Mountain Xpress 03.31.21

OUR 27TH YEAR OF WEEKLY INDEPENDENT NEWS, ARTS & EVENTS FOR WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA VOL. 27 NO. 35 MARCH 31 - APRIL 6, 2021

C O NT E NT S

OF ANTIQUES, UNIQUES & REPURPOSED RARITIES!

NEWS

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NEWS

FEATURES 8 IF I HAD A MILLION DOLLARS Homeless resource groups think big with COVID relief funds

10 THE BETTER THAN NORMAL TDA projects roaring year for Buncombe visitation

PAGE 22 JOYFUL NOISES

PUBLISHER: Jeff Fobes

As of March 26, North Carolina’s indoor music venues are allowed to operate at 50% capacity, and Asheville-area favorites — including The Grey Eagle, The Orange Peel and White Horse Black Mountain — are starting to turn up the volume by bringing back local acts to their stages.

ASSISTANT TO THE PUBLISHER: Susan Hutchinson

COVER PHOTO iStock

WELLNESS

COVER DESIGN Scott Southwick

18 SWEATING THE DETAILS Area gyms say yes to in-person fitness

3 LETTERS 3 CARTOON: MOLTON 5 CARTOON: BRENT BROWN

GREEN

6 COMMENTARY 20 NEED FOR SEED Pandemic supply problems see second season

11 NEWS BRIEFS

17 COMMUNITY CALENDAR

A&C

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8 NEWS

12 BUNCOMBE BEAT

Antique Writing Desk 24 SPRING BRINGS GOOD THINGS Tailgate market season 2021 rolls out

18 WELLNESS 20 GREEN SCENE 22 ARTS & CULTURE

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27 ABBOTSVILLE FAREWELL Ann B. Ross concludes the Miss Julia series — maybe

30 FREEWILL ASTROLOGY 30 CLASSIFIEDS 31 NY TIMES CROSSWORD

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MANAGING EDITOR: Virginia Daffron ASSISTANT EDITOR: Daniel Walton ARTS & CULTURE EDITOR: Thomas Calder OPINION EDITOR: Tracy Rose STAFF REPORTERS: Able Allen, Edwin Arnaudin, Thomas Calder, Molly Horak, Brooke Randle, Daniel Walton COMMUNITY CALENDAR & CLUBLAND: Madeline Forwerck CONTRIBUTING EDITORS: Peter Gregutt, Rob Mikulak REGULAR CONTRIBUTORS: Mark Barrett, Leslie Boyd, Bill Kopp, Cindy Kunst, Gina Smith, Kay West ADVERTISING, ART & DESIGN MANAGER: Susan Hutchinson LEAD DESIGNER: Scott Southwick GRAPHIC DESIGNER: Olivia Urban MARKETING ASSOCIATES: Sara Brecht, David Furr, Tiffany Wagner OPERATIONS MANAGER: Able Allen INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES & WEB: Bowman Kelley BOOKKEEPER: Amie Fowler-Tanner ADMINISTRATION, BILLING, HR: Able Allen DISTRIBUTION: Susan Hutchinson, Cindy Kunst DISTRIBUTION DRIVERS: Gary Alston, Tracy Houston, Henry Mitchell, Tiffany Narron, Kelley Quigley, Angelo Santa Maria, Carl & Debbie Schweiger

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OPINION

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

CARTO O N BY R A N D Y MOLT O N

City schools could learn from Stephens-Lee’s model Thanks for your coverage of the Asheville City Schools review of their desegregation order [“Separate But Better? Asheville City Schools Seeks Changes to Desegregation Order,” March 17, Xpress]. I would like to correct one part of the article. Daniel Walton states that Stephens-Lee closed as a result of integration. This is not accurate. Rather, Stephens-Lee closed in 1965 due to the deterioration of the structure due to deferred repairs.

Black students were then sent to a newly constructed, segregated South French Broad High School — 11 years after the first Brown v. Board of Education decision. This later became Asheville Middle School. The newly constructed school clearly violated the much earlier Plessy v. Ferguson deci-

sion (rendering “separate but equal” legal). One doesn’t have to spend much time looking at images of the two buildings to see that South French Broad was clearly inferior to Asheville High (then known as Lee Edwards High). This was widely perceived as a direct assault on Asheville’s African American community.

One of the strategies that ACS has been working to adopt is a concept known as restorative practices. The idea with this is to address harm when it’s been committed and to offer a chance to repair that harm. While this is a tool the city schools are implementing as a way to reduce the terrible racial disparity seen in how discipline is addressed within the schools, the system itself has much work to do.

The Stephens-Lee Alumni Association is a very active organization that does important work in the community. I have had the privilege of attending a few of their functions and know many Stephens-Lee alumni.

They speak very proudly of the legacy of this school — its academics as well as its co-curricular activities (state championship titles, a banging marching band, etc.). One of the most powerful aspects of Stephens-Lee was the exceptionally high standards demanded by its highly credentialed teachers and the tight connection between the school and the broader community.

This is something the system should rededicate themselves to.

Many alumni of Stephens-Lee proudly retain bricks they salvaged from the demolition of this school.

Such was the place of pride the community felt toward Stephens-Lee. I have heard no such stories from South French Broad High. Asheville City Schools owes a debt to the African American community. This debt must be paid forward; Stephens-Lee faculty offer a model.

— Reid Chapman Asheville Editor’s note: Thank you for adding to our understanding of the history of public education in Asheville. We have corrected the article on our website.

For more information about StephensLee and its former faculty, see the 2019 Xpress story “Alumni and Local Historians Remember the Faculty of Stephens-Lee” (avl.mx/5vr).

is selling what’s left to the highest bidders. Shame on you.

— Leni Sitnick Asheville

Asheville Primary School is worth fighting for In a December meeting, Asheville City Schools Superintendent Gene Freeman proposed the closure and sale of the Asheville Primary School, a center of the West Asheville community that has educated thousands of our city’s youths for nearly 70 years.

Asheville Primary School is home to Asheville City School district’s only five-star public preschool and Montessori program. Its closure would displace over 100 preschoolers, permanently remove a Montessori school and further reduce Asheville’s overall early childhood learning capacity by displacing Head Start classrooms.

This head-scratching proposal fundamentally undermines Buncombe County’s aim to achieve universal pre-K education.

With limited input from the community, no discussion with the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners and no current plan for how ACS will

What happened, Asheville?

Regarding Charlotte Street, Richmond Hill, hotels, etc.: What the hell happened to all the “plans,” all the “visioning,” all the “charettes,” all the community meetings, all the Tree Commission recommendations about saving Asheville’s canopy, all the hours spent by the Preservation Society trying to save our history, all the gatherings of Asheville neighborhood associations to create unique neighborhoods, all the flip chart notes and ideas?

We’ve already lost the goose and the golden egg. Now the City Council

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MARCH 31 - APRIL 6, 2021

3

OPI N I ON

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X AWARDS

2021

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

achieve the county’s goal of universal pre-K, the ACS board is likely to rubber-stamp the closure soon. Shuttering the five-star program at APS cannot be undone and will forfeit state and federal funding for the Asheville Primary principal and support staff as well as millions of dollars from the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund desperately needed for a new HVAC system and windows at Asheville Primary.

Meanwhile, Asheville City Schools is requesting a $2.7 million grant from the county to cover the cost of this reduction in early childhood learning in Asheville. Why a county grant intended to expand early childhood education would be used to reduce early childhood education should have any Asheville resident fuming [See “Room to Grow? ACS Preschool Changes Draw Commissioner, Community Critiques,” March 24, Xpress].

Expanding to universal early childhood education will not be possible without preserving Asheville’s stock of school buildings, including Asheville Primary. Spending nearly $3 million to achieve a net reduction in early childhood education is highly questionable and a blow to many parents wishing to enroll their children in ACS preschool next year and beyond.

Asheville Primary is worth fighting for. Concerned residents should contact the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners and demand a signed memorandum of understanding with ACS that preserves all ACS buildings and pre-K classrooms before future funding is approved.

— Brooke Heaton Asheville

I’m paraphrasing) that the traffic on Richmond Hill Drive is going to be what it’s going to be no matter the height of the buildings.

This statement sounded reckless to me. If a similarly cavalier view is shared by council members of Woodfin and Asheville, I believe they’re being woefully and willfully negligent in their duty to protect taxpaying citizens. Seems sort of like a president who understands that people are dying during a pandemic, denies science and states: “It is what it is.”

Richmond Hill is heavily traveled.

Large trucks jackknife with regularity at the intersection of Pearson Bridge Road and Richmond Hill Drive. Visitors to our beloved park, the Western North Carolina Baptist Home and OM Sanctuary, as well as crucial National Guard personnel and residents, rely on this access point to reach work, school and medical appointments.

If our local leaders choose to do nothing to ensure that the Bluffs’ developer commits to building his bridge before starting construction on one of the largest ever developments in our area — and one that is facing much public opposition — then we must assume that they are taking a passive, enabling approach to this future fiasco.

Imagine this narrow lane jammed by a stalled vehicle at the same moment of an emergency. It won’t matter how much water is available at The Bluffs if firefighters cannot reach what many are now calling “the death trap.”

Allowing The Bluffs to proceed without ensuring our public safety is playing with fire.

— Robert McGee Asheville

A vote for creative police funding

A few puzzling questions

Creative police funding should be used to bring down the temperature between police and citizens. We can make change happen if we try — but doing nothing will not bring change.

— Carol Cohen Asheville

The Bluffs: playing with fire

Voting Starts April 21

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MARCH 31 - APRIL 6, 2021

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On March 1, I attended the town of Woodfin’s Zoom hearing regarding the conditional use permit The Bluffs’ developer is seeking to move forward with building 1,394 high-rise apartment units in the pristine forest spanning 90 acres from Richmond Hill Park to our beloved French Broad River.

I’m not an attorney, but I have to say that I was struck by how often The Bluffs’ legal counsel stated (and

Raleigh is [having] virus updates and information meetings this month for the rural residents of North Carolina.

If the rural children can’t do their classwork because of lack of internet access, then how are the parents going to get the information they need?

It was bad enough when they posted that the rural students could use the hot spots at the libraries for their classes. Do the rural residents even own a computer/laptop? If no internet, then I would say no, they don’t.

A [recent] article stated that the students are falling behind in classwork, then the [Asheville City Schools] superintendent spends $90,000 on public relations? Public relations for what? How bad he is doing his job?

I heard a story about Western North Carolina when I moved here in ’05 that, per Raleigh, North Carolina stops at Boone. Thanks and just wondering.

— Leonard Nickerson Swannanoa

CARTOON BY BRENT BROWN

NC should still adopt the ERA The 1940 Republican platform included the first major party endorsement of passing the Equal Rights Amendment. After forsaking its roots in the late ’70s and ’80s on this issue, the Republican Party has come back around to supporting the ERA in state legislatures responsible for voting to ratify this constitutional amendment in the last few years [avl.mx/96b].

Bipartisan efforts in the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate are now underway to finally ensure that the long-delayed ERA enshrines in the U.S. Constitution “equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.” (That’s it! That, plus the ability for Congress to enforce it in a timely manner, is the entire amendment!) Virginia became the final state needed to ratify the ERA last year, and Congress is working together to remove an outdated deadline for ratification.

North Carolina is poised to be on the wrong side of history unless our legislature acts quickly. We are one of the handful of states that has not yet ratified the federal ERA. Furthermore, we’re also one of 25 states that hasn’t yet included protections against

sex-based discrimination in our state constitution.

Let’s not make the same mistake we made by dragging our feet on the 19th Amendment. We waited 50 years after the nation amended the U.S. Constitution giving women the right to vote to formally ratify the 19th Amendment in the N.C. General Assembly.

Urge Chairs Destin Hall and Bill Rabon to take up this important issue in their respective rules committees now.

We still have the ability to do the right thing before it’s embarrassingly too late this time. Thank your assembly members who have signed onto House Bill 8 and Senate Bill 15, and urge those who haven’t yet to co-sponsor these bills today.

— Mary Ellen M. Kustin Hendersonville

Correction A summer camp listing for Artemis Archery Asheville published in our March 17 issue contained incomplete information. The listing should have included six one-week camp sessions, June 28-Aug. 13. For more information, contact brightarrowflying@ gmail.com or 828-257-2707.

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OPINION

Beat a retreat

Media coalition sues city for public access to Council ‘team-building’ session

BY VIRGINIA DAFFRON vdaffron@mountainx.com A media coalition of Asheville Citizen Times, Blue Ridge Public Radio, Carolina Public Press, AVL Watchdog and Mountain Xpress has asked a court to weigh in on the Asheville City Council’s plan to hold a 6 ½-hour closed-door meeting devoted to “strengthening personal relationships, teamwork and communication required to do meaningful work together” on Wednesday, March 31.

In a hearing on March 29 (as this issue of Xpress goes to press), Buncombe County Superior Court Judge Steven Warren took the coalition’s arguments under advisement in preparation for deciding whether the proposed session is a public meeting under state law. If Warren rules in the coalition’s favor, the city will be compelled to open the “team building” portion of the Council’s retreat to public view.

Despite objections from Council member Kim Roney, residents and Mountain Xpress, City Attorney Brad Branham insisted before the hearing that the nonpublic session is appropriate and in line with what’s done in “many cities across the state.”

