopp is considering for future Music Movie Mondays are the Toms Hanks -directed 1996 comedy That Thing You Do! and Quadrophenia, a 1979 drama loosely

based on The Who’s 1973 rock opera of the same name.

“People have come up to me either before the films or afterward and suggested different things, and so we’re keeping a list,” he says. “I can’t imagine that we would ever run out.”

Grail Moviehouse is at 17 Foundy St. For more information or to buy a $15 ticket to see Wattstax, visit avl.mx/cc6

Cult classic

Asheville’s Be Scofield had no intention of becoming a “cult reporter,” but when an astrologer suggested she go to to Sedona, Ariz. on her birthday in October 2017, something strange happened.

“A cult mysteriously appeared in front of me,” recalls Scofield, founder of The Guru Magazine. “I spent a month infiltrating Bentinho Massaro’s cult and then wrote an article that went viral.”

After that, people started coming to her with more cult stories. She went on to write about a mysterious death in Eastsound, Wash., and the Colorado-based group Love Has Won.

Scofield recounts her experiences reporting on what she calls “dangerous spiritual groups” in her new book Hunting Lucifer: One Reporter’s Search for Cults and Demons

“I describe the book as Into the Wild meets Stranger Things ,” she says. “It’s my journey as a nomad, often living in a camper van or homeless and mysteriously being led to cult stories around the country. It’s astrology, spirituality, cults,

angels, demons and boots-on-theground investigative journalism.”

For more information, go to avl.mx/cc8.

Speaking of history

Archaeologists Bob and Mary Noel will be the featured speakers at Historic Johnson Farm’s History Bites series Friday, Feb. 10, at 11 a.m. The two will talk about Native Americans who lived in the area long before European settlers arrived, with a focus on how they lived and what they ate as well as the artifacts they left behind.

The History Bites series returned in January for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020. Following the Feb. 10 event, it will continue Friday, March 10, at 11 a.m., with speaker Michael Arrowood, who will talk about early roads in Henderson County.

The series is free, but donations are accepted to support the farm’s Window Restoration Project. All 23 windows of the historic farmhouse are currently being restored to protect the building and the artifacts inside.

Historic Johnson Farm is at 3346 Haywood Road in Hendersonville. For more information, go to avl.mx/bi9.

Connemara calling

Students are invited to submit a poem to the Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site’s 25th annual Student Poetry Contest. The theme of this year’s competition is “hope.”

MOVIE REVIEWS

Local reviewers’ critiques of new films include:

INFINITY POOL: Writer/ director Brandon “Son of David” Cronenberg’s creepy tale of disturbing events at an exclusive resort hotel is thoroughly creative and engaging. But its choppy storytelling and overreliance on Mia Goth’s performance hinder its potential. Grade: B-minus — Edwin Arnaudin

The contest is open to North Carolina students in grades three-12. Poems must be submitted by email by Wednesday, March 1. Winners will be notified by Friday, April 7. For more information or to submit a poem, go to avl.mx/ccb.

Let’s dance

The Wortham Center for the Performing Arts is offering Lifelong Dance classes for participants ages 55 and older through Monday, March 13, in Henry LaBrun Studio at the Wortham Center. The classes are Mondays, 9:45-10:45 a.m.

“The Lifelong Dance class, led by Jamie Brege-DeVito of the Asheville-based contemporary dance company Stewart/Owen Dance, encourages joyful exploration of movement and music and strengthens the brain-body connection,” a press release states.

The class is designed to be accessible to participants with movement restrictions or chronic injuries. No prior dance experience is required. For more information or to register, go to avl.mx/cca.

— Justin McGuire X

FACT MEETS FICTION: Different Strokes Performing Arts Collective will present Abe Lincoln and Uncle Tom in the White House for Black History Month.

Photo by Carol Spags Photography

For questions about free listings, call 828-251-1333, opt. 4.

