Mountain Xpress 06.19.24

FEATURES

GONE FISHING

Walking

Western North Carolina tourism officials are concerned that renovations to a local trout hatchery could send the fishing-related tourism industry off a ledge. Others in the region are less concerned, despite the fact that the upcoming construction project will diminish trout stockings in local rivers by two-thirds.

COVER PHOTO by Jonathon Gruenke; courtesy of N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission

COVER DESIGN Scott Southwick

PUBLISHER &

Jeff Fobes

ASSISTANT PUBLISHER: Susan Hutchinson

MANAGING EDITOR: Thomas Calder

EDITORS:

Lisa Allen, Gina Smith, Jessica Wakeman

ARTS & CULTURE EDITOR: Thomas Calder

OPINION

EDITOR: Tracy Rose

STAFF REPORTERS: Lisa Allen, Edwin Arnaudin, Thomas Calder, Justin McGuire, Pat Moran, Greg Parlier, Brooke Randle, Gina Smith, Jessica Wakeman

COMMUNITY CALENDAR & CLUBLAND: Braulio Pescador-Martinez

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS: Jon Elliston, Mindi Friedwald, Peter Gregutt, Rob Mikulak

REGULAR CONTRIBUTORS: Oby Arnold, Mark Barrett, Eric Brown, Carmela Caruso, Cayla Clark, Kristin D’Agostino, Brionna Dallara, Kiesa Kay, Storms Reback, Kay West

PHOTOGRAPHERS:

Staff: Cindy Kunst Intern: Caleb Johnson

ADVERTISING, ART & DESIGN MANAGER: Susan Hutchinson

LEAD DESIGNER: Scott Southwick

GRAPHIC DESIGNERS: Tina Gaafary, Olivia Urban

MARKETING ASSOCIATES: Sara Brecht, Scott Mermel

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES: Hinton Edgerton, Jeff Fobes, Mark Murphy, Scott Southwick WEB: Brandon Tilley BOOKKEEPER: Amie Fowler

ADMINISTRATION & BILLING: Hinton Edgerton, Mark Murphy

DISTRIBUTION: Susan Hutchinson, Cindy Kunst

DISTRIBUTION DRIVERS: Ashley Alms, Corey Biskind, Tracy Houston, John McKay, Henry Mitchell, Courtney Israel Nash, Joey Nash, Carl & Debbie Schweiger, Gary Selnick, Noah Tanner

Celebrating protest and democracy

I believe the replacement for the Vance Monument should celebrate protest. I believed that in 2020 when I sent my suggestion to the task force and in 2022 when I sent a letter to Mountain Xpress, which it published [“Asheville’s 21st-century Monument,” June 15]. I feel even more so now.

My list of statues has not changed. The question is: What is the next statue you would add?

My hope would be to save democracy. I say hope because I’m concerned so few mention it when asked what is important to them this election. I think many are unaware of how close we are to losing it.

I guess we will know in January. I say January because my concern is Jan. 6, 2025. Which makes your vote for Congress as important as president.

— Lynda Cozart Asheville

Ask officials to take steps on climate change

Forty Citizens’ Climate Lobby (CCL) volunteers from Western North Carolina and around the state were in Washington, D.C., on June 11 for a climate “talking tour.” Volunteers joined 1,000 others from across the

country and met with their elected representatives, including the offices of Sens. Ted Budd and Thom Tillis. Nationwide, CCL volunteers held over 25,000 conversations with their communities during Earth Month about climate change’s effects on our health, wealth and lifestyle. They continued the dialogue on Capitol Hill to encourage congressional delegations to support economic and environmentally friendly policies.

Word of the week backlash

A recent CBS News poll showed that 70% of participants support U.S. action against climate change, a sentiment echoed by WNC citizens who visited CCL’s booth at Hendersonville’s Earth Day event in April and Brevard’s White Squirrel Weekend. Western North Carolinians are concerned about record-breaking temperatures, extreme weather and the degradation of the environment they experience in their everyday lives.

(n.) a strong and adverse reaction by a large number of people, especially to a social or political development

Backlash is also a fishing term. According to Rudow’s FishTalk magazine, it describes the following situation: “When casting or letting out line under tension, the revolving spools on many types of conventional reels can spin faster than the line comes off. This results in a tangle known as backlash, or a ‘bird’s nest.’”

We initially selected this word on account of the latter definition. It feels appropriate given our cover story. But the more common definition also seems pertinent given this week’s reporting on the June 11 Asheville City Council meeting and some of the community pushback to Council’s approval of a business improvement district in downtown Asheville. For more on the fishing industry, turn to page 20; for more on Asheville City Council, turn to page 16. X

In addition to climate conversations, many festivalgoers sent letters to their members of Congress urging action, signed up to advocate for policy solutions and expressed interest in speaking to elected officials. If climate change concerns you, take a moment to support the “talking tour” in D.C. by calling the D.C. offices that represent you. Ask Thom Tillis, Ted Budd and Chuck Edwards to enact policies that mitigate the escalating impact of climate change.

— Ellen Weaver Candler

A pass on Edwards’ senseless census idea

By recently recycling his No Representation Without Legal Immigration Act into the Equal Representation Act, it seems that Rep. Chuck Edwards channeled “Oops! …I Did It Again,” only he probably can’t dance and is surely less adult than Britney Spears. Whatever this “successful” legislation is titled, it’s still a tired repeat of his original un-American Constitution-shredding act.

Perhaps Chuck hopes to sell off his burger franchises and then audition before Terrified-Of-Convictions (in every sense of the word) DJ Trump for the unholy job of setting up concentration camps across the nation to imprison 11 million or more “illegal” immigrants. It’s our neighbors who boxer-shorts Donnie wants to snatch from their homes and workplaces in a massive Gestapo-ish mobilization if he becomes the Real-And-Also-PlaysOne-On-TV president again.

Chuck, I’ve got a bargain for you. When every state gets its number of senators based only on population — sorry Wyoming, Vermont, North Dakota, Alaska, South Dakota, Delaware, Montana and so on — and when the president is elected by popular vote nationwide, then maybe we can trade an undemocratic Electoral College for your senseless census idea. Nah, never mind. Your ethnic cleansing nightmare isn’t worth accepting for any price.

By the way, the “ERA” should be considered owned by us “woke” people, in the form of the Equal Rights Amendment. Now, if your intention is to revive that ERA and make equal rights for women the law of the land in our Constitution, I’m with you, buddy. — Paul Weichselbaum Hendersonville

Editor’s note: The writer reports donating to Caleb Rudow’s campaign “to win the District 11 seat and restore honor to our representation in Congress.”

CARTOON BY RANDY MOLTON

Passing the torch

A Jew in Asheville

BY JERRY STERNBERG

Over time, the area’s Jewish population grew significantly, and so did its level of acceptance by the broader community, both socially and politically.

Much of this can be attributed to a generally more liberal climate, locally and across the country, in terms of things like intermarriage. Of course, the great success of Israel in the fields of science, agriculture, electronics, education and the arts gave the Jewish community a certain amount of gravitas. And in more immediate and tangible matters, Jews were in the leadership of many significant local charitable and service organizations.

In 1989, Asheville native Ken Michalove became the first Jewish person to be elected mayor of our fine city. His cousin Don Michalove was Hendersonville’s mayor from 1981-93. Both did a great job and served with dignity.

During this period, the Ku Klux Klan applied for permits to march and hold rallies in the streets of both cities. Imagine their mortification when, in each case, they had to obtain their permit from a “Jew mayor.” The march was said to have been closely monitored by law enforcement personnel to prevent violence and ensure that no laws were violated, including those governing the carrying of firearms.

One of the Klan leaders supposedly remarked that “All mayors in Western North Carolina are named Michalove, and they’re all Jews — and they’re not coming back.” History, however, has proved him wrong: In the last 35 years, Asheville has had six mayors, and three of them have been Jewish, including our present one.

TIME FOR A CHANGE

Another watershed moment in the evolution of Jewish social acceptance came in 1992, when the Biltmore Forest Country Club accepted its first Jewish member. This trailblazing individual was a very successful Asheville businessman, and both he and his wife became the first Jews ever elected to serve on certain civic and bank boards. Here, in his own words, is the story:

“My wife and I came to Asheville in 1961 and were unable to join a coun-

try club. The Bath and Tennis Club at Grove Park Inn was our country club! And the Downtown City Club.

“Over the years, we became friendly with many people from Biltmore Forest and BFCC. Some as a result of my wife’s involvement with community projects and my involvement on boards, etc. Quite often we would be invited as guests to dine at BFCC. (Quite a difference from my in-laws’ experience in the early years in not being welcome at BFCC.)

“In about 1992, several of our friends felt that the time was right for Jews to be admitted into BFCC. A group got together and asked me if they could propose me for membership. They cautioned that I could very well be blackballed, but I told them to proceed … that someone needed to be the Jackie Robinson of the club. Our membership was approved and we became the first Jewish members.

“We only heard one negative comment: Someone remarked that the kitchen will need to be changed to a kosher kitchen. Otherwise, smooth sailing, particularly when the old guard died out. A few years later, our daughter was married in the first Jewish wedding at the BFCC.”

Thereafter, several Jewish couples joined the club, and a few years later — wait for it ... wait ... the Biltmore Forest Country Club elected one of its Jewish members president.

RELIGION OR BIGOTRY?

Yet another point of interest took place in 2000. In a landmark decision, Santa Fe Independent School District v. Jane Doe, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that public schools could not allow student-led prayer before high school football games, reinforcing the separation of church and state as mandated by the First Amendment. This sparked protests across the South led by Christian evangelicals, and in Asheville, thousands of people packed Reynolds stadium for a “We Still Pray” rally that jammed up the highways for miles around. Many members of the clergy spoke vigorously against this ruling, and since nothing draws politicians like a large het-up crowd, it was hardly surprising to see several local pols join the chorus of naysayers.

Having been a victim of forced evangelism in the public schools,

“Once again we find ourselves the target of increased antisemitism coming from both the extreme left and right.”

however, I was particularly upset when two Buncombe County commissioners, in their official capacity, spoke out against the ruling. Both men were good friends for whom I had great respect, and to whose political campaigns I had given substantial support. In my view, they had every right to express an opinion as ordinary citizens but not in their role as elected officials.

I called them both the next day and asked if they’d be willing to meet with a few local Jewish leaders so we could explain why their official remarks supporting school-sanctioned religion gave our community such heartburn. At the same time, I made it clear to both sides that there were to be no admonitions or criticisms, just an honest presentation of the issues as we saw and felt them.

The meeting was frank, cordial and respectful. We all came away with a better understanding of a complex ethical question. I think both men were grateful for the experience, and our close friendships endured for many years. I, meanwhile, felt the meeting symbolized the progress

the Jewish community had made in gaining the acceptance and respect of Asheville’s mostly non-Jewish institutions and power structures.

LOOKING TO THE FUTURE

This column concludes my series on having grown up and lived as a Jew in Asheville over many decades. I believe it’s an important story to tell, and there are few left who could tell it.

Today we have three Jewish houses of worship and an outstanding Jewish Community Center, many of whose services are offered to the non-Jewish community as well. At UNC Asheville, we have a special program called the Center for Jewish Studies.

Of course, when I started this series early last year I had no idea that the horrible attack on Israel and the ensuing war in Gaza would take place. Accordingly, I have steered clear of those politically inflammatory subjects because they are not part of what I set out to do, which was to share some stories that would shed light on the history of Jews in this community.

As I have pointed out, Asheville’s Jews have made great strides in gaining acceptance in both the social and political arenas. Yet we now, once again, find ourselves the target of increased antisemitism coming from both the extreme left and extreme right ends of the political spectrum. That only underscores how critically important it is for the local Jewish community to continue its tradition of leadership in supporting local charities and working for the benefit of all area residents. However, we must also actively participate in local and state politics and be prepared to stand up and defend our rights as good and productive members of this great community.

Asheville native Jerry Sternberg, a longtime observer of the local scene, can be reached at jvsternberg@gmail. com. An anthology of his columns is available from Pisgah Legal Services for a donation of $25 or more. To order your copy, visit pisgahlegal.org/jerry, or send a check labeled “Jerry’s book” to: PLS, P.O. Box 2276, Asheville, NC 28802. All proceeds support the nonprofit’s work. X

JERRY STERNBERG

One year later Post-Paper Town, people in Canton are cautiously optimistic

BY JUSTIN M c GUIRE

jmcguire@mountainx.com

A year ago, the Pactiv Evergreen paper mill in Canton closed after 115 years, stirring uncertainty and fear for residents of the Haywood County community that calls itself “Paper Town.”

Twelve months later, observers say the mill closing has been painful but not as devastating as they had feared.

Unemployment in Haywood County has stayed steady as many of the 900 mill workers have found new jobs and stayed in town. Local merchants report little, if any, drop in business and are optimistic about a future geared to outdoor recreation and tourism. And Spirtas Worldwide, a Missouri company that redevelops closed industrial sites, is in the process of buying the mill site, a move that will answer questions about the future of the land sooner than some expected.

“If you had told the town, the county or the region that this is where you could be in a year, I think most of us would have taken it,” says Russ Harris, executive director of the Sylva-based Southwestern Commission, a regional council of governments that serves Haywood and six other counties.

But challenges remain. The Town of Canton lost more than $1 million in annual property tax revenue from the plant. State Attorney General Josh Stein is suing Pactiv Evergreen to recoup $12 million in state economic incentive money, and the plant’s toll on the quality of the Pigeon River continues to be a concern.

And while Spirtas Worldwide’s possible purchase of the former mill site is a cause for optimism, exact plans are uncertain.

“You can still see the despair in people’s eyes, even with this announcement,” says Mayor Zeb Smathers. “When you hear ’demolition,’ that means a lot of things may be torn down, and that hurts. It’s like watching the home you grew up in be torn down and turned into something else.”

Some Canton merchants say they already have seen a change in clientele, with more out-of-towners popping in, especially in the immediate aftermath

NEW OPPORTUNITIES: The Pactiv Evergreen paper mill in Canton shut down in June 2023 after 115 years. Despite initial concerns, many in the community say the town has come to terms with the closure and are eyeing new economic opportunities in the area. Photo by Caleb Johnson

of the mill closing. But to sustain that, says business owner Lisa Conrad, officials will have to take a more active role in promoting a post-paper mill vision of Canton’s downtown.

“There are a lot of decisions being made, even small decisions, that really need to be made in the context of ’Canton is changing,’” says Conrad, who opened Pigeon River Mercantile on Main Street in 2018. In early June, she rebranded the business as a ladies boutique called Clementine’s. “We cannot be doing business as usual. More attention and intention need to be brought by our town officials, as well as us as merchants, to where we are headed because we have to be the catalyst for going into the future.”