But Frayda Bluestein, David M. Lawrence Distinguished Professor of Public Law and Government at the UNC School of Government, told Xpress that she disagreed with Branham’s view — and had shared that opinion with him.

SMELLS LIKE TEAM SPIRIT

At annual retreats of Asheville City Council in 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019, team-building exercises yielded a mix of insights into the personal histories and philosophies that Council members and senior city staffers brought to their work. Some were quirky and some were raw, but the human details that emerged in the company of city staff, a handful of citizens and local media shed new light on Asheville’s leaders — and how they responded to the revelations from their peers.

In 2020, with COVID-19 on March 13 still an emerging threat, City Council focused its time and attention on the potential disruptions the coronavirus might bring to Asheville, skipping the touchy-feely stuff to contemplate what 6

MARCH 31 - APRIL 6, 2021

one presenter called “a big elephant in the room.”

This year, Council intends to change things up again, announcing on March 19 that the first day of the two-day retreat will be largely closed to public view. From 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m., the city wrote in a press release, “no public business will be deliberated and no action will be taken. This portion of the retreat will not be open to the public.”

Backed up by advice on state open meetings law from Amanda Martin, attorney for the N.C. Press Association, Mountain Xpress objected via email to the city’s plans. “Whether action is taken is not the question. If members of a public body are together for anything other than a strictly social gathering, then it is a meeting,” Martin explained.

LEGAL WRANGLING

A back-and-forth with Branham ensued, with the city attorney sticking to his guns, responding on March 22, “The team-building sessions planned for this portion of the retreat will not include any public hearings, deliberations, voting or otherwise transacting public business. I will be on hand to personally ensure that these limitations are enforced. Therefore, the gathering is merely an informal assembly and not an official meeting as defined by state law.”

Unconvinced, Xpress asked Branham to consult with the office of N.C. Attorney General Josh Stein. Branham responded that he would take up the question with the UNC School of Government.

On March 24, Branham told Xpress, “Upon consultation with the School of Government, I remain committed to my opinion that the ‘get to know you’ session of the City Council retreat does not qualify as an official meeting as described by the North Carolina open meetings laws. I have discussed this opinion with the mayor, and the city plans to proceed with the Council retreat as planned.”

But Bluestein, a UNC School of Government professor and open meeting expert, took issue with Branham’s interpretation of open meeting law. “I have a different opinion, which I shared with Brad,” she wrote in a March 26 email. “It seems to me that this is an official meeting. This is a retreat of the board, specifically aimed at the behavior and relationships and among the board as they do the work of the city.”

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OUTSIDE LOOKING IN: Asheville City Council plans a two-day retreat at Harrah’s Cherokee Center–Asheville, which is owned and managed by the city.

But 8:30 a.m.-3 p.m. on Wednesday, March 31, the Council will meet behind closed doors for team-building activities. Photo by Virginia Daffron Bluestein pointed to the state’s statute on closed session meetings [NCGS 143-318.11 (6)], saying that its language describes the type of activity Asheville has outlined in its retreat plans and makes clear that such matters may not be discussed behind closed doors.

“This is a planned activity with a goal of improving their efficacy as a board.

That seems like public business to me,” Bluestein concluded.

ON THE HOME FRONT

Others have also taken exception to the city’s plans — including one person who is expected to participate in the retreat.

“I am concerned a private retreat day without streaming, recording or option for public attendance will further erode the trust we say we need and should be building,” wrote Council member Kim Roney in an email to Mayor Esther Manheimer and City Manager Debra Campbell on March 8.

“I think we’re heading in the wrong direction if we’re attempting to find a way to remove ourselves from the public eye, because we are a public body,” continued Roney. “If the intention is to address conflict, I think this will [exacerbate] it and not be easy to mend.”

Roney’s arguments, however, didn’t get traction. At the Council’s regular meeting on March 23, she cast the only vote opposing the nonpublic session, and city staff later confirmed that no audio or video recording of the team-building session would be captured.

Commenting at the same meeting, two residents also took issue with plans for the retreat, which will be held at the city-owned Harrah’s Cherokee Center – Asheville.

“This team-building exercise is going to require the time of many members of staff and is going to require the use of public facilities. Despite all of these taxpayer-funded costs, City Council has arbitrarily decided to exclude the public

from the opportunity to view this portion of the retreat,” said Patrick Conant.

“How can our city claim to value transparency when so much effort is being spent towards operating in a completely nontransparent manner?”

Carol Rogoff Hallstrom, herself an attorney, expressed doubt about the legality of the nonpublic session. But beyond that, she continued, “At a time where I think we’re all sharing a real interest in increasing trust between you as a governing body and the communities of Asheville — the governed — that having a portion of a Council convening that is not open and available for public viewing is not in the best interest of furthering that trust.”

XPRESS WEIGHS IN

After the team-building exercise at the City Council retreat of 2017, then-Council member Keith Young said, “Everyone on Council has a lot of emotion and passion on an ideological level and a political level. Hearing these stories helps you understand where that comes from.

“It’s good to see people as human,” he said.

Young was right then, and his sentiment rings even truer now: After a year of isolation and disruption, we need to see our leaders — four of whom have never before participated in a Council retreat in an official capacity — as something other than head-and-shoulders thumbnails on a Zoom screen. We need to see them working through human issues and resolving human differences.

The people of Asheville elected individual Council members, not a team.

Any attempt to build a smooth and cohesive unit behind closed doors is antithetical to the process of open and democratic government, because it’s in the points of disagreement that the varying perspectives of Council’s constituents are represented and, eventually, reconciled. X

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NEWS

If I had a million dollars Homeless resource groups think big with COVID relief funds

BY BROOKE RANDLE brandle@mountainx.com The U.S. government is fighting the COVID-19 pandemic with a pair of injections — vaccinations for arms and heaps of cash for the economy.

The latter response may have a beneficial side effect for Western North Carolina: offering people who are chronically homelessness or housing insecure a new beginning.

Nearly $50 billion in federal support has been designated for emergency coronavirus protection measures specifically for people experiencing homelessness. According to Emily Ball, who works as the homeless services lead for the city of Asheville, the funds also offer an unprecedented opportunity to place many of Asheville’s homeless residents into permanent housing. “[The funding is] intended to be a pandemic response; it’s not actually intended to end homelessness. It just is, happily, an opportunity for us to end homelessness, because that is also a response to the coronavirus,” says Ball. “We can actually significantly reduce the number of people who are homeless right now as the direct result of that money.”

CARE PACKAGE

The Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act, also known as the CARES Act, was signed into law by former President Donald Trump March 27, 2020, and provided $2.2 trillion in pandemic relief to

BRIGHT FUTURES: Asheville-based nonprofit Eliada received $100,000 in funding from 2020’s CARES Act. The organization will use the money to provide rent assistance to young adults at risk of homelessness. Photo courtesy of Eliada

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COVID-19 due to their prevalence of underlying medical conditions.

One study from the Coalition for the Homeless found the age-adjusted COVID-19 mortality rate for people experiencing homelessness in New York City to be as much as 75% higher than that for the city’s general population.

“Homelessness is a public health issue to begin with, and this is a public health crisis,” Ball says. “It’s really just a perfect storm that’s creating a need to prioritize those folks.”

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individuals, families, business owners and local governments.

The law also set aside funds to specifically protect homeless Americans, who Ball says are at greater risk for contracting COVID-19. People who are homeless tend to gather in congregate settings, such as homeless shelters or meal-sharing locations, and may also lack access to running water or bathroom facilities to wash their hands, which puts them at greater risk of contracting to the disease.

The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also considers unhoused people particularly vulnerable to severe complications from

BY THE NUMBERS

Ball says Asheville received $3.5 million in CARES Act funds designated for homelessness resources, primarily as coronavirus-specific Community Development Block Grants and Emergency Solutions Grants.

While Asheville has received between $1 million and $2 million in CDBG funds per year, the CARES Act added an extra $1.1 million to that pool. Because the grants were aimed at pandemic relief, the city opted to support rapid rehousing for people who are currently homeless, as well as rental assistance for people facing eviction due to job loss or other reasons.

The city contracted with Homeward Bound of WNC and Pisgah Legal Services to administer the grants and provide rental assistance to eligible households for up to six months. As of March 16, Pisgah Legal has reported serving 88 households in danger of becoming homeless, while Homeward Bound has moved 13 people into permanent housing, according to a staff report.

The CARES Act will also allow the city to access funds from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to reimburse expenses for renting 60 rooms at the Red Roof Inn at 16 Crowell Road. The city has fronted roughly $567,000 for the shelter so far; 136 unhoused people have stayed at the motel since May 11, with an average stay length of 138 days. According to a March 16 staff report, 33 shelter residents have exited to permanent housing, with six of them supported by CARES Act money. The city’s current contract will fund the temporary shelter until Wednesday, June 30.

The largest boost for homeless service providers has come through coronavirus-specific ESG funds, which are funneled through the city to multiple organizations within Buncombe County. The grants, which totalled about $128,000 annually before the pandemic, fund street outreach, emergency shelter,

MONEY MATTERS: Domestic violence nonprofit Helpmate will use approximately $400,000 in new grant funding to place victims of domestic violence into permanent homes and prevent homelessness through temporary rent assistance. Photo courtesy of Helpmate homelessness prevention and rapid rehousing. The coronavirus-specific funding authorized through the CARES act was $2.3 million.

Homeward Bound received nearly $860,000 in ESG funds, which will be used for rapid rehousing efforts. Nicole Brown, the organization’s deputy director of programs and strategy, says that the money will likely help 45-55 people who have been chronically homeless in Asheville.

“These funds have given us the ability to work with some of the highest-need, chronically homeless folks in our community and provide them with two years of financial support and case management assistance,” says Brown. “We wouldn’t be able to house these folks without this funding.”

ON TARGET

Some ESG grants are being distributed to organizations that target specific subpopulations of people at risk of becoming homeless, such as young adults or victims of domestic violence.

Eliada, an Asheville nonprofit serving children and families, is set to receive roughly $100,000 in ESG funding, its inaugural grant from that source. Sarah Dickerson, who directs the Eliada Students Training for Advancement at Eliada, says the organization will use the money to provide rental assistance to young adults ages 18-25 who make less than 80% of the area median income, or roughly $40,000 a year for a single individual. The move is designed

to prevent homelessness in at-risk young adults.

“We’ve been doing this for a while and we found that, when we’re looking at our annual outcomes data, housing has been everyone’s biggest barrier to being successfully independent,” she explains. “We want to be able to help these students be able to find safe and secure housing.”

In some cases, the funds will be used to pay the security deposit or first month’s rent on an apartment.

The longest available grant pays for six months of rent, and case management will be offered for up to a year.

Dickerson says that Eliada expects to serve 33 people through rental assistance for the year.

“When we are able to intervene now at this age, these students are still open to learning. They still have great opportunities. … They aren’t in survival mode,” Dickerson says. “A lot of our students have had trauma but not the compounded trauma like

what you see with the chronically homeless. So when we’re able to help these students get housed now, we are truly helping them to not develop more trauma that is affecting their ability to be safe and secure in housing.”

April Burgess-Johnson, executive director at Asheville-based nonprofit Helpmate, says that the domestic violence prevention organization also received coronavirus ESG funds through the city. In a normal year, the nonprofit receives roughly $45,000 from that source; through the CARES Act, those funds rose to $429,000.

Helpmate plans to use approximately $240,000 to place victims of domestic violence into permanent homes; another $160,000 will go into homelessness prevention through temporary rent assistance. The extra funding will allow Helpmate to add 40 individuals to the usual 10-12 people that it houses each year.

“It will be lifesaving for people,” Burgess-Johnson says of the extra funding, noting that the COVID19 pandemic has been particularly hard on domestic violence survivors.

“During the period where we had stay-at-home orders, there were victims that were literally trapped inside a household without the escape of work for themselves or school for their children. We’re starting to see what other countries have seen as they’ve started the gradual process of reopening: As there’s more freedom, that gives the victims some flexibility so they can come out and get some help.”

two years raising money for additional case managers, finding permanent housing for potentially hundreds of homeless or housing-insecure people and building new partnerships for long-term support.

She also points to the American Rescue Plan, a law signed by President Joe Biden March 11, which promises $5 billion in new funding specifically to reduce homelessness, more than $21.5 billion to replenish emergency rental assistance funds and $5 billion in emergency housing vouchers. Brown says that she is also hoping to see the expansion of homelessness programs at the federal level that last beyond the pandemic.

“It’s really unprecedented that we have had this much money to focus on homeless services in our country,” says Brown. “It’s really exciting, but we can’t stop there. Support is still needed after this pandemic is over.”

For Ball, there’s no time like the present.

“There is so much opportunity right now. This is a convergence of a long-standing public health crisis of homelessness in our community, and a global public health crisis and new resources,” Ball says. “It’s time to seize this moment.” X

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SEIZING THE MOMENT

Most funding from the CARES Act is set to expire in September 2022, but ESG funding must be spent by June 30 of that year. While Brown is concerned about the potential impact of those funds not being available in the future, she hopes to spend the next

Down for the count The annual Point in Time Survey, which aims to provide a snapshot of the number of unhoused people in the community during one night of the year, found last year that 547 people were homeless in Asheville.

