Mountain Xpress 06.17.20

OUR 26TH YEAR OF WEEKLY INDEPENDENT NEWS, ARTS & EVENTS FOR WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA VOL. 26 NO. 47 JUNE 17-23, 2020

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JUNE 17-23, 2020

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FEATURE

16 ‘KEEP HIM A SLAVE’ Asheville Archives looks back at Zebulon Vance’s arguments in favor of slavery

WELLNESS

10 WHEN THE DUST SETTLES APD restructuring and investigation; resolution to take down Confederate monuments; budget talks; plus public reaction

18 GETTING CLOSER Mission nurses inch toward union vote; partnership aims to expand care in HighlandsCashiers; countering COVID-19

GREEN

NEWS

FEATURES

20 WILD CARD Foragers navigate public land closures, stay-home mandates

PAGE 8 OVERDRAWN Revenue shortfalls caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and previous spending overruns at the Department of Transportation have already prompted the agency to delay dozens of construction projects. Might the I-26 Connector be next?

COVER PHOTO Getty Images COVER DESIGN Scott Southwick 6 LETTERS 6 CARTOON: MOLTON 7 CARTOON: BRENT BROWN 8 NEWS 10 LOCAL GOVERNMENT 14 COVID CONVERSATIONS 16 ASHEVILLE ARCHIVES 17 COMMUNITY CALENDAR 18 WELLNESS

FOOD

103.3 AshevilleFM Accounting Office Management Asheville Holistic Realty Asheville Pizza and Brewing Company Asheville Raven & Crone Bottle Riot / formerly District Wine Bar Buncombe County Health and Human Services Center for Craft City of Asheville Employment City of Asheville Sanitation Conservation Pros, LLC Copper Crown Father and Son Home Improvement Franny’s Farm Givens Gerber Park High Life Smoke Shop Hillman Beer Ingles Markets Inc. Isis Restaurant and Music Hall Livewell in WNC / Live Well Mellow Mushroom Mountain Area Pregnancy Services (MAPS) Musician’s Workshop Nature’s Vitamins and Herbs New Belgium Brewing Pack’s Tavern Pisgah Brewing Co Smoky Park Supper Club Sovereign Kava Stewart Builders Inc. Sweeten Creek Antiques The Blackbird Restaurant The Fresh Market The Regeneration Station Town and Mountain Realty Tunnel Vision Wicked Weed Brewing Working Wheels - Wheels 4 Hope

C O NT E NT S

22 FEED BACK Restaurants for the People initiative supports businesses while feeding people in need

20 GREEN SCENE 22 FOOD 24 ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT 27 MOVIES 29 COVIDTOWN CRIER

A&E

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24 A NEW HIGH LONESOME SOUND Moses Sumney discusses Asheville’s impact on his acclaimed new album

30 FREEWILL ASTROLOGY 30 CLASSIFIEDS 31 NY TIMES CROSSWORD

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STAFF PUBLISHER: Jeff Fobes ASSISTANT TO THE PUBLISHER: Susan Hutchinson MANAGING EDITOR: Virginia Daffron OPINION EDITOR: Tracy Rose GREEN SCENE EDITOR: Daniel Walton STAFF REPORTERS: Able Allen, Edwin Arnaudin, Thomas Calder, Laura Hackett, Molly Horak, Daniel Walton COMMUNITY CALENDAR & CLUBLAND: Lauren Andrews, Madeline Forwerck, Laura Hackett, Susan Hutchinson MOVIE SECTION HOSTS: Edwin Arnaudin, Bruce Steele CONTRIBUTING EDITORS: Peter Gregutt, Rob Mikulak REGULAR CONTRIBUTORS: Mark Barrett, Leslie Boyd, Bill Kopp, Cindy Kunst, Alli Marshall, Brooke Randle, Gina Smith, Luke Van Hine, Kay West ADVERTISING, ART & DESIGN MANAGER: Susan Hutchinson LEAD DESIGNER: Scott Southwick MEMBERSHIP AND DEVELOPMENT COORDINATOR: Laura Hackett MARKETING ASSOCIATES: Sara Brecht, David Furr, Brian Palmieri, Tiffany Wagner OPERATIONS MANAGER: Able Allen INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES & WEB: Bowman Kelley BOOKKEEPER: Amie Fowler-Tanner ADMINISTRATION, BILLING, HR: Able Allen, Lauren Andrews DISTRIBUTION: Susan Hutchinson, Cindy Kunst DISTRIBUTION DRIVERS: Gary Alston, Russell Badger, Clyde Hipps, Joan Jordan, Angelo Sant Maria, Desiree Davis, Charlotte Rosen, Carl & Debbie Schweiger, David Weiss

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JUNE 17-23, 2020

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OPINION

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

CA RTO ON BY R A N D Y MOL T O N

Let’s work for meaningful police reform In an online article, which was posted to Mountain Xpress [on June 5], Chuck Edwards, my GOP opponent in the Nov. 3 election, announced his unbridled support for the Asheville Police Department and seemingly gave their attack on a medical aid station his blessing [“Sen. Chuck Edwards Accuses Press of ‘Monday Morning Quarterbacking’ on Police Response to Protests”].

That action, which was documented on video, garnered international attention and has been used as yet another example of an “out of control” police force.

Under the bright light of scrutiny, Esther Manheimer, the mayor of Asheville, and the city’s police chief, David Zack, have apologized and promised that changes will be made.

Edwards’ statement — which included a verbal attack on a young reporter — was both unfortunate and predictable, and ignores the larger social movement that is taking place in America right now. It is very easy and politically expedient to simply say that

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one supports the police. However, that response ignores the need for justice in our communities of color and is, at the same time, fundamentally unfair to law enforcement personnel, who have arguably one of the hardest jobs on the planet.

Over the last 40 years, law enforcement has increasingly been asked to take on a great many of America’s social ills: homelessness, untreated mental illness, domestic violence, substance abuse. It’s abundantly clear that these are impossible burdens for municipal police forces. Many communities across the country (places like Los Angeles, Minneapolis, New York, Durham, Nashville and Dallas) are beginning to realize this and are advocating for a reallocation of funding toward social services. They would divert money away from overwhelmed police departments and toward schools, hospitals, drug rehabilitation, mental health services, housing and food banks — things that are known to improve public health and safety. This kind of reprioritization would also provide a tremendous amount of relief for our law enforcement professionals, who are ill-equipped and outside of their mission statements when asked

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to deal with things like homelessness, mental illness and substance abuse.

It is time to examine how to support our police forces by giving them the right tools they need to protect the public, which is their primary mission. We must bear in mind that finding the best ways to support our men and women in blue may mean taking a creative approach that reduces their responsibilities while moving social issues toward social workers.

It’s a time for creative thinking, thoughtful approaches and the political will to work for justice and equity. Let’s keep an open mind and work toward a multilayered solution that benefits all of our communities through meaningful reform and doesn’t pander to the status quo.

— Brian Caskey

Councilman, Mills River

Candidate, N.C. Senate District 48 Editor’s note: Sen. Edwards expanded on the issue via a pair of posts on his Facebook page at avl.mx/7b0.

A new meaning for the Vance Monument Could the word “Vance” on the Vance Monument be covered with a new inscription: Black Lives Matter?

— Paul King Weaverville

TDA’s shortcomings add to tourism feedback loop Compared to its peers, the Buncombe County Tourism Development Authority doesn’t do a particularly good job. Tourist-related employment as a share of the total in the city increased by one-fifth between the 2010 and 2017 data vintages of the Census Bureau’s 5-year American Community Survey.

But for North Carolina as a whole, that growth was nearly four times as much.

Compared to its own history, it is doing an even worse job. For its fiscal year 2008-09, occupancy tax income was $6.1 million — at the time, the occupancy tax rate was 2%, so that there was $305 million in occupancy tax-liable revenue from overnight stays.

For its fiscal year 2018-19, occupancy tax income was $18.7 million — by then, the tax rate was 6%, so that there was $312 million in occupancy tax-liable revenue from overnight stays.

No growth. Over a decade.

No growth. After TDA expenditures totaling $100 million.

The TDA has successfully pursued its objective of increasing the number of overnight stays. But to the extent that the number of overnight stays has

increased over those years, the revenue generated by each stay has fallen enough to offset that growth.

And this is set to continue — not just because of the behavior of avaricious property speculators and hoteliers — but because we are locked in a feedback loop. A householder who struggles to afford their home grabs the opportunity to earn some extra money through Airbnb. By doing so, they increase the supply of accommodation; they find it easy to undercut the hotels on price.

The hotels respond by cutting their prices. The hotels, with less money coming in, pay their workers less; and a new cycle begins as those workers decide they have to earn extra money in order to clothe, feed and house their families — and choose Airbnb to do so.

— Geoff Kemmish Asheville Editor’s note: Xpress contacted the Explore Asheville Convention and Visitors Bureau, which manages the occupancy tax collected by the TDA, with a summary of the letter writer’s points. We received the following response from Kathi M. Petersen, director of public information and community engagement: “Thank you for the opportunity to provide accurate information on this subject. According to the N.C. Economic Development Partnership, visitor spending in the state of North Carolina increased 110% between 2000 and 2018. In Buncombe County, the amount of money spent by visitors at our local businesses increased 167%, providing a clear indication of the effectiveness of the Buncombe County Tourism Development Authority’s investment in tourism promotion as an economic development strategy.

Similarly, according to information provided by the Buncombe County Finance Department, lodging sales in Buncombe County totaled $101 million in fiscal year 2001 and $425 million in fiscal year 2019.”

Urge members of Congress to fix broken policing system America’s heart is breaking, and white people’s eyes are opening to the brutal racism that has ended uncounted numbers of African American lives, not only in the recent past but since Africans were first brought to this country as enslaved people.

Using the momentum of grief and outrage over our fellow citizens killed in cold blood with near impunity, we can insist on equitable law enforcement practices, informed by a vision of order and safety rooted in community, coop-

C AR T O O N B Y B R E N T B R O W N eration and neighborly love. Most of the action to transform law enforcement must take place at the state, county, city and town levels. To mend the broken American policing system, federal legislation is urgently needed as well.

Ask Sen. Richard Burr and Sen. Thom Tillis to co-sponsor the End Racial Profiling Act (SB 2355), banning federal, state, local or tribal law enforcement agencies from profiling by race, ethnicity or religion to influence stops, searches and immigration proceedings. Ask Rep. Patrick McHenry to co-sponsor the Eric Garner Excessive Force Prevention Act (HR 4408), making it illegal for police to use any hold or grip that blocks the windpipe or throat; the PEACE Act (HR 4359), establishing a national standard to prevent police officers from using lethal force unless nonlethal methods have been exhausted; and the Stop Militarizing Law Enforcement Act (HR 1714), stopping the flow of military hardware into civilian law enforcement agencies.

As Quakers, we recommend looking to the Friends Committee on National Legislation [avl.mx/7b1] in Washington, D.C., for guidance regarding pertinent bills currently in the U.S. Congress deserving nonpartisan support.

— Beth Keiser

Peace & Social Concerns Committee

Swannanoa Valley Friends Meeting

Black Mountain MOUNTAINX.COM

JUNE 17-23, 2020

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NEWS

OVERDRAWN

State budget issues delay some highway projects in WNC

BY MARK BARRETT markbarrett@charter.net Financial problems that have forced the N.C. Department of Transportation to furlough employees, put off construction projects and leave roadsides to grow up like hayfields this spring have not affected the schedule for what will be the Asheville area’s biggest public works project in at least a generation, the I-26 Connector.

Yet. DOT plans to award a contract about this time next year to build the first part of the connector, a new crossing of the French Broad River north of Bowen Bridge and a freeway to connect the crossing bridges to Interstate 240 near where I-240 and Patton Avenue intersect in West Asheville.

The agency plans to award another contract in 2022 to widen I-240 to six lanes in West Asheville; a third contract is to be signed in 2025 for changes to the Interstate 26/Interstate 40/I-240 interchanges on the western edge of the city. DOT estimates the total cost at $950 million.

But revenue shortfalls caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and previous spending overruns due to natural disasters and what the state auditor says are lax financial controls within DOT have already prompted the agency to delay dozens of construction projects.

Might the I-26 Connector be next?

“That’s kind of one of those million-dollar questions,” says Steve Cannon, project development engineer for DOT’s Asheville-based Division 13. “It really depends on how the revenues play out.”

CHANGE AHEAD: Traffic streams across Bowen Bridge between West Asheville and downtown on a recent afternoon. The bridge will be modified to include pedestrian and bicycle paths and fewer vehicle travel lanes as part of the I-26 Connector project. Photo by Mark Barrett

The connector has been discussed since the late 1980s and was included by the state General Assembly in 1989 on a list of highway projects to be funded partly by increases in the state’s taxes on gas and vehicle sales. Local opposition and consideration of alternatives have slowed the project at times. Money problems — the cost of promised highway projects was far greater than DOT could afford to build — have delayed the process at other points.

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Financial issues are back, with a vengeance. State Auditor Beth Wood’s office released a report last month saying DOT exceeded its $5.9 billion spending target for the 2018-19 fiscal year by $742 million, a 12.5% overrun.

Part of the problem is that DOT had inadequate controls over spending by its 14 division offices around the state and in general did not monitor its spending as it should, the report found. Other factors the report cited are inadequate budgeting for natural disasters and a reduction in general maintenance funding imposed

by the legislature that pegged that part of DOT’s budget back to roughly where it was in 1992-93.

DOT budgeted $50 million a year for storm recovery for the 2015 through 2019 fiscal years. But North Carolina has been especially hard hit by hurricanes and flooding in recent years, meaning that amount was typically only about half what was needed.

A few years ago, the General Assembly pressured DOT to spend down what legislators considered to be excess cash reserves the agency was holding. It did.

DOT’s money problems began getting more attention last year, and then-Transportation Secretary Jim Trogdon stepped down in February. Now legislators are looking for ways to shore up DOT finances.

The previous issues combined left DOT especially unprepared when COVID-19 hit and people cut back on driving and buying cars. Receipts from the gas tax, DOT’s largest single source of revenue, were off about 20% in April. Proceeds from the state’s highway user tax, a 3% tax on auto sales, declined 27%.

Revenues wfrom both taxes decline when economic conditions are poor, as people drive less and hold onto their current vehicles longer, so it is possible shortfalls will continue for some time to come.

Add it all up, State Treasurer Dale Folwell told a legislative committee recently, and DOT has “maxed out their credit card for the next 10 years.”

ON TRACK FOR NOW

William “Billy” Clarke, a Buncombe County attorney who represents Division 13 on the state Board of Transportation, says he can’t predict what DOT’s financial troubles will mean for the connector. The division takes in Buncombe, Burke, Madison, McDowell, Mitchell, Rutherford and Yancey counties.

Clarke does expect that as climate change contributes to more extreme weather events, the agency’s cost of responding to storms is unlikely to fall.

Julie Mayfield, who as an Asheville City Council member and head of an environmental group has pushed DOT to change connector plans to accommodate local criticisms, says DOT “is working very hard to keep this project on track.

It’s clearly their priority project for this region, and they want to see it done.”