DROP IN UNEMPLOYMENT

But thus far, the town weathered the first challenge: helping the 900 people who were suddenly out of work.

Haywood County’s April unemployment rate was 2.8%, lower than the 3.1% rate in June 2023, the month the mill closed. The rate is also below the state average and the lowest among the seven counties the Southwestern Commission covers.

“There were a lot of open jobs, some in Haywood, a lot in Buncombe County,” the commission’s Harris explains. “There were a lot of employers that were willing to come in and hire people pretty quickly after the closure.”

The Southwestern Commission received grant money to provide job training to up to 900 residents, but so far only about 130 people have enrolled. That’s another indication many former mill workers found new jobs, Harris says.

Furthermore, local businesses also dodged the economic hit many predicted after the mill closure. A 2023 report by Dogwood Health Trust and Syneva Economics forecast that the ripple effect of the closing would result in more than 2,000 job losses regionally. The report said the losses would come from local suppliers who directly served the mill as well as small businesses hurt by community members reducing their spending.

So far, Harris and Smathers say, the region has not seen that job loss. “We still have businesses that are open, restaurants are still packed,” Smathers says.

EMBRACING CHANGE

Hive House Commons, a downtown event center, opened just before the mill closure announcement. Owner Sarah Zielke worried when she first heard the paper mill was closing.

“I felt really worried for the community,” she says. “But I also saw it obviously as something that would probably break open the potential for more business to happen over here.”

That’s because the end of the mill also meant the end of the infamous sulfur smell that emanated from the plant’s pulping process, she explains.

“Everyone talks about the smell,” she says. “It’s a really beautiful area, and it’s so accessible to Asheville. I think literally the only thing holding back business growth was the smell.”

Zielke is not the only business owner who sees the mill closure as an opportunity to draw more visitors.

“Many customers come in that have never walked downtown in Canton before, and they literally live 5 miles away,” says Lee White, owner of Geek Mountain, a Main Street store that sells pop culture-related art, apparel and games. “That’s because the smell was a problem for many people. With the mill closing, there’s definitely a change already within the downtown.”

White believes it will be vital for business owners, residents and government officials to embrace that change.

“Put a Band-Aid on it for a little while and mourn your loss. But then you have to stand up and be like, ‘OK, we have a job to do.’ We have to get this going and start building your business back and figuring out ways of prospering without having the mill,” White says.

Conrad, who transformed Pigeon River Mercantile into a ladies boutique, embraced the change.

“When we opened [Pigeon River Mercantile in 2018], we wanted to appeal to the millworkers,” she says. “We were carrying men’s overalls and work boots. My grandfather worked at the mill, and the home I live in now was paid for by mill town money. And I will always be thankful, but we are growing into something else.”

Government officials and merchants think that something else could be outdoor tourism, centered on the Pigeon River, which flows through the middle of town on its way to eastern Tennessee. But Conrad notes that the Haywood County Tourism Development Authority (TDA) allocates less money to Canton than to communities like Maggie Valley, Waynesville and Lake Junaluska. She hopes that will change as the town embraces a tourism-oriented economy.

“If the Town of Canton wants the merchants to survive, we need support as far as marketing and making people aware that we are there,” she says. “There are entrepreneurs out there that want a

fighting chance to open a business, but it’s not just about opening a business. We have to have sustainability.”

ART, OUTDOORS

Hannah Burnisky, owner of Cold Mountain Art Collective, similarly would like to see more marketing efforts to get people downtown. The pottery studio and multimedia art gallery, which opened in 2021, has seen a slight decrease in business since the mill closed, but Burnisky remains confident about the future. She even envisions Canton developing an art studio scene of its own.

“What I love about our spot is we’re right between Waynesville and Asheville, and both sections have become a little bit oversaturated and can be overpriced for a lot of the people just starting their art career,” she says.

Charles Wells is another business owner who sees opportunity.

With a fleet of tubes, kayaks, canoes and paddleboards — and newly added mountain bikes — his Pigeon River Outfitters is in a good position to take advantage of outdoor tourism. Wells, who opened the business in 2017, has contracts with short-term rental owners from places as far away as Cary and even Florida. And he sponsors Lee Newton, a country music singer/songwriter from Canton who promotes the business at her shows.

“I’m really, really trying to get the word out and pump it up,” he says. “We’re looking for people that are from over 50 miles away because over 50 miles, they tend to get a hotel room. And we’ve had people that come up to go tubing all the way from Alabama.” Wells, though, is concerned the Canton business community doesn’t cooperate enough.

“Instead of trying to fight each other, we need to try to work together, and that will make it successful. Otherwise, we’re going to be bickering, and it’s just going to be a ghost town.” Despite concerns, though, Wells and other merchants are optimistic about the town’s future.

As Geek Mountain’s White, who opened his store a month before the mill closed, puts it: “There’s been absolutely no days where I go, ’Man, I can’t believe I opened this in this town.’”

WHAT’S NEXT?

The decision by Pactiv Evergreen to sell the 184-acre former mill site to Spirtas Worldwide is a huge step for the town as it moves to a post-mill future, Smathers says.

“There are many, many case studies of [other former mill] towns that still have places sitting vacant 15

years later,” Smathers says. “The idea that we are at this point, a year later, talking about what’s next is a success and a reason for optimism.”

What’s next for the mill site, though, isn’t clear. The Spirtas deal hasn’t been finalized, and the company has not announced any plans. Owner Eric Spirtas told The Mountaineer his firm will put the needs of the community first when developing the area.

“He’s talking about economic development, and how safety and the welfare of our citizens is paramount,” says Smathers, who talked to Spirtas shortly after the sale was announced.

Smathers expects some of the mill buildings in the flood zone will be demolished but that others will be repurposed to bring in a variety of businesses while preserving some of the town’s history. The site could be used for a variety of purposes, including manufacturing, commercial, residential, outdoor recreation and entertainment.

“We think that it [the Spirtas deal] will send a signal across the region, if not farther, that we are primed for economic development, for jobs,” he says.

And economic development will be vital for the Town of Canton as it faces its biggest immediate challenge in the wake of the mill closing.

The town budget for 2023-24 includes $1.3 million less in tax revenue than the previous budget. Canton will be able to plug that revenue hole with money allocated by the state legislature, but that is not a permanent solution. “That’s not going to last us forever, nor do I want it to last us forever,” Smathers says.

Meanwhile, some issues need to be resolved with Pactiv Evergreen:

• Attorney General Stein is suing the company to recoup $12 million in grants the state Commerce Department gave it under a 2014 Job Maintenance and Capital (JMAC) Development Agreement.

As part of the agreement, Pactiv promised to maintain operations at the paper mill and retain at least 800 full-time employees through the end of 2024.

• The U.S. EPA issued an administrative order of consent to get the company to clean up two separate “seeps” leaking toxic substances into the Pigeon River. A seep is a spot where a fluid contained in the ground oozes to the surface.

Smathers believes that once those issues are cleared up, the town will be in a good position.

“I know a handful of people that have moved away, and I don’t fault anyone for that,” says Smathers. “But most of these millworkers are still in their homes. They’re still in our public schools. They are still in churches. And that speaks volumes. If you have a base like that, you can’t help but be optimistic.” X

NEWS Enterprising spirit

BY JUSTIN M c GUIRE

jmcguire@mountainx.com

When Boomer Sassman first contacted A-B Tech’s Small Business Center more than a decade ago, he was looking for affordable office space for his growing web design agency, Big Boom Design.

Sassman had heard about the center’s business incubation program, which invites emerging entrepreneurs to rent office, warehouse or lab space on the school’s Enka campus for below market value. After being accepted into the program, he opened a small office for himself and two employees, meaning he no longer had to meet with clients and employees at coffee shops.

“But I realized pretty quickly that it’s not just cheap office space, that there’s a whole hell of a lot more to it,” he says of the incubation program. “It’s more of a peer group. There’s business coaches and counselors. I could just knock on the door and ask them questions based on what I was dealing with. It was way more than I ever imagined it could be.”

The Small Business Center offers the incubation program in addition to a variety of other services for people looking to start or expand small businesses in the area, says Executive Director Jill Sparks. It is one of several groups, along with Mountain BizWorks and the Western Women’s Business Center, that are focused on helping small businesses succeed.

And there is a reason small businesses are important: 99.9% of American businesses are small (employ fewer than 500 people), according to the U.S. Small Business Administration. And 82% of them are one-person shops, called nonemployer firms. According to the U.S. census, in 2021 there were 31,141 nonemployer firms in Buncombe County alone.

“Roughly 50% of the folks that come visit us at the Small Business Center do not have a business yet,” Sparks says. “They are in that exploratory research phase. They have moved to Asheville

Local programs offer help to new and expanding businesses

DOWN TO BUSINESS: Wallwerx, which sells a line of workspace organization products, has warehouse space through A-B Tech’s incubation program, which works with emerging entrepreneurs. Photo courtesy of Wallwerx

and can’t find a job. They have been laid off. They have gotten out of jail or rehab. They have quit their job. They have retired — there are a variety of reasons.”

During the 2022-23 fiscal year, the center held 101 seminars and offered business counseling, seminars, coaching and other services to 188 people, she says. Those people created a total of 19 new businesses, creating 122 jobs.

“You see every kind of business you can think of,” says Matt Raker, executive director of Mountain BizWorks. “We’ve got a really creative entrepreneurial community here.”

BUSINESS TRENDS

While small businesses come in all varieties in Western North Carolina, certain trends hold true.

Want to know more?

For more information, see links below: Business Incubation and Small Business Center: avl.mx/ds5

BizWorks: avl.mx/ds6

avl.mx/ds8

“We do see a lot of folks who want to get into the food business,” Sparks says. “Another trend is the outdoor economy. And oftentimes, we’ll see folks who want to solve a social problem and are thinking about starting a nonprofit.”

Retail, health care/wellness, agriculture and the construction trades are other commonly seen new business types, Raker adds.

There is a lot of help out there. For instance, the Small Business Center offers seminars for people looking to start nonprofits and will offer agribusiness programs in the fall. And Mountain BizWorks hosts an outdoor economy conference every fall and started an outdoor entrepreneurship and innovation accelerator program in conjunction with the Outdoor Business Alliance.

“That will be a really fast-growing industry in Asheville and across Western North Carolina over the coming decade,” Raker says. “That’s only going to continue to become more important, not only on the experience side of tours and outfitters, but also on the outdoor gear manufacturing side. We’ve got a really strong base of those small businesses here with products sold all over the world.”

Mountain BizWorks offers training through its Foundations Business Planning program and offers loans of up to $500,000 to help Western North Carolina small businesses launch and expand.

About 200 people a year go through the Foundations program, which runs for 18 hours over six weekly sessions. A typical program cohort is made up of eight-12 people. “We’re all working on your business plan, giving feedback, testing things, and then learning some of the skills of business planning.”

Well-known Asheville companies, including French Broad Chocolate, LaZoom Tours and Chai Pani Asheville, went through the program, he says.

The demographic transition known as the “silver tsunami,” in which scores of baby boomers continue to exit the workplace, is also a factor. Half of local small businesses could change hands in the coming decade as older owners retire, Raker says. He encourages business owners approaching retirement to have succession plans and not simply close down shop.

“A lot of these are important businesses, and they’re employers,” Raker says.

MEETING CHALLENGES

Sparks and Raker offered new businesses advice on to how to deal with some of the challenges they will face:

• Know your target market

“Try and get as much market research as you can as quickly as you can,” Sparks says. “Who are the people who are willing and able to buy your product or service? We’ll have folks that come in and say, ’Well, everyone in the world is my market.’ Well, gosh, in that case how are you going to then decide where to advertise?”

The Enka-Candler Tailgate Market, held Thursdays in the Small Business Center’s parking lot, provides a way for people to test whether there is a market for their products. The center has a table at the market that it lets people use for a month to get feedback. “If people are buying your product right then and there and it flies off the table, you might have something.”

Additionally, new entrepreneurs should think through the implications of such decisions as where to locate a business. If someone, for example, is intent on opening a coffee shop across from a Starbucks, business experts with the center will talk to them about the challenges that may create, Sparks explains.

“You don’t want to rush into it,” Mountain BizWorks’ Raker adds. “You can believe you’ve got the best idea, but you really do need to study the viability of the idea.”

• Know your costs and prices

It is common in Asheville for small-business owners to have a background in the arts or some other creative field but little experience with finance, Sparks says. For those people, it can be difficult to keep track of expenses as a business grows.

“A characteristic of an entrepreneur is that tenacity to go for it,” Sparks says. “But at some point, you can’t do it all, and bookkeeping is probably one of the services that

“Starting a business is difficult anyway, but certainly being connected mitigates a lot of the risk.”

— Mark Zalme, founder and CEO of Wallwerx

should be outsourced if finance is not your specialty.”

Another mistake people make is underpricing their products. The problem is especially pronounced for women business owners, she says. But she points out that making as much money as possible can allow businesses to offer full-time employment and other benefits to people in the community.

“If your market is willing and able to pay a high price, go for it and do good with your profit,” she advises.

• Know your culture

Small-business owners should be clear about the type of culture they want when trying to attract employees in a tight labor market, she says. Area people, especially young workers, are interested in working at places they think align with their values. Even something simple as, for example, a monthly kayaking outing can make the hiring process easier

Sparks also has noticed business owners in recent years focusing more on their own physical, emotional and spiritual health. “If you are really going to carry the load of an entrepreneur and of your employees and of your customers, how can you be your best self so that then you can put that into your passion?”

• Know how much capital you need

People looking to open businesses often don’t know how much money they need or how to get access to it, Sparks says. That’s why organizations such as Mountain BizWorks, the Western Women’s Business Center, Self-Help Credit Union and Thread Capital, which provide loans to startups, can be invaluable.

“Bank funding is very difficult or is totally unavailable for very young and very small companies, including startups,” Raker says. “We’re a nonprofit and have resources to help provide that funding so people can have the opportunity to get into business regardless of their background or financial needs.”

Lack of capital also can be a problem for companies that need physical space, Sparks says. The incubation program aims to help with that problem by offering office space rentals starting at $8 per square foot and light manufacturing/storage space starting at $4 per square foot. Office space often rents for up to $29 per square foot in the area. Tenants can rent space for up to four years.

Wallwerx is in its third year of renting 17,000 square feet of warehouse space at the incubator and hopes to stay for a fourth year, says Mark Zalme, the company’s founder and CEO. Founded in 2019, Wallwerx

sells a line of workspace organization products through Amazon.com and the websites of Home Depot and Lowe’s Home Improvement.