The count, which was completed on Jan. 29, 2020, by the AshevilleBuncombe County Homeless Initiative, noted that while overall homelessness was down 6% from 2019, 110 people were considered chronically homeless, and family homelessness had increased from the previous year by 70%.

Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, city officials were able to conduct the Point in Time Survey on Jan. 27 this year, with surveys conducted of unsheltered residents, shelters and transitional housing programs. After tallying the numbers, the Asheville-Buncombe County Homeless Initiative will submit its findings to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development by the end of April. The data is expected to be released to the public in May. X

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NEWS

The better than normal TDA projects roaring year for Buncombe visitation

BY DANIEL WALTON dwalton@mountainx.com Across the United States, people are sick of being at home. They’ve just received a chunk of cash from the latest federal coronavirus relief package. COVID-19 vaccines are quickly becoming available to anyone who wants one.

Put that all together, say the members of the Buncombe County Tourism Development Authority board, and the result should be a banner year for the region’s visitor economy. At its March 25 regular meeting, the TDA board unanimously approved a projection that occupancy tax revenue would exceed a record $27 million for fiscal year 2021-22 — 15% more than projected for the current fiscal year, which ends in June, and 9% more than the year before the pandemic.

“Buncombe County is in a comparatively strong position coming out of the current crisis,” said Vic Isley, the recently hired president and CEO of the Explore Asheville Convention and Visitors Bureau. As a destination that caters to domestic leisure travelers with a large vacation rental market and “a strong pre-COVID growth trend,” she explained, the area is poised for a quick recovery as the country tames the coronavirus.

That optimistic outlook came as board members embarked on their annual retreat, a two-day virtual affair meant to hone the TDA’s thinking on tourism management. The discussion revolved around four strategic pillars: delivering sustainable growth, encouraging responsible travel, engaging diverse audiences and promoting Asheville’s creative spirit.

SWEET SPOT

Where the pandemic will have lingering effects, suggested Erin Francis-Cummings, those will be to the benefit of Buncombe County. The president and CEO of Destination Analysts, a tourism marketing research firm, noted that over twofifths of travelers say COVID-19 has “altered their outlook on life” and made them more interested to vacation in certain places.

National parks, small towns and mountain destinations, FrancisCummings said, had all become more 10

MARCH 31 - APRIL 6, 2021

a downtown business improvement district. Under that scheme, businesses would pay an additional tax to support downtown-specific services such as the ambassador program.

“Now is not the time to approach local businesses to ask them for a give,” Isley added in acknowledgement of the pandemic’s lingering effects. But she said a successful pilot could set the stage for a BID in the near future.

Asheville technically already has a BID in place; the district was formally established by City Council in 2012.

However, its board disbanded in 2014 after controversy regarding its bylaws and proposed tax rate.

BUSINESS AS (NEW) USUAL: Pent-up travel demand and healthy consumer savings, say members of the Buncombe County Tourism Development Authority board, spell a big year ahead for regional tourism. Photo courtesy of the BCTDA attractive to visitors, while large cities and theme parks were now less desirable. Although research hasn’t yet established how long those changed perspectives might last, she added, Asheville will certainly be able to capitalize on tourists’ new priorities in the short term.

As visitation increases, the board acknowledged, so too will the potential impacts of tourists on the local community. Members floated several strategies for a “balanced recovery,” including a “hub and spoke” model in which visitors would explore the rest of Buncombe County while using Asheville as a home base. Dispersing tourists across a larger area, they said, would reduce complaints of downtown overcrowding and parking woes.

Another approach recommended by Randy Durband, CEO of the Global Sustainable Travel Council, is to promote longer stays, thereby dispersing impacts over time. He pointed out that a tourist in Asheville for the day might only visit the downtown core and a big attraction such as the Biltmore House, while someone staying for the week would likely venture to more remote trails or artist studios.

Such visitors would spread their economic benefits more widely, Durband added. “I want to talk about the best kind of visit, not the best kind of visitor,” he said.

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CLEANUP CREW

Board members also discussed how the TDA might address existing community issues, with a particular emphasis on homelessness.

“Tourists basically say they’re not coming back because of the panhandling,” remarked Sandra Kilgore, an Asheville City Council member who serves on the TDA board in an ex officio, nonvoting capacity.

Isley said homelessness was “a bit of a sticky wicket for Asheville” but suggested that a street ambassador program, similar to existing initiatives in Washington and Tampa Bay, Fla., might make a difference. Those ambassadors, she said, could both assist unhoused people with community resources and help tourists find their way around town.

In the short term, Isley continued, a pilot ambassador program might be funded in partnership with Asheville or Buncombe County using money those governments will receive through the federal American Rescue Plan. As previously reported

by Xpress, Buncombe County alone is slated to receive over $51 million in relief funds, which among other uses can be spent on “aid to impacted industries such as tourism, travel and hospitality.”

Once that money is gone, Isley said permanent funding might come from

NEW FACES

As the TDA shapes Buncombe County’s tourism recovery, its board hopes to bring a broader swath of visitors to the area, with people of color a particular focus. To that end, said Earl “Butch” Graves, the board must “extend a genuine invitation” and include Black people at every stage of its marketing.

The president and CEO of Black Enterprise, a multimedia company, Graves said that destinations often give lip service to attracting Black visitors while continuing to run advertisements in their usual general-market publications. “You’re not saying to me that I value you and I genuinely want you to be there,” he explained, when ads aren’t present in culturally relevant channels. “If you’re a surfer, you’d rather read a surfing magazine than read Sports Illustrated, because it’s dedicated to my passion. It’s the same thing as it relates to an African American audience.”

When Black visitors arrive at a destination, Graves continued, they should see themselves represented in the places they visit and feel like a guest wherever they go. He encouraged tourism leaders to set the tone from the top and manage hiring more equitably.

After Isley asked if Asheville’s push toward community reparations might boost the region’s attractiveness to Black travelers — a theory floated by former Council member and current state Sen. Julie Mayfield soon after the July passage of the city’s reparations resolution — Graves said that in his experience, similar moves were “a rubber stamp, and then they go back to business as usual.” Instead, he said marketing messages could emphasize how people of color have contributed to the area’s culture and encourage tourists to “explore all of Asheville.”

NEWS BRIEFS

by Xpress Staff | news@mountainx.com

CREATIVE JUICES

The final pillar of the board’s discussion involved Asheville’s “creative spirit” and how tourism authorities might support area artists and makers. Before settling on specific programs to bolster creatives, said consultant Rodney Payne, Asheville should hold a community discussion regarding its “place DNA.” Payne, the co-founder and CEO of Destination Think, pointed to Nashville as a prime example of a city that had held that conversation successfully. The Tennessee destination’s “Music City” theme, he said, runs through every element of a tourist’s experience. But locals also benefit through opportunities like paid gigs for bands to welcome travelers at the regional airport.

While Payne stressed the need to involve residents in the articulation of Asheville’s DNA, TDA board Chair Himanshu Karvir expressed skepticism that such a discussion would be productive. “If we start that conversation with locals, it would start by saying, ‘We’re already maxed out.

Let’s pull back,’” Karvir said. “That’s not what we want to do; that’s not where our goal is. Our goal is to get more visitors here, to get more overnight stays.”

(In November 2019, Karvir delivered nearly 20 minutes of remarks at a TDA board meeting excoriating community members for what he called anti-tourism bias. “In my opinion, there are no problems with the TDA. The problems lie elsewhere,” he said.)

A good starting point, Payne suggested, might be conducting a carrying capacity study to objectively establish Buncombe County’s current limits for accommodating visitors.

“It’s great to want to increase prosperity, but how much is enough?” he asked. “How many people is too many for our place? I think until you can answer that question, you can’t really build a plan.”

After Payne left the virtual meeting, Isley told the board that she had asked him to speak because he was “a bit provocative.” Although she acknowledged that the TDA needed to do more research on visitor impacts, she assured members that their job was not to limit tourism.

“Our role is not on constricting growth,” Isley said. “Our role is about enabling the opportunity for more people to win in this community through it.”

Full recordings of the retreat, as well as accompanying slide presentations, are available at avl.mx/975. X

NC EASES COVID-19 RESTRICTIONS Spring is in the air, and with the changing weather comes a significant easing of North Carolina’s COVID-19 restrictions. The latest executive order from Gov. Roy Cooper raises the indoor mass gathering limit from 25 to 50 people and the outdoor mass gathering limit from 50 to 100. All evening alcohol sale restrictions have been lifted; however, restaurants can still sell alcoholic mixed drinks for takeout and delivery.

Retail businesses, salons and personal care services, aquariums and museums can now operate at 100% capacity.

Restaurants, breweries, gyms and fitness centers, pools and amusement parks can now operate at 75% capacity indoors and 100% capacity outdoors.

And conference centers, bars, lounges, clubs, sports arenas, auditoriums and live performance venues can operate at 50% capacity both indoors and outdoors.

With key metrics like the number of COVID19 cases, hospitalizations and the percent positivity remaining stable, North Carolina is in a “promising place,” said N.C. Health and Human Service secretary Dr. Mandy Cohen. All businesses must continue to maintain 6-foot social distancing, and the statewide face mask mandate will remain in effect through at least Friday, April 30.

COVID-19 VACCINES AVAILABLE TO ALL ON APRIL 7

For many North Carolina residents, the wait for a COVID-19 vaccine may soon be over. All essential workers and people living in congregate living settings can begin scheduling appointments on Wednesday, March 31, Gov. Cooper announced at a March 25 press conference. All remaining adults will become eligible on Wednesday, April 7.

$38.8 million to $41.9 million. The topic is expected to go before Council at an upcoming regular meeting, at which point community input will be heard.

Development Coalition announced in a March 3 press release that vehicle propulsion technology company BorgWarner will invest $62.25 million in its Arden campus. With this investment in technology and machinery, the company plans to employ more than 600 people in logistics, production, engineering, operations and management at the facility.

“Investment in hightech, advanced automotive manufacturing companies, like BorgWarner, is key to the sustained and diversified economic growth of Western North Carolina,” said Michael Meguiar, chair of the AshevilleBuncombe County Economic Development Coalition, in a press release.

“Our ability to support these industries will build a strong foundation for generations to come.”

LATEST ROUND OF ONE BUNCOMBE FUNDING HELPS PROTECT MORE THAN 400 JOBS

WOODFIN PLANNING AND ZONING BOARD TO CONTINUE BLUFFS DISCUSSION APRIL 5

In its second round of disbursements, the One Buncombe Fund has awarded $475,000 to 116 area businesses adversely impacted by the pandemic.

The funds will help retain 253 employees and rehire an additional 153, reports Buncombe County in a press release.

The fund intentionally focused on women- and minority-owned businesses that were not eligible for other pandemic relief programs, the press release says. Roughly 36% of grants went to businesses owned by people of color, 64% were awarded to woman-owned enterprises and approximately a third of the grants were given to sole proprietors.

The Woodfin Planning and Zoning Board of Adjustment is set to resume its consideration of a conditional use permit for the proposed 1,400 unit Bluffs at River Bend development on Monday, April 5. A lawyer representing developer John Holdsworth and an attorney retained by residents of Richmond Hill clashed over a permit application to exceed the town’s standard 35-foot building height limit for nearly six hours at the board’s March 1 meeting.

Community members are concerned that the development would increase traffic volume on adjacent roadways and send more stormwater runoff into the French Broad River. But attorney Derek Allen, who represents the developer, maintains that the only consideration for the Planning and Zoning Board should be the height change. X

THE WAIT IS (ALMOST) OVER: Emergency room charge nurse Shayla Bell was one of the first AdventHealth Hendersonville team members to receive a Moderna COVID-19 vaccine in December. Starting April 7, all adults in North Carolina are eligible to get vaccinated. Photo courtesy of AdventHealth Hendersonville According to March 29 data from the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services, 26.4% of North Carolina’s total population is at least partially vaccinated. Of the people who have received at least one shot, 70.8% are white, 15.7% identify as Black or African American, 3.2% are Asian or Pacific Islander and 0.7% are Native American.

To find a vaccine provider, visit avl.mx/96o.

CITY WATER FEES LIKELY TO RISE

Asheville water customers are likely to see their bimonthly bills jump by an average of $6.56 next fiscal year, city staff announced at an Asheville City Council budget work session on March 23. The move comes after two lawsuits forced the city to stop charging customers a monthly water capital improvement fee; that fee raised nearly $7.5 million last fiscal year.

According to projections shared by Asheville’s interim finance director, Tony McDowell, the average water bill will jump from $63.42 in the upcoming fiscal year to $75.27 by the start of the 2024-25 fiscal cycle. Average annual revenue in that same period is expected to go from

BORGWARNER INVESTS $62.25M IN ARDEN FACILITY The Asheville-Buncombe County Economic MOUNTAINX.COM

MARCH 31 - APRIL 6, 2021

11

BUNCOMBE BEAT

Council votes to demolish Vance Monument “I hear comments from people saying this monument hurts Black people,” Kilgore said.

“And it hurts me every time they say that, because I’m not in pain.

The people I know are not in pain.

What pains me is seeing Black males out here who can’t get a job. It pains me when I see Black males having to go on the street and fight and kill each other over drugs and things like that to make a living to take care of their family. What hurts me is the health care system that does not apply to people that look like me. I truly believe what we’re looking at here will hurt Black people.”