A clear indication of whether the first part of the project will move ahead on the current schedule will come around the

DEVELOPMENT SITE: Asheville City Council member Julie Mayfield says the city and the state Department of Transportation have a tentative agreement whereby plans for the I-26 Connector will consolidate the maze of travel lanes and interchange ramps on Interstate 240 just east of the downtown end of Bowen Bridge.

The intent is to free up DOT property for urban development and create better connections between Hillcrest Apartments and the rest of the city. The area is shown here from near the intersection of West Haywood Street and Hilliard Avenue. Photo

by Mark Barrett end of the year, when DOT is scheduled to issue a request for proposals ahead of bidding on the construction contract to be awarded in summer 2021, she says.

That can’t happen if DOT does not have the financial reserves required by state law, Mayfield adds.

Mayfield and other city residents have pushed for a smaller footprint for the connector, including keeping I-240 at four lanes in West Asheville instead of the six now planned and consolidating the spaghetti bowl of interchange ramps just east of Bowen Bridge to free up DOT property for redevelopment. They also have sought to have only two lanes of vehicle traffic on Bowen Bridge in each direction — through traffic will use the new crossing of the French Broad — with the remaining space to be used for pedestrian and bicycle paths and landscaping.

With a couple of notable exceptions, “DOT has essentially given us everything that we wanted,” she says. There is tentative agreement on a design for the interchange near the downtown end of Bowen Bridge that will both open up space and allow bridges and a wall next to Riverside Cemetery to be lower than previously planned, she says, and DOT has bought into the idea of a four-lane Bowen Bridge.

Mayfield says she would still prefer a narrower stretch of I-240 in West Asheville, particularly where Haywood Road crosses the freeway, but DOT says its traffic standards mean it won’t budge on that issue. Advocates of changes have won about all of the modifications they can expect to get, she says.

A MURKY CRYSTAL BALL

DOT might move ahead with work on a new route across the French Broad as scheduled but later have to postpone work on I-240 in West Asheville and the I-26/I-40/I-240 interchange. Contracts for those parts of the project are to be awarded in 2022 and 2025, respectively.

Cannon acknowledges that as DOT delays projects scheduled to begin over the next year or two, a resulting domino effect could cause postponement of future work like the other two sections of the connector. DOT has already delayed planned construction dates on several smaller projects in Buncombe County like changes to part of Merrimon Avenue in North Asheville and a greenway along Hominy Creek in the Enka-Candler area.

The biggest shift so far affects plans to widen U.S. 19-23 to either six or eight lanes between Broadway and Exit 23, near Reynolds Village in Woodfin. Work on the $151 million project had been scheduled to begin in 2024, but that date has been pushed back to 2027.

DOT has taken several other steps to conserve cash this year. In addition to cutting employee work hours via furloughs, Division 13 has suspended its landscaping and wildflower planting programs and cut maintenance to “safety-related” work only, “things like patching potholes, clearing sight distances, things that could create a safety issue for the traveling public,” Division Engineer Mark Gibbs said. Grass mowing only began June 1, and the number of times

roadsides will be mowed will drop from the usual five to just three.

Plenty of decisions still lie ahead for the I-26 Connector. A city-appointed committee of local residents charged with looking for ways to make the highway more attractive has identified steps the city could take that would cost as much as $9.8 million. If work stays on track, City Council will have to decide in the next few months which of those city government will approve and pay for.

DOT will start buying land for the first phase of the project, the French Broad crossing, about the same time the construction contract for it is awarded, Cannon says. That and the other connector contracts are what DOT calls design-build contracts, meaning the construction companies will do final design work after their bids are accepted. A key question they and DOT will tackle is the location of noise reduction walls.

Physical construction will probably begin 12-18 months after contracts are signed, Cannon says. He notes that DOT is working on the assumption that a contract will be awarded next summer as scheduled, but he and Gibbs say it is too soon to predict whether the connector could be affected by any additional cost-cutting steps.

“What our folks in Raleigh are telling us is every option remains on the table,” Gibbs says. X

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WHAT’S NEXT June 2021: DOT is scheduled to award two construction contracts. One is for building a new road between the Interstate 240/Patton Avenue exit in West Asheville northeast to U.S. 19-23 near Riverside Cemetery with an estimated cost of $448 million.

The other is for improvements to Riverside Drive between Hill Street and Broadway at an estimated cost of $7.8 million. Work is estimated to take 5 1/2 years.

2022: A contract is to be awarded to widen I-240 to six lanes in West Asheville. That will include major changes to the Haywood Road, Amboy Road and Brevard Road interchanges. Work is to take 4 1/2 years.

2025: A contract is to be awarded for improvements to the I-26/I40/I-240 interchange on the western edge of Asheville. This portion of the project will also involve changes to the Smokey Park Highway and Brevard Road interchanges on I-40. Work is to take four years. X

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9

LOCAL GOVERNMENT

ASHEVILLE REACTS

The Asheville City Council met June 9 to discuss the city’s response to recent demonstrations calling for racial equity and an end to policing practices that disproportionately affect black residents. Council members and city staff, referring to concerns voiced by protesters, proposed several potential changes with deep ramifications for the community. Here, we’ve broken down the main areas of Council’s discussions and unpacked what various initiatives could mean for residents calling for immediate action.

APD proposes restructuring, independent investigation

BY MOLLY HORAK mhorak@mountainx.com If all goes according to plans laid out by Asheville City Manager Debra Campbell and Asheville Police Chief David Zack, the Asheville Police Department will look different come September. Citing a need to address deep distrust within the community, the two announced 30-, 60- and 90-day plans for restructuring the APD during Asheville City Council’s meeting of June 9.

Since May 31, APD officers have fired tear gas and rubber bullets multiple times against peaceful protesters for racial justice, and the department made international headlines for destroying protesters’ medical supplies on June 2, a move widely criticized

by local activists and public officials.

Zack, whose June 9 address to Council was his first since assuming his position in February, said he’d engaged an outside entity to complete a full after-action report to determine if the APD’s actions during the protests were justified.

Such a report will take substantial time to commission, Zack said. In the interim, he continued, “law enforcement transparency engagement advisers” will arrive in Asheville on June 10 to “keep the public better informed” and begin “providing a better understanding of what took place during the protests.” City officials had not responded to an Xpress request for the APD’s contract with these advisers as of press time.

AT THE READY: Law enforcement officers stand outside Asheville’s Municipal Building as demonstrations continued on June 3. Activists and public officials have criticized the way APD handled the protests. Photo by Virginia Daffron Shortly before the meeting, Council members Sheneika Smith and Brian Haynes released a statement calling for a separate investigation by Campbell into the APD’s use of tear gas and destruction of medical supplies. The Council members also requested access to officer body camera video from those actions.

“Just because actions may be justified under law does not make those actions necessary,” Zack noted in his presentation. “This will be looked at, and due process will be followed. But I can assure our community that unjustified or unnecessary action will result in the appropriate discipline.”

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THE ASHEVILLE SHUFFLE

Over the next 30 days, Zack said he plans to add new officer behaviors to those flagged by APD’s early intervention system, which helps to “identify and positively influence conduct or performance-related problems exhibited by individual employees” before they lead to larger issues. The chief did not provide examples during the presentation of what those behaviors would be.

Also in the first 30 days, Zack pledged to expand the department’s criteria for reporting the use of force. He would revise APD’s promotional processes to emphasize merit and equity and abolish the Drug Suppression Unit, which he said has placed too much of a focus on low-level drug crimes.

Within the next 60 days, Zack hopes to promote several officers to support him in restructuring the department and will appoint a liaison to the Buncombe County District Attorney’s

office to help identify cases where APD officers mishandled the investigation.

The department will also implement an anonymous phone tip line for community members to anonymously report crime and officer misconduct.

“Our plans are actions and not words,” Zack said. “We feel our goals are reachable and will define our agency culture moving forward. It is our intent to bring to the residents an Asheville Police Department they can be proud of.”

The most substantive of the proposed changes would come at 90 days and beyond. Zack said the APD would add a community engagement division with the sole purpose to “quickly respond to neighborhood quality-of-life issues and more complex societal issues, such as substance abuse, homelessness and mental health.”

That division would include a Homeless Outreach Team with fulltime officers dedicated to facilitating access to medical, mental health and social service care, Zack added. A new, dedicated Integrity Unit would ensure the APD followed its own policies and procedures through “random and scheduled oversight.”

The proposed changes would not require any additional funding; the police budget is currently slated to increase by roughly $400,000 next fiscal year, with the majority of that money used for state-mandated retirement contributions and vehicle expenses.

Instead, explained Zack, existing personnel would be realigned and transferred to different divisions.

Council member Julie Mayfield questioned whether some of the pro-

posed new departments should be housed outside of the APD. “It all sounds like the right direction, but I know that we have a lot of people in the community who would love to have input into your thinking about the restructuring,” she said.

BEYOND THE BLUE

Campbell also presented her own 30-, 60- and 90-day plans for city government to address concerns voiced by demonstrators at the downtown protests. The next month, she said, will see leaders work with the community to rename streets that currently honor slaveholders or have unspecified “other negative connotations,” as well as make more data available from the city’s Office of Equity and Inclusion.

Within the next 60 days, Campbell said she will continue partnering with the Asheville City and Buncombe County school districts to address opportunity gaps, as well as continue community conversations around the city’s budget. Additionally, she said she would initiate conversations with District Attorney Todd Williams to decide if enough time has been allotted for public comment on the probation of Christopher Hickman, the former APD officer who pleaded guilty to beating black Asheville resident Johnny Rush in 2017.

Campbell’s 90-day objectives include recruiting people of color and developing a race- and gender-conscious policy in response to the city’s 2018 contracting and procurement disparity study. The city will also work to understand other protester demands,

including the creation of “harm free zones” and an all-civilian police oversight committee, although Campbell said such initiatives would “be a heavy lift for us.”

Council members, reflecting on the city’s recent challenges, expressed their commitment to leverage the community’s pain into sweeping reform.

“Together, I am confident we can rise to the opportunities presented by this moment and I challenge all of us not to squander it,” Mayfield said.

Council member Vijay Kapoor used his remarks to thank APD officers for their work during what “was probably the most difficult week you’ve ever experienced as a police officer.” He asked that officers buy into the suggested reforms not because they have to, but as a “step of reestablishing trust with the community.”

But change doesn’t happen in a vacuum, suggested Council member Keith Young. He asked that any shifts to the city’s work include the explicit input of the black community.

“Simply changing where the money goes does not stop the foundation of a practice that affects the outcomes of whether a black man or woman dies at the hands of police or any other oppressive system that upholds the values put in place over decades, even centuries, to enable all of these negative outcomes,” Young said. “I’m willing to go the distance to see whatever structural change is needed to sustain any fund reallocation or financial support for efforts that seek to uplift a more equitable system.”

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A MOMENT OF CALM: Asheville City Manager Debra Campbell, left, stands with APD Capt. Jackie Stepp during protests on June 3. Photo by Virginia Daffron MOUNTAINX.COM

JUNE 17-23, 2020

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L O C AL GO VER N M EN T

Council starts process to remove Asheville’s Confederate monuments Asheville City Council member Keith Young was named after his grandfather, who was born 50 years after the end of the Civil War. His great-grandfather was born in 1888, “right dead smack in the middle of Jim Crow.” His great-great-grandfather was enslaved.

To Young, as he passionately explained during Council’s June 9 meeting, the Vance Monument at the center of downtown Asheville is a symbol of white supremacy, erected to “remind black men and women that whites still have power; they still have control.”

Following Young’s remarks, Council unanimously adopted a joint resolution with Buncombe County to remove two Confederate monuments at the Buncombe County Courthouse and in Pack Square Park. The resolution also convenes a task force to further explore the removal or repurposing of the Vance Monument.

When it was Young’s turn to vote, he dedicated his voice to his family: “For my great-grandfather, aye.”

The 65-foot Vance Monument was erected in 1898 to honor Zebulon Vance, North Carolina’s Civil War governor — and a prominent owner of enslaved people. The monument stands at the former location of the Buncombe County Courthouse, which Council’s resolution identifies as the “likely location where slaves were sold and traded locally.”

In front of the Vance Monument sits a granite marker to commemorate Confederate commander Robert E. Lee and Col. John Connally, a Confederate officer wounded at the Battle of Gettysburg. Near the entrance to the current courthouse sits a monument honoring the 60th regiment of North Carolina Confederate soldiers. Per the resolution, these monuments were “installed in Asheville and many other communities in the South in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by white Southerners seeking to preserve the Confederacy [and] are widely perceived as offensive and painful public reminders of the legacy of slavery and present realities of systemic racism in our country.”

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MONUMENTAL DECISION: If approved by the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners, the Vance Monument may not stand downtown for much longer.

Asheville City Council members emphasized that the obelisk’s fate should be determined by black community members most impacted by its history. See also “‘Keep him a slave,’ Zebulon Vance argues in favor of slavery,” Page 16. Photo by Virginia Daffron The resolution has yet to be approved by the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners, who will hold their vote Tuesday, June 16. If the board passes the resolution, a task force will be appointed to decide the fate of the Vance Monument. The United Daughters of the Confederacy, which owns the two other markers, will be given 90 days to remove those monuments before the city and county take further action.

While symbolic, the decision is not insignificant, said Sheneika Smith, who with Young makes up Council’s African American contingent. She believes the monument removals will jumpstart healing from racial trauma in the black community.

“I’m hoping that we’ll see this as equally powerful as it is ceremonial. I think it’s ceremonial in nature, inaugurating the demolition of a lot of the systems that affect blacks in society,” Smith said.

“From criminal justice [to] housing, employment and education, the legacy of white supremacy has been there. And it’s time for us to confront those.”

Prior to Council’s vote, Asheville Mayor Esther Manheimer designated one hour for public comment on the resolution.

The overwhelming majority of the 22 people who spoke supported the measure. Many cited Black AVL Demands, a self-described “intergenerational collective of black leaders” born out of the city’s recent racial justice protests, which has demanded the Confederate monuments be replaced with new memorials to “honor the many black Ashevilleans who have built this city.”

“This is an opportunity to show people like me — Latin people of this country, African American people of this country, black people of this county — that we actually stand with them for once,” urged Michael Martinez, who identified as a member of the Asheville community. “As a city, we need to stand for this.”

Some commenters, such as Leslie Anderson, favored repurposing the Vance Monument to serve as an “ever-present reminder of our very difficult, grief-ridden past.” A handful of others, including Rebecca Lilly of Marshall, felt that taking away the monuments would be tantamount to erasing pieces of history.

“Removing the monuments and markers will not change the past, but it will enslave future generations in the chains of ignorance,” she said.

But most felt that the realities of the present should drive decisions over the monuments. “The removal of these monuments will only serve as a visual reminder that we are committed to community justice in the city of Asheville,” said commenter Katy Hudson. “Please make this completely superficial gesture to the community as a promise that you will listen to protester demands.

Campbell announces interim budget for 2020-21 fiscal year “We have heard you.”