Zalme says the company has benefited from the affordable rent and access to a cohort of like-minded entrepreneurs.

“Starting a business is difficult anyway, but certainly being connected mitigates a lot of the risk,” he says. “You’ve got people you can lean on who’ve already chartered a similar path.”

Big Boom Design, which builds websites for clients using WordPress, moved on from the incubator after three years. But owner Sassman has stayed involved with the Small Business Center by teaching classes on Google analytics.

The company rented office space for a number of years, but now all its employees work from home.

“COVID happened, and I finally just realized that we don’t need office space; we’re a web company,” he explains. “I think remote is everybody’s preferred method if possible, although I do miss that collaborative approach. A couple of times a year, I grab my whole team and we go to A-B Tech. We’re back where it all began.” X

Hidden history

Walking trail highlights Asheville’s Black heritage

BY GREG PARLIER

gparlier@mountainx.com

Given even a relatively brief time in Asheville, visitors and residents alike can gain a sense of the city’s historical significance in art, music, food, beer and forestry. But this midsize mountain enclave also had an outsized influence in the Civil Rights Movement and a thriving Black community that is rarely celebrated.

Thanks to a $500,000 grant from the Buncombe County Tourism Development Authority and years of collaborative work between Explore Asheville staff and the River Front Development Group, those neglected stories are now being told via 14 kiosks between Asheville City Hall and the French Broad River.

The Black Cultural Heritage Trail celebrates the accomplishments and contributions of Asheville’s Black community dating to 1865, when the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution formally abolished slavery in America.

“It’s not a mystery why local Blacks are not celebrated, their achievements promoted or even discussed,” says Catherine Mitchell, executive director of the River Front Development Group and one of the primary organizers of the project.

“That’s one of the reasons that you have a trail that begins to tell the story of the community, its development and its successes, and then you have a museum where kids can begin to appreciate the success of their relatives,” she adds.

Work on a museum is underway at Stephens-Lee Community Center on the site of the former all-Black high school of the same name, funded by a different $100,000 grant from the TDA.

From Asheville’s first Black elected official in 1882 to the destructive outcomes of one of the South’s largest urban renewal projects in the 1960s and ’70s on a previously thriving Southside community, the milelong trail takes visitors through the undertold stories of Black Asheville’s long history in three sections.

ORIGIN STORY

Origins of the trail trace back to 2010, when residents of the historically Black East End neighborhood

proposed the idea to Mitchell and Marcell Proctor, president of the River Front Development Group, which took on execution of the project and began looking for funding.

There aren’t many organizations willing to fund a trail and Black history museum, says Mitchell. But when she eventually met with a representative from Explore Asheville, they loved the idea.

“It blew my mind,” she says with a laugh. “They’re right in town!”

A grant was first awarded in 2018, and a project team was formed to conduct listening sessions and community engagement from 2019 through 2021, when an 18-member advisory committee was formed to help guide the trail’s design, themes, route and featured content. Finally, the trail launched in December 2023.

Mitchell says the committee had specific goals that went beyond retelling history. They wanted to focus on the stories worthy of celebrating in Asheville’s Black history, partly to help the younger generation understand that their ancestors could not solely be defined by slavery.

Kimberly Puryear, destination project manager at Explore Asheville, says the committee worked to highlight the agency and resiliency evident in Asheville’s Black history on the trail.

“So often the focus is slavery, and then it jumps straight to civil rights,” she says. “There’s all these other local stories. So we really wanted to lift up local voices that represented these threads that are running throughout national history as well.”

Each kiosk on the trail ties local events to what was happening nationally at the time, putting everything in context, she adds.

Four goals arose from the 2019 listening sessions and community workshops that wound up guiding the overall project. The trail aims to celebrate the “accomplishments and contributions of the Black community in Asheville, individuals and groups that supported the community and Black people’s agency and the capacity to express individual power.” Designers also hope to “combat or correct misconceptions and preserve history for future generations,” according to the project’s official goals.

The trail’s logo, a mythical sankofa bird, refers to an indigenous Ghanian word that roughly translates to “go back and get it,” according to the trail’s

website. That message is echoed in the guiding message of the River Front Development Group: “We should reach back and gather the best of what our past has to teach us so that we can achieve our full potential as we move forward.”

Mitchell hopes younger generations of Ashevilleans will take that message to heart and that the trail will help inspire them to seek a deeper understanding of what it means to be Black in Asheville.

On a recent tour of the trail with Puryear and fellow organizer Dr. Joseph Fox, Xpress heard dozens

of stories that redefined a vision of what life in Asheville was like in the decades following the Civil War. What follows are just a few highlights.

DOWNTOWN

Fittingly, the tour starts in front of the Buncombe County Courthouse and Asheville City Hall with a story about Asheville’s first Black elected official, Newton Shepard. Shepard was elected to a 12-month term as an Asheville alderman in 1882 and reelected in 1883. It wasn’t until 1969

themselves at a time when sit-ins in places like Greensboro were led by college-age protesters.

A kiosk notes that among other achievements, ASCORE’s Viola Spells and Oralene Simmons, who participated in many Civil Rights Era protests and went on to found the Martin Luther King Jr. Prayer Breakfast, helped desegregate a public library in 1961.

As the trail winds south toward the historically Black commercial district known as The Block, Fox points out that here, unlike on the rest of the trail, many of the Black-built buildings remain.

Mount Zion Missionary Baptist Church on the corner of Spruce and Eagle streets — built by master brickmason and former slave James Vestor Miller — represents the importance of Black churches as community gathering spaces and supports.

On Market Street, the Young Men’s Institute, now the YMI Cultural Center, stands as one of the oldest Black cultural centers in the United States, a living testament to its importance as a cultural hub in the fight for equal rights. Across the street from the YMI, the W.E. Roland Jewelry Co. served as a resource and meeting space for ASCORE, and owners William Ernest Roland and Georgia Evelyn Harling helped the group protect voting rights and advocate for equal opportunities.

that another Black man, Ruben Dailey, was elected to City Council.

Elsewhere on the downtown section of the trail, plaques commemorate the significance of the all-Black Allen School for girls — attended by such luminaries as Nina Simone and Christine Darden — and Stephens-Lee High School, both located in the East End neighborhood across Charlotte Street.

Students from both schools helped establish the Asheville Student Committee on Racial Equality (ASCORE), which helped integrate Asheville through sit-ins and petitions. The high schoolers distinguished

Farther south, a kiosk celebrates former slave Isaac Dickson for his sprawling real estate investments in a nearby area known as Dicksontown, one of many success stories of freedmen-turned-businessmen in Asheville.

“Really, throughout the South in Black communities, you had two or three Black leaders that created self-sustaining communities,” Fox says. “In your local communities, you had your churches, you had your grocery stores, you had your barbershops and your hair salon.”

CONTINUES ON PAGE 14

CHANGING SOUTHSIDE: Dr. Joseph Fox, left, glances south toward Green’s Mini Mart on the last stop of the Black Cultural Heritage Trail. Fox shared stories of what the Southside neighborhood looked like when his family visited from Tryon before urban renewal destroyed thousands of Black-owned homes and businesses in the 1970s. Also pictured is Kimberly Puryear of Explore Asheville. Photo by Caleb Johnson

Such local support systems were vital, because in the white neighborhoods in between these enclaves, Black people weren’t welcome, Puryear notes.

SOUTHSIDE

On any given Saturday in what is now referred to as the South Slope, passersby will observe hundreds of white brewery hoppers downing pints of craft beer. The streets are lined with drinking establishments and music venues in a quintessential example of gentrification.

Just decades ago, thousands of Black folks gathered in the same area on weekends to watch baseball games, gather with Black families from across the mountains or get their car fixed by Black-owned mechanic shops.

Back then, this area, stretching from Hilliard Avenue south to Oakland Avenue, and including areas between Biltmore Avenue and the French Broad River, was known as Southside.

The trail’s four stops along Buxton and Coxe avenues tell pieces of what the Southside community used to be while acknowledging the toll urban renewal took on the area.

One plaque celebrates the role Black people had in helping treat tuberculosis patients who flocked to Asheville’s clean mountain air in the late 1800s. Asheville was home to America’s first Black pulmonologist, Dr. John Wakefield Walker, who opened a sanatorium in 1915.

Another kiosk celebrates the entrepreneurship of Edward Walton Pearson, who developed a subdivision in the present-day Burton Street neighborhood, founded the Buncombe County Colored Agricultural Fair, built a park in present-day South Slope and formed Asheville’s first Black semiprofessional baseball team in the 1910s.

After passage of the National Housing Act of 1934, the Southside

people their

neighborhood was the target of one of the region’s largest urban renewal projects, the East Riverside Urban Renewal Project. Homes were demolished, roads were rerouted, and residents were moved into public housing, destroying not just neighborhoods but generations of wealth, Fox notes.

A map credited to Betsy Murray, an archivist at Pack Memorial Library, shows the locations of 30 churches, schools, community organizations and businesses that existed throughout Southside before being destroyed by urban renewal. Similarly, there were 28 such institutions in the East End neighborhood and 19 more in Stumptown and Hill Street in present-day Montford.

Once the Black community was priced out of their homes or lost property to eminent domain, the already

existing wealth gap was greatly expanded, Fox says.

RIVER AREA

Closer to the river, in what is now referred to as the River Arts District, the trail continues near Black Wall Street AVL, one of the cornerstone organizations uplifting Black-owned businesses in the region.

Standing on the corner of Lyman Street and River Arts Place, a kiosk commemorates the successes of Asheville native Matthew Bacoate Jr., who operated the first Blackowned manufacturing company in Western North Carolina in the 1960s and ’70s, producing personal protective equipment. Before his success led him to counsel Presidents Richard Nixon and Jimmy Carter on Black entrepreneurship, he helped integrate an Asheville bowling alley and the Asheville Municipal Golf Course.

As Fox tells it, Bacoate, who worked at an all-white bowling alley, started to sneak his Black friends in after hours on Sundays to bowl. Some of the white bowlers found out and wanted to bowl on Sundays as well, not caring that there were Black bowlers there. Eventually, the alley became fully integrated as it became clear that everyone just wanted to bowl, Fox says.

A plaque on Depot Street facing an active railroad line recognizes the brutal involuntary servitude that Black prisoners endured, in chains and at gunpoint, building the Swannanoa

Tunnel for the railroad industry in the 1870s.

Decades later, Black rail workers who worked in trains traversing that very tunnel formed a union to fight for their rights — the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters and Maids. Black railroad workers were civic leaders who invested their wages in the Southside community.

Another plaque in the river area tells a story that resonates with that of civil rights icon Rosa Parks. In 1951, four years before the Montgomery Bus Boycott, 75-year-old William “Seabron” Saxon refused to give up his seat on a bus bound for Asheville from Atlanta. Police forced him to move, and his resulting lawsuit against the bus company, while unsuccessful, helped spotlight discrimination in public transportation.

The trail ends near Green’s Mini Mart on Depot Street, one of the few holdovers of Black businesses on a street full of new development. At the end of the tour, Fox, who is from Tryon, reflects on his own family’s visits to Southside’s once-thriving Black community for baseball games, picnics and Black-owned shops.

As longtime Black activist and Buncombe County Commissioner Al Whitesides has said on numerous occasions, people new to town often ask, “Where are the Black people?” As the Black Cultural Heritage Trail documents, step by step and memory by memory, they’ve been here all along.

For more information and a virtual tour of the trail, go to avl.mx/dtd. X

UNSUNG BUILDERS: Even after the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution guaranteed enslaved

freedom, many Black men and women were jailed for petty crimes and forced into hard labor, such as to build the Swannanoa Tunnel east of Asheville. The tunnel connected WNC to the rest of the Eastern U.S. via rail. Photo by Caleb Johnson

Expect tax increases after Council approves BID, fiscal year 2025 budget

FACING OPPOSITION: Residents, including one person dressed as a poop emoji, gathered outside the June 11 Asheville City Council meeting to oppose the formation of a business improvement district. Opponents say the additional tax will push local merchants out of downtown. Photo by Caleb Johnson

Protesters banged drums and played horns in front of Harrah’s Cherokee Center – Asheville on June 11, as a fellow demonstrator danced in a poop emoji costume emblazoned with the message “BID = Crap.”

Despite the outside noise, inside the center Asheville City Council voted 6-1 to approve the creation of a new business improvement district, also known as a BID. Council member Kim Roney opposed the proposal.

The BID will assess 9 cents per $100 valuation for downtown property owners — about $360 per year for a property assessed at $400,000. The estimated annual budget for the BID could reach $1.25 million and will fund enhanced litter removal, landscaping, beautification efforts and a staff of downtown safety ambassadors.

Council’s next step will be to draft a request for proposal that will detail the BID’s services, its budget and the criteria for board members, among other specifics.

Before the vote, 12 community members commented on the proposal. All opposed the BID, citing

concerns about government transparency, the lack of details about how the board would operate and the role of the safety ambassadors.

“The resolution of the proposed BID … offers empty reassurances for a safer community,” resident Barron Northrup said. “But a strategy of ramming [an] aimlessly blank check through and figuring out specifics later is anything but safe.”

The sound of drumming and shouting on the sidewalk outside filtered into the hall as resident and street artist Keith Wolf approached the podium.

“What are these kids on these bikes going to be like,” Wolf said, referencing the safety ambassadors. “How are they going to handle the problems [of] people on the street? I see one of these guys dancing to the band outside. How long is it before the band’s not allowed to play … because the hotels don’t want us there?”

Following public comments, Council member Sage Turner addressed some of the claims laid out by the speakers. She noted that the BID’s 15-person board, for instance,

would include an even number of property owners and renters and included a seat for a member of the city’s Continuum of Care, which addresses homelessness. In response to claims that the BID was unpopular among downtown merchants, Turner noted some business owners she had spoken to, and the Asheville Independent Restaurant Association, which includes 150 members, supported the measure.

Both Turner and Council member Maggie Ullman also pushed back against the claim that the BID’s board will operate without accountability, stating that the board’s meetings and materials will be public and that Council has the final vote on whether to approve the BID’s budget annually. Council also has the power to terminate the BID, if desired.

“If this goes off the rails — which I do not think it will, but if something really gets out of step with what we say we want now and what the community is needing — this time every year, we’re going to have a conversation about it,” added Ullman.

Following the BID discussion, Council narrowly voted to adopt a revised version of City Manager Debra Campbell’s proposed $250 million city budget for fiscal year 2024-25. Director of Finance Tony McDowell presented the budget proposal, which includes raises in compensation for the Asheville Fire Department, Asheville Police Department and other city employees. Under the new proposal, the lowest-paid Asheville firefighters and police officers would get raises to $50,309 annually. Other regular full-time permanent city employees would see a pay increase of $2,400, or 4.11%, whichever is greater, boosting the lowest-paid employees’ wages by 6.3%.