Asheville’s Vance Monument is coming down.

At Asheville City Council’s meeting of March 23, members voted 6-1 to demolish the 75-foot obelisk named after Confederate Gov. Zebulon Vance. “I’ve come to realize that the Vance Monument no longer reflects, and probably never reflected, the values of our community,” Mayor Esther Manheimer said. “I’m looking forward to the day we can have a centerpiece in our city that reflects Asheville today. And I’m proud to be part of the Council that will make this change.”

That change comes at a price: A $114,500 bid to remove the monument was awarded to Asheville contractor Chonzie. A separate $25,535 contract for temporary site restoration will go to Asheville-based MS Lean Landscaping.

After the monument is gone, the city will begin crafting a “comprehensive Community Vision document” to inform the future direction of its downtown plaza, costing up to $70,000. A planning phase to solicit public engagement will run through fall, said Jade Dundas, Asheville’s public works director.

The final report is expected to go before Council this winter.

In February, the joint city-county Vance Monument Task Force shared ideas for the future of Pack Square in its final recommendations to Council and the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners.

Task force members asked that a redesign include recognition of the Cherokee presence on the site before 1792, as well as “some measure of special recognition to the Asheville Student Committee on Racial Equality, including students,

The

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MARCH 31 - APRIL 6, 2021

CHANGING THE LANDSCAPE: For decades, Asheville’s Vance Monument has been the site of community gatherings and protests. Asheville City Council has approved the monument’s demolition, which will occur within 45 days. Photo

by Max Hunt mentors and leaders and the desegregation they set in motion.”

The task force also created a list of over 100 Black citizens and notable events to incorporate into future site planning following the monument’s removal.

Council member Sandra Kilgore, one of the body’s three Black members, was the sole vote against the removal of the obelisk — or, as she MOUNTAINX.COM

called it, a “piece of art.” (Kilgore had previously written a commentary for the Jan. 27 issue of Xpress advocating for the monument to be repurposed.) In a series of emotional pleas to her colleagues, she recounted personal stories of racism and urged members to think about potential retaliatory violence white supremacy groups may inflict on Black residents.

IN OTHER NEWS

James Carter, Jacquelyn Carr McHargue and Peyton O’Conner are the three newly appointed members of the Asheville City Board of Education. The decisions by Council mark an end to a contentious process that had netted significant criticism from the Asheville City Association of Educators and Asheville City Schools parents.

McHargue was the only consensus choice from the seven candidates Council had interviewed earlier in the day; she was also the only new member to have been endorsed by the ACAE. Council members Antanette Mosley and Gwen Wisler did not support Carter in an initial round of voting; O’Conner, whom only Sage Turner and Sheneika Smith had backed in the first round, was chosen as the third board member after Manheimer and Kim Roney offered their support in a second round of votes.

“We had amazing candidates, and it was really a tough decision,” Wisler said after the last votes were cast. “It’s a grueling process, and I want to thank all the people who went through it. And for the people who have served on the school board, thank you for your amazing years of service.”

McHargue is the dean of students at UNC Asheville. O’Conner works as the director of Buncombe County Recreation Services. Carter, the only incumbent to be reappointed, was first appointed to fill the term of outgoing member James Lee in 2019. Incumbents Joyce Brown and Patricia Griffin were not chosen for another term.

— Molly Horak X

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13

N EWS

APD releases after-action report on spring protests Nearly 10 months after community members poured onto Asheville streets to protest the police killing of Black Minneapolis resident George Floyd, the Asheville Police Department has finally released an after-action report. The document details the department’s response to the protests that occurred May 29 through June 6.

APD Chief David Zack presented the report to members of Asheville City Council’s Public Safety Committee on March 24, just 16 hours after the 303-page document was first shared with committee members and the public. The document states that the “decision to destroy first aid supplies and food” at a medic station housed between Salsa’s and Farm Burger along Patton Avenue on June 2 “was wrong.” Additionally, while the report says that the decision to use tear gas against protesters on May 31 at the Jeff Bowen Bridge was “both within agency policy and best practices,” it notes that officers violated departmental crowd control operations and chemical munitions policies during that action.

The after-action report was first requested by Asheville City Council in July. After determining that hiring an outside consultant group to create the report would be too costly, Council tasked the APD with crafting its own comprehensive report detailing the department’s response, lessons learned and recommendations for the future.

Following a 90-day timeline outlined by Zack in September, the final report was supposed to be released in December. The chief offered no

14

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SPARKS FLY: An Asheville Police officer’s body-worn camera captured this image of a pyrotechnic explosion in downtown Asheville during the protests that occurred May 29-June 6. Photo courtesy of APD explanation for the delay in his presentation to the committee.

The spring protests were only the second time that APD’s crowd control team had been deployed in riot gear, Zack said, and the first time tear gas was deployed during a demonstration. “It goes without saying that the protests were unprecedented in the city and for law enforcement officers nationwide,” he added. “Never before had APD encountered a protest where the emotional intensity was directed solely at the police.”

But Council member Kim Roney, who serves on the Public Safety Committee, argued that APD had encountered similar protests in 2016.

She reminded Zack that the city saw large demonstrations after the police killing of Jai “Jerry” Williams, a

MOUNTAINX.COM

Black Asheville resident, which led to a sit-in at the APD headquarters.

“I know staffing has changed, but I feel this does a disservice to our community when there were hundreds of people who took to the streets in 2016,” Roney said. “I am concerned the narrative that might come out to the public in this public document doesn’t tell the whole story about policing in Asheville.”

From May 29 to June 6, the APD made a total of 57 arrests, four of which required use of force, Zack said. APD’s Professional Standards unit received more than 500 complaints regarding the use of tear gas and anger over the destruction of supplies, only one of which was a formal complaint of injury. In November, the Racial Justice Coalition filed 20

anonymous excessive force complaints to the department.

According to the report, officers “only deployed munitions when they were attacked, their lawful orders repeatedly ignored, they were encircled by angry crowds or were vastly outnumbered.”

The after-action report outlines 11 recommendations and 17 action items, including: • Review of APD crowd control operations regarding warnings before the deployment of chemical munition and the creation of a script to maintain consistent language.

• Amendments to APD’s crowd control and chemical munitions policies to “remove requirements that were unattainable and/or impossible to complete when dealing with large, loud, fast-moving and violent crowds.”

• The use of body-worn cameras for all officers working at largescale protests.

• Establishing a “staging area” with a designated manager to track external resources and coordinate mutual aid efforts.

• An APD property retrieval group to hold personal or abandoned property at a secure location.

• Working with city public information officers to help distribute timely information to the public.

The report’s release came days after a New York Times investigation analyzing similar studies from cities nationwide found police forces were “poorly trained, heavily militarized and stunningly unprepared” for the protests that emerged after Floyd’s death.

“We know that we will likely be answering questions for weeks and months,” Zack said. “We are more than willing to do that and will make ourselves available to satisfy the concerns of all.”

— Molly Horak X

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COMMUNITY CALENDAR MARCH 31-APRIL 9, 2021

Hemlock Restoration Initiative: Pisgah National Forest Hike 5.5-mile loop through wildflower fields and a mountain bog habitat.

Register: avl.mx/wordcap1.

TU (4/6), 9am, Free, Pink Beds Trail, US 276 Pisgah Forest

For a full list of community calendar guidelines, please visit mountainx.com/calendar. For questions about free listings, call 828-251-1333, ext. 137.

For questions about paid calendar listings, please call 828-251-1333, ext. 320.

Clubland is back!

Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation: Wildlife Camera Webinar Led by biologist Tom Davis.

TU (4/6), 11am, Registration required, avl.mx/96k

See Pg. 29

In-Person Events = Shaded All other events are virtual

WELLNESS NC MedAssist: Free Mobile Pharmacy Over-the-counter medication giveaway.

FR (4/2), 9am, Brevard College Boshamer Gym, 1 Brevard College Dr, Brevard Steady Collective Syringe Access Outreach Free naloxone, syringes and educational material on harm reduction.

TU (4/6), 2pm, Firestorm Books & Coffee, 610 Haywood Rd Pardee UNC: Us TOO Prostate cancer support group monthly meeting with guest speaker Dr. Joseph J. Busch.

TU (4/6), 7pm, Free, avl.mx/96L

ART Center for Craft: Celebrating Cherokee Craft in WNC Unveiling of “The Basket” public art parklet at 67 Broadway, featuring artist Mary Thompson.

WE (3/31), 12pm, Registration required, Free, avl.mx/973 BMC Museum + Arts Center: Faith in Arts A conversation with installation artist, educator and writer Marie Cochran.

WE (3/31), 1pm, Free, avl.mx/96n Art Travels: National Nordic Museum Tour led by Asheville Art Museum.

TH (4/1), 7pm, Registration required, $20, avl.mx/95L Center for Craft: FABRICated Exhibit tour and artist talk with Virginia Derryberry.

FR (4/2), 12pm, Registration required, Free, avl.mx/96g

MountainTrue University: How Local Governments Respond to Climate Change Discussion on sustainability in civic life with riverkeeper Andy Hill and environmentalist George Santucci.

WE (4/7), 12pm, Registration required, Free, avl.mx/96q

Slow Art Friday: Clear as Mud Discussion led by master docent Sarah Reincke at Asheville Art Museum.

FR (4/2), 12pm, Registration required, $10, avl.mx/95m

MUSIC Bach’s Lunch: Swing Fever Jazz-inspired organ music program.

TU (4/6), 12pm, avl.mx/96z Thursday Night Live: Muse Asheville Classical French vocal performance.

TH (4/8), 6pm, Included with admission, Asheville Art Museum, 2 S Pack Square BMC Museum + Arts Center: Mario Galeano Toro New electronic performance.

TH (4/8), 7pm, Free, avl.mx/prvt

LITERARY UNC Press & Malaprop’s: Author Discussion Featuring Anthea Butler, author of White Evangelical Racism: The Politics of Morality in America, in conversation with Sarah Posner.

WE (3/31), 6pm, Registration required, Free, avl.mx/96u CRAFT: Authors in Conversation Featuring Kim Ruehl, author of A Singing Army: Zilphia Horton and the Highlander Folk School.

WE (3/31), 7pm, Registration required, Free, avl.mx/96v Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance: Reader Meet Writer Featuring Denny S. Bryce, author of Wild Women and the Blues.

TH (4/1), 7pm, Registration required, Free, avl.mx/96w

BEHIND THE GREENS: Ever wonder how wild animals behave when humans aren’t looking? The Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation will offer a peek into the forest in a wildlife camera webinar. Led by parkway biologist Tom Davis, attendees will learn how motion-activated “camera traps” are used to study populations and behaviors of bears, bobcats, deer, raccoons and other medium-to-large mammals. Free. avl.mx/96k. Tuesday, April 6, 11 a.m. Photo courtesy of the Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation Malaprop’s Poetrio Reading with poets Petra Kuppers, Rodney Terich Leonard and Kevin Prufer.

SU (4/4), 3pm, Registration required, Free, avl.mx/96x Dark City Poets Society Reading and writing group. Register: avl.mx/96m.

TU (4/6), 6:15pm, Free, Black Mountain Public Library, 105 N Dougherty St, Black Mountain

When All God’s Children Get Together: Fostering Racial Justice Book Club Discussion on white privilege and its impact on communities.

TH (4/8), 1pm, Registration required, Free, avl.mx/96p

FILM 2021 Oscar Nominated Short Films Series Animation, live action and documentary.

Tickets: avl.mx/96f.

FR (4/2), 1-7pm, $10, Grail Moviehouse, 17 Foundy St

BUSINESS & TECHNOLOGY AIGA Asheville: One Designer, One Work Featuring AIGA National Board Member Ann Marie Puente.

WE (3/31), 12pm, Registration required, Free, avl.mx/96t Mountain BizWorks: Catalyst Cohort Information Session Webinar on lending and learning opportunities for new businesses.

TH (4/1), 5:30pm, Registration required, Free, avl.mx/96s

SBCN: Building Your Online Store with WordPress & WooCommerce Start-up assistance webinar.

TH (4/8), 3pm, Registration required, Free, avl.mx/96r

ECO & OUTDOORS WNC Sierra Club: How Geology Shaped Your Favorite Mountains & Waterfalls Webinar led by author Bill Jacobs.

TH (4/1), 7pm, Registration required, Free, avl.mx/96e

FESTIVALS Odd Community Flea Market Local vintage vendors.

SA (4/3), 9am, The Odditorium, 1045 Haywood Rd Jackson Arts Market Live demonstrations by local artists.

SA (4/3), 1-5pm, 533 W Main St, Sylva Dillsboro Easter Hat Parade Community walking parade. Registration starts at 11am.

SA (4/3), 2pm, Downtown Dillsboro

Down Home NC Winter Market Local craft vendors.

SU (4/4), 12-4pm, Haywood Square, 308 N Haywood Rd, Waynesville Wagbar Sunday Market Craft vendors and artisans. Proceeds benefit Charlie’s Angels Animal Rescue.

SU (4/4), 12-4pm, Wagbar, 320 Merrimon Ave

SPIRITUALITY Asheville Wisdom Exchange Monthly meeting featuring John Davis, director of Coptic Fellowship International.