Citing a wave of public comment calling on Asheville officials to “defund the Asheville Police Department,” City Manager Debra Campbell announced a major change to the 2020-21 fiscal year budget process during City Council’s meeting of June 9. Instead of voting on her proposed budget on Tuesday, June 23, as originally planned, Council will now consider an interim budget on that date. The move is meant to bridge the gap before a new budget can be reworked with additional community engagement.

“This is a citywide community issue that we all have to be a part of,” Campbell said. “It’s going to take collaboration with every segment of our community in order to address the issues of social disparities and inequities.”

In advance of the June 9 meeting, Council received 1,382 voicemail messages and 1,643 email messages. The vast majority demanded less money for the APD and greater police accountability, Campbell said.

North Carolina municipalities are legally required to adopt a budget

by July 1, but the law allows for the adoption of an interim budget “for the purpose of paying salaries, debt service payments, and the usual ordinary expenses of the local government or public authority for the interval between the beginning of the budget year and the adoption of the budget ordinance.” A public hearing for the new budget developed with further community input is currently slated for Tuesday, Aug. 25, with Council to vote on the final budget Tuesday, Sept. 8.

The delay will also allow Asheville to make more informed calculations about sales tax revenue, which has

fallen significantly since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in March, Campbell explained. “This will give us a little bit more time to see where we are from an economic perspective and revenue perspective,” she said.

Brian Haynes was the only Council member to explicitly address the budget change, calling for the defunding of the APD to “begin now.” He noted that the police were currently slated to receive a budget increase; that money would mostly be used to pay for fleet maintenance and state-mandated retirement contributions.

“As part of this budget, and we continue and continue into the next, we need to not only deny the $400,000 increase being requested but seek much deeper cuts, reallocating funds toward programs providing opportunity to the black community and poverty remediation,” he said.

No public hearing will take place regarding the adoption of the interim budget, said City Attorney Brad Branham. “Interim budgets are really just a series of interim appropriations to spend on normal course of business matters,” he explained in an email exchange with Xpress. “This falls outside the statutory requirement of a public hearing. Therefore, no public hearing is required until the annual budget ordinance comes before the Council.”

Asheville last adopted an interim budget in 2002 because of state withholdings in local reimbursements that had the potential to impact tax rates.

At the time, Council passed a twomonth interim budget until all payments had been settled and a tax rate could be calculated.

NUMBERS, LESS CRUNCH: Asheville City Council plans to adopt an interim budget to begin the next fiscal year, giving officials more time to craft a spending plan that responds to community concerns over police funding. Photo courtesy of the city of Asheville

Public condemns APD, city response to demonstrations

WAIT YOUR TURN: Open public comment took place at the end of a five-hour Asheville City Council meeting on June 9 that started late due to glitches with the city’s virtual meeting platform. Screen capture courtesy of the city of Asheville The people spoke — and spoke and spoke and spoke — during the open comment portion of Council’s June 9 meeting. Many called for the resignation of Asheville Police Chief David Zack and Mayor Esther Manheimer. Many more called for the immediate defunding of the APD. Manheimer allocated one hour of open comment at the end of a five-hour meeting, held virtually through the city’s public engagement hub and fraught with technical difficulties. Shortly after the meeting’s 5 p.m. start time, many of those attempting to tune in online received error messages associated with overwhelming web traffic. At one point, Council members had to pause the meeting entirely to restore their connection.

Earlier in the night, Council had moved a previously scheduled public hearing on the city’s budget to Tuesday, Aug. 25, a decision that frustrated commenters who had hoped to advocate for reduced APD spending. “It feels like they’re restricting the people that have shown up to talk tonight,” explained Ashley Cooper, who called into the meeting’s live speaker queue.

Nearly all of the commenters directly condemned APD’s destruction of protesters’ medical supplies during downtown demonstrations for racial justice on June 2. One caller, who said her friends and family in the Netherlands had seen the medic station on the local news in Europe, called the event an “international disgrace.”

Emily Cyr told Council she had watched APD “brutalize” the medic station before her own eyes. “I’m confused, and after listening to the chief”s pathetic, prewritten excuse and watching him look down to read George Floyd’s name, I am even more disgusted,“ she continued, referencing the black Minneapolis resident whose May 25 killing by police catalyzed protests in Asheville and across the

country. “I want to still have faith in this community, but each passing day it gets harder and harder to be a proud civilian.”

Council’s actions are “inexcusable and unforgivable,” claimed Asheville native Pearl Foster. “Y’all enabled and sat quietly while multiple war crimes were committed against our own people. You allow the use of tear gas, which attacks the airways, during a global pandemic dozens of times. You allowed them to use ‘nonlethal’ weapons, including grenades the size of my fist.”

Lindsey Mount, who introduced herself as a “voter who stands with Black Lives Matter,” called for Zack to be fired for the “hideous” statement he released after the destruction of the medic station.

Manheimer needed to step down too, she said. “It is very obvious you are not representing the city of Asheville the way you should be,” she argued.

Many of the commenters referenced Black AVL Demands, a self-described “intergenerational collective of black leaders” born out of the city’s recent racial justice protests. The group provided a template for callers to follow when addressing Council, asking for citybacked investment in black communities.

“Fifty percent of the APD’s budget should be invested in long-term safety strategies, including supporting black startups and business, eliminating the racial opportunity gap in Asheville City Schools, and funding an all-civilian oversight committee with the power to hold the APD and individual officers accountable,” the script — and several callers — read.

Something needs to be done, Chris Muccio urged Council, after recounting what he experienced at the demonstrations on June 1. “Officers need to be held accountable for what they did,” he said. “And black lives matter — if you haven’t heard that tonight, black lives matter.” X

MOUNTAINX.COM

JUNE 17-23, 2020

13

COVID CONVERSATIONS

FEA T U RE S

In recent weeks, North Carolina has experienced a surge of COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations. On June 9, Brian Center Health and Rehabilitation/Weaverville became Buncombe County’s fifth long-term care facility to declare an outbreak. Three days later, the state reported a total of 1,768 news cases — North Carolina’s highest one-day increase to date.

Amid this spike, we continue COVID Conversations. As in weeks past, we explore both the challenges and unique opportunities community members have experienced during the pandemic. If you or someone you know has a unique story you think should be featured in a future issue of Xpress, please let us know at news@mountainx.com.

Extended stay An international student calls West Asheville home during health crisis

Fresh ink Tattoo parlors draw on experience with safety measures In the tattoo industry, summertime can mean as much as a three-month wait for clients to get under the needle, says John Henry Gloyne, tattoo artist and co-owner of Serpent & the Rainbow Tattoo. But like most businesses, his parlor on Haywood Road temporarily closed in response to the coronavirus pandemic in late March.

Fortunately, Gloyne says he and his business partner already had planned to relocate the shop to a new building in the South Slope, so the business restrictions made the transition relatively smooth. His new shop is expected to open July 1.

Gloyne, who’s spent 16 years in the industry, notes that reputable tattoo parlors had numerous safety precautions in place even before COVID-19. He says tattoo artists routinely wear gloves, use plastic covers over tattoo guns and cables and work with single-use supplies, such as needles. Surfaces are also cleaned after each appointment with MadaCide, a powerful disinfectant designed to kill viruses and bacteria, to protect both the artist and client.

“A good rule of thumb in tattooing is, and not to sound outlandish, but you want to treat every person you tattoo like they have HIV because that means that you’re going through every step to protect yourself,” Gloyne says.

Cleaning procedures won’t differ too much after his shop opens, but consultations and tattoo work will be by appointment only, and both clients and tattoo artists will don masks while interacting.

Despite the safety measures, Gloyne, who is also a member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, says he worries about potentially exposing older family members to the disease. “I’m not particularly worried about myself,” says

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JUNE 17-23, 2020

CLEAN WORK: John Henry Gloyne, tattoo artist and co-owner of Serpent & the Rainbow Tattoo, notes that reputable tattoo parlors had numerous safety precautions in place even before COVID-19. Photo courtesy of Gloyne Gloyne, 36. “But being from Cherokee, our elders are very important to us. If the coronavirus got into the Cherokee elder population, that would be horrific.”

Interaction among people will become inevitable as more businesses begin opening in both Asheville and Cherokee, Gloyne says, but he’s hoping that residents and visitors will be considerate of each other in the months to come. “If people would use a lot of respect and common sense, I think a lot of this would be so much better,” he says. “That sounds real simple, but it’s so true.”

MOUNTAINX.COM

— Brooke Randle X

PART OF THE FAMILY: Brian Ngatunga, second from right, has been living with the Hanna family in their West Asheville home since August 2019. He was supposed to return to Mwanza, Tanzania, in early June, but COVID-19 postponed his plans. Also pictured, from left, are Hanna family members Bob, Danielle, Bryce and Caryn. Photo by Sheila Mraz Photography On June 10, Brian Ngatunga’s travel visa expired. This would normally be an issue, considering the 18-year-old Tanzanian exchange student is still currently living in West Asheville with his host family, the Hannas. But these are not normal times. While international flights have reopened, Ngatunga has been unable to secure a plane ticket back home.

“It’s somewhat depressing and happy at the same time,” he says.

“Depressing because I won’t be able to see my family, as was expected; but also happy in that during this COVID19 season, I’m learning many things and also being productive.”

Ngatunga arrived in Asheville last August, enrolling as a junior at Asheville High School. He was excited to return to Western North Carolina, where he first visited in May 2017, as a performer at the 44th LEAF Festival.

His ambition is to become a computer programmer, he says. But during his current stint in Asheville, he’s also discovered a passion for theater and songwriting. “I started learning the piano once we began the stay-home policy,” he says.

Along with his new musical endeavor, Ngatunga has been following the recent protests over the killing of George Floyd. On June 6, he and his host family joined fellow community members for a vigil at Pack Square.

The events, he says, have helped shed light on previous conversations

with his family. “Even before coming here, my parents were always afraid,” he says. “They were like, ‘Oh, who will like you over there in the United States? We’re very afraid you will be discriminated against.’”

Their concerns, Ngatunga continues, have only intensified since Floyd’s death. “Every day when I chat with my parents, they’re always like, ‘Has anyone discriminated [against] you? Has anyone done anything bad to you? Has anyone offended you?’”

Despite the recognized risks of being black in America, the 18-year-old says he is grateful to be here and proud to be part of the worldwide outcry for change. He’s also hoping to continue his education in Asheville, applying to private schools in order to extend his stay.

“I’m really thankful for all the opportunities that I’ve got here in Asheville, having welcoming smiles from people and having kindness from people and really enjoying my time at Asheville High School and having a very wonderful host family,” he says. “I really believe that education is for service.

And I believe that I’m here so that I can be a change to my community back home. ... I think getting some of the knowledge here and skills here and going back home and using them for a positive impact will be a very good thing for me to do.”

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F E AT UR E S

ASHEVILLE ARCHIVES

by Thomas Calder | tcalder@mountainx.com

‘Keep him a slave’ Zebulon Vance argues in favor of slavery

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On March 16, 1860, North Carolina Congressman Zebulon Baird Vance addressed the U.S. House of Representatives. At the time, the Union was still intact but the threat of secession and bloodshed was looming.

In his opening remarks, Vance decried the idea of emancipation as not only “utterly absurd,” but also a threat to the purity of the white race. “Amalgamation is so odious that even the mind of a fanatic [abolitionist] recoils in disgust and loathing from the prospect of intermingling the quick and jealous blood of the European with the putrid stream of African barbarism,” he declared.

To avoid this outcome, as well as war, Vance offered the following solution to his fellow congressmen: “Plainly and unequivocally, common sense says keep the slave where he is now — in servitude.

The interest of the slave himself imperatively demands it. The interest of the master, of the United States, of the world, nay of humanity itself, says, keep the slave in his bondage; treat him humanely, teach him Christianity, care for him in sickness and old age, and make his bondage light as may be; but above all, keep him a slave and in strict subordination; for that is his normal condition; the one in which alone he can promote the interest of himself or of his fellows.”

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Shifting his focus to states’ rights, Vance contested that prohibiting slavery in Western territories or denying a territory admittance as a new state because of a pro-slavery stance, “would be a direct and unequivocal interference” by the federal government.

Later in his address, Vance chastised abolitionist rhetoric. “[Y]our agitation and eternal harangues have a direct and inevitable tendency to excite our slaves to insurrection,” he proclaimed.

Vance continued:

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“It is unnatural to suppose that the noise of this great conflict will not reach the negro’s ear, and that your violent professions of regard for his rights will not make him

coals of rebellion until they burst forth into a consuming fire.”

He then further denounced Northern abolitionists, accusing them of hypocrisy. “You know that slave labor has built all your cities and towns, has erected your great warehouses, freights your rich navies, and carries wealth and happiness throughout all the bleak and sterile hills of New England.”

Vance concluded his speech by insisting that the responsibility to avoid a civil war fell in the hands of the country’s Northern representatives. If they continued to insist on emancipation or denied the westward expansion of slavery, they would leave the South no choice.

Vance asked: “Will the great conservative masses of the northern people, who are inheritors with us alike of the common glories of the past, and heirs-apparent of the unspeakable glories of our future, continue to urge this dire extremity upon their southern brethren?”

AMERICA’S FOUNDATION: In his March 16, 1860, address to the U.S. House of Representatives, Zebulon Vance argued that slavery was an essential component of American life and economic well-being. “The general welfare and prosperity of our country, the very foundation of our society, of our fortunes, and, to a greater and less extent, the personal safety of our people, combine to make us defend it to the last extremity,” he professed. Photo courtesy of the North Carolina Collection, Pack Memorial Library, Asheville believe that those who shelter him when he runs away, will not also help him to cut his master’s throat.

The constant denunciation of his owners by your crazy fanatics will make him regard them as monsters, and will cause him to cherish the

On Dec. 20, 1860, South Carolina seceded from the Union. Over the next six months, 10 additional states would follow, including North Carolina on May 20, 1861. In 1862, Vance was elected governor of North Carolina.

Three years later, the Confederate Army was defeated, and Vance was briefly imprisoned.

Vance’s white supremacism continued beyond the Civil War. In 1874, he again addressed the House of Representatives, condemning a bill that sought to outlaw racial discrimination. (For more on this, see “Asheville Archives: Zebulon Vance Argues Against Civil Rights, 1874,” Aug. 26, 2019, Xpress).

Vance died on April 14, 1894. Four years later, at the May 10, 1898 unveiling of the Vance Monument at today’s Pack Square, Tennessee Gov. Robert L. Taylor spoke. Throughout his address, Taylor praised Vance’s contributions to North Carolina as well as the nation at large.

“Through his long and brilliant career,” Taylor declared of the former slave owner and Confederate colonel, “his love of humanity never waned and his devotion for this country never cooled.”

Editor’s note: Peculiarities of spelling and punctuation are preserved from the original documents. X

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MUSIC A CAPELLA SINGING (PD.) WANNA SING? ashevillebarbershop.com WEDNESDAY, JUNE 17 • Quarantine Concert Series Livestream: Asheville Circus (electronic, Americana). 7pm, avl.mx/77y • Trivia Night: PRIDE Edition. 7pm, 185 King Street, Brevard • Lucky James (soul, Americana). 8pm, The Root Bar, 1410 Tunnel Rd. • Double Crown Western Weds Livestream: Hearts Gone South (country). 9pm, avl.mx/794 THURSDAY, JUNE 18 • Grass at the Funk: The Saylor Brothers (bluegrass).