The budget originally included a 1-cent citywide property tax increase, part of which would fund city employee pay raises and replenish the general fund.

But Council members Roney, Antanette Mosley and Sheneika Smith voiced opposition.

“People are crunched. I do not want to raise property taxes without pulling all of our guns out,” Smith asserted. “You probably haven’t seen struggle. I’m just going to say ‘no’ to what you all are proposing because I do believe we have a better chance at recouping than a lot of people who are sitting in that audience who work with us and for us every day. This year, I will not be voting for this budget.”

“We don’t have to [raise taxes],” Roney added before suggesting an alternative plan of one-time cuts to the budget to help make up the shortfall, including cutting a city transit study.

“We’re creating a budget that has recurring expenses,” Mayor Esther Manheimer said. “To patch a hole with … the money for a one-time study … doesn’t work. That is not how you balance a budget. You’ve got to have a source of revenue that continues year after year.”

Council member Turner, meanwhile, suggested that Council reduce the tax increase from a penny to 0.63 cents to cover the wage increases. It means a $25.20 increase for an owner of property valued at $400,000.

Council adopted the revised increase and approved the revised budget 4-3 vote, with Roney, Mosley and Smith opposed.

“It’s pretty well understood by this Council that we’re going to have to raise taxes next year, no matter what we do,” Ullman said. “A little bit now, a little bit next year, taking steps one at a time feels like a better plan.”

The budget will go into effect on Monday, July 1.

— Patrick Moran  X

Bacoate Branch Trail hits a dead end

Bacoate Branch Trail, a natural surface trail proposed to connect Aston Park and the River Arts District, will no longer be part of the AVL Unpaved project after neighbors opposed it.

Following several months of discussion, including a contentious meeting with the Asheville City Board of Education June 3, Mike Sule, who was spearheading the project, asked the board to remove the proposal from its agenda June 10. Before the request, the school board was set to consider granting an easement to the City of Asheville on Asheville Middle School property to build the trail.

The pathway, intended for public use as well as an after-school bicycle club led by Sule, would have run behind four houses on Charles Street. But nine residents of the short, deadend street sent a letter to the school board opposing the project because of concerns over crime, drug use and increased vehicle traffic.

At the board’s June 3 work session, Lilian Childress, a resident of Charles Street, said that rather than create a green space, as intended by Sule and the project’s other planners, it would create a “crisis zone.”

Childress and fellow neighbors said that people who are unhoused and drug users have been seen in the forest near the proposed path and they believe adding a trail would encourage more nefarious behavior in the area.

Neighbor Sharlen Mayfield, who is Black and whose family has lived in the neighborhood for generations, said that Black people are unlikely to use the trail, and she felt no one was listening to neighbors who opposed the trail. She complained that Sule, who is also executive director of Asheville on Bikes, was asking for donations for the project on his organization’s website despite the project not being a done deal, making her feel left out of the process.

“You came to us, we didn’t come to you,” she said at the June 3 meeting. After neighbors stated their case to the board June 3, Sule rebutted several of their claims.

“I’ve heard this said and Sharlen has said it again tonight, that Black people don’t [use these trails]. I really want to push back on [that]. Informed by 12 years of doing this, we know differently. Are there historical barriers to access? Have Black people historically not been

FIGHTING GENTRIFICATION: Several members of the Black community came to the June 10 Asheville City Board of Education meeting to support Charles Street neighbors who were fighting against plans to build an unpaved trail near their homes. Photo by Caleb Johnson

invited to participate? Absolutely. I’m not arguing against that. Our job is to remove those barriers and create the access point so that all people, the next generation specifically, have the opportunity to participate,” he said.

The insinuation that he knew better than Mayfield what Black people wanted spurred many members of the Black community to come to the

June 10 meeting to speak in support of Mayfield.

Flanked by her son and granddaughter and with tears in her eyes, Mayfield explained her frustrations to the board.

“My family has managed to survive Jim Crow and urban renewal. When I stand before you today, we are all concerned about gentrification and displacement. The response I’ve

already received is, ‘Well, it’s already happening.’ This process is causing not only my family harm, but the Black community in Asheville as a whole, because we live in the city and the school system that purports to support racial equity and racial justice. Time and time again, the wishes of the Black community [are] set aside in favor of more powerful interest groups,” she said.

Sule apologized publicly June 10 for ignoring the Charles Street community’s concerns regarding gentrification and neighborhood resiliency.

“I personally apologize to Sharlen Mayfield for challenging her directly during the [June 3] meeting. I acknowledge my disrespect. I appreciate and thank the community leaders who’ve held me to account and helped me see my exertion of privilege and its potential to perpetuate harm and legacy to neighborhoods. I am humbled, I am sorry,” he said.

The Bacoate Trail was one of three unpaved trails scheduled for construction this year. Sule told Xpress June 11 that he asked for it to be removed from consideration because “the neighbors on Charles Street and Timothy Street opposed the trails as designed and there isn’t a workable solution in the short term.”

The other two trails that are part of phase one of AVL Unpaved — a trail parallel to the French Broad River Greenway in east West Asheville and a trail near Azalea Park in East Asheville — will move forward if approved by Asheville City Council later this month.

— Greg Parlier X

Asheville educator advocacy group rallies for a seat at the table

In May, the Asheville City Association of Educators (ACAE) became one of two educator advocacy groups in the state with at least 50% of the district signing on as a member. Ever since reaching that threshold, the group has been petitioning the Asheville City Board of Education for a seat at the table.

On June 10, the group delivered a letter signed by the Parent Teacher Organizations or parent teams from all eight of the district’s schools to the Asheville City Board of Education. (Asheville High School and the School of Inquiry and Life Sciences [SILSA] share a PTO.)

The letter supports a request ACAE has made of the district to establish a “meet, confer and collaborate” committee with an equal number of ACAE

representatives and administration representatives. The committee, as proposed by ACAE, would collaborate on drafting new policy and setting Board of Education agendas.

ACAE has also requested the district officially recognize its status as the official employee representative organization for district staff and enshrine the nature of the group’s collaboration with Asheville City Schools (ACS) in a district policy.

“These employees work tirelessly each day to serve students; know what our students, families, staff and schools need; and communicate regularly with families. ACS employees belong at the center of decision-making about how to weather the very real challenges facing our district which we believe will lead to happier

staff that want to stay and better outcomes for students,” the parent organization leaders wrote in the letter. The letter cites ACS’ highest-inthe-state teacher attrition rate as further proof that ACAE should be a part of the district’s efforts to retain staff.

According to the N.C. Department of Public Instruction’s State of the Teaching Profession report, nearly 31% of ACS teachers left the district in the 2022-23 school year, the most in the state. For comparison, Buncombe County Schools saw 16% of its teachers leave that year.

District spokesperson Kim Dechant said the ACAE proposals have been submitted to the board but have not been placed on a board meeting agenda.

Rhubarb to hold wedding-vendor showcase July 21

Whether it’s the scenic mountain views or the sophistication of the Biltmore Estate, couples are increasingly choosing Asheville as their wedding destination. In 2023, Asheville hosted 3,845 weddings, according to Wedding Report, an online research company that collects wedding statistics for the industry. And with the average wedding in Asheville last year costing $24,345, weddings are not only sentimental but big business, too. Caterers, musicians, photographers and florists are just a few of the dozens of jobs that weddings help support.

Rhubarb, the restaurant at 7 SW Pack Square in downtown Asheville, is hosting a wedding-vendor showcase 3-5 p.m. Sunday, July 21. It will feature more than a dozen local vendors in the industry, including photographers, florists, musicians and stationery printers. Hors d’oeuvres from The Rhu and Rhubarb’s culinary teams will be available, along with an open bar for beer, wine and dessert, including a custom wedding cake by Rhubarb pastry chef Mallory Foster. Tickets are $15. More information at avl.mx/dsx.

Thrift Hound opens second store

Mountain Pet Rescue Asheville, a nonprofit that rescues and fosters animals, opened a second Thrift Hound location at 7 Old Pisgah Highway, Suite 300, Candler. The store accepts and resells donated items. For more information, visit avl.mx/dsy.

7,500-acre donation

The Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy, an Asheville-based conservation nonprofit, accepted the donation of 7,500 acres in Avery and Mitchell counties, creating SAHC’s new South Yellow Mountain Preserve. The property supports numerous

threatened and endangered plant and animal species and includes extensive boulder fields, coves, oldgrowth forests, six waterfalls and a system of rare heath-balds, as well as the largest American chestnut restoration project in the U.S. The nonprofit made the announcement during a 50th-anniversary event last month. More information is available at avl.mx/dsz.

$262,000 in scholarships

Educational nonprofit Asheville City Schools Foundation awarded 38 students who plan to attend a two- or four-year college or university with scholarships totaling over $262,000. Academic history, commu-

nity involvement, extracurricular involvement, work experience, leadership, communication skills and more are taken into consideration for scholarship applications. Since 2000, over $3.2 million has been awarded to graduates of Asheville High and the School of Inquiry and Life Sciences at Asheville. A full list of recipients is available at avl.mx/dt0.

Inclusion agency plans networking event

The City of Asheville Business Inclusion Office will host a minority/women-owned business community outreach and networking event Saturday, June 29. The event will take place in the fourth-floor training room at the Asheville Fire Department Station No. 1 at 100 Court Plaza in downtown Asheville from 8:30 a.m.- 1 p.m. and will feature an opportunity to learn about the city’s procurement and contracting practices. Breakfast and lunch will be provided. To register for the event, visit avl.mx/dt1.

Stenhouse gains LS3P association status

The Asheville branch of architecture, interiors and planning firm LS3P recognized Robert Stenhouse for advancing to associate during the firm’s annual meeting in May. Since joining the firm in 2017, project designer Stenhouse has worked in a diverse range of practice areas. His portfolio includes custom residential designs focused on smaller houses with smarter urbanism strategies as well as large civic, K-12 and higher education projects. For more information, visit avl.mx/dt2.

Teacher lounge makeover

Hall Fletcher Elementary School won a complete teacher lounge makeover as part of the Crayola Creativity Week’s Creative Teacher Sweepstakes. The contest, which aims to create a more colorful and inspiring space for educators, partners with Walmart and Schoolgirl Style. As part of the award, Crayola

LOVE IS IN THE AIR: Rhubarb is hosting a wedding-vendor showcase that will feature more than a dozen local vendors in the industry, including photographers, florists, musicians and stationery printers. Photo by Jennifer Callahan

provided the school with $1,000 worth of Crayola art supplies as well as a $3,000 Walmart gift card to purchase necessary items for the makeover. Walmart Community Relations provided an additional $1,000 gift card for supplemental items for the lounge.

LaZoom launches kids comedy tour

LaZoom Comedy Bus Tours is launching Lil Boogers: Kids Comedy Tour. The new tour will run every day during the summer (June 1-Aug. 31) at noon except for Saturdays, when it will run twice daily at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. The new kids tour builds on the original kids tour (which has run weekly since 2017) and will feature more silly characters coming on and off the bus, magic tricks, puppetry, dad jokes, songs and tidbits from Asheville’s storied past. LaZoom’s new Lil Boogers tour is 60 minutes long and geared toward kids ages 5-12 but is open to kids of all ages, with a few jokes written specifically for parents. More information is available at avl.mx/dt3.

Cherokee museum awarded $385,000 grant

The Museum of the Cherokee People in Cherokee has been awarded a $385,000 grant from the Cherokee Preservation Foundation. The grant will support the museum’s goals to update its public facility, built in 1976, by providing funding for architectural drawings for its offsite collections facility, an owner’s representative, capital campaign consultant, strategic plan consultant and a miniredesign of the museum’s lobby. For more information, visit avl.mx/dt4.

Asheville Business Summit Aug. 20

The Asheville Business Summit, hosted by business coaching firm ActionCOACH Business Growth Partners, will take place Tuesday, Aug. 20, at the Embassy Suites, 192 Haywood St., in downtown Asheville. The annual event invites business

professionals, entrepreneurs and community leaders across Western North Carolina to participate in networking, a VIP dinner, an exhibition showcase and keynote speakers. More information is available at avl.mx/dt5.

Sherrye Perry receives Trailblazer award

The Land of Sky Regional Council, a multicounty governmental planning and development organization, awarded Sherrye Perry the eighth annual Trailblazer Award during the board of delegates meeting last month. The award recognizes a professional in Buncombe, Henderson, Madison or Transylvania counties who is a pioneer and innovator in the field of aging and adult services. Perry is a board-certified patient advocate and has worked for the last six years at BrightStar Care as the director of client relations where she ensures clients receive the care needed and family caregivers are supported. More information is available at avl.mx/dt6.

— Brooke Randle  X

Gone fishing

BY JESSICA WAKEMAN

jwakeman@mountainx.com

Western North Carolina tourism officials are concerned that renovations to a local trout hatchery could send the fishing-related tourism industry off a ledge.

Fishing is deep-rooted in the mountains, and it’s grown into an economic juggernaut in recent years, supporting lodging, groceries, restaurants, guides and equipment rentals. A 2015 report by the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission (NCWRC) found anglers in the mountain region spent $210.7 million in 2014, added $334.3 million to the economy and supported 3,200 jobs. Just eight years later, that figure quadrupled. A 2023 report by NCWRC showed an overall impact on the state’s economy of $1.38 billion, and it estimated the trout industry supported nearly 12,000 full- and part-time jobs.

Much of the industry can be traced to the tanks and pools at the largest trout hatchery in North Carolina: the Bobby N. Setzer Fish Hatchery. Located near Brevard in Pisgah National Forest, the Setzer hatchery produces 75% of the stocked trout in public waters in Western North Carolina.

However, a renovation expected to begin next year at the 67-year-old facility will diminish upcoming stockings by two-thirds. “We’re looking at probably being able to stock about 35% of what we normally would,” says NCWRC fish production supervisor David Deaton. According to the NCWRC website, trout stock will be reduced in 2025 and 2026, and potentially in 2027. The commission anticipates by 2029 the hatchery will be producing more trout than it does now.

What effect the Setzer hatchery renovation will have on businesses relying on trout fishing is “kind of hard to say,” says Deaton. All the locations NCWRC supplies will continue to be stocked, but with fewer fish and less often, he notes. NCWRC’s website says reductions will be shared equally among the locations.

These smaller numbers have some in local business and tourism industries coming together to voice their concerns to state representatives about the potential impact of these renovations.