WE (3/31), 7pm, Free, ashevillewisdomexchange.org

VOLUNTEERING Literacy Together Volunteer Training Orientation for adult literacy tutors.

WE (3/31), 12pm, Registration required, avl.mx/974 Asheville GreenWorks: Sand Hill Nursery Workday Mulching, repotting trees and tending to plants. Register: avl.mx/85d.

WE (4/7), 10am, Buncombe County Sports Park, 58 Apac Circle

BUYING OLD PAPER MONEY 10 yrs WNC/ETN notes, bonds, maps, currency etc.

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2021

Voting Starts April 21

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WELLNESS

Sweating the details

With safety measures in place, area gyms say yes to in-person fitness

BY MOLLY HORAK mhorak@mountainx.com Rap music blares and weights clang as the 14 gym enthusiasts signed up for MADabolic Asheville’s Monday afternoon class begin the day’s workout. Spaced 6 feet apart at stations marked either by tape on the floor or by free-standing exercise equipment like punching bags and standing rowing machines, they take their places as the big clock on the back wall slowly counts down.

Three, two, one…

With an explosion of power, the class jumps into action, lifting and punching through a series of interval exercises until the clock shows it’s time for a quick break. The participants begin to sweat, shiny droplets sliding down their foreheads and dripping onto the elastic straps holding their face masks in place.

This is a workout in March 2021, where face coverings are mandatory and members are continually asked to sanitize all equipment with a hand towel brought from home.

But if that’s the price of in-person exercise these days, gym members like Daniel Windham are more than willing to comply.

“At first I was really nervous about stepping back into the same room as other people,” says Windham, who resumed attending in-person classes at MADabolic last fall. “Because of the way they run the operation here, I felt confident it would be safe. And I’m really glad I came back, because the mental and physical health benefits I get are extremely beneficial.”

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ALL ABOUT FLEXIBILITY: When the COVID-19 pandemic began, Hot Yoga Asheville immediately started recording video classes and creating a digital library of yoga videos, says owner Adi Westerman. But there’s no substitute for in-person instruction, like the class pictured above. Photo courtesy of Westerman

BACK IN THE SADDLE

The N.C. Department of Health and Human Services officially cleared state gyms to reopen for indoor in-person exercise at 30% capacity in early September. But a number of gyms had already reopened more than two months before, citing a loophole in Gov. Roy Cooper’s executive order that allowed indoor fitness facilities to serve people who need regular exercise as part of a medical treatment plan.

The governor’s latest executive order, in effect through Friday, April 30, allows gyms and fitness centers to open at 75% capacity indoors and 100% capacity outdoors.

For Hot Yoga Asheville, closing in-person operations meant losing the studio’s main draw: four infrared heaters that create the workout’s signature heat. The studio reopened as soon as state guidelines allowed, says owner Adi Westerman. In the interim, she and her team of yoga instructors created an online dataMOUNTAINX.COM

base of more than 300 videos for members to do at home.

“We’ve tried to make the best out of this weird situation, and people have been really responsive,” she says.

To her knowledge, the studio has remained COVID-19 free throughout the pandemic. “Now I’m getting people emailing and texting me saying they’re getting their vaccines, so it’s starting to feel like there’s light at the end of the tunnel.”

No COVID-19 cases have been traced thus far to any YMCA facility in Western North Carolina, noted MaryO Ratcliffe, vice president of marketing and communications for the YMCA of WNC, in an email.

Despite more than a million in-person visits to 96 YMCA facilities across the state in December and January, only 38 cases of COVID-19 were reported to YMCA officials, reports the North Carolina Alliance of YMCAs, yielding a positivity rate of .0038%.

To keep that transmission rate at zero, all WNC YMCA locations are screening members for COVID-19

symptoms before entry, regularly cleaning all equipment and focusing on low-touch interactions. New air filtration systems were installed, and some classes are held outside to minimize indoor contact.

But not everyone is coming back.

Since March 2020, membership rates at area YMCAs have declined by 44%, Ratcliffe said. Roughly 35% of members are actively visiting facilities each month, she noted, and many more are taking advantage of virtual and on-demand classes. As COVID-19 vaccination rates increase, the chain expects to see participation rise.

“We’re excited that Cooper is increasing our occupancy to 75% and are confident that we’ll be able to continue to serve our members safely,” Ratcliffe said.

WHAT DOES SCIENCE SAY?

While local gyms claim low or nonexistent COVID-19 transmission rates, conflicting national studies tell

a more nuanced story. Researchers from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published two reports in February detailing high coronavirus transmission rates during group exercise classes in Chicago and Honolulu, infecting 55 and 21 people, respectively.

The Chicago outbreak, which infected 68% of fitness class attendees over an eight-day period, was traced back to a patron who removed a mask during a workout. In Honolulu, a fitness instructor taught a stationary cycling class without wearing a mask; a few hours later he began experiencing COVID-19 symptoms. Contact tracing later revealed that everyone in the 10-person class had been infected, as well as several others who attended the instructor’s classes at nearby facilities in the days leading up to the onset of his symptoms.

Unlike the guidelines in place in Chicago and Honolulu at the time of the outbreaks, face coverings are currently required for all North Carolina gymgoers ages 5 and older.

Some exceptions are allowed for those participating in an activity in which a mask could become a choking hazard or impair vision, such

as swimming. Another exception applies to those who have a medical condition that makes wearing a face covering impossible.

Keeping a mask on during a workout isn’t as awful as people make it out to be, says MADabolic General Manager Jane Rakes. That is, “until you’re breathing really hard and you end up breathing the mask into your mouth,” she laughs. “That’s the worst.” She’s found that exercise masks help, as do plastic inserts that keep face coverings from sticking to one’s face.

And constant face mask usage is likely helping to further condition gymgoers, Rakes adds. She compares face coverings with endurance masks professional athletes use to make oxygen intake more difficult during rigorous coaching sessions.

“Our cardiovascular training and V02 max is going to be great by the end of this,” she says.

CAN’T REPLICATE IT

While some people may see at-home workouts as a way to avoid health risks, extended time away from a gym has the potential to do more harm than good, Rakes

MUSCLE PUMP: A MADabolic Asheville member completes the first circuit of an interval workout at the fitness center’s location on Coxe Avenue. Masks are required at all times, and participants must sanitize all equipment after each use.

Photo by Molly Horak believes. She’s noticed a number of clients attempting to return to pre-pandemic routines despite losing much of their strength in quarantine.

Others are doing exercises using improper form.

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“It’s likely that working out at home will eventually lead to injuries long term, just because you don’t have that set of eyes on you,” she says. “There’s only so much trainers can do to watch you or coach you over a Zoom class.”

Getting back to a gym environment can be deeply motivating, adds Danny Sharpe, owner of Biltmore Fitness. So much of working out is a mental challenge, he says, and for many people, the structure of a group exercise setting is key.

“I hear from so many people that they need the gym or fitness center to get the motivation to get moving,” he says. “It’s also about accountability. Is your workout partner or your trainer going to be there?”

For Windham, returning to MADabolic Asheville checked all of those boxes.

“I was kind of down and needed to take that first step toward something that made me happy before the pandemic,” he says. “It’s a decision I feel like a lot of people are making right now. People are weighing what’s important to them and what are the next steps needed to make that happen.” X

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19

GREEN SCENE

Need for seed

Pandemic supply problems see second season

BY GINA SMITH

ifications of that continuing,” notes Simmons, who also uses Johnny’s as a seed supplier. “It impacts everybody, especially with mail order.”

A message pinned to the homepage of the Johnny’s Selected Seeds website explains that despite ramping up summer seed production to boost inventory and adding new staff working night and weekend shifts to fill orders, the “volume we are experiencing this season from home gardeners has stretched the resources that allow us to pack seed and ship orders quickly.”

Both Simmons and Mast add that on a national level, major weather events, including severe windstorms that destroyed crops in some parts of the country in 2019 and this year’s February ice storm in the Midwest that put a freeze on shipping for several days, have further complicated the situation. “[During the ice storm] FedEx shipping was backlogged for about two weeks, so that was another wrinkle that was out of our control,” Mast says.

ginasmithnews@gmail.com It’s a cold night in early January, and Severian Simmons would prefer to be relaxing on the couch watching movies with his girlfriend. Instead, he’s stationed at his computer with fingers poised over the keyboard, a prepared list of item numbers at the ready. When the clock strikes midnight, an online ordering platform opens, and he jumps into a frenzied buying competition with others across the country.

Rather than trying to score sought-after concert tickets or the latest video game console, Simmons was among the many farmers scrambling to buy seeds for 2021 crops.

Last spring, a pandemic-fueled surge in demand emptied retail shelves and websites of seeds and plant starts almost overnight. Those problems have persisted this growing season and have extended to commercial farming operations as seed companies grapple with coronavirus-induced labor issues and consistently high demand.

Simmons, who sources seed from five suppliers, says he encountered challenges as soon as he started trying to place orders this winter for his 2-acre Sandy Mush growing enterprise, Free Orbit Farm. Some companies, he explains, were open only for limited days and times for online orders on a first-come, firstserved basis. So far, he’s been unable to purchase seeds for many of the crops he intended to plant this year.

For some varieties, he was placed on waitlists, but other popular seeds were sold out completely. “I just felt fortunate to get what I was able to,” says Simmons.

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MAGIC BEANS: Brooke Lovingood, warehouse operations manager for Sow True Seed, shows off a handful of Luther’s Mixed Colors runner beans — one of the many crop varieties now sold out for 2021. Photo courtesy of Sow True Seed

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ROOT OF THE ISSUE

Banner Greenhouses in Nebo, which saw its sales leap dramatically with the sudden influx of new pandemic gardeners last spring, has also experienced difficulty sourcing seeds for the organic vegetable and flower transplants it produces for farms, universities and other growers across the country. As a result, Banner is taking special care to be transparent and communicative with customers, warning them in advance to expect delays, substitutions and even cancellations, says General Manager Jeff Mast.

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Seed companies, Mast explains — including Banner’s primary supplier, Johnny’s Selected Seeds in Maine — have struggled since last spring to cope with a huge increase in orders from home gardeners while simultaneously maintaining pandemic social-distancing limits on workers.

“They just physically can’t keep up with demand when it comes to packaging the seeds. They may have it in inventory, but they just can’t get it packaged,” he says. “Also, some varieties are just sold out this season; demand was that high.”

“COVID impacted all forms of labor last year, so the things that we’re experiencing now are just ram-

WORKER WOES

Asheville-based Sow True Seed reports the same labor and demand challenges experienced by Johnny’s Selected Seeds. “We have essentially maxed out our building capacity with how many people we can have in there and still be observing social distancing guidelines,” says Leah Smith, Sow True’s director of agriculture. “A lot of times, it’s not that the seed is not available, it’s that we can’t keep up with the demand and keep it on the shelf.”

Smith expresses hope that the labor situation will improve in the near future as the company’s warehouse staff members get COVID-19 vaccinations. But the past year’s sharp uptick in demand has caused some supply problems that won’t be quickly resolved.

“It’s true that there are certain varieties that are out of stock for real, and we just can’t get them this year,” she says. “When we buy seed, it’s a multiyear process. It’s not something we can make in a factory and just speed the lines up when demand increases — we have to wait for it to grow. Essentially, when seed companies buy seed, they’re predicting how much they’re going to sell a couple of years down the road.”

For most seed varieties, the company keeps stock on hand that’s

robust enough to stretch for multiple years. But popular seeds — especially those embraced by gardening newbies — are completely sold out until more can be grown, a process that takes at least a year.

“The one that we’re probably most bummed about is the Cherokee purple tomato,” Smith says. “That one is our bestselling tomato, and it’s totally out of stock. So far, we can’t get it from anywhere, and we suspect it’s probably sold out for the season.”

KINKS IN THE CHAIN

Supply chain difficulties have created complications for Banner, which trickle down to the farmers the company serves. “When we receive a late shipment, then also find out that some varieties are not available, we have to work on substitutions or communicating with our customers on options, which all delays our sowing, and then that delays when our customers can plant,” says Mast.

While Simmons isn’t happy that many seeds he’d planned on planting, such as sungold tomatoes, were unavailable this winter when he needed to start them for timely summer harvests, he pivoted by selecting other varieties. But he worries that supply issues that continue through the growing season may ultimately reduce income for small farms.

“In market gardening, the strategy is to keep it moving — let’s crop this thing out, reamend it, and replant. … Timing is key in succession planting, so I think that the shortage of seeds might impact the capacity to

have the successions be consistent because the supply isn’t consistent,” Simmons explains. “All we know is how things are right now; we have no idea what it will be like for people ordering in June for getting all their brassicas ready for the fall.”

Growers who contract with seed companies, however, including several local farms that produce for Sow True, could benefit from the situation. “Some of them are getting bigger contracts than they might have otherwise gotten, which is an opportunity for them,” Smith points out.

And when the harvests come in on those new contracts, the nation’s seed supply will rebound, she adds.

“As early as April of last year, we were looking at adding new contracts for seed that we hadn’t planned to have grown out, but we could see demand was increasing,” she says.

“And we’ve added more contracts this year, so the production is ramping up. It’s going to catch up; it just is going to take a little time.”