2pm, The Funkatorium • Posey Piano Hour Livestream. 7pm, avl.mx/79u • Quarantine Concert Series Livestream: Andrew Thelston Band (rock). 7pm, avl.mx/77y • Reverend Finster at The Grey Eagle (R.E.M. tribute).

7pm, avl.mx/797 • Dennis Carbone (folk, acoustic). 8pm, The Root Bar, 1410 Tunnel Rd. • Gypsy & Me (folk, country). 8pm, 185 King Street, Brevard FRIDAY, JUNE 19 • Downtown After 5: Livestream featuring Asheville-area bands. 5pm, avl.mx/790 • Brandon Quinn Live.

5pm, Mad Co. Brew House, 45 N Main St., Marshall • Doug Ramsay (jazz, soul).

5:30pm, Whiteside Brewing Co., 128 NC-107, Cashiers • Dinah’s Daydream (gypsy jazz). 6pm, Battery Park Book Exchange • McIntosh & the LionHearts. 8pm, 185 King Street, Brevard • DJ Kilby Spinning Vinyl.

10pm, Ben’s Tune Up SATURDAY, JUNE 20 • Cup o’ Joe Variety Show w/ Joe Kye (rock, pop, classical). 1pm, Online, avl.mx/7ai • Quarantine Concert Series Livestream: PYLETRIBE (Southern, tribal).

7pm, avl.mx/77y • The Maggie Valley Band (dark Appalachian). 9pm, Boojum Brewing Co., 50 N Main St., Waynesville

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 17 • Polk County Friends of Agriculture Breakfast. 7am, Green Creek Community Center, 25 Shields Rd., Columbus

• Big Blue (hip-hop, rock, funk). 10pm, Ben’s Tune Up SUNDAY, JUNE 21 • Mountain Spirit Acoustic Series Livestream: Frank & Allie Lee (folk). 7pm, avl.mx/77s MONDAY, JUNE 22 • Old Time Jam w/ Banjo Mitch McConnell. 6pm, Archetype Brewing, 265 Haywood Rd. • Quarantine Concert Series Livestream: Vaden Landers (country, blues).

7pm, avl.mx/77y TUESDAY, JUNE 23 • Open Synth Jam. 7pm, Local 604 Bottle Shop, 604 Haywood Rd. • Quarantine Concert Series Livestream: 3 COOL CATS (rock ‘n’ roll). 7pm, avl.mx/77y WEDNESDAY, JUNE 24 • Trivia Night: PRIDE Edition. 7pm, 185 King Street, Brevard • The Grey Eagle Livestream: Brie Capone (soul, folk). 7pm, avl.mx/7al • Mountain Spirit Acoustic Series: Anna Tivel (folk).

7pm, avl.mx/798 • Quarantine Concert Series Livestream: Pretty Little Goat (Appalachian roots). 7pm, avl.mx/77y • Lucky James (soul, Americana). 8pm, The Root Bar, 1410 Tunnel Rd. THURSDAY, JUNE 25 • Grass at the Funk: The Saylor Brothers (bluegrass).

2pm, The Funkatorium • Trivia Night. 7pm, Mad Co. Brew House, 45 N Main St., Marshall • Mountain Spirit Acoustic Series Livestream: Abbie Gardner (folk). 7pm, avl.mx/7b2 • Quarantine Concert Series Livestream: Bless Your Heart (Americana, country). 7pm, avl.mx/77y • Dennis Carbone (folk, acoustic). 8pm, The Root Bar, 1410 Tunnel Rd. • The Comedy Show w/ Mia Jackson. 8pm, YMI Cultural Center FRIDAY, JUNE 26 • Concerts on the Creek: Geoff McBride & Scott Baker (classic hits). 7pm, Bridge Park, 76 Railroad Ave., Sylva • The Freeway Jubilee (rock). 10pm, One Stop at Asheville Music Hall

MASTER-BRIEF THEATER: The Magnetic Theatre’s inaugural One Act Play Festival will take place live online Friday, June 19, at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are Pay-What-YouCan, but registration is required to receive the link, which may also be viewed later. themagnetictheatre.org. Photo courtesy of The Magnetic Theatre ART WEDNESDAY, JUNE 17 • A Conversation w/ author Marilyn Chase on artist Ruth Asawa. 12pm, Free, Online, avl.mx/76d FRIDAY, JUNE 19 • Slow Art Friday: Self-Taught Artists. Virtual discussion led by docent Michelle Dorf at Asheville Art Museum. Register: 828-253-3227 x 122. 12pm, Free, avl.mx/791 TUESDAY, JUNE 23 • Improvisational Hand Embroidery Workshop w/ Nancy Gamon. 6:30pm, $5, Online, avl.mx/7a6 FRIDAY, JUNE 26 • Slow Art Friday: Land of the Sky. Virtual discussion led by master docent Sarah Reincke at Asheville Art Museum. Register: 828-253-3227 x 122. 12pm, Free, avl.mx/7af • Brevard’s 4th Friday Gallery Walk. 5pm, Transylvania Community Arts Council, 349 S. Caldwell St., Brevard

SPOKEN & WRITTEN WORD WEDNESDAY, JUNE 17 & 24 • St. George’s Episcopal Talks About Racism Reading Group: The Cross & the Lynching Tree. Register: stgeorgeoffice28806@ gmail.com. 12pm, Online, avl.mx/7as • Firestorm Books: Stay Home & Write(rs) Group.

7pm, Registration required, Free, Online, avl.mx/79z • Sovereign Kava: Virtual Poetry Open Mic. 8:30pm, avl.mx/76w TUESDAY, JUNE 23 • Leicester Public Library: Virtual Social Justice Book Club: U.S. Prison System.

7pm, avl.mx/7a7

THURSDAY, JUNE 25 • Firestorm Books: Liberation through Consistent Anti-Oppression w/ Julia Feliz Brueck & Zoie (Zane) McNeill. 8pm, Registration required, Free, Online, avl.mx/79y

THEATER & FILM WEDNESDAY, JUNE 17 • X Minus One: The Hostess. Performance of the classic sci-fi radio drama. 8pm, The Paper Mill Lounge, 553 W Main St., Sylva FRIDAY, JUNE 19 • The Magnetic Theatre: Virtual One Act Play Festival. 7:30pm, Registration required, Admission by donation, avl.mx/7a0 TUESDAY, JUNE 23 • Pollination Celebration: “The Pollinators” Virtual Movie Night. 6pm, Registration required, Free, Online, avl.mx/77b

BUSINESS & TECHNOLOGY WEDNESDAY, JUNE 17 • Financial Planning 101: Principles for Successful Retirement Planning.

7:30pm, Registration required, Free, Online, avl.mx/79t WEDNESDAY, JUNE 24 • Leadership Asheville Virtual Summer Buzz Breakfast. 9am, Registration required, Free, avl.mx/761 • Financial Planning 101: 7 Habits of Financially Successful People. 7:30pm, Registration required, Free, Online, avl.mx/79t THURSDAY, JUNE 25 • WNC Nonprofit Pathways: 2020 Nonprofit Compliance Update Webinar. 1pm, Registration required, Free, avl.mx/7a1

CLASSES, MEETINGS & EVENTS Empyrean Arts Online Live Classes (PD.) The physical studio is closed for now but we are offering some of our regular class offerings online - Go to our website at EMPYREANARTS. ORG, create a new student account, then purchase and sign up for classes.

THURSDAY, JUNE 18 • Zoom through East Tennessee: Historic Rugby Virtual Visit w/ Jordan Hughett. RSVP: eths@ eastTNhistory.org. 1pm, avl.mx/7ay FRIDAY, JUNE 19 • OnTrack WNC Webinar: Debt Payment during Uncertain Times. 12pm, Registration required, Free, avl.mx/7ar SUNDAY, JUNE 21 • Ethical Humanist Society of Asheville: Religion & the Republic: Parent, Prophet, or Problem? 2:30pm, Free, Online, avl.mx/73l MONDAY, JUNE 22 • History Cafe Webinar: Exploring the Community of Oteen w/ Heather South. 10:30am, $5, avl.mx/7a8 • NC Council on Developmental Disabilities: Latinx Virtual Listening Session.

12:30pm, Registration required, avl.mx/7ah TUESDAY, JUNE 23 • FAFSA Fill-out Night.

4pm, Registration required, Free, Blue Ridge Community College - Henderson County Campus, Thomas Auditorium Gallery • Asheville City Council Regular Meeting. 5pm, Online, avl.mx/7b5

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 24 • Asheville Chamber Annual Meeting. 4pm, Registration required, Online, avl.mx/796 THURSDAY, JUNE 25 • Truly Trivial: A Virtual Fundraiser for Jewish Family Services of WNC. 7pm, $25, Online, avl.mx/7a3

ECO & OUTDOOR ONGOING • June Jamboree: Weeklong Virtual Celebration of Conservation Work.

Guided nature experiences, webinars and more. June 15-20, Free, avl.mx/7au • Madison County BioBlitz: Citizen science project cataloguing the region's biodiversity. Online, avl.mx/767 WEDNESDAY, JUNE 17 • MountainTrue University SwimGuide: Water Sampling & Safety webinar.

11:30am, Registration required, Free, avl.mx/7a5 THURSDAY, JUNE 18 • Land Innovation: Modeling Conservation & Climate Action for a Changing World. Webinar

by Dave Ellum. 2:30pm, Registration required, Free, avl.mx/779 • Virtual June Jam Conservation Celebration: Live Music & Storytelling. RSVP: pauline@appalachian.org.

5pm, avl.mx/7at

SATURDAY, JUNE 20 • Pollinator-Friendly Plant Sale Fundraiser.

Order online, pick up at Bee City USA tent. 8am, Henderson County Tailgate Market, 100 N King St., Hendersonville • Pollinators in the Community Garden: Self-Guided Tour. 10am, Free, Bountiful Harvest Community Garden, 708 Glover St., Hendersonville • All About Legumes Workshop: Peas, Beans & Other Nitrogen Fixers. Register: avl.mx/7b7. 1:30pm, $15, Living Web Farms, 176 Kimzey Rd., Mills River WEDNESDAY, JUNE 24 • Organic Growers School: Virtual Info Session on Farm Beginnings Class. 7:30pm, Registration required, Free, avl.mx/7a2

FOOD & BEER ONGOING • ASAP Farmers Market at A-B Tech. Saturdays, 9am, 340 Victoria Rd. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 17 • Leicester Welcome Table Community Meal. 11:30am, Leicester Community Center

KIDS WEDNESDAY, JUNE 17 & 24 • Miss Malaprop’s Storytime Livestream.

Wednesdays, 10am, avl.mx/7b9 MONDAY, JUNE 22 • Jung Kwon Martial Arts Academy: Virtual Fitness/

Self-Defense Class. 6pm, Free, avl.mx/7a4

SPIRITUALITY Astro-Counseling (PD.) Licensed counselor and accredited professional astrologer uses your chart when counseling for additional insight into yourself, your relationships and life directions.

Stellar Counseling Services.

Christy Gunther, MA, LPC. (828) 258-3229.

THURSDAY, JUNE 18 & 25 • Weekly Online Stream: Jewish Power Hour w/ Rabbi Susskind. Thursdays, 6pm, Online, chabadasheville.org

VOLUNTEERING Free Books through Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library! (PD.) All children under the age of five are eligible to receive a brand-new, age-appropriate book each month mailed directly to their home. Enroll online/ more info at www.litcouncil.com or imaginationlibrary.com.

Free.

SATURDAY, JUNE 20 • Haw Creek Commons Garden Work Day. 1st and 3rd Saturdays, 10am, 315 Old Haw Creek Rd. MONDAY, JUNE 22 • Red Cross Blood Drive.

Appointments: 828-5862016. 11am-3pm, Jackson County Public Library, 310 Keener St., Sylva THURSDAY, JUNE 25 • Blood Connection Blood Drive. Free COVID-19 antibody tests for donors.

Appointments: avl.mx/7b8.

12-5pm, McCormick Field

SATURDAY, JUNE 20 • Girls on the Run of WNC Virtual 5K. All day, gotrwnc. org/5K-Detail • Virtual Forest Bathing & Nature Therapy. 9am, GoFINDOutdoors.org FRIDAY, JUNE 26 • Interactions between Plants & Pollinators: Highlights from the Southern Appalachian Mountains.

Webinar by ecologist Timothy Spira. 10:30am,

MOUNTAINX.COM

JUNE 17-23, 2020

17

HEALTH ROUNDUP

by Xpress Staff | news@mountainx.com

Mission nurses move closer to union vote Nurses at Asheville’s Mission Hospital have cleared the latest hurdle to voting on forming a union. As confirmed by Mission spokesperson Nancy Lindell on June 11, the health system’s legal representatives have chosen not to file an objection regarding how a preelection hearing was conducted.

That hearing — which spanned 12 days from April 14 through May 6, generated over 1,400 pages of transcripts and included thousands of additional pages of evidence — took place by telephone in light of mass gathering restrictions due to COVID-19. However, after the Mission hearing concluded, the National Labor Relations Board ruled in a different case that such hearings should instead be conducted by videoconference unless “compelling circumstances exist.”

Now that Mission’s legal team has given the go-ahead, the NLRB will consider the testimony from the preelection hearing to determine what nurses would be represented by the union,

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STANDING UNITED: The vote by Mission Hospital nurses on whether to form a union cleared another legal hurdle after Mission representatives chose not to file an objection over a preelection hearing. Photo by Getty Images when the vote will take place and how employees will be allowed to cast ballots. Nurses have requested that the vote occur by mail to avoid the risk of COVID-19 exposure, while Mission representatives have insisted that an in-person vote poses no danger.

As of press time, the NLRB had not issued any further rulings on the case.

The date of the union vote, which nurses first requested on March 6, has yet to be determined.

with the determination of these partners, along with the philanthropic passion of this community, we are on the road to a true success.”

Among the partnership’s goals is improving the “long-term stability of the communities on the Plateau” through health care availability, which has been problematic in the largely rural region. Further details around the project’s timeline and physician team have yet to be announced.

Partnership to expand care on HighlandsCashiers Plateau

Urgent care testing finds no coronavirus antibodies in WNC residents

A new joint effort of the Highlands Cashiers Health Foundation, Blue Ridge Health and the Mountain Area Health Education Center seeks to provide universal access to health care for residents and workers in the Highlands-Cashiers area. The project would involve a rural teaching program organized by UNC Health Sciences at MAHEC, as well as a primary care clinic somewhere on the region known as the Plateau.

“We acknowledge from the outset this project’s scope is wide, and our goal and related objectives are ambitious, requiring significant contributions of time, talent and treasure from the partners and members of the community,” said Dr. Walter Clark, chair of the Highlands Cashiers Health Foundation, in a June 5 press release announcing the partnership. “However, we know

After nearly three weeks of testing across eight Western North Carolina locations, Asheville-based Mercy Urgent Care has not detected any antibodies to the coronavirus that causes COVID-19. Since starting to offer antibody testing on May 21, says spokesperson Sharon Owen, Mercy had performed about 150 tests through June 10.