DOUBLE CROWN

CLUBLAND

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 1

12 BONES BREWERY

Robert's Totally Rad Trivia, 7pm

185 KING STREET

Winter Trivia Tournament and Karaoke Night, 7pm

27 CLUB

Reed Stewart (experimental drummer), 8pm

ASHEVILLE BEAUTY

ACADEMY

Aquanet Goth Party w/Ash Black, 8pm

ASHEVILLE MUSIC

HALL

Disclaimer Stand-Up Lounge Comedy Open Mic, 8pm

BIER GARDEN

Geeks Who Drink: Trivia at the Bier Garden, 7pm

BOLD ROCK

ASHEVILLE Music Bingo, 7pm

CAMDEN'S COFFEE HOUSE Open Mic Night, 7pm

CONTINUUM

Westie Wednesdays (West Coast Swing): Jack and Jill Ediiion, 7pm

Western Wednesday w/The Heavenly Vipers, 8pm

FLEETWOOD'S Karaoke Dance Party w/Cheryl, 7pm

HI-WIRE BREWING

Not Rocket Science Trivia, 7pm

HIGHLAND BREWING CO.

Songwriter Series w/ Matt Smith, 6pm

JACK OF THE WOOD

PUB

Old Time Jam, 5pm

RENDEVOUS Albi (vintage jazz), 6pm

SHAKEY'S 80s Night, 8pm

SOUTHERN

APPALACHIAN BREWERY

Jazz Night w/Jason

DeCristofaro, 6pm

THE SOCIAL

Wednesday Night Karaoke w/LYRIC, 9pm

TWIN LEAF BREWERY

Wednesday Open Mic, 5:30pm

AND RED GRENADINE: Brown Eyed Women, an all-female Grateful Dead tribute ensemble, will play the indoor stage at Salvage Station on Saturday, Feb. 4, at 8 p.m. The group consists of six musicians hailing from several different states. Photo courtesy of the band

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 2

185 KING STREET

The Montvales (Americana), 7pm

ASHEVILLE MUSIC HALL

Roosevelt Collier w/ JBOT (blues, gospel, rock), 8pm

BOLD ROCK

ASHEVILLE Trivia Night, 7pm

FLEETWOOD'S Lavender Blue, Night Walks, Will Orchard & Reddenhollow (indie rock), 8pm

FRENCH BROAD

RIVER BREWERY

Jerry's Dead (Grateful Dead & JGB Tribute), 6pm

GIGI'S UNDERGROUND

Mr Jimmy (blues), 8pm

GREEN MAN

BREWERY

Robert's Totally Rad Trivia, 7pm

HIGHLAND BREWING DOWNTOWN TAPROOM Not Rocket Science Trivia, 6pm

HOMEPLACE BEER CO.

Tina Collins (indie folk), 6pm

JACK OF THE WOOD PUB

Bluegrass Jam hosted by Drew Matulich, 7:30pm

OKLAWAHA BREWING CO.

5j Barrow (folk rock), 7pm

ONE STOP AT

ASHEVILLE MUSIC HALL

The Lumpy Heads (Phish tribute), 9pm

ONE WORLD BREWING WEST

Electro-Lust (electronic Latin funk), 8pm

PULP

Standup Comedy

ft Roman Fraden & Comedy Open Mic, 8pm

SALVAGE STATION

Neal Francis (alt-rock, indie), 8pm

SHAKEY'S Karaoke w/DJ Franco Niño, 9pm

THE GETAWAY RIVER BAR

Karaoke w/Terraoke, 9pm

THE GREY EAGLE

Pony Bradshaw (folk), 8pm

THE IMPERIAL LIFE

DJ Lil Meow Meow (hip hop, R&B, house), 9pm

THOMAS WOLFE AUDITORIUM

Kevin James (comedy), 6:30pm

TWIN LEAF BREWERY

Thursday Night Karaoke, 8:45pm

URBAN ORCHARD Trivia Night, 6:30pm

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 3

185 KING STREET

Palmyra and The Pinkerton Raid (folk), 8pm

ASHEVILLE BEAUTY

ACADEMY

Venus (dark house dance party), 10pm

ASHEVILLE MUSIC

HALL

Mike Dillon & Punkadelic ft Brian Haas, Nikki Glaspie & Rory Dolan (funk), 10pm

BEAR FALLS WINE

CO.