Meanwhile, home gardeners vexed by the prospect of a summer without Cherokee purples can follow Simmons’ lead and break fresh ground in their gardens by trying out varieties that are new to them, Smith says. There were, for example, 18 varieties of slicing tomato seeds still in stock on Sow True’s website when she spoke with Xpress.

“To the gardening public who’s worried about the seed shortage, I would say try to be excited about trying something new this year,” she says. “Try not to panic or feel too upset that your old favorites aren’t there, because they’ll come back.” X

SEEING GREEN: Jeff Mast, general manager of Banner Greenhouses in Nebo, says his company has had trouble filling orders due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Photo courtesy of Banner Greenhouses

SIY (Save It Yourself)

THE LONG WAY: Farmer Harold Long and his wife, Nancy, specialize in saving and selling the seeds of native heirloom vegetable varieties. Photo courtesy of Nancy Long With the pandemic rush to garden and resulting national shortage of seeds, Nancy and Harold Long of Long Family Farms in Murphy near the Qualla Boundary have observed a related rush to adopt sustainable growing practices, including their area of specialty: seed saving.

Harold is a member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians and has concentrated the 40-acre farm’s focus on saving and selling the seeds of heirloom vegetable varieties important to both the Cherokee and Appalachian cultures. Since last spring, says Nancy, the growth of interest in their work has prompted the Longs to incorporate an online sales model with their first-ever website.

“I think people are starting to want to become more self-sufficient and less dependent on our current systems,” she says. “I hope more people will start sharing, collecting and saving and really getting into it.”

Saving seeds from heirloom (not hybrid) vegetables grown at home or bought at local tailgate markets is easy, says Nancy. Good beginner’s options include toma-

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toes, cucumbers, squash, beans and pumpkins.

“If you save the seed from one regular-sized tomato, you’ll maybe get 150-200 seeds,” she says. “You’ll never have to buy your seed again.

You’ve got plenty to trade, you’ve plenty to share, and you’re good to go!”

NANCY LONG’S SEED-SAVING 101:

Find an heirloom tomato you love and remove the gel and seeds (you can still eat the rest of the tomato). Put it in a little container with a lid — a repurposed plastic food container works fine. Add some water and leave it on your counter for five to seven days, giving the container a little shake each day. The bad seeds will float to the top, and the good seeds will go to the bottom. Rinse off the good seeds and put them on wax paper to dry in an area where they won’t be disturbed. When they’re dry, put them in a bag, remove the air, seal them up, label them, and you’re ready to grow.

For more on Long Family Farms, visit longfamilyfarmsandgallery. com. X

MARCH 31 - APRIL 6, 2021

21

ARTS & CULTURE

Joyful noises

Local music venues reopen at limited capacities

BY EDWIN ARNAUDIN earnaudin@mountainx.com Ever since statewide restrictions to curb the spread of COVID-19 temporarily closed music venues in March 2020, White Horse Black Mountain owner Bob Hinkle has said that he would reopen his business 10 minutes after Gov. Roy Cooper allowed such a move.

On Feb. 24, Cooper announced that, starting Feb. 26, such spaces could go from hosting 25 people to 250 people or 30% capacity, whichever was less. And on Feb. 27, not all that far off from Hinkle’s somewhat hyperbolic claim, White Horse welcomed cellist Franklin Keel and pianist Vance Reese to the stage — and opened the doors to the public. The show attracted nearly 50 people, the venue’s maximum capacity at that time within the state’s requirement that events be seated.

“We just got into it as fast as we could,” Hinkle says. “I have literally been figuring out how to keep the bus on the road, especially for the last three or four months when things were getting a little thin.”

PRESSING PLAY

ic by offering livestreams of performances from its stage. On Feb. 27, the venue hosted its first indoor audience in nearly Keeping Asheville Weird Since 2010 a year. Photo by Jessica Wharton

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area music venue reps agree that now feels like a good time to reopen.

Spring’s warmer temperatures are arriving, encouraging spaces with outdoor stages (e.g., Salvage Station, The Grey Eagle) to resume booking acts. COVID-19 infection rates throughout North Carolina also continue to decrease, aided in part by more people — venue staff and concertgoers alike — getting vaccinated.

Still, Cooper’s executive order caught a few reps by surprise. Jeff Santiago, operations manager at The Orange Peel, says the announcement arrived “at least a couple months” ahead of when he and his colleagues expected. But instead of rushing to reopen, he notes that the venue is making sure it’s “doing things correctly and can promote shows properly.” The venue’s first socially distanced show will be on Friday, April 30, featuring Woody Platt and Graham Sharp of Steep Canyon Rangers, with additional events scheduled through July.

“We needed to take a little bit more time, [being] a larger, high-profile venue that has a lot of overhead costs associated to figure out how we could [host shows] safely,” says Liz Tallent, the Peel’s marketing and events manager.

Pulp, the Peel’s intimate downstairs venue and bar, will not reopen just yet, but Santiago says various options — including private rentals — are being discussed to best use that space. Upstairs, tickets are sold as “pods,” reserved blocks that seat up to six people, and attendees are required to wear masks, except when seated and drinking. The Grey Eagle is taking a similar approach, with tables available for two-six people.

Since both businesses are already maximizing their available space, neither John Zara, marketing coordinator for The Grey Eagle, nor Tallent expect to change their floor plans in light of Cooper’s Executive Order No. 204, which took effect March 26 and allows for up to 50% capacity

for indoor venues while maintaining mask and social distancing rules.

“Because the exec order still requires full seating and 6 feet around each group of seats for guests that arrive together, it unfortunately does not allow us to fit any more seats in the room,” Tallent says. “We are already at close to our maximum under the distancing and seating requirement, while still leaving ample space for 6-foot separation in lines and egress areas.”

White Horse, however, has the floor space to accommodate the increased attendance allowance.

Hinkle says seats and traditional cabaret tables are set up specifically to allow for 50% capacity, and if a group larger than the usual twofour person party arrives, seating is moved around so that everyone remains socially distanced.

SURVIVE AND ADVANCE

For now, venues are primarily leaning on local and regional acts to keep costs down and, in the words of Zara, “get us on a path for getting back to normal.” He says the Grey Eagle relies heavily on food and bar sales, and that the combination of patio shows and reduced-capacity indoor events, both of which fit not quite 80 people, “are really just kind of enough to keep [the business] going.”

Since the venue also includes an in-house taqueria, it’s been able to host several in-person events prior to the Feb. 26 executive order under the same guidelines as restaurants — as has Isis Restaurant & Music Hall — but Zara and owners Sarah and Russ Keith are hesitant to take full advantage of those capabilities.

“If we wanted to have a standing-room, ticketed show, we are allowed to do that,” Zara says. “We aren’t ready to do that. We’re staying away from those type of shows for now.”

With the economics not yet working out to have major national touring acts indoors — prompting the rescheduling of numerous shows to 2022 — outdoor options are filling that void. The Grey Eagle is reviving its drive-in concert series at the Maggie Valley Festival Grounds, which brought the likes of Jason Isbell and Amanda Shires to Haywood County last fall. High-energy, dance-friendly bands Too Many Zooz and BIG Something are slated for Friday, May 28, and Zara says the drive-in model has been slightly tweaked to improve the overall experience.

When bigger acts are ready to tour, Tallent says there’s a good chance Rabbit Rabbit, the Coxe Avenue outdoor space that The Orange Peel co-owns with Asheville Brewing Co., will host those events. The rescheduled King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard show remains on the books for late October, and Tallent is hopeful that other nationally touring groups will be able to perform there in late summer, possibly with some crowd spacing still in place.

THE BIG PICTURE

To serve music fans not quite ready to return to venues, reach people around the world who can’t make it to the show and bring in extra revenue, White Horse and The Grey Eagle plan to continue livestreaming concerts. As for the Peel, Santiago says he and his staff are looking into making the service a part of its ticketed offerings after successfully hosting the Downtown After 5 concert series last summer in a partnership with local livestreaming company IamAVL. “We want to keep our staff safe.

We don’t want to put anyone in a situation that wouldn’t be responsible,” Tallent says. “Especially being a standing-room venue that really ultimately needs to go back to a full standing-room capacity for the economics of our business to work, we’re just so grateful to the scientific community that there is an effective vaccine and that it’s moving so quickly and that it looks like all Americans are going to be able to be vaccinated — those over 18 — by early summer.

And that will really mean the return of what we do.”

Federal financial assistance will also be key to bringing these businesses back to pre-pandemic operations. The U.S. Small Business Administration will at last open applications for Shuttered Venue Operators Grants on Thursday, April 8, though Tallent describes it as a “pretty nuanced” program, meant to get funds to the right businesses and not a guaranteed life raft.

“A lot of venues are reaching that threshold of being like, ‘I don’t know how much longer I can hang on.’ And I think that’s why you see people trying to reopen in any way they legally can at this point, just to try to eke out more time,” she says. “We’re all facing well over a year of debt and of having continued to pay our bills with no revenue. And the [SVOG] program ends on Dec. 31, 2021, no matter when they get it started.” X

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AR T S & C UL TU R E

FOOD

The

Sustainability Series

Spring brings good things Tailgate market season 2021 rolls out with lessons learned, continued mask mandates, new and returning vendors

CELEBRATING EARTH DAY 2021

Every week in April WALK THE LINE: In 2020, the West Asheville Tailgate Market opened as scheduled but with new policies and procedures in place to navigate COVID-19 challenges. Photo courtesy WAVL Tailgate Market

BY KAY WEST kwest@mountainx.com

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When it came to managing the mounting challenges of COVID-19 in early 2020, Jessica Dodson, manager of the year-round River Arts District Farmers Market, took President Theodore Roosevelt’s advice to speak softly and carry a big stick — literally.

“I had a 6-foot stick I carried with me around the market grounds,” Dodson says. “One woman took it from me, hit her husband with it and gave it back.

It was funny, but I was actually using it to show people what 6 feet looked like as we tried to enforce distancing.”

March is traditionally the time of year when markets are wrapping up their vendor application process and finalizing preparations for a new season. But in March 2020, the sudden onset of the pandemic put local markets in a temporary tailspin until they figured out new protocols and MOUNTAINX.COM

approaches. A year later, market managers are poised to launch a new season equipped with hard-won wisdom and hope for a fruitful year.

PANDEMIC SEASON

Sarah Hart, communications coordinator for the Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project, which produces the Saturday Asheville City Market in the Masonic Temple during the winter and on Market Street spring through fall, recalls that on March 12 of last year, ASAP Director Charlie Jackson sent an email to staff members instructing them to prepare for working remotely. “The next morning, we met to determine what to do about the Saturday market,” says Hart. “It was a hugely fraught time.”

Hart and the team made the tough decision to cancel the March 14 Asheville City Market, which was about to wrap up its indoor season

at the Masonic Temple, and spent the next week seeking an alternate outdoor location to their traditional takeover of several blocks of Market Street downtown. On March 21, 2020, the market rebooted as the pandemic-friendly ASAP Farmers Market in a parking lot at A-B Tech.

“Farmers not only had winter produce, but they had already planted for spring,” Hart points out. “It felt dire to us to set up a place to sell and that ASAP figure it out so all the other markets that were supposed to start in April and May had a model to look to.”

As local, state and national policies changed and evolved, ASAP gathered information and learned new practices to share with the roughly 100 other market managers in its service region via regular Zoom meetings and a dedicated Facebook group. Areas addressed included mapping, mask-

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25

ARTS & CU L T U R E ing, social distancing — with or without a 6-foot stick — signage, payments, packaging and guidance on ways to create no-touch zones.

Many local markets instituted a mask-wearing mandate even before the state imposed one, and similar to grocery stores and restaurants, they sometimes experienced opposition. “I was physically threatened,” Dodson recalls.

At the time, the RAD market was in its first year of operating year-round at Pleb Urban Winery, operating out-

doors during spring, summer and fall and moving most vendors indoors for the winter. In March, Dodson decided to transition to outside operations earlier than planned, temporarily eliminating crafters and body products vendors to ensure space for growers and bakers. “The focus was on feeding our community the best we could,” she explains.

NEW REALITY

As Quinn Asteak, manager of the West Asheville Tailgate Market, prepared for an altered operating model last spring, she was grateful for precedents. Year-round tailgate markets, including the ASAP and RAD markets, had led the way in instituting practices like cordoning off shopping areas, enforcing capacity limits with staff-monitored entrances and exits, implementing distance markers and accepting cashless payments.

“At first, I wondered if we could even do it,” says Asteak. “But our board is made up of vendors and farmers who had fields full of food, so not having a market was not an option. We really looked to what others did and what worked for them.”

WATM’s 2020 season kicked off as scheduled on April 7 — though, like many other markets, it limited vendor capacity to about half to enforce distancing. It also eliminated sales of market tokens from its information booth.

“Many vendors who did not have systems to accept credit cards had to quickly pivot to get a square or a Venmo account,” Asteak says. “But it really ended up being great for customers who don’t carry cash.”

She notes that the market’s program to accept federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits remained uninterrupted — and thanks to an ASAP grant, it was also able to double SNAP benefits for market shoppers in 2020.

Asteak says that while some vendors at the WATM struggled in 2020, others had a banner year. Overall, the season was surprisingly healthy for the market, thanks in large part to restructured vendor fees, customer donations and grant support.