The antibody test indicates if a person had COVID-19 in the past and does not indicate current infection with the coronavirus. Mercy has also conducted over 1,300 viral tests since the start of the pandemic, with a positivity rate of approximately 3.5%.

Owen notes that most of those who sought the antibody testing — herself included — had been ill with flu-like symptoms prior to the imposition of local stay-home orders and were curious whether they’d had COVID-19. “I

MOUNTAINX.COM

cannot believe we haven’t had a positive antibody test yet, even though these are 99% reliable,” she says.

Mercy continues to offer testing for both antibodies and active COVID-19 infections. Self-pay pricing for both tests is $249, with separate billing for specimen analysis; tests may be covered by private insurance, Medicare and Medicaid.

Countering COVID

• The Charles George VA Medical Center has begun offering convalescent plasma treatment for patients with COVID-19 as part of a national program coordinated by the Mayo Clinic. The experimental treatment uses blood plasma collected from recovered COVID-19 patients, which is thought to contain antibodies that can help fight off the coronavirus.

• The United Way of Asheville and Buncombe County is distributing 125,000 reusable face coverings to area nonprofit and grassroots organizations in need. Requests for at least 100 and up to 500 face coverings can be made through avl.mx/7ag.

• AdventHealth Hendersonville has deployed disinfecting robots for added safety in operating and patient rooms. The robots use ultraviolet light to disrupt the genetic material of bacteria and viruses, including the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, which prevents them from reproducing.

BRIGHT IDEA: AdventHealth Hendersonville recently added disinfecting robots to its arsenal of tools against COVID-19. Photo courtesy of AdventHealth Hendersonville

Tips of the hat

• MAHEC received a $40,560 grant from the Community Foundation of Western North Carolina for the SistasCaring4Sistas doula program.

The money will support a full-time doula for the program, which works to eliminate racial disparities in maternal health outcomes and infant mortality.

• AdventHealth Hendersonville was recertified by The Joint Commission as a Spine Surgery Center of Excellence. AdventHealth first received the commission’s Gold Seal of Approval for its spine surgery work in 2017.

• AdventHealth also became the region’s first health system to acquire a GE Healthcare Revolution Apex CT scanner. According to a press release from the system, the new device allows doctors to “see an entire organ, such as the heart, including its blood flow and motion.”

• Amber Reece-Young, a registered nurse with the Henderson County Public Schools, was named the state’s School Nurse Administrator of the Year by the National Association of School Nurses. Reece-Young has worked as a nurse with the system since 2005 and served as a lead nurse since 2016.

• Two regional health systems announced new additions to their physician teams. Pardee UNC Health Care in Hendersonville is adding cardiologist Dr. Leslie Campbell, while breast cancer surgery specialist Dr. Allison Palumbo is joining Harris Regional Hospital in Sylva.

Save the date

• The N.C. Council on Developmental Disabilities hosts a virtual listening session for the state’s Latino community 12:30-2 p.m. Monday, June 22. Registration for the session, input from which will be used to develop the Council’s upcoming five-year plan, is available at avl.mx/7ah.

• Pardee UNC Health Care hosts a free prostate cancer screening from 5:307 p.m. Tuesday, June 30. Men aged 40-75 who have not previously been diagnosed with prostate cancer can schedule an appointment by calling 828-698-7317.

• The Alzheimer’s Association Western North Carolina chapter is offering free virtual educational programs throughout June in recognition of Alzheimer’s and Brain Awareness Month. More information and registration details are available at avl.mx/7aj. X

Re-Imagine Senior Living

More Affordable Rental Retirement Community Givens Gerber Park is pioneering the next generation of affordable housing for 55 year olds and better with a range of one- and two-bedroom rental apartments and beautiful on-campus amenities. Residents can enjoy lunch with friends in our café or walk to nearby shops and restaurants while enjoying breathtaking views of the North Carolina mountains. We welcome you to make the most out of your next chapter at Givens Gerber Park.

Contact Nicole Allen at (828)771-2207 or nallen@givensgerberpark.org to schedule an appointment.

For more information, to download applications, or to view floor plans, go to www.givensgerberpark.org MOUNTAINX.COM

JUNE 17-23, 2020

19

GREEN SCENE

WILD CARD

Foragers navigate public land closures, stay-home mandates

BY GINA SMITH ginasmithnews@gmail.com Heading into the woods and fields to hunt for wild edibles has developed into both a popular pastime and a viable revenue stream for many in Western North Carolina. But in the age of coronavirus quarantine, with stayhome orders, supply-chain worries and a piqued interest in self-sufficiency, there are new considerations — and challenges — for the ancient practice of foraging.

Although gleaning dinner from nature inherently offers some freedom from the social framework, COVID-19’s disruptions still reached many locals who normally take to the outdoors in spring to gather ramps, morels and other seasonal morsels. Governmentmandated park and trail closures forced the Asheville Mushroom Club, which has led mushroom-hunting outings and other fungus-focused activities since 1983, to cancel its popular foraging forays. “It is more difficult to get permits for large groups at the moment,” says club President Suzie Berryhill.

LOCKED OUT

Berryhill points out that foraging beginners, who often stick to major trails, felt the biggest impact from the closures. Many professional foragers, she says, were better off because they could rely on secret spots not dependent on popular access points.

But even longtime pro forager and educator Alan Muskat, founder of the Asheville-based No Taste Like Home foraging tour company, still found himself in a jam this spring. “I could not get

TREASURE HUNT: Participants in No Taste Like Home’s program What’s in My Yard? learn to identify wild edibles without heading into the woods. Photo courtesy of No Taste Like Home to my ramps place,” he says. “At first, I had to get into it from a different road that hadn’t been closed, and I basically bushwhacked using my GPS to find my spot. But then the other road closed, too.”

Fortunately, Muskat was able access his hidden site long enough to collect plenty of the prized wild onions to preserve for his annual stash. “But I know a chef who had trouble getting his ramps himself because of the closures,” he says. “I would imagine that, commercially, even the restaurants didn’t

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JUNE 17-23, 2020

MOUNTAINX.COM

get that stuff. Of course, they were closed down, but they often will get enough for the whole year and then put it up.”

And Doug Elliott, a Rutherford County-based herbalist and storyteller who has been studying, writing and teaching about wild plants since the 1970s, suggests that the shutdowns may have put some foragers off altogether.

“I talked to one friend who was planning on doing a pretty serious foraging adventure and was wanting to go out for a month or so and had to can-

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cel it because everything was closed,” he says.

Berryhill notes that restaurant closures may have presented a bigger challenge for some professional foragers than did limited trail accessibility.

“One restaurant supplier I know who sells both foraged and grown mushrooms said restaurants that were open had reduced orders and were rejecting high-end mushrooms, like foraged morels and chestnut mushrooms, because of cost,” she says. “It is going to take a while for the industry to recov-

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er, and that effect flows down the supply chain in ways people don’t expect.”

NIBBLES AND BITES

With North Carolina now in the second phase of Gov. Roy Cooper’s threephase reopening plan, the Asheville Mushroom Club’s board of directors has scheduled a meeting this month to discuss the status of its forays, with the hope that they can be relaunched in some format in the near future.

“We are erring on the side of caution as many of our members are in highrisk populations due to age or health,” Berryhill explains.

Until in-person activities resume, the club is offering virtual monthly programs to members and producing educational videos and articles to offer via its website. The monthly AMC newsletter also provides guidance and updated information for independent foraging expeditions.

The AMC’s new online offerings have found a broad and eager audience.

Berryhill says membership has grown in recent months, although she can’t say for sure that the upswing is related to COVID-19. “Our membership spike usually hits in late February, just before morel season,” she says. “We have had steady increases for the last few years. I think people are wanting to know where their food comes from, as well as get outside and understand nature a bit better.”

No Taste Like Home’s foraging tours were shut down from mid-March until late May, when the state allowed small group gatherings to resume.

But Rebeka Jopling, the company’s managing director, says there’s been a “surge of interest” since those tours relaunched.

“While we are at about a third of sales for the same time period last year, tourism sales were expected to be closer to 0% for June and only 20% in July.

So we seem to be doing better than expected for the industry in Asheville,” she reports.

During the weeks of lockdown when locals were hunkered down, Jopling says, No Taste Like Home received inquiries about no-contact and at-home tour options. And Muskat saw an opportunity for his company, which normally caters primarily to tourists, to create a new program offering wild-food knowledge literally at locals’ doorsteps.

Beta-tested in April and May, the What’s in My Yard? service brings expert foragers to a client’s home to locate and label a minimum of a dozen wild edibles, as well as toxic plant and mushroom species that should be avoided. Included in the pay-what-you-

can survey is a “treasure map” and list that show where each item can be found on the property.

From there, clients can opt to purchase a $200 contact-free foraging tour of their yard with an expert who will provide detailed discussion about identification and uses for individual items.

“People certainly love the yard survey idea,” says Muskat. “What we’ve done so far has been very well received.”

Regular foraging tours, where the educators are familiar with the location and can be sure of finding a good selection of specimens, have their advantages, Muskat admits. But the yard-based program has benefits that have surprised him.

“Here, there’s the opportunity for familiarity that only comes with practice,” Muskat explains. “When it’s right there, you not only have more motivation, you also have more opportunity to see things over and over, rather than it being basically a one-time thing.”

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

Muskat is offering the yard survey on a sliding scale, a test of the model for broader use as part of the “hunter-gatherer mentality” his business espouses. Foraging, as he sees it, is about more than individual survival; it has the potential to inspire a collective transition to a more equitable and sustainable society.

“Hunter-gatherers are well-known for being fiercely egalitarian. That’s why they’re known for sharing, not hoarding,” Muskat says. “Foraging, then, in this spirit, isn’t just a pleasant pastime: It’s a radical act.”

And this summer, when physically avoiding others is for the greater good, seeking sustenance outdoors could be the ideal activity from both an individual and community standpoint. “This is great for social distancing and increases an interest in what is observed outside,” Berryhill says.

“It seems like one of the safest things you can do is be out in the woods in the fresh air, or in the fields and wandering around,” notes Elliott. Mulberries are nearly ripe, he points out; elderberries are blooming, and blackberries and raspberries should be ready in about a week. “It’s even a way you can hang out with someone and be in nature and stay 6 feet apart and know that you’re probably in the safest place you can be.”

For updates on the Asheville Mushroom Club’s forays and other programs, visit ashevillemushroomclub.org.

Details about No Taste Like Home’s tours and services can be found at notastelikehome.org. X MOUNTAINX.COM

JUNE 17-23, 2020

21

FOOD

FEED BACK

Restaurants for the People initiative supports businesses while feeding people in need

BY KAY WEST kwest@mountainx.com There was star power to spare at the inaugural Chow Chow Culinary Festival in Asheville last September: high-profile local and regional chefs; James Beard Foundation Award nominees; an appearance by JBF 2017 Book of the Year author and Burnsville resident Ronni Lundy; esteemed craftspeople, farmers and makers.

But the spotlight shined brightest on José Andrés, the Spanish-born chef, restaurateur and humanitarian who 10 years ago founded World Central Kitchen, a nonprofit devoted to providing meals in the wake of disasters. He participated in the festival at the invitation of Cúrate and Button & Co. Bagels chef and owner Katie Button, who met her husband and restaurant partner, Felix Meana, when both worked for Andrés in Washington, D.C. Flying in from the Bahamas, where he was overseeing WCK operations in the wake of Hurricane Dorian, the ebullient

GOOD CONNECTION: Food Connection Executive Director Flori Pate, left, picks up meals prepared through a World Central Kitchen initiative from Button & Co. Bagels. Photo by Ted Pate Andrés cooked paella in Pack Park with the Cúrate team and spoke movingly to the crowd about his work.

Chow Chow has been postponed until 2021, but Andrés’ WCK has parachuted into Asheville via Button with his newest initiative, Restaurants for the People. “This program is doing three very important things,” Button explains. “It is putting people back to work, it is putting the supply chain back in order through the purchasing of product, and it is feeding the community where the need is still so great. It is doing that through funds raised

by WCK, and those funds enable those three things.”

In mid-March in response to COVID-19, WCK created Chefs for America, a meal program that partnered with institutions and nonprofits in cities and towns across the country. By May 9 — its eighth week in operation — Chefs for America had deliv-

Thank You FOR VOTING! BEST OF WNC Results coming later this summer!

mountainx.com/bestofwnc 22

JUNE 17-23, 2020

MOUNTAINX.COM

ered more than 6.5 million fresh meals to children, families and seniors in need, with 1 million of those coming from restaurants. Restaurants for America, launched in mid-May, represents Phase 2 of the initiative, a $50 million commitment to help local independent restaurants open and get back to work. The program now includes more than 1,800 restaurants in over 200 cities in 35 states.

“Linton Hopkins reached out to me and said, ‘Hey Katie, you guys should really do this,’” Button says. Hopkins, chef and owner of Atlanta’s Restaurant Eugene and three H&F Burger joints, opened his first H&F Burger outside Atlanta in Asheville last year. Button talked with her operations team and community partners to ascertain their needs.

Button’s staff members began cooking the last week of May and, by week three, were at their goal of producing 1,500 meals a week for distribution through MANNA FoodBank, Haywood Street Congregation’s Downtown Welcome Table and via Food Connection to Southside Kitchen and a curbside drive-thru in Swannanoa. “We had been keeping up with what WCK was doing to mobilize culinary folks to cook for people who need support right now,” says Kara Irani, MANNA’s marketing and communications director.

MANNA’s first delivery was 300 meals to the Community Table in Sylva, paired with its regular shipment of fresh produce and shelf-stable products. “The great thing is these meals are paid for through another initiative and is adding more food to the system,” Irani says. “This is the first time MANNA is doing a prepared food

partnership. Whatever they’re cooking I’m sure will be amazing.”

Button put Matt Brown — hired as the chef for her in-limbo Tillie Hall event space that had been scheduled to open mid-March — in charge of the effort. “Matt is creating a menu for each week,” she explains. “The first week he did roasted pulled pork with collard greens and cornbread, and the second week rice, broccoli and chicken with compound butter.”

Button points out that not only does the program enable her to rehire some employees, but it also benefits the food supply chain by purchasing product rather than asking for donations from businesses also severely impacted by restaurant closures. “WCK pays us a certain amount per meal that covers labor, product and packaging. We can call our suppliers, see what they have and create nutritious, delicious meals at a reasonable cost.”

At Downtown Welcome Table, which pivoted in early March from serving guests in the church’s fellowship hall to distributing boxed meals in the parking lot, banquet steward Dave Holland welcomes the new benefactor. “She called me and said, ‘Let’s do this,’ so we talked it out, and they are bringing us enough food to feed 600 people a week,” he says. “They bring a protein, starch, and a side; we add another side, bread and dessert, then send it out to our folks.”

Flori Pate, co-founder and executive director of Food Connection, came on board when MANNA asked for help distributing 600 more meals a week. “On Thursdays, we pick up 300 meals to take to Southside Kitchen to distribute them through the Asheville Housing Authority,” says Pate. “On Saturdays, we’ll pick up 300 meals to take to Swannanoa for a curbside pickup in the parking lot of Symmetry Financial. The need in rural communities is great and growing — seniors, families and people we have never seen before.