Emerald Frequency (indie Celtic), 6pm

CORK & KEG

Julia Sanders (Americana), 8pm

FLEETWOOD'S

Powder Horns, Rugg & Rougarou (psych rock), 9pm

GIGI'S UNDERGROUND

AVL Underground

Comedy: Liam Nelson, 8pm

GINGER'S REVENGE

CRAFT BREWERY & TASTING ROOM

Chris Wayne (rockabilly, 1950s Americana, blues), 6pm

HIGHLAND DOWNTOWN

TAPROOM

Drag Music Bingo w/ Divine the Bearded Lady, 7pm

JACK OF THE WOOD PUB

The Piper Jones Band (high energy traditional, folk), 9pm

ONE STOP AT ASHEVILLE MUSIC

HALL

• Free Dead Friday ft Gus & Phriends, 5pm

• Funk'N Around (funk), 10pm

SHILOH & GAINES

East Coast Dirt (rock), 9pm

SILVERADOS

Ali Randolph Band (rock), 9pm

SOVEREIGN KAVA

The Lactones (drip noise), 9pm

THE GETAWAY RIVER BAR

French Broadway Baby Drag Show, 9pm

THE GREY EAGLE

Pierce Edens & Nicholas Jamerson (folk rock), 8pm

THE IMPERIAL LIFE

DJ Press Play (disco, funk and lo-fi house), 9pm

THE ODD Darkhand, Bleedseason, Severed by Dawn, and Void Eater (metal), 8pm

THE ORANGE PEEL

Squirrel Nut Zippers & Dirty Dozen Brass Band, 8pm

THE POE HOUSE

Mr Jimmy (blues), 7pm

WRONG WAY

CAMPGROUND

Fireside Fridays, 5:30pm

REVOLVE

BUY+SELL+TRADE Still Fresh Comedy Sesh, 8pm

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 4

185 KING STREET Brushfire Stankgrass (bluegrass), 8pm

ASHEVILLE BEAUTY ACADEMY

Hip Hop Party, 10pm

ASHEVILLE CLUB

Mr Jimmy (blues), 8pm

ASHEVILLE MUSIC HALL

Mr. Bill, Hullabalo0, GRGLY, Vera Fox, & imeean (edm), 8pm

BATTERY PARK

BOOK EXCHANGE

Dinah's Daydream (Gypsy jazz), 5:30pm

BOLD ROCK

ASHEVILLE

• Bluegrass Brunch, 10am

• Myron Hyman (classic rock, blues), 7pm

BURNTSHIRT

VINYARDS CHIMNEY

ROCK

Andrew Wakefield (folk, rock, bluegrass), 2pm

CORK & KEG

The Old Chevrolette

Set (classic country), 8pm

JACK OF THE WOOD PUB

• Nobody’s Darling

String Band, 4pm

• Bird Dog Jubilee (jam, blues, rock-nroll), 9pm

ONE STOP AT

ASHEVILLE MUSIC

HALL

Josh Clark’s Visible Spectrum (soul), 4pm

ONE WORLD BREWING WEST

Orange Moon

performs the music of Erykah Badu, 9pm

SALVAGE STATION

Brown Eyed Women (Grateful Dead tribute), 8pm

SHILOH & GAINES

The Luv Boat ft Members of Empire Strikes Brass (yacht reggae), 9pm

SWEETEN CREEK

BREWING

Candle & McIntire (classic country and blues), 6pm

THE IMPERIAL LIFE

DJ Short Stop (soul, Latin, dance), 9pm

THE ODD Party Foul Drag & Saturday Night Tease, 8pm

THE ORANGE PEEL

Funk'n Disco Fever:

70s & 80s Dance Party ft DJ Oso Rey & DJ Solstice, 9pm

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 5

ASHEVILLE BEAUTY

ACADEMY

• Life's A Drag Brunch w/Ida Carolina & Euphoria Eclipse, noon

•

JACK OF THE WOOD PUB

Quizzo! Pub Trivia

w/Jason Mencer, 7:30pm

NOBLE CIDER & MEAD DOWNTOWN

Freshen Up Comedy Showcase, 6:30pm

THE GREY EAGLE

Durry w/Pink Beds (indie rock, indie pop), 8pm

THE IMPERIAL LIFE

DJ Short Stop (soul, Latin, dance), 9pm

THE JOINT NEXT DOOR

Mr Jimmy and Friends (blues), 7pm

THE ODD Magic The Gathering, 8pm

THE ORANGE PEEL Samia (singer-songwriter), 8pm

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 7

185 KING STREET

Travis Book & Friends

ft Mike Guggino and Woody Platt (bluegrass, Americana), 6:30pm

5 WALNUT WINE BAR

The John Henrys (jazz, swing), 8pm

ASHEVILLE BEAUTY

ACADEMY Karaoke w/Ganymede, 10pm

ASHEVILLE MUSIC HALL

Tuesday Night Funk Jam, 10:30pm

FRENCH BROAD

HIGHLAND DOWNTOWN TAPROOM

Not Rocket Science Trivia, 6pm

ONE STOP AT ASHEVILLE MUSIC HALL

Early Tuesday Jam (funk), 7pm

ONE WORLD BREWING WEST

The Grateful Family Band Tuesdays (Dead tribute, jam band, rock), 6pm

SHAKEY'S

Booty Tuesday: Queer Dance Party, 8pm

SOVEREIGN KAVA Open Jam, 8pm

THE GREY EAGLE

Hank, Pattie and The Current & Brek (bluegrass, folk), 8pm

THE IMPERIAL LIFE DJ Mad Mike: Music for the People, 9pm THE SOCIAL Travers Freeway Open Jam Tuesdays, 7pm

TWIN LEAF BREWERY

Tuesday Night Trivia, 7pm

WHITE HORSE BLACK MOUNTAIN Open Mic Night, 7pm

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 8

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

185 KING STREET

Winter Trivia Tour -

nament and Karaoke Night, 7pm

ASHEVILLE BEAUTY

ASHEVILLE MUSIC

HALL

Disclaimer Stand-Up Lounge Comedy Open Mic, 8pm

BIER GARDEN

Geeks Who Drink: Trivia at the Bier Garden, 7pm

BOLD ROCK

ASHEVILLE Music Bingo, 7pm

DOUBLE CROWN

Western Wednesday w/Drayton & The Dreamboats, 8pm

HI-WIRE BREWING

Weekly Trivia Night

w/Not Rocket Science Trivia, 7pm

HIGHLAND BREWING

CO.