LOOKING AHEAD

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of April to May 2, says market manager Janice Brewer, hired this March.

Though she was not onboard at NATM last spring, she confirms that the market also reduced its number of vendors, moving from one parking lot to another on the UNC Asheville campus.

This season, says Brewer, the market will continue to follow safety guidance from UNC Asheville and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, while increasing its vendor roster from 32 to about 38. She feels hopeful about gradually accommodating more day vendors as the season continues and is pleased to be able to bring back live acoustic music.

Also, informed by her previous work at Root Cause Farm, a Fairview nonprofit dedicated to addressing food insecurity, Brewer aims to implement a social justice lens in planning future education and farmer support efforts.

“I am excited to work on growing equity at North Asheville Tailgate Market and other markets in the region,” she says.

Looking into her 2021 crystal ball, Asteak says she is cautiously optimistic about the outlook for the WATM. “We’re hopeful that restrictions will change enough that we can incorporate more vendors. We’re cautious about our budget but confident that our community will keep showing up to support local growers and makers,” she says.

Dodson predicts much the same for the RAD market. “I’m sorting through over 100 [vendor] applications,” she says. “During the pandemic, so many people decided to try something new, and markets are a great way to connect with consumers directly, even if we are masked and 6 feet apart.”

The RAD market will transition to operating fully outdoors the first Wednesday in May, spreading out to help accommodate that big bump in applications. “We will be in our full glory at about 40 vendors,” Dodson says.

Hart says that on Market Street, the Asheville City Market had room for 60 vendors. But the ASAP market currently averages 34-36 per week. She anticipates it will close out the year at A-B Tech with plans for a 2022 return to Market Street. “The Asheville City Market was always envisioned as a walkable downtown market,” says Hart. “And downtown is where we want to be.”

For local and regional market locations, operating days and hours and participating vendors, visit avl.mx/5uh. X

Abbotsville farewell

Ann B. Ross concludes the Miss Julia series — maybe

BY EDWIN ARNAUDIN earnaudin@mountainx.com Thanks to her son and daughter delivering groceries to her carport, Hendersonville-based author Ann B. Ross has remained well-fed during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Otherwise, she identifies the cancellation of tours to promote last year’s Miss Julia Knows a Thing or Two and this year’s Miss Julia Happily Ever After (out Tuesday, April 6) as the biggest life alterations she’s had to endure. But the fact that both books have been or will be published on time, combined with her recent COVID-19 vaccination, has her optimistic — a mindset that she’s not sure her titular character would share if the pandemic hit the fictional town of Abbotsville.

“She would read a lot, spend a good deal of time talking with Lillian in the kitchen and on the phone with Hazel Marie, Mildred Allen and anybody else she can think of,” Ross says. “She would mightily miss visiting with Lloyd, but of course he would have to stay away. But mostly, she would resentfully miss her weekly trips to Velma’s Cut ’n’ Curl to have her hair done.”

Ross continues, “But come to think of it, the opportunity to express her opinions on presidents, governors, commentators, physicians with conflicting advice and politicians in general might have enlivened her life as well as mine — probably gotten me run out of town as well.”

The pandemic is not the focus of Miss Julia Happily Ever After, but there is an almost viral nature to the sudden influx of weddings being planned by the heroine’s friends, and the townwide disruptions caused by a mysterious streaker forms its own kind of public health crisis. Ross says no real-life encounters with fast-moving exhibitionists inspired the inclusion — just the fact that she’d yet to use one in a story, plus her general fondness for “anything that lends itself to off-the-wall humor.” However, personal reasons did lead to the bestselling series’ 22nd installment becoming its final one.

“As I wrote Happily Ever After, a series of changes in my personal and professional lives were con-

LOCAL INSPIRATION: Ann B. Ross has used parts of her hometown of Hendersonville as a template for her books’ fictional Abbotsville, which she describes as being closer to the Hendersonville of 1996. “I can show you where Julia’s house is, but a Realtor’s office is actually there. And to look for Sam’s old house four blocks away might get you lost,” she says. “A Baptist church has been turned into a Presbyterian church, and all the street names have been changed.” Author photo by Sarah Sneeden verging in such a way that I began to feel that somebody was trying to tell me something,” she says. “Miss Julia and the ones she loves are in a good place right now, nothing that needs to be wrapped up is pending, most questions have been answered, no one is languishing in jail [and] everybody is home where they’re supposed to be, so it all felt like a good place to just let go.”

While approaching the end of her latest book, Ross realized that

she was giving some conclusion to the main characters’ recent storylines, which she’d not consciously planned to do. And when she reached the last sentence, she says she almost added a more conclusive chapter.

“But then [I] decided, ‘No, this is a good stopping place. If Julia has something she just has to tell [her husband] Sam, she can do it in the morning,’” Ross says. “Yet, at the same time, without deliberate

intent, I left the book open-ended enough to pick up on Julia’s life again if I’m so inclined. If there’s one thing I’ve learned in the 20-plus years of writing these books, it’s that I am a writer — not a great one, maybe not even an adequate one, but a writer nonetheless. So whatever the future holds, you may be sure that I will be tapping away at the computer on something.”

Whether or not readers have seen the last of Miss Julia in book form, it seems likely that the character will eventually make it to the screen, especially considering the recent rise in original programming from Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Studios.

Ross says there has been a fair amount of interest expressed by various entities over the years, but nothing has come to fruition.

“It started with Columbia TriStar Productions that took an option on the first book and went on to a number of independent producers whose plans ran from a feature film or a made-for-TV movie to a weekly TV series,” Ross says.

“Reese Witherspoon has expressed a dab of interest in [Etta Mae’s Worst Bad-Luck Day], and Dolly Parton has said that she has to play Hazel Marie because, she said, ‘I look just like her.’”

An independent producer in Los Angeles and another in Nashville have also shown interest, Ross adds, along with two more whose previous features have been exclusively horror movies.

“All I can say is that movie people have exceptionally short attention spans — they flit from one exciting thing to another,” she says. “I was told early on not to count on anything until they actually turn on the cameras.” missjulia.com X

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27

ARTS & CU L T U R E

ROUNDUP

Around town

“Ever since I was a child, I would look up at the stars and think about all the worlds that could be out there,” says Kimberly Dow. Though the Fairview-based artist has yet to paint a celestial scene, she’s frequently inspired by the wonders of the skies — and will soon have two of her paintings among them. Dow’s “Minstrel” and “Beguiled” have been chosen for the Peregrine Collection, a curation of works by over 1,200 artists that will be placed in a time capsule on the lunar surface. A ceramic wafer the size of a postage stamp, featuring tiny sketches by six male artists (including Andy Warhol), has been on the moon since 1969, but Dow will be in the first group of women to have that honor.

The Artists on the Moon portion is coordinated by Samuel Peralta, a physicist, entrepreneur and author, and the Writers on the Moon group is led by Susan Kaye Quinn. The digitized artwork and literature files will be loaded on two microSD cards, join NASA’s scientific payloads on Astrobotic’s Peregrine Mission 1 and reside on the Lacus Mortis region. The

MOVIE LISTINGS Bruce Steele’s and Edwin Arnaudin’s latest critiques of new films available to view via local theaters and popular streaming services include: THE 2021 OSCAR NOMINATED SHORT FILMS — ANIMATED: An unusally strong slate of finalists, covering an array of tones and visual styles.

The power of community in “Burrow” and the gunviolence-prevention message of “If Anything Happens I Love You” are especially potent.

But the Hieronymus Boschlike complexities and social commentary of “Opera” are so captivating that you’ll want to watch it multiple times.

Grade: A-minus. Not rated

Find full reviews and local film info at ashevillemovies.com patreon.com/ashevillemovies 28

MARCH 31 - APRIL 6, 2021

Fairview painter’s work going to the moon, indoor theater productions returning soon and more arts news

ONE GIANT LEAP: Fairview-based artist Kimberly Dow will have two of her paintings on the moon this summer as part of the Peregrine Collection.

Photo by Jacob Dow launch is scheduled for July from Cape Canaveral, Fla. “I am pleased with the choices,” Dow says. “Nudes [as seen in ‘Beguiled’] are kind of my specialty, and then [‘Minstrel’] has my granddaughter — who can now have some bragging rights about her image being on the moon — on the playground in Swannanoa.”

Visit kimberlydow.com for more information.

In your Easter bonnet

11 a.m., and the two-block walk gets underway at 2 p.m. at Town Hall. Everyone is asked to wear a mask and practice social distancing, though such traditions as photos with the Easter Bunny will be honored.

Prizes will be awarded in numerous categories, including Largest, Smallest, Most Outrageous, Best Use of Fresh Flowers, Hat that Traveled the Farthest, Youngest and Best Dog. Free to attend.

For more information, go to visitdillsboro.org.

On Saturday, April 3, the town of Dillsboro invites responsible revelers to the annual Easter Hat Parade. Registration begins at

Eagles, owls and elk — oh my!

Mountain Xpress

X AWARDS

Voting Starts April 21

2021

mountainx.com/bestofwnc MOUNTAINX.COM

Woolworth Walk reteams with Appalachian Wildlife Refuge for a new “Take a Woolworth Walk on the Wild Side” art show to benefit the animal rehabilitation nonprofit. The latest exhibition runs throughout April and features such creations as Claudia Moore Field’s “Hangin’ Around,” a wire and wood sculpture of a raccoon; Gray Artus’ “Smokey Mountain Elk” oil painting; and “The Barn Owl”by Kate Coleman, composed of wood, acrylic paint and vintage book pages. Artists are donating a percentage of sales to Appalachian Wildlife Refuge. Visit appalachianwild.org for more information.

Second act

Southern Appalachian Repertory Theatre had its March 2020 production of Church Basement Ladies cut short due to the COVID-19 pandemic and soon shifted to an array of online offerings, both livestreamed and prerecorded.

But with restrictions on North Carolina indoor venues lifted so that reduced-capacity events can occur, the Mars Hill-based company is moving forward with its 2021 Mainstage season.

Selections include the musical The Last Five Years (opens June 17); the comedy First Date (opens July 15); the drama Milestones (opens Sept. 30); and a pair of holiday offerings opening Dec. 2: the music-filled A Southern Appalachian Christmas and a stage adaptation of A Christmas Carol.

Season tickets go on sale Thursday, April 1, and individual tickets will be available starting Friday, April 16. SART will abide by state guidelines for indoor venues, and as restrictions are safely lifted, a new block of tickets will become available, and capacity will be adjusted accordingly. For more information, visit sartplays.com.

Screen time

On Friday, April 3, Grail Moviehouse opens to the public for the first time in over a year. The theater’s single-screen location at 17 Foundy St. will host screenings of the three Oscar-nominated short film programs — live action, animation and documentary — through Sunday, April 4. Showings are limited to 20 attendees, and CinemaSafe protocols will be in place, including social distancing and required mask-wearing except when eating and drinking while seated inside the auditorium.

Private theater rentals for up to 20 people are also available for $150 for any of the shorts programs. Grail’s current virtual titles or movies from patrons’ personal collections are also available. For more information and to purchase advance tickets, visit grailmoviehouse.com.

— Edwin Arnaudin X

CLUBLAND WEDNESDAY, MARCH 31 ONE STOP AT ASHEVILLE MUSIC HALL Free Anesthesia (psychedelic rock), 5pm OKLAWAHA BREWING CO. French Broad Valley Mountain Music Jam, 6pm THE 2ND ACT Open Mic w/ Letters to Abigail, 6pm SWEETEN CREEK BREWING Witty Wednesday Trivia Night, 6:30pm 12 BONES BREWING CO. Robert’s Totally Rad Trivia, 7pm ALLEY CAT SOCIAL CLUB Karaoke Party, 8pm

THURSDAY, APRIL 1 ONE WORLD BREWING WEST Act Casual (blues, funk), 5pm HIGHLAND BREWING CO. Crafted Singer Songwriter Series w/ Matt Smith, 6pm OKLAWAHA BREWING CO. The Gathering Dark: April Fools Song Swap, 6pm RABBIT RABBIT Slice of Life: Rooftop Standup Comedy Show, 6pm SALVAGE STATION Pleasure Chest (blues, rock ‘n roll), 6pm ALLEY CAT SOCIAL CLUB Open Mic Night, 7pm

SALVAGE STATION The Blue Dragons (rock), 6pm

TUESDAY, APRIL 6

BLUE GHOST BREWING CO. Irish dance music and story songs, 7pm

ALLEY CAT SOCIAL CLUB Open Mic Night, 7pm

FLEETWOOD'S Fortezza w/ Rhinestone Pickup Truck (garage rock, grunge), 7pm

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 7 OKLAWAHA BREWING CO. French Broad Valley Mountain Music Jam, 6pm

ISIS MUSIC HALL The Lazybirds (roots), 7pm THE GREY EAGLE Patio Show w/ Brother Smith (country, funk), 7pm

Friends (jazz, blues), 5pm SOUTHERN APPALACHIAN BREWERY Howie Johnson & Bill Mattocks (blues, rock), 6pm ALLEY CAT SOCIAL CLUB Open Mic Night, 7pm

FRIDAY, APRIL 9

THE 2ND ACT Open Mic w/ Letters to Abigail, 6pm

GUIDON BREWING CO. Adult Easter Egg Hunt w/ Just Rick (solo acoustic), 7pm

SALVAGE STATION Cosmic Charlie (Grateful Dead tribute), 6pm

SWEETEN CREEK BREWING Witty Wednesday Trivia Night, 6:30pm

FLEETWOOD’S Fortezza (garage punk), 7pm

OKLAWAHA BREWING CO. Hope Griffin & Eric Congdon (folk, blues), 8pm

ONE WORLD BREWING WEST Charlie Traveler Presents an Evening w/ Mike Dillon & Brian Haas (punk, jazz), 7pm

GUIDON BREWING CO. Cat and Canary (acoustic duo, 7pm

ALLEY CAT SOCIAL CLUB Karaoke Party, 8pm

SATURDAY, APRIL 3 ASHEVILLE CLUB Mr Jimmy (blues), 2pm BURNTSHIRT VINEYARDS Hope Griffin (soul, blues), 2pm SAINT PAUL MOUNTAIN VINEYARDS Bob Zullo (solo acoustic), 3pm WEHRLOOM HONEY MEADERY Music & Mead w/ Phantom Pantone DJ Collective, 4pm

FRIDAY, APRIL 2

ASHEVILLE DISPENSARY Spring Menu Launch Party, 5pm

MAD CO. BREW HOUSE Jack Byron (Americana, motown), 6pm

BATTERY PARK BOOK EXCHANGE Dinah's Daydream (jazz), 5pm

ONE WORLD BREWING WEST Dr. Bacon (funk rock), 6pm

ISA'S FRENCH BISTRO James Hammel (solo acoustic), 5pm

RHYTHM CLUB: As part of the venue’s grand reopening, Asheville-based R&B and soul artist Leeda “Lyric” Jones will play an outdoor show at Salvage Station.