We are thrilled to be looped into this and hope it can continue at least through the summer.”

Button and Meana are currently navigating the complex considerations around how and when to reopen Button & Co. Bagels and Cúrate. “We’ve removed lots of tables in Cúrate to see how it will look and will start with probably dinner only when we do reopen,” Button says. She adds that she plans to keep Brown at the helm of the WCK program as long as needed.

To donate to World Central Kitchen’s Asheville program, fill out the form at donate.wck.org and type #Asheville in the comment section. X

Brain food

TAVERN

Public schools segue to summer feeding programs

Downtown on the Park Eclectic Menu • Over 30 Taps • Patio 15 TV’s • Sports Room • 110” Projector Event Space • Late Night SAME GREA SAME GR T FO O D! EAT PLACE

Our Dining Room is

OPEN 11:30 am - 3:30 pm 4:30 pm - 10 pm Open Until 11 pm Fri. & Sat. Curbside Takeout & Delivery Still Available! #SmartRestart #AshevilleCares HELPING HANDS: Asheville City Schools nutrition staff prepared, packaged and distributed meals to students when buildings were closed due to COVID-19 and will continue through the summer break. Photo courtesy of ACS Since schools took classes online in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, classrooms have sat empty, and once-bustling hallways and raucous gymnasiums have been silent. But in many Western North Carolina school buildings, cafeteria kitchens have never been busier as districts stepped up to continue providing meals to students through the end of the calendar year, then transitioned to summer feeding programs tweaked to meet current needs.

“We have been running meals since schools closed in March,” says AshleyMichelle Thublin, executive director of communications for Asheville City Schools. “The last day of the 2019-20 calendar was Friday, May 29, and we opened our summer meal sites Monday, June 1, so there was no lapse. It was a seamless transition.”

Likewise, Henderson County Public Schools’ last day of classes was technically Friday, June 5, and the district’s Summer Feeding Program kicked in Monday, June 8. “In the past couple of years, we ran our [U.S. Department of Agriculture] Summer Feeding Program from physical sites,” says Molly McGowan Gorsuch, public information officer for Henderson County Public Schools. “We also had a Meals on the Bus route to reach kids who could not get to a physical location due to transportation or safety issues over COVID-19, we moved pretty rapidly from one bus to three, and the numbers that we saw over the school closure will inform what we do over the summer.”

Those numbers are keeping school nutrition staff busy preparing, cooking

and packaging student lunches and breakfasts for weekdays as well as packing extra meals on Fridays to cover weekends. Asheville City Schools expects to serve about 500 lunches and 500 breakfasts a day from its three prep sites — Asheville High School, Asheville Middle School and Isaac Dickson Elementary.

“We served over 50,000 meals while school buildings were shut down and are on target to serve over 90,000 this summer,” Thublin says. ACS distributes grab-and-go meals from 11:30 a.m1:30 p.m. at Klondyke Apartments, Herb Watts Park and Hillcrest Apartments; from 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. at Pisgah View Apartments; and from 1:15-1:45 p.m. at Crowell Apartments; plus a drive-thru pickup at Isaac Dickson Elementary from 1-3 p.m.

In Henderson County, Hendersonville Middle School and Apple Valley Middle School serve as meal prep and pickup sites, and there are three bus delivery routes run by district drivers. “We saw about 700 meals a day being prepared at those schools and expect to increase that by about 20% over the summer,” Gorsuch reports. (For more, visit avl.mx/79d.)

Buncombe County Schools began its summer meals program June 4, combining breakfast and lunch and with modifications to pickup locations. Friday meal packages include enough lunches and breakfasts to cover the weekend.

All meals are free to any child younger than 18. (For more, visit avl.mx/79c.)

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JUNE 17-23, 2020

23

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

A NEW HIGH LONESOME SOUND Moses Sumney discusses Asheville’s impact on his acclaimed sophomore album

BY GRAYSON HAVER CURRIN gcurrin@gmail.com The musician Moses Sumney left Los Angeles for Asheville in June 2018, in part because he knew no one here.

Sure, big-city acquaintances mystified by his decision to relocate to the South at summer’s start told him about pals he should meet, people who might introduce him to this hiking spot or that coffee shop.

But Sumney was looking for the space and silence to write his second album and the vistas that might inspire it — not friends of circumstance.

“I never thought, ‘Oh my God, how am I going to meet people?’ I thought, ‘Sick, there is no one I have to see. What a dream,’” says Sumney, chuckling at a picnic table in Carrier Park and swatting away an early afternoon mosquito. “I like drastic measures.”

Sumney’s two years in Asheville have indeed been the most productive of his career. He has contributed to records by James Blake, Bon Iver and The Cinematic Orchestra. He has played exactly one local show, a surprise performance in January at The Mothlight, where a line snaked around the block amid a light winter rain with folks hoping for the chance to bask in the glory of his glowing voice.

And on May 15, Sumney released the second half of græ, an immersive double album written largely in and around Asheville but recorded with a cadre of collaborators from around the world. græ is so ambitious and imaginative that it suggests its own unified theory of how future music might work — pieces of a dozen-plus idioms woven together in brilliant patterns, a seamless digital quilt that stretches toward forever.

As Sumney synthesizes plunging gothic rock and dazzling folk confessions, lithe soul vocals and daunting electronic collage, he offers a sophisticated self-assessment of the complexities he craves, particularly as a black man — how he can pine for love while coveting the freedom of solitude, or how he can squander energy worrying how others perceive him despite knowing existence is zero-sum. In the first line of the 66-minute opus’s first single, “Virile,” Sumney confesses to having such realizations while lumbering through the Blue Ridge Mountains.

“I lived in a shoebox studio in LA, in a significantly sketchy part of town.

I couldn’t live alone in LA the way I wanted,” says Sumney, a proud introvert 24

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LAX TO AVL: “The things that were paramount to me were being able to afford to live alone, having a yard and either being in the mountains or being very close,” says Asheville transplant Moses Sumney. “There was something spiritual calling me to this place.” Photo by Alexander Black who turned 30 in May. “The things that were paramount to me were being able to afford to live alone, having a yard and either being in the mountains or being very close. There was something spiritual calling me to this place.”

BREAKING OUT OF THE BOX

The middle child of undocumented Ghanaian immigrants, Sumney spent much of his early life in the suburbs of Los Angeles, save for a short stint back in Ghana. His parents were pastors, and Sumney grins visibly beneath his black cloth face mask as he recalls their childhood church camps. He was struck then “by the freedom of the white Christian

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kids,” who had girlfriends or ear piercings, and stunned by the vastness of the surrounding San Bernardino Mountains, a sensation that’s lingered.

Sumney’s family wasn’t artistic, and even though he sang in secret, he didn’t consider himself particularly musical.

The first kid in his family to attend college, he studied creative writing at UCLA. But he slowly slipped into the music industry through networking, lending his otherworldly falsetto to projects by the likes of Beck, Solange and Andrew Bird long before releasing his staggering debut LP, 2017’s Aromanticism. For years, Sumney was considered just a singer, a stylist blessed with a vaporous marvel. His voice could, in an instant, wrap you like a low-lying cloud, deep and drifting, or lift to a high, delicate wisp. It became, he says, a limiting gift.

“There was a lot of working with white dudes who said, ‘He’s got a nice voice. I know what to do with it.’ No, you don’t,” he says. Sitting in the bright park, clad in ballooning black jeans and a ribbed black tank top that hugs his broad chest like a second skin, Sumney unfolds his legs across the table’s bench, as if demonstrating a newfound confidence in claiming space. At 6 feet, 4 inches tall, with rippling arms and hair piled in dreadlocks above sides dyed a brilliant gray, Sumney seems statuesque in the afternoon sun.

“People tried to put me in this box, as just a singer or just an R&B artist or something simpler,” he continues. “They didn’t think I could write.”

But the success of Aromanticism — and the fact that it took him four years to finish his debut — taught Sumney two invaluable lessons. First, he was good enough to trust his instincts. That might involve dismissing the ideas of those with more experience or those with more mainstream visions, but it was clear he was more than a virtuoso singer. When he began making græ in May 2017, the instant he turned Aromanticism in to his label, he understood he had a newfound authority to say “no” to bad ideas and end uncomfortable relationships. “People wanted to be auteurs of my work,” he says. “But that’s my job.”

In turn, Sumney made græ with a dazzling array of talent — singer Jill Scott, producer Oneohtrix Point Never, bassist Thundercat, harpist Brandee Younger and novelist Michael Chabon, to name only a few. From the start, he made it clear that the final decisions and the overriding ego were his.

DISTRACTION-FREE CREATION

A second realization brought him east, to Asheville. In LA, Sumney, who has contended with ADHD his entire life, struggled to maintain focus when surrounded by constant stimuli, especially since he’d launched his career via music-industry networking. There were shows and parties to attend, friends to indulge. In 2014, he actually crashed at an apartment near Asheville to escape LA and write. And in California, he would often retreat toward the Sierra Nevadas to find some headspace. But he couldn’t resist the urge to mingle, so he decided to cut the temptation entirely.

Even his first apartment in Asheville wasn’t quiet enough. When he was in the throes of writing græ, Sumney would decamp to short-term cabin rentals in rural burgs like Weaverville or Mars Hill, turning off his phone and internet access to concentrate on the songs. He would walk in the woods or take joy rides through mountain passes in his Jeep, letting the scenery filter into his songs.

Indeed, græ unfurls like a slow roll around a ridge line with unexpected surprises in sound and sentiment hiding behind every bend.

“I wanted to make a work that spoke to our ability to be diverse and the ambiguity of grayness, of living between margins,” says Sumney. “I wanted to take a color that is so boring and inject it with as much energy as possible.”

Friends still wonder why Sumney lives at the edge of Appalachia, even if Asheville is the cultural hub of a region long pegged for provincial mindsets and recalcitrant mores. But he talks with pride about how Nina Simone, maybe his most distinct musical and emotional muse, grew up less than an hour away in Tryon and took piano lessons in Asheville. He appreciates the complexity of this place and how there’s more here than a stereotype. That idea is the core of græ, after all: There are worlds beneath the surface we see.

“If I feel like I’m being limited, I’m not free. The ultimate success to me is to do whatever I want,” says Sumney, before heading home to finish cleaning his house. He was preparing to host an online screening that night of 13th, Ava DuVernay’s documentary about racial injustice in the U.S. justice system — his way of remotely joining protests across the country in the wake of George Floyd’s killing. “Success to me is freedom.” mosessumney.com X

A laughing matter In the eyes of Hilliary Begley and other Asheville comics, stand-up comedians carry on an ancient and honorable tradition — one that’s especially valuable in times of widespread distress.

“The people that do comedy are the ones that make you think about the real issues, but put it in a perspective to where other people can understand it. Or they’re seeing other people’s perspective in a funny way — the same way there was the court jester for the king,” she says. “He was the only one who was able to talk shit about the king. Nobody else could say it, or they might get their head chopped off — but the comedian, they’re the truth-tellers. They’re the ones that get to make the jokes. And if that is stifled, then we’re in real trouble.”

UNSCRIPTED HIATUS

Restrictions stemming from the COVID19 pandemic have indeed brought the vibrant local comedy scene to a screeching halt. Venues like The Odditorium, The One Stop and The Orange Peel have been closed since mid-March, leaving stand-ups without paid performances or weekly open mic nights to test out new material. As it has with many facets of daily life, the Zoom videoconferencing platform has offered a way for comedians to connect and tell jokes, but it’s quickly become clear that these “shows” are not a comparable substitute for the real thing.

“You still don’t have the vibe from the audience or the immediate reaction that you need for a certain joke, so it’s hard to tell what works and what doesn’t work,” says Peter Smith-McDowell. “The joy of stand-up comedy is you get the result immediately. You get the feedback as soon as you say it, so it’s up to you to determine, ‘Did that work? Will it work next time? Do I need to change it? Was it my delivery? Was it the structure of the joke? Did they laugh when I wanted them to laugh? Did they laugh somewhere else?’ It’s the ‘chasing the dragon’ of stand-up comedy — it’s the fun part for us.”

Moira Goree agrees with the limitations of Zoom comedy events, which she equates to “throwing jokes down a hole.”

The transgender stand-up says the main question that local comedians have been asking each other during the COVID-19 shutdown is, “Have you been writing material?” Citing “Saturday Night Live” cast members’ advice that anything written in the middle of the series’ summer break is going to stink by the time the show returns, she’s been focusing on dramatic writing and creating an account of her experiences during the pandemic, rather than filtering it through the lens of comedy. The doc-

Asheville stand-up comedians prepare comebacks as COVID-19 restrictions lift

POWER IN NUMBERS: “I think after COVID, we’re going to get a run of a lot of amateur comedians coming into the open mic,” says Asheville-based stand-up Peter Smith-McDowell. “We’re going to have to fight for our own spots at our own open mics, but the more people, the merrier. We’ll show them how to do it. Sit back and learn and don’t overthink and just go with the flow.” Photo by Corey the Gardener umentation allows her “to really reckon with” herself while also creating a record that can easily be used for future jokes.

“It’s for sure a mine,” she says. “It’ll be 20 pages of this one thing that happened today, and then six months later, I’ll go back and be like, ‘Huh! That line’s kinda funny.’ And that’ll turn into five minutes of material. But it is keeping that record and being like, ‘Oh yeah! That’s how I was feeling back then.’ And once you’ve sucked all the venom out of all of that, then you can actually make it funny.”

THE FUTURE OF COMEDY

The time for Goree to utilize her journal may soon be here. The One Stop, home to the weekly Wednesday Disclaimer Stand-Up Lounge Comedy Open Mic, is scheduled to reopen Friday, June 26, to coincide with the expiration of the state’s Phase 2 reopening plan, “following all state and local policies, as well as new industry

standards,” which include “requiring face coverings, sanitization stations and applying social distancing.” But since comedy is “such a particular event” involving numerous performers, One Stop general manager Micah Wheat says the venue will start off with local and regional music acts and aim to reintroduce stand-up in late July or early of August. In the meantime, he and his staff are working with open mic host Cary Goff to find safe solutions that won’t detract from the traditional stand-up experience.

“Are we going to wear masks when we go back?” Begley posits. “Or are we going to bring our own sanitized microphones or something? We’re going to be speaking directly into a microphone and then sharing it with all the other people that perform.”

“That’s better than the idea I had,” Smith-McDowell replies. “Which is just put a condom over the microphone.” Begley laughs, then collects herself and continues: “That would even be weird — with a mask

on trying to perform and nobody can see my facial expressions? It’s just not going to hit the same. My eyes are expressive — but shit! And are [audience members] going to be muffled with masks where we’re not going to be able to hear them laughing or see if they’re even smiling?”

As the national comedy scene gradually returns and comics knock off the rust of the past few months, Goree predicts that everyone will be “shaky as hell,” including famous stand-ups like John Mulaney.

One thing she and her peers say not to expect, however, is for stand-ups to avoid potentially controversial subjects that have arisen in recent months, be it COVIDrelated or stemming from the Black Lives Matter movement’s protests against police brutality.