Songwriter Series w/ Matt Smith, 6pm

JACK OF THE WOOD

PUB

Old Time Jam, 5pm

RENDEVOUS Albi (vintage jazz), 6pm

SALVAGE STATION

G. Love & Special Sauce w/Donavon

Frankenreiter (rock), 8pm

SHAKEY'S 80s Night, 8pm

SOUTHERN APPALACHIAN BREWERY

Jazz Night w/Jason DeCristofaro, 6pm

THE GREY EAGLE

Lee DeWyze (folk rock), 8pm

THE SOCIAL

Wednesday Night Karaoke w/LYRIC, 9pm

TWIN LEAF

Wednesday Open Mic,

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 9

BOLD ROCK

ASHEVILLE Trivia Night, 7pm

DIFFERENT WRLD

Modelface Comedy presents Gianmarco Soresi, 7pm

FLEETWOOD'S Claire Vandiver, Claire Whall, Vandiver (indie), 9pm

FRENCH BROAD

RIVER BREWERY

Jerry's Dead (Grateful Dead & JGB Tribute), 6pm

GIGI'S UNDERGROUND

Mr Jimmy (blues), 8pm

GREEN MAN

BREWERY

Robert's Totally Rad Trivia, 7pm

HIGHLAND DOWNTOWN TAPROOM Not Rocket Science Trivia, 6pm

JACK OF THE WOOD PUB

Bluegrass Jam hosted by Drew Matulich, 7:30pm

SHAKEY'S Karaoke w/DJ Franco Niño, 9pm

THE GETAWAY RIVER BAR Karaoke w/Terraoke, 9pm

THE GREY EAGLE Kathleen Edwards w/ Matt Sucich (singer-songwriter), 7pm

TWIN LEAF BREWERY

Thursday Night Karaoke, 8:45pm

URBAN ORCHARD • Trivia Night, 6:30pm

FREEWILL ASTROLOGY BY ROB BREZSNY

ARIES (March 21-April 19): Theoretically, you could offer to help a person who doesn’t like you. You could bring a gourmet vegan meal to a meat-eater or pay a compliment to a bigot. I suppose you could even sing beautiful love songs to annoyed passersby or recite passages from great literature to an eight-year-old immersed in his video game. But there are better ways to express your talents and dispense your gifts — especially now, when it’s crucial for your long-term mental health that you offer your blessings to recipients who will use them best and appreciate them most.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): In esoteric astrology, Taurus rules the third eye. Poetically speaking, this is a subtle organ of perception, a sixth sense that sees through mere appearances and discerns the secret or hidden nature of things. Some people are surprised to learn about this theory. Doesn’t traditional astrology say that you Bulls are sober and well-grounded? Here’s the bigger view: The penetrating vision of an evolved Taurus is potent because it peels away superficial truths and uncovers deeper truths. Would you like to tap into more of this potential superpower? The coming weeks will be a good time to do so.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): The ingredient you would need to fulfill the next stage of a fun dream is behind door #1. Behind door #2 is a vision of a creative twist you could do but haven’t managed yet. Behind door #3 is a clue that might help you achieve more disciplined freedom than you’ve known before. Do you think I’m exaggerating? I’m not. Here’s the catch: You may be able to open only one door before the magic spell wears off — unless you enlist the services of a consultant, ally, witch or guardian angel to help you bargain with fate to provide even more of the luck that may be available.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): I trust you are mostly ready for the educational adventures and experiments that are possible. The uncertainties that accompany them, whether real or imagined, will bring out the best in you. For optimal results, you should apply your nighttime thinking to daytime activities, and vice versa. Wiggle free of responsibilities unless they teach you noble truths. And finally, summon the intuitive powers that will sustain you and guide you through the brilliant shadow initiations. (P.S.: Take the wildest rides you dare as long as they are safe.)

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Fate has decreed, “Leos must be wanderers for a while.” You are under no obligation to obey this mandate, of course. Theoretically, you could resist it. But if you do indeed rebel, be sure your willpower is very strong. You will get away with outsmarting or revising fate only if your discipline is fierce and your determination is intense. OK? So let’s imagine that you will indeed bend fate’s decree to suit your needs. What would that look like? Here’s one possibility: The “wandering” you undertake can be done in the name of focused exploration rather than aimless meandering.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): I wish I could help you understand and manage a situation that has confused you. I’d love to bolster your strength to deal with substitutes that have been dissipating your commitment to the Real Things. In a perfect world, I could emancipate you from yearnings that are out of sync with your highest good. And maybe I’d be able to teach you to dissolve a habit that has weakened your willpower. And why can’t I be of full service to you in these ways? Because, according to my assessment, you have not completely acknowledged your need for this help. So neither I nor anyone else can provide it. But now that you’ve read this horoscope, I’m hoping you will make yourself more receptive to the necessary support and favors and relief.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): I can’t definitively predict you will receive an influx of cash in the next three weeks. It’s possible, though. And I’m

not able to guarantee you’ll be the beneficiary of free lunches and unexpected gifts. But who knows? They could very well appear. Torrents of praise and appreciation may flow, too, though trickles are more likely. And there is a small chance of solicitous gestures coming your way from sexy angels and cute maestros. What I can promise you for sure, however, are fresh eruptions of savvy in your brain and sagacity in your heart. Here’s your keynote, as expressed by the Queen of Sheba 700 years ago: “Wisdom is sweeter than honey, brings more joy than wine, illumines more than the sun, is more precious than jewels.”

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Your assignment, Scorpio, is to cultivate a closer relationship with the cells that comprise your body. They are alive! Speak to them as you would to a beloved child or animal. In your meditations and fantasies, bless them with tender wishes. Let them know how grateful you are for the grand collaboration you have going, and affectionately urge them to do what’s best for all concerned. For you Scorpios, February is Love and Care for Your Inner Creatures Month.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Revamped and refurbished things are coming back for another look. Retreads and redemption-seekers are headed in your direction. I think you should consider giving them an audience. They are likely to be more fun or interesting or useful during their second time around. Dear Sagittarius, I suspect that the imminent future may also invite you to consider the possibility of accepting stand-ins and substitutes and imitators. They may turn out to be better than the so-called real things they replace. In conclusion, be receptive to Plan Bs, second choices, and alternate routes. They could lead you to the exact opportunities you didn’t know you needed.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Author Neil Gaiman declared, “I’ve never known anyone who was what he or she seemed.” While that may be generally accurate, it will be far less true about you Capricorns in the coming weeks. By my astrological reckoning, you will be very close to what you seem to be. The harmony between your deep inner self and your outer persona will be at recordbreaking levels. No one will have to wonder if they must be wary of hidden agendas lurking below your surface. Everyone can be confident that what they see in you is what they will get from you. This is an amazing accomplishment! Congrats!