BIG FISH

The Setzer hatchery, located alongside Davidson River, is one of three coldwater hatcheries in the region; the other two are in Marion. Most of North

Trout hatchery renovation could impact local tourism

WATER BODIES: The N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission “is looking at getting fish from the private sector” when the upcoming renovation to the Bobby N. Setzer Fish Hatchery decreases the stocked trout supply by two-thirds, says NCWRC fish production supervisor David Deaton. Photo courtesy of Explore Brevard

Carolina’s rivers are too warm much of the year for trout to survive. NCWRC, which regulates trout fishing and leases the hatchery, opened 32 trout streams and two lakes to fishing on June 1.

Setzer has a hatchery, an education building and 54 outdoor ponds called raceways. The hatchery building operates as a fish nursery, where eggs hatch and “fry” grow in tanks. When the trout become “fingerlings” (about the size of a finger), they are moved outdoors into the 8-by-100-foot raceways. When trout reach about 10 inches, they are transported to streams and rivers in 15 counties across WNC. The Setzer hatchery is at maximum capacity for the number of fish it can rear and stock, according to Deaton. He estimates 1.2 million trout were being raised in the hatchery on the day he spoke to Xpress Despite its output, the facility’s age is showing. It was built in 1957 and updated in the 1990s. “The concrete is so brittle that I can literally take my finger and flick the concrete off the walls,” says Kevin Howell, owner of Davidson River Outfitters in Pisgah Forest.

Deaton concurs: “The infrastructure itself is falling apart. The concrete for the raceways where the trout is kept [is] starting to crack and leak.”

Discussions about a renovation began in 2017, Deaton says, and proj-

ect planning began in 2022, the year after Tropical Storm Fred swamped the hatchery, filling raceways with sediment and debris and flushing fish into the parking lot. The hatchery lost two-thirds of its trout stock during the storm, which also damaged the property’s education center. The hatchery returned to operation a couple of weeks after Fred, Deaton says. But the storm underscored the facility’s vulnerability to flooding. After Fred, Deaton says, engineers used high-water marks on the hatchery’s buildings to determine the height of its new builds. Additionally, the renovation will add a perimeter wall.

Renovation plans for the Setzer hatchery were outlined by ranger David Casey of the National Forests in North Carolina Pisgah Ranger District. The redesign will more efficiently use water, upgrade water piping and improve the oxygenation system, Casey wrote. The hatchery building will be demolished and rebuilt, and the education building and restroom facility will be expanded. Raceways will be reconfigured into a layout that will maximize trout production.

The renovation could increase trout production by an additional 75,000 pounds per year, Casey’s letter says.

Deaton says the hatchery will add 10 more raceways, but the increased production capacity will primarily

result from more efficient oxygenation, he explains.

‘SUBSTANTIAL LOSSES’?

Last month, the executive directors of five tourism organizations in Western North Carolina contacted state legislators expressing concern about the renovation’s potential impact on local businesses.

On May 28, representatives of the five groups — Jackson County Tourism Executive Director Nick Breedlove; Swain County Tourism Executive Director Sarah Conley; Transylvania County Tourism Executive Director Clark Lovelace; Visit Highlands Executive Director Kaye McHan; and Haywood County Tourism executive director Corrina Ruffieux — sent letters to state Sens. Kevin Corbin and Ralph Hise and Reps. Mike Clampitt and Mark Pless

“The current plan to reduce trout stocking by such a large margin will inevitably result in substantial revenue and employment losses across multiple counties,” the executive directors wrote. “Local businesses, including guide services, outfitters, tackle shops, restaurants, gas stations and lodging establishments, will suf-

fer as anglers seek other destinations with healthier fish populations, and we risk losing them permanently.”

The letter continues, “We urge you to address this issue at the state level and explore potential solutions to mitigate the economic impact on Western North Carolina.”

PLESS: ‘NOT CONCERNED’

Frank Yaun, an Asheville-based fishing guide, worries WNC will lose mountain trout tourism due to the Setzer hatchery renovation. He also worries that tourists and poachers (those who take more than the permitted amount of fish at one time) will vie for the same, smaller stocked population. He thinks scarcity, or the fear of scarcity, could increase the desperation of poachers to catch the stocked trout before recreational anglers have a chance.

“People are going to go ‘Why are we going? There’s no fish in North Carolina,’” Yaun says. “And by the time they get that hatchery repaired, it’s going to be too late. The people aren’t going to come back. So that’s our concern — there’s a lot of fly shops that are going to go out of business.”

However, Yaun’s worries aren’t shared by all local fishing guides. Howell, owner of Davidson River Outfitters in Pisgah Forest, predicts that the Setzer renovation will cause a couple of years when anglers will have to be content with catches that aren’t as robust.

Fishing in hatchery-supported waters allows for a catch of seven trout per day; anglers in wild trout waters are permitted four catches per day. Both Howell and Yaun say their customers are all catch-and-release. Howell doesn’t think they’ll abandon mountain trout fishing entirely. “Sure, it may be a little bit of a dip,” Howell says. “But I don’t think it’s going to be doom and gloom. I don’t think it’s going to be the end of the world or the end to tourism.”

An FAQ section about the Setzer renovation on the NCWRC website. states “Trout fishing in stocked waters is still encouraged, but we ask that anglers be aware that the number of trout to be caught will be reduced.” The site notes wild trout waters are an option for fishing as well.

Rep. Pless, whose district includes Haywood and Madison counties, told Xpress in an email he is “not concerned there will be an impact” on tourism businesses. He cited a 2022 study from Transylvania County’s Tourism Development Authority that states 10% of visitors went fishing and 3% of visitors reported fishing was their motivation for traveling to Transylvania County. The study shows other activities, like visiting waterfalls and shopping, attract more visitors.

FISH MAN: Despite its output, residents say the hatchery’s age is showing. It was built in 1957 and updated in the 1990s. “The concrete is so brittle that I can literally take my finger and flick the concrete off the walls,” says Kevin Howell, owner of Davidson River Outfitters in Pisgah Forest. Photo courtesy of Howell

Pless also criticized the local trout fishing business model. “I have learned that trout outfitters are selling classes and guided tours to folks, which is depleting the stocked fish as soon as they are put in the stream,” he wrote Xpress in an email. “As a member of the Wildlife [Resources] Committee I will be digger [sic] deeper into this and we may need to implement restrictions for commercial trout fishing much like the coastal waterways. NC Wildlife maintains the fish stocking program for residents and visitors, not for subsidizing private or cooperate [sic] business to take advantage of.”

Xpress also reached out to Corbin, Hise and Clampitt, the other state legislators contacted by local tourism executives, for comment. None responded.

BUYING PRIVATE

The NCWRC website says the Armstrong State Fish Hatchery in Marion “will provide most of the

trout stocked” when Setzer’s output is decreased.

In their letter, the regional tourism authorities suggested another way to address the decrease in trout stock.

“One proposed solution is to secure alternative trout suppliers and apply for permits to restock the rivers independently,” the letter says. (NCWRC issues a permit to entities other than state agencies that wish to stock public waters.) “We would also seek any other proactive approaches you can assist with from a state level that will help sustain our local economy and preserve the livelihoods of those dependent on the fly-fishing industry.”

That approach is on NCWRC’s radar. “One of the things that we’re going to try to [do to] lessen that effect on anglers is looking at getting fish from the private sector,” Deaton tells Xpress

But private hatcheries are smaller than Setzer and may not be able to scale their production to meet the need, Deaton continues. Additionally, private

hatchers already have commitments to existing customers, especially the local restaurant and grocery industry. “Most of their fish are already allocated to other customers,” Deaton says. “It’s kind of hard for them to drop an existing customer to sell us a large quantity of fish.”

Still, some private producers will have trout available, which NCWRC hopes will augment supply, Deaton says. “I have been discussing that with a few growers already,” he tells Xpress, citing “three or four” larger private trout producers. “What we’re looking at doing is trying to see what extra fish they have available or can make available for us. Then what we would do [is] purchase those fish and try to supplement some of the stockings that we have planned so that the numbers aren’t as low as they are.”

NCWRC purchased trout from private producers following Tropical Storm Fred in 2021.“I was able to work with a few other states and some private producers to purchase fish and … eggs so that there were not any impacts to the following year with the [trout] numbers,” Deaton says.

However, Yaun is concerned that private production purchases by NCWRC won’t replenish the full 67% reduction due to the price tag. “Because they don’t want to spend the money,” Yaun predicts.

Deaton says that he is in discussions with private producers. “The cost of buying everything we need would be significant,” Deaton says, explaining that he doesn’t yet have a budget set. However, he notes that the facility will have money available from its operations budget during the renovation. For example, Deaton says he typically spends $1 million a year on fish food; that expense will decrease when the hatchery’s output decreases. He also notes that the Wildlife Commission’s Wildlife endowment fund could contribute.

Deaton estimates construction on the Setzer hatchery may begin in winter. Currently, the renovation is still in the permitting process, he says. X

On the road again

BY TESSA FONTAINE

tgfontaine@gmail.com

I’ve driven the Blue Ridge Parkway plenty of times in my five years in Asheville — sometimes to get somewhere else, sometimes just for the pleasure of the road. I’ve marveled at the outrageous orange fall leaves, wowed at the spring flowers and hiked trails snaking off into the trees.

I know this is a special place, but not long ago, while my brother was in town, he asked about the parkway. Specifically, he asked what it was and what there was to do there.

“It’s a … park?” I said. “Or maybe it’s a road? You just, like, drive on it? And then hike off it? Or on it?”

Which, let’s be honest, is both kind of an embarrassing answer and strangely similar to the bumbling responses friends have offered me when I’ve posed the question.

When I talk to Leesa Sutton Brandon, the external affairs specialist for the Blue Ridge Parkway, she says that the most obvious thing she wants people to know is that the Blue Ridge Parkway is a national park, like the Grand Canyon and Arches. (Which, if I’m being honest, I did not realize, either.)

So, I have decided to spend the day at the Blue Ridge Parkway Visitor Center, Milepost 384, planting myself in the heart of it, among the people who will be able to answer what exactly this place is, who is coming here and why.

A HIKE BEFORE BILTMORE

It is a Wednesday morning in early spring. The sky is a mix of sun and light gray clouds, and the visitor center has just opened. A few people are milling about the big room, enjoying the taxidermy black bear and bobcat as well as the informative panels on the plight of the American chestnut.

Conrad Shirk, an interpretative park ranger with buzzed hair and smile crinkles around his eyes, stands behind the main desk in his uniform and the kind of big outdoorsy watch that suggests expertise. I ask him what kind of questions he gets most.

“‘What should I do here?’ That’s the basic question,” he tells me.

Almost immediately, he answers this exact inquiry for a couple. They look to be in their 70s, very fit. They lean over the ranger’s desk in matching muted orange T-shirts, both with their socks pulled up midcalf.

That this sock style has become a shorthand for doing “outdoorsy” things

One writer’s quest to understand the Blue Ridge Parkway

LEAD VOLUNTEER: David Angelus, the lead volunteer at the Blue Ridge Parkway Visitor Center, says a lot people ask him where they can see a bear. Part of his job, he explains, is to “protect people from themselves.” Photo by Tessa Fontaine

always strikes me as funny. I can guess that the purpose is to keep ticks or unwelcome plants from your ankles, but most of the trails here are exquisitely maintained, with nary an overgrown patch. But maybe, like with so many things, there is comfort in wearing the uniform. You can say to yourself, “Today, I can climb the mountain.”

Ranger Shirk offers the couple a few suggestions. Two minutes up the road is the Folk Art Center, and then there’s Craggy Gardens, the most popular stop on the parkway. There’s also Mount Mitchell — the highest peak east of the Mississippi River.

He continues: You can stop in at Little Switzerland, “adorable, like an actual little Switzerland,” or drive the Linn Cove Viaduct, those beautiful curves you see when you look at pictures of the Blue Ridge Parkway. The 7-mile stretch was the last portion of the parkway to be completed in 1987, after much negotiation involving environmentalists, adjacent landowners and engineers to make sure the roadway did not disrupt the section’s fragile ecosystem.

“People know it’s beautiful, but beyond that, they don’t know what to do here,” Shirk tells me after the couple proceed out into the parking lot, map in hand. “They want to know where to see good big views and then where to hike — which always comes with a lot of follow-up questions from me about

mileage and elevation. And then — and here’s the big one — what to do before their time slot at the Biltmore.”

In my hours at the visitor center, I will hear this last question — fitting in parkway activities around Biltmore ticket scheduling — from maybe 70% of the people who come in.

ENTHUSIASTIC TRAVELERS

I soon meet David Angelus, who bubbles over to me with an impressive mix of enthusiasm and factoids. He’s the lead volunteer, who was “voluntold,” he says, to oversee all 60 fellow volunteers.

Angelus is six years into his position and is clean-shaven, with cropped gray hair and black-framed glasses. A former JPMorgan Chase banker previously based in Chicago, he shares his terrific ability to recall facts with visitors for two hours at a time. He is the kind of guy who answers the question, “Where’s the closest gas station?” with “Well, in the early 1900s …”

“Can I help you?” he asks a middle-age woman peering at a wall-length map of the full parkway.

“Are you kidding me?” she says. “I’ve had everything planned out to the minute for months.”

The woman, wearing a perfectly clean white visor, is on her five-night, 30th-anniversary trip, she tells me, during which

she and her husband will drive all the way up the parkway to Virginia. Though the couple lives in nearby Knoxville, Tenn., they love these mountains, she says. They wanted more time.

Another couple is lingering near a display on traditional folk music. Unlike most visitors, this pair is young and carries with them their 6-month-old baby, who is first sleeping before blinking happily inside his car seat.

They’re from Virginia and are self-described parkway devotees. In their time together, they’ve driven all of its northern and southern stretches. Their current trip, which they’ve just completed as they arrive at the visitor center, concludes the whole parkway. They don’t hike as much now as they once did, they say, but they stopped at a few overlooks and did a couple of short walks. Their favorite part is down near Cherokee.

“I mean it’s all beautiful,” the woman clarifies quickly, leaning down to rearrange the blanket on her baby. “It’s all just really so beautiful.”

’I WANT TO SEE A BEAR’

The idea for this 469-mile stretch was conceived in 1933 after President Franklin Delano Roosevelt visited Skyline Drive in Virginia. Though most of the parkway’s construction was carried out by private contractors, several New Deal public works programs were also employed.

Over the subsequent decades, the national park’s popularity has continued to grow. According to the parkway’s most recent numbers, it had nearly 16 million visitors in 2022.