An accomplished instrumentalist, Lyric weaves funk and hip-hop into her sound with punchy keys, rhythmic guitar and a splash of synth. Saturday, April 3, 6 p.m. $7. avl.mx/972. Photo by Adam McMillan ONE WORLD BREWING WEST Black Sea Beat Society (world music), 6pm SALVAGE STATION Lyric (R&B, funk, soul), 6pm THE GREY EAGLE Patio Show w/ Aaron Price (pop rock), 6pm GUIDON BREWING CO. Stephen Evans (solo acoustic), 7pm ISIS MUSIC HALL Chris Ferree & Medicine Crow (Americana, world music), 7pm OKLAWAHA BREWING CO. Kid Billy (solo multi-instrumentalist), 8pm

SUNDAY, APRIL 4 THE GREY EAGLE Marquee Comedy: Brunch of Jokers, 11am

SOUTHERN APPALACHIAN BREWERY 3 Shades of Grey (classic covers), 12pm HIGHLAND BREWING CO. Soul Jazz Sundays w/ Taylor Pierson Trio, 2pm

MONDAY, APRIL 5 THE JOINT NEXT DOOR

Blue Monday w/ Mr Jimmy, 7pm ALLEY CAT SOCIAL CLUB Industry Nite w/ Sam Wild, 9pm

ALLEY CAT SOCIAL CLUB Karaoke Party, 8pm

THURSDAY, APRIL 8 ONE WORLD BREWING WEST Eleanor Underhill &

ISIS MUSIC HALL Love Bubble (oldies), 7pm ALLEY CAT SOCIAL CLUB Karaoke Party, 8pm THE PAPER MILL LOUNGE Jackson Grimm & the One String Band (folk, country), 8pm

OKLAWAHA BREWING CO. Blues Brunch w/ Blake Ellege, 3pm THE GREENHOUSE MOTO CAFE The Perry Wing Combo (rock, country), 3pm ONE WORLD BREWING WEST 5j Barrow (rock, soul), 5pm SALVAGE STATION A Night of Funk & Friends, 6pm

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MARCH 31 - APRIL 6, 2021

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FREEWILL ASTROLOGY ARIES (March 21-April 19): Playwright August Strindberg (1849–1912) was a maverick innovator who loved to experiment with plot and language.

One of his stories takes place in a dream and the hero is the Christ-like daughter of a Vedic god. He once said that he felt “an immense need to become a savage and create a new world.”

Given your current astrological potentials, Aries, I suspect that might be an apt motto for you right now. APRIL FOOL! I half-lied. There’s no need for you to become a savage. In fact, it’s better if you don’t. But the coming weeks will definitely be a good time to start creating a new world.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Who says all Tauruses are gentle, risk-avoidant, sensible, and reliable?

Taurus author Mary MacLane (1861–1929), known as the “Wild Woman of Butte, Montana,” authored shocking, scandalous books. In I Await the Devil’s Coming, she testified, “I am not good. I am not virtuous. I am not generous. I am merely a creature of intense passionate feeling. I feel—everything. It is my genius. It burns me like fire.” Can I convince you, Taurus, to make her your role model for the coming weeks? APRIL FOOL! I don’t think you should be EXACTLY like MacLane. Please leave out the part about “I am not good. I am not virtuous. I am not generous,” as well as the “I await the devil’s coming” part. But yes, do be a creature of intensely passionate feeling. Let your feelings be your genius, burning in you like a fire.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Poet Emily Dickinson had a good sense of humor, so she was probably making a wry joke when she wrote, “The lovely flowers embarrass me. They make me regret I am not a bee.” But who knows? Maybe Emily was being a bit sincere, too. In any case, I advise you to make a list of all the things you regret not being—all the qualities and assets you wish you had, but don’t.

It’s a favorable time to wallow in remorse. APRIL FOOL! I was totally lying! In fact, I hope you will do the reverse: Engage in an orgy of self-appreciation, celebrating yourself for being exactly who you are.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Provocation specialist Lydia Lunch is a singer and poet who’s skilled at generating interesting mischief. She testifies, “My daily existence is a battlecade of extreme fluctuations where chaos clobbers apathy, which beats the s--- out of depression which follows irritability which slams into anger which eclipses ecstasy which slips through my fingers far too often.” In the coming weeks, Cancerian, I recommend you adopt her melodramatic approach to living the intense life.

APRIL FOOL! I lied. Please don’t be like Lydia Lunch in the near future. On the contrary: Cultivate regal elegance, sovereign poise, and dynamic equanimity.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): In 1692, a Swedish man named Thiess of Kaltenbrun was put on trial for being a werewolf. He claimed to be a noble werewolf, however. He said he regularly went down to Hell to do holy combat against the Devil. I suggest you make him your inspirational role model in the coming weeks. Be as weird as you need to be in order to fight for what’s good and right. APRIL FOOL! I half-lied. What I really meant to say was: Be as weird as you need to be to fight for what’s good and right, but without turning into a werewolf, zombie, vampire, or other supernatural monster.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): “I want to hear raucous music, to brush against bodies, to drink fiery Benedictine,” wrote author Anais Nin. “Beautiful women and handsome men arouse fierce desires in me. I want to dance. I want drugs. I want to know perverse people, to be intimate with them. I want to bite into life.” All that sounds like perfect counsel for you to consider right now, dear Virgo! APRIL FOOL! I lied. Nin’s exuberant testimony might be an interesting perspective to flirt with— if the COVID-19 virus had been completely tamed. But it hasn’t. So I must instead suggest that you find ways to express this lively, unruly energy in safe and sublimated ways.

30

MARCH 31 - APRIL 6, 2021

MARKETPLACE

BY ROB BREZSNY

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Here are affirmations that will serve you well in the coming days. 1. “I am willing to make mistakes if someone else is willing to learn from them.” 2. “I am grateful that I’m not as judgmental as all the shortsighted, self-righteous people.” 3. “I assume full responsibility for my actions, except those that are someone else’s fault.” 4. “A good scapegoat is as welcome as a solution to the problem.” APRIL FOOL! All the preceding affirmations are total bunk! Don’t you dare use them. Use these instead: 1. “I enjoy taking responsibility for my actions.” 2. “Rather than indulging in the reflex to blame, I turn my attention to fixing the problem.” 3. “No one can make me feel something I don’t want to feel.” 4. “I’m free from believing in the images people have of me.”

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): According to author Kahlil Gibran, “If we were all to sit in a circle and confess our sins, we would laugh at each other for lack of originality.” But I challenge you Scorpios to refute that theory in the coming days. For the sake of your sanity and health, you need to commit highly original sins—the more, the better. APRIL FOOL! I lied. Save your novel, imaginative sinning for later. The truth is that now is an excellent time to explore the joyous and healthy practice of being extremely virtuous. Imitate author Susan Sontag: “My idolatry: I’ve lusted after goodness.

Wanting it here, now, absolutely, increasingly.”

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): The coming months would be a great time to start your own university and then award yourself a PhD in Drugless Healing or Mathematical Reincarnation or Political Metaphysics—or any other subject you’d like to be considered an expert in. Hey, why not give yourself three PhDs and call yourself a Professor Emeritus? APRIL FOOL! I’m just joking.

The coming months will indeed be an extremely favorable time to advance your education, but with real learning, not fake credentials.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): After his Nirvana bandmate Kurt Cobain committed suicide, Capricorn drummer Dave Grohl was depressed for months. To cheer himself up, he wrote and recorded an album’s worth of songs, playing almost all the instruments himself: drums, lead guitar, rhythm guitar, bass, and vocals. I think you should try a similar spectacularly heroic solo task in the coming weeks. APRIL FOOL! I lied. Here’s my true and actual advice: Now is a time when you should gather all the support and help and cooperation you can possibly garner for an interesting project.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Argentine poet Alejandra Pizarnik told her psychoanalyst León Ostrov that if she were going to steal something, it would be “the façade of a certain collapsed house in a little town called Fontenay-aux-Roses [near Paris].” What was so special about this façade? Its windows were made of “magical” lilac-colored glass that was “like a beautiful dream.” In accordance with astrological omens, I invite you, too, to decide what marvel you would steal—and then go steal it! APRIL FOOL! I half-lied.

Yes, definitely decide what you would steal—it’s important to give your imagination permission to be outrageous—but don’t actually steal it.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): I’ve never understood the appeal of singer-songwriter Morrissey, especially since he began endorsing bigoted far-right politicians. However, I want to recommend that you adopt the attitude he once expressed in a letter to a friend. “It was a terrible blow to hear that you actually worked,” he wrote. “It’s so old-fashioned to work. I’d much rather lounge about the house all day looking fascinating.” Be like that in the coming weeks, Pisces! APRIL FOOL! I lied. In fact, you’d be making a silly mistake to lie around the house looking fascinating. It’s a highly favorable time for you to find ways to work harder and smarter.

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ACROSS 1 Czech, e.g.

5 Big spender, in gambling lingo 10 Indian musical pattern

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edited by Will Shortz

20 “Satanic” nickname for the 15 16 number 13 23 Pan’s partner 18 19 24 Howard of Hollywood 22 25 What a witness is sworn to tell 24 32 What’s answered 27 28 29 30 31 but never asks a question, in a riddle 33 34 35 33 Fish with an 38 39 40 elongated jaw 34 Got married again 43 44 36 Sticky wicket 47 37 Chipotle competitor 50 51 52 40 “Livin’ Thing” rock band, for short 54 55 56 57 41 Fret 43 Effectiveness 60 61 62 of a law, metaphorically 65 44 Give up 68 45 W.W. I-era battleship 48 “Mourning 14 Its state seal 17 Part of a wikiHow Becomes Electra” shows a article playwright, 1931 steamboat on the 18 Emergency 50 Performer Mississippi notification wearing a powder 15 “Easy, now!” foundation known 19 Plug-in Chevy as oshiroi 16 Suit model

No. 0224

53 Elbows and such 54 What Venus is sometimes mistaken for, due to its brightness 57 Birth-related 58 Part of TNT 59 Logical contradiction … or an aural hint to what are found in 20-, 25- and 45-Across 62 Fly-by-night sort?

63 Heartbeat recording: Abbr.

64 ___ Chapel (Vatican City attraction) 65 Old Hollywood’s ___ Pictures 66 Put on 67 Much-awarded actor whose name is an anagram of ENDEARS

68 Was introduced to

DOWN 1 Family nickname

puzzle by Andrew J. Ries 2 Dealership area 3 Left speechless 4 E-cig alternative 5 Spooky specter 6 Word spelled with “double hockey sticks” 7 Taproom array 8 Ingredient in some pie crusts 9 Get via threat 10 Cash in?

11 Part of a nerve cell 12 Material for nail extensions 13 Broadway division 21 Swore 22 Swordsman of book and film 25 Pointer’s word 26 Subject for House Beautiful magazine 27 Looked rudely 28 Get dark, say 29 Lyre player of myth 30 Social media tirade 31 Kept a grip on

MOUNTAINX.COM

32 Togs for sawing logs?

49 D.E.A. agent, slangily 51 Ethan of “First Reformed” 52 Distribute, as funds 54 ___ Major 55 Nutrition Facts listings 56 Husband of Frigg, in Norse mythology 60 Give a hand 61 Number of seasons played by baseball’s Seattle Pilots

35 Anonymous surname 38 Abbr. after the third co-author, perhaps 39 Down quickly 42 Habeas corpus, e.g.

44 ___ Pet 46 Pass, as time 47 Kid born in the ’70s, say 48 Made a decision

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