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): “I want to raise up the magic world all round me and live strongly and quietly there,” wrote Aquarian author Virginia Woolf in her diary. What do you think she meant by “raise up the magic world all round me”? More importantly, how would you raise up the magic world around you? Meditate fiercely and generously on that tantalizing project. The coming weeks will be an ideal time to attend to such a wondrous possibility. You now have extra power to conjure up healing, protection, inspiration, and mojo for yourself.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Before going to sleep, I asked my subconscious mind to bring a dream that would be helpful for you. Here’s what it gave me: In my dream, I was reading a comic book titled Zoe Stardust Quells Her Demon. On the first page, Zoe was facing a purple monster whose body was beastly but whose face looked a bit like hers. On page two, the monster chased Zoe down the street, but Zoe escaped. In the third scene, the monster was alone, licking its fur. In the fourth scene, Zoe sneaked up behind the monster and shot it with a blow dart that delivered a sedative, knocking it unconscious. In the final panel, Zoe had arranged for the monster to be transported to a lush uninhabited island where it could enjoy its life without bothering her. Now here’s my dream interpretation, Pisces: Don’t directly confront your inner foe or nagging demon. Approach stealthily and render it inert. Then banish it from your sphere, preferably forever.

MARKETPLACE

Want to advertise in Marketplace? 828-251-1333 advertise@mountainx.com • mountainx.com/classifieds

EMPLOYMENT

GENERAL

AUTOMOTIVE PORTER

- HELPER - JANITORIALBIMMER LOGIC BIMMER LOGIC is hiring a shop helper. Flexible schedule $18/hr. Clean the shop/equipment/offices/ bathrooms. Wash vehicles. Shuttle drive customers and pick up parts. Help technicians. Must have a clean driving record! 828214-9961 Luke@bimmerlogic. net www.bimmerlogic.net/

SKILLED LABOR/ TRADES

DIESEL MECHANIC FOR HEAVY EQUIPMENT NEEDED Diesel Mechanic for Heavy Equipment with experience needed for heavy-highway and bridge construction company in Asheville, NC. employment@ nhmconstructors.com www. nhmconstructors.com

HIRING ELECTRICIANS AND ELECTRICIAN HELPERS TK

Electric LLC is looking to hire full-time experienced residential/commercial electricians and helpers in Arden. Applicants must be able to work 40-hour work weeks. To apply, call Tim at 828-708-1001

INDUSTRIAL SEWER/SEWIST

Creative manufacturing studio hiring industrial sewing machine operators constructing home + apparel goods. Will train capable applicants. Friendly, flexible, and democratic environment for team-oriented candidates. $17.70+. PTO + paid holidays. info@wcsewco.com

ADMINISTRATIVE/ OFFICE

BOOKEEPER/ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT FOR LOCAL RETAIL SHOWROOM Monday-Friday. 4 hrs/day. Morning hours preferred but negotiable. Extensive knowledge of Quickbooks and MS Office required. Excellent communication skills. Small business experience a plus. Email resume to: Admin@ bellahardwareandbath.com No phone calls or drop-ins.

MEDICAL/ HEALTH CARE

LABORATORY TECHNOLOGIST I Laboratory Technologist I (Asheville, NC) - multiple openings: Perform complex medical laboratory tests for diagnosis, treatment, & prevention of disease. Req.: BS deg. in chemical, physical, biological, clinical laboratory science, or medical laboratory technologist. Mail resume w/ cover letter to: Genova Diagnostics, Inc., 84 Peachtree St, Asheville NC 28803, Attn: T.

HUMAN SERVICES

HELPMATE SEEKS CHILD AND FAMILY ADVOCATE

Full posting is available at helpmateonline.org. Email resume & cover letter to hiring@ helpmateonline.org to apply.

HELPMATE SEEKS COURT

ADVOCATE The Court Advocate is a full time, nonexempt position, reporting directly to the Court Advocacy Coordinator.

The Court Advocate’s primary job responsibilities include providing case management, court advocacy, and safety planning services to survivors of domestic violence at the Buncombe County Judicial Complex. Qualified candidates will have at least two years’ experience in domestic violence or human services field. Spanish fluency is desired and incentivized in pay. Helpmate is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Diverse candidates encouraged to apply. Salary range for qualified candidates is $36,766.76$45,443. Helpmate provides a comprehensive benefits package, which includes health, disability and life insurances, a retirement plan matched up to 5%, optional supplementary insurances, generous paid PTO, and 14 annual paid holidays. Email resume and cover letter to hiring@helpmateonline.org with the job title in the subject line. Interviews will be held on a rolling basis, the position is open until filled. Submissions lacking a cover letter will not be considered.