Part of its appeal is its uniqueness. The park is the road; the road is the park. Unlike other sites, where car access was at some point fitted into an already stunning landscape, such as the Grand Canyon or the Great Smoky Mountains, the entirety of the Blue Ridge Parkway itself was fabricated with the intention of being the park.

This has meant that despite the absolute splendor of these blue hazy mountains, black bears and changing trees, the messaging about what exactly this park offers can be a little harder to parse. Most people are just passing through, using the road to connect the Smokies and the Shenandoah in Virginia, Angelus tells me. “They come in here and just say, ‘I want to see a bear,’” he says. “I can show them a bear on my phone, I’ve got tons of pictures.”

One of the jobs of the rangers and volunteers is to “protect people from them-

selves,” Angelus explains. Black bears are not aggressive toward humans; nearly all problems between people and the area’s bear population come from human error. And it’s all the usual stuff, Angelus explains — people trying to get too close to the bears or trying to give them treats or leaving food in unlocked cars despite all the warnings.

Angelus says the parkway is launching a new initiative to further educate the public about bear safety, particularly as it relates to dogs. The reason to keep your dog on leash has more to do with collective safety. It turns out that once a bear is frightened by a pup, it will associate all future canine encounters — leashed or unleashed — as a threat and will attack. There have been some recent leashed dogs killed this way, Angelus notes.

But most of the misadventures the volunteers and rangers encounter are of a less traumatic variety, he continues: bee stings, ankle sprains, dead car batteries.

THE DIGITAL AGE

A woman in her late 20s or early 30s pops in. She’s beaming and beelines to Angelus, holding out her national park passport book. Where can she find the stamp? she asks him. He directs her to the appropriate area.

I ask Angelus if they get a lot of these requests.

He squints, frowns.

“Not a lot of young people in general,” he says. “She’s probably someone who had the passport book as a kid and came back to it with some kind of nostalgia. But mostly when young people come in here, you know what they’re interested in?”

Here, he mimics someone walking with their head down, staring at their moving fingers.

“Phones,” he continues. “It’s all phones.”

He sighs and looks out the window. “All I want is for this place to be here for a long time. Not for our kids or their kids, but after that.”

I ask him how he thinks that might happen.

“We’ve got to embrace the young people,” he says. “Bring things online. Connect with the digital age.”

THE LONE LOCAL

There’s a rush in the morning, and then a steady trickle as we move toward midday. I love the variety of people coming in. A retired couple on their way back to Chicago take turns putting their arms around each other as they lean over the maps and look at the display marked “The Hey-Day of Auto Touring.”

FAQ: Conrad Shirk, an interpretive park ranger, says the No. 1 question he gets from visitors is, “What should I do here?” Photo by Tessa Fontaine

A man in full black leather motorcycle gear enters. He’s wearing boots and a reflective stripe piping his jacket for safety. He looks at a few signs and then uses the bathroom.

Another solo traveler is milling about. He wears a brown sweater vest, brown plaid shirt beneath it, brown slacks and a brown plaid hat. I try to meet his eye, to ask what he is doing here and compliment his dapper dress, but his black-frame glasses are glued to the historical display he’s examining, and I chicken out.

In the parking lot, a couple stand under an umbrella with a small cardboard bookshelf in front of them. “Free Bible course” a sign reads. They make eager eye contact whenever I look over, though I never see anyone else talking to them.

I overhear two couples speaking French. I listen to Angelus tell anecdotes about the area’s critical species at least a dozen times. I talk to people from Nashville, visitors from Michigan, two bikers from Montgomery, a duo on their way to Connecticut, a German

traveler and then finally, a woman from right here in Fletcher.

She’s the only other local I encounter all day.

WINNER’S SECRETS

Dennis Winner arrives at 11 a.m. to take over the volunteer role. He’s an 82-year-old Asheville native who has been hiking these trails since he was a kid. He wanders away for a moment and Angelus leans in close.

“He’s a guy you should really talk to,” Angelus says. “He knows everything about the trails here, it’s unbelievable. But also, he was a high-powered lawyer, a state senator, a Superior Court judge — that’s what sets volunteers apart here. You get all these professional high-energy people who retire and turn their attention to the park.”

I ask Winner about his life, thinking I’ll hear more about being a judge or senator, but what he tells me is about the wilderness. “I’ve been to 58 of the 63 national parks in this country.”

Later this summer, he continues, he’ll take his ninth trip to Grand Teton and Yellowstone to backpack with his grandson.

Someone walks by, and he asks if he can help them. They finished their Biltmore trip yesterday and have to be at the airport by 3:30 p.m., the visitor says, so what is there to do before that?

Winner walks him over to the map and starts with some of the basics I’ve heard Angelus and others mention. But quickly, Winner gets to which dirt roads to turn down for spectacular wildflowers, which trail to follow for the extra

waterfall. It’s obvious his knowledge is deep and abundant.

I keep thinking about the idea that this is a road designed to be a park instead of a road in a park. In this way, it seems to me to be America’s most American park. We have one of the highest car ownership rates in the world. (Honestly, I was surprised to learn we’re not No. 1.) Baked into our dream of American individualism is the image of a full tank of gas and empty road, ready to take you wherever you want to be.

So a road designed to be a park is about as American as we can get.

There’s a lull around noon, and I corner Winner. When I reveal that I have a 2-year-old and have thus been doing less hiking lately than I’d like, he brings me over to the map. He begins listing his favorite places to go that aren’t too long or steep, and includes intel on which parts of a trail are covered in blueberries in August and when to switch which blaze colors I’m following at various points on another hike — all this information somehow stored in his memory. By the time I leave, I have a notebook full of ideas for this story, but more than that, lists of places I want to visit. I realize I’ve done that classic thing — once you become a local somewhere, you don’t visit the tourist spots, regardless of how great they might be.

I have plans to come back over the weekend, a phone number to call for someone willing to give me an old copy of an out-of-print hiking guide, new ideas about intentional road design to ponder, and then of course all the secret tips from Winner — and, no, I’m not sharing them here, thank you very much. You better go up there and get them yourself. X

Special blend

Coffee business offers employment opportunities to formerly incarcerated individuals

BY JESSICA WAKEMAN

jwakeman@mountainx.com

One might never know that a 650pound industrial coffee roaster sits in the Trinity United Methodist Church basement if not for the smell of freshly roasted beans.

The roaster holds court in a former Sunday school classroom, which is now the headquarters of Deep Time, a specialty coffee business staffed by people who have been impacted by incarceration. It’s inspired by the Rev. Greg Boyle’s Homeboy Industries, which employs and trains former gang members in social enterprise, says Dustin Mailman, Trinity United Methodist Church pastor of family ministries and missions. Mailman sought to “offer a social enterprise space that’s led by folks who wouldn’t typically be associated with specialty coffee,” he explains.

Deep Time is a church plant — a ministry offshoot — for the United Methodist Church. “We’re playing with what ministry and business dancing together looks like,” Mailman says, explaining that his clergy role takes half his time and working for Deep Time takes the other half.

Deep Time’s beans are primarily from Haiti Coffee Co. It’s an organization in Seattle that sources beans from the Dondon region of Haiti through an agricultural production partnership. Deep Time purchased its roaster from Cooperative Coffee Roasters, a small batch roaster in West Asheville, and Mailman says Cooperative’s staff has been helpful in troubleshooting coffee-related issues since Deep Time launched in July. “[That help] showed me that coffee culture in Asheville is different than you would see in Atlanta or New York or Portland, where it’s really competitive,” he says. “What I saw was Cooperative wanting to build community across coffee-roasting lines.”

Mailman, Deep Time sustainer of community Lindsey Hensley, interns Mercy Rodriguez and Emily Blackwell and lead coffee roaster Timothy “GA” Underwood recently poured Xpress a cup of coffee and discussed finding employment after incarceration, creating their own blends and finding a coffee community in Asheville.

This interview has been condensed for length and edited for clarity.

Xpress: How would you explain Deep Time as a business?

Dustin Mailman: There’s three pieces to what we do. One, there’s an educational piece [about coffee roasting] that happens. Two is a tangible employment piece. And the third is wraparound services — therapy, getting the vital records, getting your driver’s license. So every day is a little different. But it’s all centered around coffee. Some weeks, we have orders for 400 pounds of coffee. Other weeks are slow, so we take sample bags and hand them out to storefronts or potential business partners.

At first folks are getting paid $15 an hour, but after three months, we bump it up to a living wage [for people in the Sojourners’ program, which is like an internship]. As they begin to hit their benchmarks and smash their goals, we explore what longterm employment and building out additional entrepreneurial endeavors might look like.

What was the inspiration to start a business that employs people who were incarcerated?

Mailman: I saw this really tangible gap that there is no employment in this region that’s specifically for returning citizens. There’s plenty of fair-chance employers, but there’s no place that’s specifically for people who are transitioning from incarceration. And coffee is one of these universal symbols of connection. … Coffee became a hobby for me, because as a pastor it’s such an easy way to connect with folks. I began to see the disparities between low-income communities, Black communities, returning citizens and accessing good quality coffee.

… The framework that we’re using is transformative justice. We’re not just looking to hire folks who are affected by incarceration; we’re literally looking to end recidivism. Our first benchmark is being a part of the journey toward ending recidivism 25% in Buncombe County. We’re looking for folks to be transformed and grow into who God intended them to be.

What do you think people who haven’t been incarcerated don’t understand about reentering the workforce?

Mercy Rodriguez: The judgments. The preconceived ideas of people. The stereotypes. … A lot of [employers] don’t understand the struggle. … They don’t see that you’re trying to improve

yourself. They just see what’s on paper, and they go off that, instead of seeing the person for who they are and what they’re trying to achieve.

Mailman: More folks need to recognize that every single person who is incarcerated — sure, there’s personal decisions that play a role in it — but trauma responses are real. I have yet to meet a person who has been incarcerated who has not been traumatized. GA, how did you start working for Deep Time?

Timothy “GA” Underwood: I got introduced to Deep Time through a mutual friend [after] I came out of prison. … [Dustin] asked me what I’d be interested in doing for Deep Time, and I said I’d think about it, because I was working for East Fork [Pottery] at the time. At East Fork, they have a second-chance employment program as well. So I wanted to commit myself

a year with East Fork before I made my transition here.

Dustin, you minister in the detention center, but you don’t have lived experience with incarceration yourself. Whom did you consult with on what Deep Time needed to do?

Mailman: GA was a part of this conversation. I wasn’t going to project what I thought people’s needs were — I wanted the needs to come out in the room from folks who were either working in those spaces or had been in those spaces. So GA and Ben Flynn were the two major early steers of what the Deep Time identity would look like. … [Ben] passed away last summer, literally the week before Deep Time launched. … Ben had green hair. He had a big Joker smile tattooed on his face. He had the word “s—head” on his forehead. When you met him, he looked intense and terrifying, but

then you would talk to him and he was sweet as pie. Sweet as pie. We unfortunately lost him from a completed suicide attempt. He is someone who is a critical luminary for what we do. He had visions of being a tattoo artist. [We sell] Ben’s Blend, and a portion of all the funds from that bag go toward tattoo cover-ups or removals for people with gang symbols.

Emily, how did you get involved in Deep Time?

Emily Blackwell: I met Dustin through House of Mercy. … I thought

it was a cafe. So I kind of wasn’t interested because I don’t like girly jobs.

Mailman: [laughs] My favorite thing to say about you is — the men who work with Deep Time aren’t little men. Like, we’re big men. We’re loud and we take up a lot of space. But Emily is the most blue collar and hardest working of us all. [to Blackwell] Tell what you did just the other week with our roaster.

Blackwell: I replaced the motor on the roaster. [Everyone laughs.] I also gotta mention Queen’s Awakening. It’s my coffee.

When you say it’s your coffee, what do you mean?

Blackwell: I created it.

Mailman: So, every Sojourner [an intern] at Deep Time is expected to get so proficient in coffee roasting that they can create their own blends.

Rodriguez: Emily and I also have come up with a creamer — the horchata creamer. We introduced that just recently, and everybody is in love with it.

Lindsey, how did you get involved in Deep Time?

Lindsey Hensley: I’m formerly incarcerated as well. I’ve been in recovery going on five years now. And I made the decision to change my life. I wanted to give back to the community that I’m from. I’m a native of Asheville. … I grew up here, I got in trouble here, I got clean here, and now I serve my community. … Reentry is my passion, because I survived it. And I’m here as a community health worker to help get the resources for the Sojourners and connect them with the resources that are here for them.

What’s next for Deep Time?

Mailman: We’re really looking to both see where folks want to partner with us and how we could share who we are and what we’re trying to do. We really want to build those business relationships to be good neighbors and find ways to collaborate in the community. We are actively looking for wholesale relationships. X

WIDE AWAKE: Staff and interns at Deep Time, a specialty coffee business and ministry offshoot for Trinity United Methodist Church, are trained in the roasting process to create their own unique blends. Pictured, from left, are Lindsey Hensley, Emily Blackwell, Mercy Rodriguez, Timothy “GA” Underwood (seated) and Dustin Mailman. Photo by Jessica Wakeman

COMMUNITY CALENDAR

JUNE 19 - JUNE 27, 2024

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

 Online-only events

 Feature, page 34-35

 More info, page 40-41

WELLNESS

Tai Chi Fan

This class helps build balance and whole body awareness. All ages and ability levels welcome. Fans will be provided.

WE (6/19, 26), 1pm, Dragon Phoenix, 51 N Merrimon Ave, Ste 109

Gentle Yoga for Seniors

A yoga class geared to seniors offering gentle stretching and strengthening through accessible yoga poses and modifications.

WE (6/19, 26), 2:30pm, Dragon Phoenix, 51 N Merrimon Ave, Ste 109

Tai Chi for Balance

A gentle Tai Chi exercise class to help improve balance, mobility, and quality of life. All ages are welcome.

WE (6/19, 26), 11:30am, Dragon Phoenix, 51 N Merrimon Ave, Ste 109

Nia Dance Fitness

A sensory-based movement practice that draws from martial arts, dance arts and healing arts.

TH (6/20, 27), 9:30am, TU (6/25), 10:30am, Dragon Phoenix, 51 N Merrimon Ave, Ste 109

Tai Chi for Beginners

A class for anyone interested in Tai Chi and building balance, whole body awareness and other health benefits.

TH (6/20, 27), MO (6/24), 11:30am, Dragon Phoenix, 51 N Merrimon Ave, Ste 109

Weekly Zumba Classes

Free in-person Zumba classes. No registration required.

TH (6/20, 27), TU (6/25), 6:30pm, St. James Episcopal Church, 424 W State St, Black Mountain

Qigong for Health

A part of traditional Chinese medicine that involves using exercises to optimize energy within the body, mind and spirit.