“You’ve just gotta understand it. You’ve gotta do your research. Not all opinions are equal — there are informed opinions, and I think that those are good jokes,” Goree says. “You can talk about anything, but you’ve got to personally have a take on it and then know that you’re doing right by the people who would hear it. If I talk about race as a white person and I’m not making black people laugh about it and people who are oppressed by the situation of race in this country, I don’t want to tell that joke.

It’s a shitty joke.”

Begley agrees, noting that, similar to current issues with law enforcement, standups “don’t need comedy police, either,” while Smith-McDowell sees brave humor as a potential agent for lasting change.

“You can’t be afraid to talk about certain things — it just depends on how you say that,” he says. “I feel like nothing should never be said in comedy. Comedy should always try to find a light in a painful situation, try to find a light in a storm. So, going with the idea of, ‘No, you can’t talk about that,’ is sacrilegious to me.”

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Battle lost Local author explores an alternative to the Civil War In February 2019, David Sullivan was on his way to a performance at Flat Rock Playhouse when he noticed a historical marker on the side of the road. The plaque stated that Christopher Memminger, secretary of the treasury of the Confederacy, was buried at the nearby St. John in the Wilderness Cemetery. Sullivan took the sign as, well, a sign: The former corporate communication specialist turned filmmaker would try his hand at historical fiction.

Except Sullivan wasn’t interested in revisiting the actual Civil War. Instead, he wanted to explore how the conflict, which claimed an estimated 750,000 lives, could have been avoided. His debut novel, Audacious: The Plan to Prevent the American Civil War, offers readers an alternative history void of carnage and loss.

As Sullivan describes it, his book follows Blanton Caine, a fictitious Army lawyer and veteran of the Mexican-American War. By early 1861, with the U.S. on the brink of secession and bloodshed, President Abraham Lincoln commissions Caine to find a peaceful solution to reunite the country and abolish slavery.

Caine employs war games as one strategy. He also organizes leadership forums and peace talks in the mountains of Western North Carolina.

Sullivan says his protagonist’s mission is fueled both by a sense of patriotic duty as well as a desperate hope to spare the country’s young men from the horrors of war.

Despite the work’s fictitious bend, Sullivan’s scholarship was exten-

sive. “I’ve done over 7 feet worth of research,” he notes. When the materials are stacked, he continues, “it looks like [retired NBA center] Yao Ming, in terms of height.”

Along with his considerable reading list, Sullivan used a text analysis program to create personality profiles for some of the book’s historical figures, including Memminger, Confederate Vice President Alexander Stephens and Confederate Army Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest. These profiles, the author explains, helped him understand how these men might respond to Caine’s proposed plans.

Sullivan also consulted historian Amy Murrell Taylor, winner of the 2019 Frederick Douglass Book Prize for her work, Embattled Freedom: Journeys through the Civil War’s Slave Refugee Camps. In his own story, Sullivan notes, the federal government purchases the freedom of the nearly 4 million enslaved people living in the South. In devising this scenario, Sullivan continues, Murrell Taylor helped him better understand the types of living situations the formerly enslaved would have desired.

The psychological damage brought on by slavery prompted Sullivan to have the freemen in his book live in homes without windows. “They were afraid of people looking in on what they were doing,” Sullivan points out. Nontraditional family housing is also featured in Audacious. “Slavery tore apart families,” the author says.

“Slaves formed very strong family bonds with people that they weren’t actually related to. And so group hous-

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PAST SOLUTIONS: Writer David Sullivan says the peace plans offered in his debut novel were available solutions in 1860 and could have prevented the Civil War. “But the people involved then were either too emotional or too dogmatic to be flexible,” the author says. Photo courtesy of Sullivan ing became something that would be very important to them.”

Lastly, in preparation for writing Audacious, Sullivan examined how other countries and world leaders have approached racial healing. “I took lessons from South Africa,” he says. “Bishop [Desmond] Tutu and Nelson Mandela were incredibly wise in their approach to people who had formally enforced apartheid in very harsh ways. They gave them a chance to express their regret on a volunteer basis. And so that’s one of the subplots [in Audacious]: How do we heal this nation and look this ugliness straight in the eye at the same time?”

It’s a question America faced in the 1860s and one that is still being asked today. “If anything, the book is encouraging that some good things can happen, but not if we’re isolated,” Sullivan says. “A lot can be accomplished if we are willing to rely on people outside of our country who have had different experiences and a different knowledge base.”

To purchase a copy of Audacious: The Plan to Prevent the American Civil War ($19.95), contact Sullivan at jdmsullivan@att.net. A portion of all proceeds will benefit Historic Flat Rock, Inc. X

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MOVIE REVIEWS THIS WEEK’S CONTRIBUTORS

Hosted by the Asheville Movie Guys EDWIN ARNAUDIN earnaudin@mountainx.com HHHHH

BRUCE STEELE bcsteele@gmail.com Melissa Williams

= MAX RATING

Miss Juneteenth HHHS

DIRECTOR: Channing Godfrey Peoples PLAYERS: Nicole Beharie, Alexis Chikaeze, Kendrick Sampson DRAMA NOT RATED

Da 5 Bloods HHHHS DIRECTOR: Spike Lee PLAYERS: Chadwick Boseman, Delroy Lindo, Jonathan Majors WAR/DRAMA RATED R Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now. Oliver Stone’s Platoon. Michael Cimino’s The Deer Hunter. Stanley Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket.

Now add Spike Lee’s Da 5 Bloods to the sadly short list of great filmmakers who have made great films about the Vietnam War. Arguably the director/co-writer’s best-looking work to date — and possibly the most impressive use of Netflix money thus far — Lee’s second war film is a vast improvement over the plodding, overlong World War II dud Miracle at St. Anna (2008), as well as the last time he used “Da” in a film’s title — the failed low-budget Ganja & Hess remake, Da Sweet Blood of Jesus (2014).

Tapping into Lee’s fascination with history, Da 5 Bloods begins by tossing viewers right into the period fire via a crash course in American unrest in the years leading up to and immediately following the Vietnam War, told through powerful, occasionally unsettling archival clips, complete with straightforward informative text in the frames’ lower corners.

The lesson complete, a dissolve stylistically brings us to modern day Ho Chi Minh City, where titular Vietnam vets Otis (Clarke Peters), Paul (Delroy Lindo), Melvin (Isiah Whitlock Jr.) and Eddie

(Broadway vet Norm Lewis) reunite to retrieve the locker of gold they buried during the war — under the Pentagonapproved guise of bringing home the remains of their fallen squad leader, Norman (Chadwick Boseman).

Rounded out, to their surprise, by the last-minute addition of Paul’s son David (Jonathan Majors, The Last Black Man in San Francisco), the old friends begin their mission, and as with Lee’s best ensemble-driven films, the group features a combustible combination of disparate backgrounds that are bound to explode in one way or another.

At appropriate intervals throughout their journey, Lee flashes back to the Bloods’ discovery of the treasure and their subsequent ambush by the Vietcong, revealing a knack for action filmmaking that he’s rarely showcased in his 30-plus year filmography.

The film’s remarkable attention to detail culminates in an unexpected number of emotional punches during the actionpacked finale and a coda, with impeccable timing given the recent efforts of the Black Lives Matter movement. Even though Lee has remained cutting-edge throughout his career, especially when it comes to race relations, his latest work’s topicality is a wonder to behold and is by far the year’s best film to date.

Available to stream via Netflix

Read the full review at ashevillemovies.com REVIEWED BY EDWIN ARNAUDIN EARNAUDIN@MOUNTAINX.COM

Much of writer/director Channing Godfrey Peoples’ feature debut, Miss Juneteenth, could be called shopworn: A young mother whose big dreams were derailed by becoming a teen parent tries to force her feisty, reluctant daughter to live out those desires.

But this time, the story feels different. For starters, it opens with an a cappella, heartfelt rendition of “Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing,” the black national anthem. And secondly, the setting is a working-class, low-income black suburb of Fort Worth, Texas, where eating barbecued meat is a daily ritual and people still smoke indoors.

The movie has an extremely textured quality that feels genuine and almost tactile: yellowing old photographs, chipping wall paint, creaky screen doors and sagging couches that have absorbed decades of naps. It feels like little has changed here, and rarely does.

And because it’s Texas and because the movie is centered on black people, the annual Juneteenth celebration is bigger than the Fourth of July. The day marks June 19, 1865, when enslaved black people in Texas were freed, even though the Emancipation Proclamation had ended slavery in the country more than two years before.

The festivities also underpin the film’s annual Miss Juneteenth pageant, won in 2004 by the radiantly beautiful Turquoise Jones (Nicole Beharie, 42), who works multiple jobs to ensure a better life for her equally beautiful, often ungrateful, 15-year-old daughter Kai (newcomer Alexis Chikaeze).

Turquoise pushes Kai to become a pageant participant, in hopes that she will win and secure a full scholarship to college. She’s equally strict and loving toward her daughter and is adamant that Kai not become pregnant, as she did, and lose a chance at higher education and security. As folks often remind Turquoise — including her alcoholic, evangelical mother — “You won that thing. What good did it do you?”

Ali McGhee

Melissa Myers

AVAILABLE VIA FINEARTSTHEATRE.COM (FA) GRAILMOVIEHOUSE.COM (GM) 2040 (NR) HHHS(GM) Alice (NR) HHH (FA) Beanpole (R) HHHS(FA) Beyond the Visible: Hilma af Klint (NR) HHHS (FA) The Booksellers (NR) HHHS(FA) Crescendo (NR) HHHS (GM) Diana Kennedy: Nothing Fancy (NR) HHHHH (GM) Fantastic Fungi (NR) HHHH (FA) Fourteen (NR) HHHH (FA) The Hottest August (NR) H (FA) Joan of Arc (NR) HHHS(GM) Lucky Grandma (NR) HHHH (FA, GM) Military Wives (PG-13) HHH (FA) Miss Juneteenth (NR) HHH (GM) Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and The Band (R) HHHH (FA) Pahokee (NR) HHHHS(FA) The Painter and the Thief (NR) HHHH (FA) Papicha (NR) HHH (FA) Proud (NR) HHH (FA) Shirley (R) HHHHS (FA) Slay the Dragon (PG-13) HHHH (FA) Someone, Somewhere (NR) HHHH (FA) Sometimes Always Never (PG-13) HHHH (GM) Sorry We Missed You (NR) HHHHS(FA) Spaceship Earth (NR) HHHS (FA) The Surrogate (NR) HHHHS (FA) The Times of Bill Cunningham (NR) HHHHS (FA) Up from the Streets — New Orleans: The City of Music (NR) HHHH (GM) Vitalina Varela (NR) HHHHS (FA) The Whistlers (NR) HHHH (FA) The Woman Who Loves Giraffes (NR) HHHHH (FA)

Miss Juneteenth feels a bit slow at times and has an inconsistent narrative drive — after all, Kai doesn’t even want to be in the pageant, so it’s hard to root for her sulkily “trying” to win it — but Beharie is so good it almost doesn’t matter. You have a sense that no matter what, Kai will be fine because Turquoise is her mother. All along, you’re actually rooting for Turquoise to notch another win, so she can finally put that sparkly old crown up on a shelf and live out an even better dream.

REVIEWED BY MELISSA WILLIAMS

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M OVI E R EVI EWS

Proud HHH

DIRECTOR: Philippe Faucon PLAYERS: Stanislas Nordey, Samuel Theis, Frédéric Pierrot FOREIGN FILM/DRAMA NOT RATED Leave it to the French to make an earnest movie dramatizing the struggle for LGBTQ equality over the past four decades and to make the main character a bit of a jerk. Victor, who’s 17 at the start of this three-part film and 49 at the end, has a temper, holds a grudge and often can’t see past his own needs. In short, the filmmakers seem to be saying even jackasses deserve equal rights.

Victor isn’t a terrible person, he’s just self-centered and needs to be coaxed into doing the right thing — so maybe he’s a stand-in for practically everyone in the world, particularly those who needed persuading over the years to back LGBTQ rights. We meet Victor when he’s a 17-year-old high school senior (played by Benjamin Voisin), having a covert affair with a schoolmate of Algerian descent while dating a sweet blond girl in public. Both he and his secret boyfriend work for Victor’s father, Charles (the excellent, intense Frédéric Pierrot), a foreman on a construction site — thus setting up a tumultuous coming-out story.

This first of three 50-minute episodes is set in 1981, and the next two installments take place in 1999 and finally 2013, when same-sex marriage is on the verge of legalization. Each episode focuses on one aspect of Victor’s life, and most of the characters from 1981 age and evolve with him, including Serge (Stanislas Nordey), the older man who teenage Victor meets in the cruising area of a park.

Unfortunately, Proud takes itself so seriously that it neglects to include much joy. It’s not a downer — victories are won, wounds heal, relationships deepen — but depictions of pleasure and romance are few. Even the frank sex scenes most often dramatize what’s missing rather than what’s being discovered. Still, Proud could make for a good Pride Month viewing party or three-course reminder on what young people have to go through even today — both LGBTQ youths and the children raised by LGBTQ parents.

REVIEWED BY BRUCE STEELE BCSTEELE@GMAIL.COM

Sometimes Always Never HHHH DIRECTOR: Carl Hunter PLAYERS: Bill Nighy, Sam Riley COMEDY/MYSTERY RATED PG-13 28

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What happens when mourning echoes through three generations? Sometimes Always Never, the feature narrative debut from British director Carl Hunter, explores the fragility and strength of a family missing a part of itself. Shot through with wry humor and filled with gorgeous British landscapes and creative animated sequences (mostly involving high-scoring Scrabble words), this understated, endearing film reveals that family — whether literally or as a word in Scrabble — is worth more than the sum of its parts.

Alan (Bill Nighy, playing up his brand of stoic sarcasm) lost a son, Michael, almost two decades before the narrative opens and has spent his life searching for him between bouts of working as a tailor. We meet him and his remaining son, the shy, humble Peter (Sam Riley, Maleficent) traveling to identify a body that may or may not be Michael.

Peter has a family of his own — sweet, bubbly wife Sue (Alice Low, Black Mirror: Bandersnatch) and moody, video game-addicted teenage son Jack (Louis Healy, British soap opera “Emmerdale”) — but he and his father have yet to heal the widening rift between them that opened when Michael walked out in the middle of a heated Scrabble game, during a fight over the word “zo.” (It is a valid word, by the way, and is defined as a cross between a yak and a cow.)

Peter’s and Michael’s mom died when they were young, and we gather early on that being raised by the opinionated and occasionally abrasive Alan wasn’t always a picnic. But Alan’s gruffness conceals a caring soul. When he moves in with Peter’s family for an extended stay, he sleeps in Jack’s room, where he takes over the computer (to play Scrabble, naturally). He also ends up sharing nuggets of family history — we learn, in a hilarious bunk bed split-screen shot, that Jack’s great-grandmother was a “parttime freelance coal miner” — and wardrobe tips, helping Jack win the girl of his dreams with a total makeover, complete with instructions on how to wear a suit jacket properly. (The key tip is also the film’s title.)