PROFESSIONAL/ MANAGEMENT

DEVELOPMENT & OPERATIONS COORDINATOR

MountainTrue is hiring a Development & Operations Coordinator. More information here: avl.mx/cd6 Application deadline: February 24, 2023

BUSINESS

DONATE YOUR VEHICLE TO FUND THE SEARCH FOR MISSING CHILDREN Fast free pickup. 24 hour response. Running or not. Maximum tax deduction and no emission test required! Call 24/7: 999999-9999 Call 855-504-1540 (AAN CAN)

LONG DISTANCE MOVING

TENANT & EMPLOYEE BACKGROUND CHECKS - $50 Credit, Criminal, and Eviction - King Background Screening has been serving the needs of business owners and the rental industry since 2006. Quick results! Denise Anderson (owner) call/text 941284-4612 KingScreening@ gmail.com See web site for full details and prices. www. kingbackgroundscreening.com

EDUCATION/ TUTORING

ATTENTION ACTIVE DUTY & MILITARY VETERANS & FAMILY Begin a new career and earn your Degree at CTI. Online Computer & Medical training available for Veterans & Families. To learn more, call 866-243-5931 (M-F 8am-6pm ET). Computer with internet is required. (AAN CAN)

HOME

4G LTE HOME INTERNET

NOW AVAILABLE! Get GotW3 with lightning fast speeds plus take your service with you when you travel! As low as $109.99/mo.!

1-866-571-1325. (AAN CAN)

ANNOUNCEMENTS

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Call for a free quote from America’s Most Trusted Interstate Movers. Let us take the stress out of moving! Call to speak to our Quality Relocation Specialists: Call 855-787-4471 (AAN CAN)

SPECTRUM INTERNET AS

LOW AS $29.99! Call to see if you qualify for ACP and free internet. No Credit Check. Call Now! 833-955-0905. (AAN CAN)

WATER DAMAGE TO YOUR HOME? Call for a quote for professional cleanup & maintain the value of your home! Set an appt. today! Call 833-664-1530 (AAN CAN)

CLASSES & WORKSHOPS

CLASSES & WORKSHOPS

DRAWING & OIL PAINTING LESSONS If you are interested in learning how to paint the visual world as it is, and, learning about materials then this if for you. Affordable lessons and flexible schedule. jd@studiojamesdaniel.com www.studiojamesdaniel.com

YOUR CAREER STARTS HERE WITH MHC! PROGRAM MANAGER Make a difference AND grow in your career!

Methodist Home for Children is seeking a Program Manager to oversee a residential program for at-risk youth in Franklin. Candidates must have a 4-year degree, preferably in a human services program, relevant experience in staff supervision and background working in youth programs/youth services. MHC offers excellent benefits, paid time off, and room to grow!

Salary starts at $48,000. Apply today at MHFC.org/opportunities vpenn@mhfc.org

CAREGIVERS/ NANNY

COMPASSIONATE CAREGIVER AVAILABLE Compassionate caregiver for private in-home elderly care. Weekend availability only. No overnights. Duties could include: light housekeeping, meal preparation/feeding, medication reminders, assist with dressing and grooming, transportation to appointments and errands as needed. No heavy lifting. I am here to help. Jennifer 828641-1277

BATH & SHOWER UPDATES In as little as ONE DAY! Affordable prices - No payments for 18 months!  Lifetime warranty & professional installs. Senior & Military Discounts available. Call: 1-866-370-2939. (AAN CAN)

BATHWRAPS IS LOOKING FOR HOMEOWNERS WITH OLDER HOMES FOR A SAFETY UPDATE They do not remodel entire bathrooms but update bathtubs with new liners for safe bathing and showering. They specialize in grab bars, nonslip surfaces and shower seats. All updates are completed in one day. Call 866-531-2432

(AAN CAN)

BCI WALK-IN TUBS ARE ON SALE Be one of the first 50 callers and save $1,500! Call 844-514-0123 for a free in-home consultation. (AAN CAN)

CREDIT CARD DEBT RELIEF!