FR (6/21), TU (6/25), 9am, SA (6/22), 11am, Dragon Phoenix, 51 N Merrimon Ave, Ste 109

Rooftop Yoga: Creative Flow Series

West Asheville Yoga brings a unique creative flow experience that

combines the beauty of art with the power of mindful movement.

SA (6/22), 9:30am, Asheville Art Museum, 2 S Pack Square

Adult Water Aerobics

Gentle water aerobics to improve cardio fitness, build strength, boost mood, and ease joint pain. Free for ages 60 and up.

SA (6/22), 10am, Dr Wesley Grant Sr. Southside Community Center, 285 Livingston St Yoga in the Park Yoga class alongside the French Broad River, based on Hatha & Vinyasa traditions and led by certified yoga instructors. All experience levels welcome.

SA (6/22), SU (6/23) 11am, 220 Amboy Rd

Sunday Morning Meditation Group Gathering for a combination of silent sitting and walking meditation, facilitated by Worth Bodie.

SU (6/23), 10am, Quietude Micro-retreat Center, 1130 Montreat Rd, Black Mountain Grow & Glow Yoga Flow

Experience the transformative power of the summer solstice as you re-energize your mind, body, and spirit.

SU (6/23), 6:30pm, The Restoration Hotel Asheville, 68 Patton Ave

SUPPORT GROUPS

Dementia Caregiver Support Group

This support group shares tips, resources and a listening ear to caregivers of a loved one living with dementia. Email dementiafriendlywnc@ gmail.com to register.

TH (6/20), 1pm, DayStay Adult Day Services, 135 Candler School Rd, Candler

Magnetic Minds: Depression & Bipolar Support Group

A free weekly peer-led meeting for those living with depression, bipolar, and related mental health challenges. For more information contact (828) 367-7660.

SA (6/22), 2pm, 1316 Ste C Parkwood Rd

SUMMER SOLSTICE CONCERT: The Summer Tracks concert series returns to Rogers Park in Tryon with Nashville-based singer Maya de Vitry and her band providing a special summer solstice performance on Friday, June 21. This community concert starts at 7 p.m. There will be food for sale, and although alcohol consumption is allowed, there will be no alcohol sales. Photo courtesy of Kaitlin Raitz

Wild Souls Authentic Movement

A supportive, relaxed, welcoming environment to help you get unstuck, enjoy cardio movement, boost immune health, dissolve anxiety and celebrate community.

SU (6/23), 9:30am, Dunn’s Rock Community Center, 461 Connestee Rd, Brevard

Mary Magdalene Circle of Sacred Connection

Step into this sacred space and unlock the divine gifts of Mary Magdalene as we embark on a transformative journey to empower your sacred self-leadership and receive sacred blessings.

SU (6/23), 3pm, Weaverville Yoga, 3 Florida Ave, Weaverville

Asheville Kirtan

These ancient mantras, chanted in Sanskrit, help to connect us to our hearts- invoking feelings of well-being, meditation, and joy.

TU (6/25), 7pm, Weaving Rainbows, 62 Wall St

Asheville Women’s Breathwork Circle

A transformative and empowering women’s circle where the power of our breath meets the strength and healing of sisterhood.

TH (6/27), 6pm, WellSpring Wellness Center, 960 Tunnel R

DANCE

Tango Tuesday

Tango lessons and social with instructors Mary Morgan and Mike Eblen. No partner required, and no experience needed for the beginners class.

TU (6/25), 6pm, Urban Orchard Cider Co. S Slope, 24 Buxton Ave

Tuesday. Exhibition through Aug. 19.

Asheville Art Museum, 2 S Pack Square

Aaron Fields: Hidden Colors

This art exhibition presents a story about the perfect summer day in the mountains through the use of mostly acrylic paint, paint markers and spray paint. Gallery open daily, 11am. Exhibition through Sept. 1. Marquee Asheville, 36 Foundy St

Robert Chapman Turner: Artist, Teacher, Explorer

The exhibition will include work by some of Turner’s students and colleagues as well as work by contemporary ceramic artists whose work fits within the context of the show. Gallery open Tuesday through Saturday, 11am. Exhibition through Sept. 7.

Black Mountain College Museum & Arts Center, 120 College St

ART

Daily Craft Demonstrations

Two artists of different media will explain and demonstrate their craft with informative materials displayed at their booths, daily. These free and educational opportunities are open to the public. Open daily, 10am. Demonstrations run through Dec. 31. Folk Art Center, MP 382, Blue Ridge Pkwy

Spark of the Eagle Dancer: The Collecting Legacy of Lambert Wilson

This exhibition celebrates the legacy of Lambert Wilson, a passionate collector of contemporary Native American art. Gallery open Tuesday through Friday, 10am. Exhibition through June 28, 2024

WCU Bardo Arts Center, 199 Centennial Dr, Cullowhee

Sov·er·eign·ty: Expressions in Sovereignty of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians

This exhibition educates visitors about the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians’ autonomy, its relationship with the federal government, and how the tribe has defined its own relationship with its land, people, and culture. Gallery open daily, 9am. Exhibition through Feb. 28, 2025. Museum of the Cherokee People, 589 Tsali Blvd., Cherokee

Stellar Picks: A Community Choice Exhibition

This exhibition is for everyone who has a favorite piece of art in the WCU Fine Art Museum collection or would like to discover one.

Gallery open Tuesday through Friday, 10am. Exhibition through June

28.

WCU Bardo Arts Center, 199 Centennial Dr, Cullowhee

Nabil El Jaouhari: The Color of Air

This new collection consists of paintings and 3D work using air’s elemental, emotional and conceptual nature. Gallery open Monday through Saturday, 10am. Exhibition through June 22.

Mark Bettis Studio & Gallery, 123 Roberts St Third Thursday Open Studio Social

An opportunity for artists to network, share ideas, and create together with extended gallery hours.

TH (6/20), 5pm, Foundation Studios, 27 Foundy St

Western North Carolina Glass: Selections from the Collection

A variety of techniques and a willingness to push boundaries of American glass art can be seen in this selection of works. Gallery open daily, 11am, closed Tuesday. Exhibition through September 16.

Asheville Art Museum, 2 S Pack Square Counter/Balance: Gifts of John & Robyn Horn

A presentation of important examples of contemporary American craft, including woodworking, metalsmithing, fiber and pottery by renowned American artists. Gallery open daily, 11am, closed Tuesday. Exhibition through July. 29, 2024.

Asheville Art Museum, 2 S Pack Square

Patricia Hargove: The Shape of Water Hargove’s exhibition depicts the powers of water that energize, refresh and heal the soul and body. Attendees will also be

able to glimpse into the grandeur of water and its ever-changing play of light and shadow. Gallery open daily, 11am. Exhibition through June 30.

Asheville Gallery of Art, 82 Patton Ave

Shifting Perceptions: Photographs from the Collection

A selection of photographs presented in a trio of sections, each featuring seemingly opposing forces: Natural/Unnatural, Together/ Apart, and Inside/Out. Gallery open daily, 11am, closed Tuesday. Exhibition through September 23.

Asheville Art Museum, 2 S Pack Square

The Creatives Under Instruction: Open Reception

A celebration of young people, mostly from Burton Street neighborhood, who are using the arts to say something about themselves and their community. Featuring painting, fiber, metal and digital work of Nore Williams, Makayan Barton, Bentley Harper, Aljour Edgerton and more. See p34-35 FR (6/21), 5pm, UNCA-Owen Hall, Third Floor, 100 Theare Ln Summer 1-On-1

Pottery Lessons Private lessons offering individuals 30 minute classes. Walk-ins will be welcome, schedule permitting. SA (6/22), SU (6/23), 11am, Odyssey Clayworks, 236 Clingman Ave

The New Salon: A Contemporary View

A modern take on the prestigious tradition of the Parisian Salon with the diversity and innovation of today’s art world. Gallery open daily, 11am, closed

well versed in jazz, rock, funk, reggae, folk, electronic, and R&B.

TH (6/20, 27), 6pm, Gemelli by Strada Italiano, 70 Westgate Pkwy

Park Rhythms Concert Series

This series features many talented artists from across the east coast with Wagging and Jessie & The Jinx kicking off the series.

TH (6/20), 7pm, Black Mountain Veterans Park, 10 Veterans Park Dr Black Mountain

Will Ray & The Space Cooties Reunion Concert

After a long hiatus, Will Ray brings his shredder style guitar work back to the AGB stage.

TH (6/20), 8pm, Asheville Guitar Bar, 122 Riverside Dr Bloom WNC Concert Series: Nick & Brew

Honoring Nature: Early Southern Appalachian Landscape Painting

This exhibition explores the sublime natural landscapes of the Smoky Mountains of Western North Carolina and Tennessee. Gallery open daily, 11am, closed Tuesday. Exhibition through Oct. 21.

Asheville Art Museum, 2 S Pack Square

Resonance

An art exhibition that harmoniously weaves together the distinctive styles of two artists, Lauren Betty & Rand Kramer. Each navigate the delicate balance between spontaneity and control in their unique mediums. Gallery open Tuesday through Saturday, 11am. Exhibition through June 30. Citron Gallery, 60 Biltmore Ave

COMMUNITY MUSIC

The Songwriter Sessions w/Andy Bracken, Letters To Abigail & Charlie Wilkinson

An evening of original songs in a natural acoustic listening room. This month we'll feature popular local musicians Andy Bracken, Letters To Abigail and Charlie Wilkinson.

WE (6/19), 7pm, The Brandy Bar, 504 7th Ave E, Hendersonville

Singer Songwriter Classical Showcase

A singer and songwriter showcase with local musicians Daniel Anton Balich, Jake Mossman & Andy Jurik with vocalist Rachel Hansbury.

WE (6/19), 8pm, Asheville Guitar Bar, 122 Riverside Dr

Lenny Pettinelli

Live music with local pianist, keyboardist, vocalist, and producer

This concert series brings classic bluegrass with the beautiful surrounding of Bloom WNC's location. There will be food from Ole's Guacamole with a cash-only taco bar.

FR (6/21), 6pm, Bloom WNC Flower Farm, 806 N Fork Rd, Black Moutain

A Cappella Alive: Choral Concert

This concert features 15 women singers, their award-winning director, and a special all-men quartet, Brother Nature. Be prepared sing along to popular melodies, modern jazz tunes and more.

FR (6/21), 7pm, First Baptist Church of Weaverville, 63 N Main St, Weaverville

Concert Series on the Creek: The V8s Free concert series for the community with the V8s providing classic rock, motown and beach favorites this week. These events are free with donations encouraged. Everyone is welcome. There will be food trucks available on most nights.

FR (6/21), 7pm, Bridge Park Gazebo, 76 Railroad Ave, Sylva Summer Tracks Concert: Maya de Vitry Band Tryon's Summer Tracks concert series celebrates the Summer Solstice with folk artist Maya de Vitry Band from Nashville, TN. Maya’s songs reflect her joy of storytelling and extraordinary musicianship.

FR (6/21), 7pm, Rogers Park, 55 W. Howard St, Tryon

Candlelight: A Tribute to Beyoncé A live, multi-sensory musical experience in awe-inspiring locations. Discover the music of Beyoncé under the gentle glow of candlelight.

SA (6/22), 5:30pm, Asheville Masonic Temple, 80 Broadway St

Blue Ridge Orchestra's Solstice Soirée Music Director Milton Crotts incorporates the popular music of local artists into an eclectic program anchored by the BRO Chamber Ensemble. See p41

SA (6/22), 6pm, Souther Williams Vineyard, 655 Hoopers Creek Rd, Fletcher

Community Concert w/ MercyHeart

This concert will take place on the front lawn of FBC Black Mountain.

Bring a lawn chair or blanket for a family friendly evening of music.

SA (6/22), 6pm, First Baptist Church of Black Mountain, 130 Montreat Rd, Black Mountain

Sacred Music in the Mountains

This concert will feature music from the University of Notre Dame Folk Choir, combining four-part harmonies, text both ancient and modern, organ, guitar, strings and winds.

SA (6/22), 7pm, St. James Episcopal Church, 424 W State St, Black Mountain

Mark Oblinger of Pure Prairie League & Firefall

Five-time Emmy winning and Grammy nominated composer/producer

Mark Oblinger features songs from his 2019 album High Water Line & latest EP, The River SA (6/22), 8pm, Asheville Guitar Bar, 122

Riverside Dr

Mark's House Jam & Sunday Potluck

Bring a potluck dish to share with an amazing community of local musicians from around the globe. Please note that this isn't an open mic.

SU (6/23), 3pm, Asheville Guitar Bar, 122 Riverside Dr

The Golden Age of American Song

Vocalists Lori Griswold and Matthew Ruley will be joined by the St. John Parish Choir led by organist and Director of Music Dewitt Tipton on piano.

SU (6/23), 4pm, Parish Hall of St John in the Wilderness, 1905 Greenville Hwy, Flat Rock

Wings & Strings: Peggy R

This music series at at the Sweeten Creek location will feature local bluegrass-style bands every week.

TH (6/27), 6:30pm, Rocky's Hot Chicken Shack S, 3749 Sweeten Creek Rd, Arden

Gordon Beeferman & Stephanie Griffin

An eclectic program of contemporary solo and duo music that often blurs the boundaries between composed and improvised.

TH (6/27), 7pm, Black Mountain College Museum & Arts Center, 120 College St

Park Rhythms Concert Series

This series features many talented artists from across the east coast with Drumming Bird providing the tunes this week.

TH (6/27), 7pm, Black Mountain Veterans Park, 10 Veterans Park Dr Black Mountain

COMMUNITY WORKSHOPS

Tarot w/Cats

A 1-hour workshop that will be held in the cat lounge and will show how to incorporate a one- and three-card pull for daily guidance.

FR (6/21), 5:30pm, House of Black Cat Magic, Co., 841 Haywood Rd

Innerdance: Altered States of Consciousness w/Soundscapes & Energy Work

A healing journey into altered states of consciousness as we flow through brain wave states with soundscapes & energy work.

WE (6/26), 6pm, 155 Horse Shoe Farm Rd, Hendersonville

Brain Syndrome: Brain Function for a Healthier You

In this workshop, Dr. Cory Noll will discuss the effects of stress on the brain and outline ways of enhancing brain function through an integrative approach.

TH (6/27), 6pm, AmeriHealth Caritas, 216 Asheland Ave,

LITERARY

The Wild Divine: An Evening Meal w/Word & Son

Experience poet John Roedel, musician Chris Rosser and co-creator Chantal McKinney for a delicious meal, healing music, and spoken word.