This quiet movie is propelled forward more by its characters than the sense of mystery it tries to build as to Michael’s whereabouts, but the ending is still a sweet and satisfying payoff. The rest of the film is filled with very funny moments, including when Alan, masquerading as an amateur Scrabble player, hustles another guest at an inn, plus charmingly imperfect family vignettes and beautiful, seemingly endless shots of undeveloped natural spaces, among them beaches, fields and forests where human figures stand small and lonely as

they search for one another. It turns out they might be closer than they think.

REVIEWED BY ALI MCGHEE ALIMCGHEE@GMAIL.COM

The Surrogate HHHHS DIRECTOR: Jeremy Hersh PLAYERS: Jasmine Batchelor, Chris Perfetti, Sullivan Jones DRAMA NOT RATED Surrogate parenthood is a complex world to navigate for all parties involved, even when everything goes according to plan. In his feature debut, writer/director Jeremy Hersh explores one such situation through a story rife with complications, leading to introspective ruminations on a variety of topics for characters and viewers alike.

Jess Harris (TV actor Jasmine Batchelor) is delighted to be an egg donor and surrogate mother for her best friend Josh (Chris Perfetti, The Night Of) and his husband Aaron (Sullivan Jones, The Looming Tower). However, when prenatal testing reveals that the child will be born with Down syndrome, all three progressive late-20somethings are shaken with the difficult path ahead and struggle in knowing how to proceed.

The Surrogate is a philosophical and sociological quagmire, and the moral questions presented by the premise alone are ripe for debate and discussion.

The only detail undermining its greatness is that Hersh merely implies that Jess is close enough to the married couple to want to take on such a life-altering role. While character development is particularly lacking as it pertains to their relationship, the chemistry between the performers nearly compensates for this flaw and doesn’t take away from the aim of the film, which is for viewers to consider the ethical dilemmas that are raised.

Jess’ character, however, is sufficiently well-written to convince viewers of her motivations and conflicted feelings, and Batchelor adeptly plays through these complex emotions from start to finish.

The Surrogate thrillingly raises more questions than it answers and is an exercise in the exploration of morality and decisions surrounding pregnancy, birth, disability, prenatal technology, ethics and friendship. It’s sure to give viewers plenty to think about long after the credits roll.

REVIEWED BY MELISSA MYERS MELISSA.L.MYERS@GMAIL.COM

“Why are they publishing this Crier rubbish?” you may be asking. We certainly are. The rest of this edition of Mountain Xpress can’t help but show the tough times WNC is facing. Here’s one little spot in the paper where we offer a bit of levity, to possibly brighten someone’s day, poking a bit of fun at the outrageousness of it all.

‘Schrodinger’s schools’ prepare for infinite COVID-19 reopening scenarios While recent guidance from Gov. Roy Cooper has instructed schools to prepare for three different COVID-19 reopening scenarios, local education leaders aren’t content to stop at a trio of plans. Through the power of quantum mechanics, the Asheville City School system is staying flexible for anything that might happen with the pandemic — literally anything.

“Basically, we put the school in a gigantic black box, so no one can see inside,” explains Professor Luke A. Way. “Because there’s no outside observer to confirm reality, all possible realities are simultaneously taking place inside the box, from social distancing in the classroom to adequate funding for arts programs!”

New ACS superintendent Irma Geddon was quick to point out that the so-called “Schrodinger’s schools” have many other benefits. “Our science classes might be taught by a time-traveling Einstein, or our drama club might be coming up with a masterpiece to rival Shakespeare,” she notes. “You know what they say: If you want to boost your academic mission, don’t collapse the quantum superposition.”

However, Way stopped Geddon short of claiming that quantum mechanics could fix the system’s worst-in-state racial achievement gaps. “Our models show there’s no possible universe where that’s going to happen,” he says.

Not satisfied with “taking down the local hero,” Zapruder aims to expand his campaign nationally and seek revenge on statues honoring other writers who “wasted [his] time in class with their big dumb symbols and metaphors.”

“Hans Christian Andersen? Not American and probably not a Christian. Edgar Allan Poe? Drug addict, pedophile. Mark Twain?

Fake name and not as funny as he thinks he is,” Zapruder says.

“Where’s the monument to R.L. Stine, Where’s Waldo? or the Magic Tree House lady? These are titans of our nation’s printed-word history and I won’t rest until they’re immortalized in bronze — or at the very least copper!”

Zapruder’s fourth self-published “adult coloring book” is slated to hit his website’s store in August.

Cooper’s Western Residence raided by ALE

Monument mania comes for Wolfe statue

North Carolina’s top executive was led away in handcuffs by heavily armed Alcohol Law Enforcement agents during a daring midnight raid on an illicit bar Cooper was operating out of the basement of his Western Residence in Asheville. ALE spokesperson Anita Bier says the governor was “hoist with his own tankard,” as Cooper has prohibited bars from operating to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Bier described the scene inside the residence as “chaotic,” with Republican General Assembly members popping Jello shots off a copy of the vetoed state budget and Democrats chanting “Share With Asheville City Council unanimously adopting a joint resolu- the wealth” as they passed around a handle of Madison County’s tion with Buncombe County to remove Confederate monuments finest. “I will say the use of red Solo cups was a responsible way downtown, state Rep. Gerard Zapruder (R-Henderson) is making to avoid viral transmission from shared glassware,” Bier remarked. advances on his own long-gestating pet project. The Etowah native says he’s “striking while the iron is hot” and is drafting legislation A visibly inebriated Cooper was unapologetic as he was escorted to have the Look Homeward, Angel statue relocated from Hender- into a waiting ALE squad car. “If you had to put up with [Dr.] Mandy [Cohen, state secretary of health and human services] and sonville’s Oakdale Cemetery.

His rationale? Post-traumatic stress disorder from being forced Mike [Sprayberry, state emergency preparedness director] every damn day for three months, you’d need a hit of the sauce too,” to read Thomas Wolfe’s “stupid novel” in high school. the governor says. “They talk about the three Ws so much, I had “What drove me crazy is he wouldn’t call it Asheville. Instead, he to add a fourth: Watermelon vodka!” goes with this ‘Altamont’ bull-hockey. What a wuss!” Zapruder says.

“And don’t get me started on him changing all the names. Mama As of press time, Rep. Chuck McGrady (R-Henderson), who always told us if you’re gonna say something about somebody, co-chairs the House Alcoholic Beverage Control committee, remains do it to their face. What he did, it’s just so … literary.” passed out on Cooper’s couch.

MOUNTAINX.COM

JUNE 17-23, 2020

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FREEWILL ASTROLOGY ARIES (March 21-April 19): My Aries friend Lavinia told me, “The fight I’m enjoying most lately is my fight to resist the compulsion to fight.” I invite you to consider adopting that attitude for the foreseeable future. Now and then, you Rams do seem to thrive on conflict, or at least use it to achieve worthy deeds — but the coming weeks will not be one of those times. I think you’re due for a phase of sweet harmony. The more you cultivate unity and peace and consensus, the healthier you’ll be. Do you dare act like a truce-maker, an agreement-broker and a connoisseur of rapport?

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): “The answers you get depend upon the questions you ask,” wrote physicist and philosopher Thomas Kuhn. That’s always true, of course, but it’s especially true for you right now. I recommend that you devote substantial amounts of your earthy intelligence to the task of formulating the three most important questions for you to hold at the forefront of your awareness during the rest of 2020. If you do, I suspect you will ultimately receive answers that are useful, interesting and transformative.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): “A finished person is a boring person,” writes author Anna Quindlan. I agree! Luckily, you are quite unfinished, and thus not at all boring — especially these days. More than ever before, you seem willing to treat yourself as an art project that’s worthy of your creative ingenuity — as a work-in-progress that’s open to new influences and fresh teachings. That’s why I say your unfinishedness is a sign of good health and vitality. It’s delightful and inspiring. You’re willing to acknowledge that you’ve got a lot to learn and more to grow. In fact, you celebrate that fact; you exult in it; you regard it as a key part of your ever-evolving identity.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): “To hell with pleasure that’s haunted by fear,” wrote Cancerian author Jean de La Fontaine. I’ll make that one of my prayers for you in the coming weeks. It’s a realistic goal you can achieve and install as a permanent improvement in your life. While you’re at it, work on the following prayers, as well: 1. To hell with bliss that’s haunted by guilt. 2. To hell with joy that’s haunted by worry. 3. To hell with breakthroughs that are haunted by debts to the past. 4. To hell with uplifts that are haunted by other people’s pessimism.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Experiment #1: As you take a walk in nature, sing your five favorite songs from beginning to end, allowing yourself to fully feel all the emotions those tunes arouse in you. Experiment #2: Before you go to sleep on each of the next 11 nights, ask your dreams to bring you stories like those told by the legendary Scheherazade, whose tales were so beautiful and engaging that they healed and improved the lives of all those who heard them. Experiment #3: Gaze into the mirror and make three promises about the gratifying future you will create for yourself during the next 12 months.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Vincent van Gogh’s painting The Starry Night is one of the world’s most treasured paintings. It has had a prominent place in New York’s Museum of Modern Art since 1941. If it ever came up for sale it would probably fetch over $100 million. But soon after he created this great masterpiece, van Gogh himself called it a “failure.” He felt the stars he’d made were too big and abstract. I wonder if you’re engaging in a comparable underestimation of your own.

Are there elements of your life that are actually pretty good, but you’re not giving them the credit and appreciation they deserve? Now’s a good time to reconsider and re-evaluate.

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JUNE 17-23, 2020

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Now is a favorable time to make adjustments in how you allocate your attention — to reevaluate what you choose to focus on. Why? Because some people, issues, situations and experiences may not be worthy of your intense care and involvement, and you will benefit substantially from redirecting your fine intelligence in more rewarding directions. To empower your efforts, study these inspirational quotes: “Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity.” — philosopher Simone Weil. “Attention is the natural prayer of the soul.” — philosopher Nicolas Malebranche.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Scorpio poet Marianne Moore’s poem “O To Be a Dragon,” begins with the fantasy, “If I, like Solomon, could have my wish . . .” What comes next? Does Moore declare her desire to be the best poet ever? To be friends with smart, interesting, creative people?

To be admired and gossiped about for wearing a tricorn hat and black cape as she walked around Greenwich Village near her home? Nope. None of the above. Her wish: “O to be a dragon, a symbol of the power of Heaven — of silk-worm size or immense; at times invisible. Felicitous phenomenon!”

In accordance with astrological omens, I invite you to be inspired by Moore in the coming weeks.

Make extravagant wishes for lavish and amusing powers, blessings and fantastic possibilities.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): “Poems, like dreams, are a sort of royal road to the unconscious,” writes author Erica Jong. “They tell you what your secret self cannot express.” I invite you to expand that formula so it’s exactly suitable for you in the coming weeks. My sense is that you are being called to travel the royal road to your unconscious mind so as to discover what your secret self has been unable or unwilling to express. Poems and dreams might do the trick for you, but so might other activities.

For example: sexual encounters between you and a person you respect and love; or an intense night of listening to music that cracks open the portal to the royal road. Any others? What will work best for you?

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): “We must combine the toughness of the serpent and the softness of the dove, a tough mind and a tender heart.” Capricorn hero Martin Luther King Jr. said that, and now I’m conveying it to you. In my astrological opinion, his formula is a strategy that will lead you to success in the coming weeks. It’ll empower you to remain fully open and receptive to the fresh opportunities flowing your way, while at the same time you’ll remain properly skeptical about certain flimflams and delusions that may superficially resemble those fresh opportunities.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): “If it makes you nervous — you’re doing it right,” says the daring musician and actor Donald Glover. Personally, I don’t think that’s true in all situations. I’ve found that on some occasions, my nervousness stems from not being fully authentic or being less than completely honest. But I do think Glover’s formula fully applies to your efforts in the coming weeks, Aquarius. I hope you will try new things that will be important to your future and/or work to master crucial skills you have not yet mastered. And if you’re nervous as you carry out those heroic feats, I believe it means you’re doing them right.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Piscean author Patricia Hampl understands a lot about the epic tasks of trying to know oneself and be oneself. She has written two memoirs, and some of her other writing draws from her personal experiences, as well. And yet she confesses, “Maybe being oneself is always an acquired taste.” She suggest that it’s often easier to be someone you’re not; to adopt the ways of other people as your own; to imitate what you admire rather than doing the hard work of finding out the truth about yourself. That’s the bad news, Pisces.

The good news is that this year has been and will continue to be a very favorable time to ripen into the acquired taste of being yourself. Take advantage of this ripening opportunity in the coming weeks!

MOUNTAINX.COM

MARKETPLACE

BY ROB BREZSNY

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6 “That’s enough for me” 11 Exclamation just before and after “just”

14 Socially dominant 15 Six Flags Great Adventure roller coaster with “explosive” speed

edited by Will Shortz 16 Bar offering with “double” and “triple” varieties 17 Protection offered for a traveler in a dangerous area 19 Flanders of “The Simpsons” 20 Bygone TV feature 21 LP, e.g.

22 Denim 24 Group of Greek women 28 Word after “pop-up” or “drop-down” 29 Author with a son named Christopher Robin 30 Emmy-winning actress Uzo ___ 33 N.L. East team, on scoreboards 34 Ending with herbi- or insecti35 Architectural designer Maya 36 Member of the Apple family 40 Served fare 41 Satyr’s stare 43 ... --- ...

44 Big name in name tags

No. 0513 46 Back after cancellation 48 Top-notch 50 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, etc.

55 Class act?

56 Third rank of the peerage 57 Kind of poker 58 ___ 9000, figure in “2001: A Space Odyssey” 59 Canapé, e.g.

62 Mad state 63 Key in 64 9-to-5 work 65 Hip-hop artist whose name once ended with “tha Kyd” 66 Like some shaded spots 67 Brains

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1 Soaks in the sun’s rays 2 South American plain 3 Not loath to do 4 Phat 5 Luck, quaintly 6 As found 7 Rapper ___ Elliott

puzzle by Benjamin Kramer 8 Opposite of legato 9 Tiny fraction of a joule 10 Foot gunk 11 Succeed in all one’s endeavors, so to speak 12 Question whose answer can go almost anywhere 13 Some bills or chewing gum 18 Tennis player’s chance to hold serve 23 For the ages 25 Criticize harshly, with “out” 26 Angel hair accompaniment?

27 Thin-sounding 30 Standoffish 31 High mucketymuck 32 Like a map on a geography exam 33 Ones feeling the crunch?

37 Big part of a Risk board 38 Tour events 39 Cartoonist Bob who co-created Batman

42 Me, myself and I 45 Lush green vegetation

52 Kershner who directed “The Empire Strikes Back”

47 Stand-up performance?

53 Makes, as bread

48 Put on the line

54 Any member of Abba

49 World capital at around the same latitude as St. Petersburg 51 Work for doctors, lawyers and detectives

58 ___ and hers 60 Lennon’s lady 61 This puzzle’s clues have two of them

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS NY TIMES PUZZLE

A S A P L O S E T UR K E S K A B A R B O R E O A L S O S E T T S A UR S P L A N A U T O C L E O S L UR P

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