Reduce payment by up to 50%! Get one LOW affordable payment/month. Reduce interest. Stop calls. FREE no-obligation consultation Call 1-855-7611456. (AAN CAN)

DIRECTV SATELLITE TV Service

Starting at $74.99/month! Free

Installation! 160+ channels available. Call Now to Get the Most Sports & Entertainment on TV!  877-310-2472 (AAN CAN)

DON'T PAY FOR COVERED

HOME REPAIRS AGAIN

American Residential Warranty covers all major systems and appliances. 30 day risk free - $100 off popular plans. Call 855-731-4403. (AAN CAN)

MIND, BODY, SPIRIT

COUNSELING SERVICES

ASTRO-COUNSELING

Licensed counselor and accredited professional astrologer uses your chart when counseling for additional insight into yourself, your relationships and life directions. Stellar Counseling Services. Christy Gunther, MA, LCMHC. (828) 258-3229

FOR MUSICIANS

MUSICAL SERVICES

GUITAR REPAIR / RESCUE

Somewhat famous luthier with 35 years experience offering comprehensive repair service. Quick turnaround, competitive rates, free evaluation / estimate (in-person only). Convenient Asheville location. Brad Nickerson. 828-252-4093 nickersonguitars.net nickersonguitars@hotmail.com

AUTOMOTIVE

AUTOMOTIVE SERVICES

CASH FOR CARS! We buy all cars! Junk, high-end, totaled – it doesn’t matter! Get free towing and same day cash! NEWER MODELS too! Call 866-535-9689. (AAN CAN)

MOUNTAINS

JUST FUNNY, THEY ARE HILL AREAS

ACROSS

1 Part of a Tibetan leader’s title

6 San Luis ___, Calif.

12 Catch in the act

15 Official decree

16 Polishing aids

17 Park in Manhattan, e.g.: Abbr.

18 Disciple of Haile Selassie, informally

19 As part of a performing duo in 1991; as a solo artist in 2021

21 What might help someone get a leg up?

23 “Cool!”

24 Take home

25 As part of a band in 1998; as a solo artist in 2019

27 Put on staff

28 Vessel that’s a homophone of 24-Across

29 Get ___ on (ace)

30 “Place” on a Monopoly board

32 Lowest pitches in chords

36 One end of a battery

37 As part of a songwriting duo in 1990; as a solo artist in 2021

40 Really got to

43 “Rule” stating that the number of transistors per microchip doubles every two years

47 Brit who wrote “The Vanishing Half”

50 Meadow

51 Former Giants

QB Manning

52 Understanding of a situation

53 With 60-Across, institution in which 19-, 25and 37-Across are (thus far) the only three women ever to be inducted twice

57 “Waterloo” group

58 Acronym that might be shouted before a rash act

59 Heavens on earth

60 See 53-Across

63 “So sad”

65 Serving from a tap

66 Laughed loudly

67 Janelle who sang 2010’s “Tightrope”

68 There are about five of these in a tsp.

69 Way off base

70 Strict DOWN

1 German article

2 2019 sci-fi film whose title means “to the stars”

3 Lends an ear

4 Penultimate part of a Shakespeare play

5 Architectural style started, strangely, in England

6 Canadian Thanksgiving mo.

7 Russian pancakes

8 Kind of chemical bond

9 Shelving area in a library

10 Part of a water quality evaluation

11 Buckeye State sch.

12 Vancouver Island city

13 Contended

14 ___ mountain dog (breed named for its origins near the Swiss capital)

20 Installs again, as a painting

22 Kind of sax

25 Hoagie

26 Grp. known as OTAN in France

31 Social worker who was the first American woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize

33 Skeleton that’s no longer in the closet?

34 Stately tree

35 Concern for online advertisers, for short

38 Caffeinecontaining nut

39 Goddess of peace

40 Isaac’s father, in the Bible

41 Game with a bat

42 Gives permission

44 Proud and regal

45 Like some casts or teams

46 Actor Wheaton

48 Strive to achieve

49 Over the bounds

54 Composer Schumann

55 Susan G. ___ (breast cancer advocacy organization)

56 Transfer, as a tulip

61 It’s unrefined 62 Summer hrs. in Pittsburgh

64 Japanese currency

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS NY TIMES PUZZLE