WE (6/19), 5:30pm, Kanuga, 47 Kanuga Chapel Dr, Hendersonville

Asheville Storyslam: Guts

Prepare a five-minute story about moments of boldness and courage and the peaks and pratfalls of a daring spirit. Scaling mountains or admitting to mistakes. See p40 TH (6/20), 7:30pm, The Grey Eagle, 185 Clingman Ave

Anne Jobe & Christine Reed: Blood Sweat Tears

Local authors share a short story collection from 25 women and writers about the experience of being in a female body on trail.

SA (6/22), 3pm, City Lights Bookstore, 3 E Jackson St, Sylva

Poetry Night

Every last Wednesday of every month.

WE (6/26), 8pm, Static Age Loft, 116 N Lexington Ave

Black Experience Book Club: Jackal

The Black Experience Book Club reads books by Black authors about the many facets of the Black experience. Book lovers discuss this month’s pick, Jackal by Erin E. Adam.

TH (6/27), 6:30pm, Noir Collective, 39 S Market St

THEATER & FILM

The Shawshank Redemption Embark on an unforgettable journey of resilience, friendship, and the triumph of the human spirit.

WE (6/19, 26), TH (6/20, 27), FR (6/21), SA (6/22), 7:30pm, SU (6/23), 2pm, Flat Rock Playhouse Downtown, 125 S Main St, Hendersonville

Murder Mystery Dinner

An 80's immersive murder mystery extravaganza filled with intrigue, dinner, and all the nostalgia you can handle.

TH (6/20), 6pm, The Hideaway, 49 Broadway St

Man Ray’s Return to Reason

The evening will begin with a solo performance by Asheville-based multi-instrumentalist Chad Beattie, followed by a free screening of Man Ray's Return to Reason See p41

TH (6/20), 7pm, Black Mountain College Museum & Arts Center, 120 College St Interactive Murder Mystery Night: Pandemonium at the Roman Toga Bash

An evening of suspense and laughter with the citizens of Gothica City who are gearing up to showcase their most dazzling Roman Toga designs. Costumes are encouraged but not required.

FR (6/21), 7pm, Ginger's Revenge Craft Brewery and Tasting Room, 829 Riverside Dr

Movie Night: Eat Pray Love

Featuring a 2010 romantic drama where the protagonist embarks on a quest of self-discovery that takes her to Italy, India and Bali.

FR (6/21), 7pm, Center for Spiritual Living Asheville, 2 Science Mind Way

Richard II Richard II is the second play in the Muse of Fire: Shakespeare’s Wars of the Roses Season. It will depict King Richard II’s rule in England.

FR (6/21), SA (6/22), SU (6/23), 7:30pm, Hazel Robinson Amphitheatre, 92 Gay St

The Gods of Comedy

This Ivy League will never be the same as a pair of deities encounter the carnal complexity of college coeds, campus capers, and conspicuous consumption.

FR (6/21), SA (6/22), 7:30pm, SU (6/23), 2pm, Hart Theatre, 250 Pigeon St, Waynesville Blue Ridge Storytelling Summit

This summit will bring acclaimed storytellers to perform live with Connie Regan-Blake as the featured storyteller.

SA (6/22), 10am, Center for Pioneer Life, 134 Joe Young Rd, Bursnville Free Screening: Common Ground Documentary

The sequel to the documentary Kiss the Ground, which reached over 1 billion people globally and inspired the US Department of Agriculture to put $20 billion toward soil health.

TH (6/27), 7pm, The Railyard Black Mountain, 141 Richardson Ave, Black Mountain Stories for Seasons & Reasons Local storytellers Deb Martin, Darren Smitherman, Wallace Bohanan, Cindy Berryman-Fink and Chuck Fink will share personal stories that cover the gamut from hilarious to touching.

TH (6/27), 7pm, Weaverville Community Center, 60 Lakeshore Dr, Weaverville

MEETINGS & PROGRAMS

Hemlock Treatment Demonstration Participants will learn about assessing hemlock health and available treatment options.

TH (6/20), 9am, Montford Park, 345 Montford Ave

Chen Style Tai Chi

The original style of Tai Chi known for its continual spiraling movements and great health benefits. First class is free so you can see if you feel like it is a good fit for you.

TH (6/20, 27), MO (6/24), TU (6/25), 1pm, Dragon Phoenix, 51 N Merrimon Ave, Ste 109 Buns in the Sun: Hot Dog Social

Enjoy one of the nation's favorite outdoor meals, hotdogs. There will also be games, music, and more for all ages.

TH (6/20), 3pm, Grove St Community Center, 36 Grove St

Dharma & Discuss Meditation instructions will be given during a sitting which will last 15 to 20 mins. This will be followed by a talk and an opportunity to ask Roger questions afterwards.

TH (6/20), 6:30pm, Quietude Micro-retreat Center, 1130 Montreat Rd, Black Mountain

Haunted History Tour of Downtown Black Mountain

Visitors will learn about the humorous, haunting and harrowing history of the Swannanoa Valley while being visited by some of its most famous spirits.

FR (6/21), 7pm, Swannanoa Valley Museum & History Center, 223 West State St, Black Mountain

Chestnut Ridge Hike

A 4-mile loop hike in the historic Fortune Fields property, formerly owned by Arthur Joe and Mary Hemphill. Bring snacks and beverages for a post-hike celebration around the fire at the pavilion.

SA (6/22), 10am, Swannanoa Valley Museum & History Center, 223 West State St, Black Mountain

The Bees’ Needs: Understanding & Supporting Pollinators

Summit

Globally renowned pollination ecologist, author, researcher and film consultant, Dr Stephen Buchmann will address Bees & Other Pollinators: Why They Are Essential to Flowers, Wildlife and Us.

SA (6/22), noon, Kittredge Theatre, Warren Wilson College, 701 Warren Wilson Rd, Swannanoa

Walking Tour of Historic Downtown

Black Mountain

Learn the history of Black Mountain and the Swannanoa Valley on this walking tour.

SA (6/22), 2pm, Swannanoa Valley Museum & History Center, 223 West State St, Black Mountain

What Is Old Buncombe County?

Learn how your ancestor may be one of the First Families of Old Buncombe. Genealogist and historian, Nancy Manning, will help you research your ancestors living in the western mountains long ago. Visit avl.mx/dqh to register.

SA (6/22), 2pm, Online Coloring w/Cats

Set time for yourself and cuddle with the panthers, meet other cat-lovers, and color a beautiful picture of a cat from our adult coloring books.

SU (6/23), 2pm, House of Black Cat Magic, Co., 841 Haywood Rd

Puppy Pride Pool Party & Cookout

A pup Pride pool party that welcomes all good doggies to come out and make a splash. There will also be grilling and drinks for dog-owners.

SU (6/23), 5pm, The Getaway River Bar, 790 Riverside Dr

Thia Powers: Being Ordinary

An evening of meditation and a dharma talk

fostered by love and respect for the liberating truths.

MO (6/24), 7pm, Quietude Micro-retreat Center, 1130 Montreat Rd, Black Mountain Hoop & Flow Arts Jam

Whether you're a seasoned hooper or a beginner, this vibrant event invites everyone to dance, spin, and groove to the music in a welcoming and energetic atmosphere.

TU (6/25), 5:30pm, Pritchard Park, 4 College St

Every Black Voice: AVL's Racial Justice Coalition Lunch & Learn

This event will be discussing reparations and the history of black Asheville. Housing, health and wellness along with community building and education will also be hot topics of conversation.

WE (6/26), 12:30pm, AmeriHealth Caritas, 216 Asheland Ave

Mushroom Magic w/ Buncombe County Soil & Water Educators

A discussion about the incredible fungi kingdom, including research on how mushrooms facilitate tree communication across the wood wide web, fungal research, and technology applications.

WE (6/26), 4pm, Black Mountain Library, Black Mountain

Access to Capital Learn why businesses borrow money, what lenders are looking for when reviewing your application, and the importance of having cash flow projections. Register at avl.mx/pry7.

TH (6/27), noon, Online Dharma Talk w/John Orr

John will give Dharma talk and lead discussion on various topics related to meditation and Buddhist teachings.

TH (6/27), 6:30pm, Quietude Micro-retreat Center, 1130 Montreat Rd, Black Mountain

GAMES & CLUBS

Music Bingo Thursdays

Test your music knowledge and your luck with Music Bingo by DJ Spence.

TH (6/20, 25), 6:30pm, Lookout Brewing Co., 103 S Ridgeway Ave, Black Mountain

Island Breeze Bingo

A bingo beach party with tropical refreshments and fun for the whole family. Advance registration recommended.

FR (6/21), 5:30pm, free, Burton Street Community Center, 134 Burton St

Puzzle Palooza Teams of 2 compete to complete a 500-piece puzzle. Winners receive a prize, all participants

take home their puzzles.

SA (6/22), 1pm, Burton Street Community Center, 134 Burton St

Weekly Sunday Scrabble! Weekly scrabble play where you’ll be paired with players of your skill level. All scrabble gear provided.

SU (6/23), 1:30pm, Stephens Lee Recreation Center, 30 George Washington Carver Ave

Music Bingo

Test your music knowledge and your luck with Music Bingo by DJ Spence.

TU (6/25), 6:30pm, Asheville Brewing Co., 77 Coxe Ave

KID-FRIENDLY PROGRAMS

Asheville Museum’s Summer of Science

This family-friendly event promises to engage and entertain all ages with hands-on experiments and demonstrations.

WE (6/19, 26), 5pm, Pritchard Park, 4 College St

Kids & Teens Kung Fu Learn fighting skills as well as conflict resolution and mindfulness. First class is free to see if it’s a good fit for you.

TH (6/20, 27), MO (6/24), TU (6/25), 4pm, Dragon Phoenix, 51 N Merrimon Ave, Ste 109

Summer Splash Dive into a world of water-themed activities and beat the heat with an array of aquatic adventures.

FR (6/21), 11am, Murphy Oakley Park, 715 Fairview Rd

Nerd Day

Nerd Nite Asheville’s first family friendly event for kids of all ages to enrich their minds. Folks will give fun-yet-informative presesntaions across a variety of subjects.

SA (6/22), noon, The River Arts District Brewing Co., 13 Mystery St Coloring w/Cats: Kiddie Edition

An artistic session with coloring books and markers for children ages 13 and under to relax by coloring as they pet cats to reduce stress and anxiety.

SA (6/22), 1:30pm, House of Black Cat Magic, Co., 841 Haywood Rd

Water Field Day Frenzy Summer is heating up just in time for the ultimate water field day competition. For ages 6 to 11 with advance registration.

SA (6/22), 2pm, Tempie Avery Montford Community Center, 34 Pearson Ave

Toddler Play Time

A fun active time to let your little ones run and play in the gym with different activities each week. Ages 2 to 6 must be accompanied by

parent/guardian.

SU (6/23), 1:30pm, Tempie Avery Montford Community Center, 34 Pearson Ave

Kids Beach Towel Tie

Dye Party

Get ready to twist, dye, and design your own groovy beach towel for the summer. For ages 7 to 10 years old.

SU (6/23), 2pm, Tempie Avery Montford Community Center, 34 Pearson Ave

Imagination Monday

Children can enjoy giant building blocks, tunnels, and fun games on this special day of open play geared for ages 1-5 years-old. No advance registration required, adults must accompany children the entire time. MO (6/24), 10am, W Asheville Park, 11 Vermont Ave

Foam Frenzy

Gather with neighbors for foam-filled afternoons as parks turn into fluffy, foamy lands of fun and make-believe.

TU (6/25), 1pm, Malvern Hills Park, 75 Rumbough Pl

LOCAL MARKETS

Etowah Lions Farmers Market

An array of farm-fresh local produce that features lettuce, collards, kale, mushrooms as well as local artisans, herbal products, plant starts, prepackaged meals and more. Every Wednesday through October.

WE (6/19, 26), 3pm, Etowah Lions Club, 447 Etowah School Rd, Hendersonville

RAD Farmers Market

Providing year-round access to fresh local foods from over 30 local vendors offering fresh produce, baked goods, pastured meats, cheeses, raw honey, and more. Located right on the Greenway, the market is safely accessible by bike, foot, or rollerblade.

WE (6/19, 26), 3pm, Smoky Park Supper Club, 350 Riverside Dr

Weaverville Tailgate Market

A selection of fresh, locally grown produce, grass fed beef, pork, chicken, rabbit, eggs, cheese, sweet and savory baked goods, artisan bread, body care, eclectic handmade goodies, garden and landscaping plants. Open year round.

WE (6/19, 26), 3pm, 60 Lake Shore Dr Weaverville

Enka-Candler Farmer’s Market

A grand selection of local foods and crafts, everything from produce to pickles, baked goods to body care, and even educational resources. Every Thursday through October 31.

TH (6/20, 27), 3:30pm, A-B Tech Small Business Center, 1465 Sand Hill Rd, Candler

East Asheville Tailgate Market

Featuring locally grown vegetables, fruits, wild foraged mushrooms, ready made food, handmade body care, bread, pastries, meat, eggs, and more to the East Asheville community since 2007. Every Friday through Nov. 22.

FR (6/21), 3pm, 954 Tunnel Rd

Pack Square Artisan Market

Featuring local handcrafted goods in the heart of downtown Asheville. Browse unique products and meet the folks that produce them. Every Friday through Oct. 25.

FR (6/21), 3pm, 1 South Pack Square Park

Henderson County Tailgate Market

Featuring Henderson County's finest produce, hand crafts, plant starts, vegetables, Sourwood honey, baked goods, fresh eggs, mushrooms, sausage and more. Every Saturday through Oct.

SA (6/22), 8am, 100 N King St, Hendersonville

North Asheville Tailgate Market

The oldest Saturday morning market in WNC, since 1980. Over 60 rotating vendors providing a full range of local, sustainably produced produce, meats, eggs, cheeses, breads, plants and unique crafts.

SA (6/22), 8am, 3300 Unversity Heights

Asheville City Market

Featuring local food products, including fresh produce, meat, cheese, bread, pastries, and other artisan products. Every Saturday through December 21.

SA (6/22), 9am, 52 N Market St

Black Mountain Saturday Tailgate Market

Featuring organic and sustainably grown produce, plants, cut flowers, herbs, locally raised meats, seafood, breads,

pastries, cheeses, eggs and locally handcrafted items.

SA (6/22), 9am,130 Montreat Rd, Black Mountain

Mars Hill Farmers & Artisans Market

A producer-only tailgate market located on the campus of Mars Hill University on College Street. Offering fresh local produce, herbs, cheeses, meats, eggs, baked goods, honey, body care and more. Every Saturday through Oct. 26.

SA (6/22), 10am, College St, Mars Hill

WNC Farmers Market

High quality fruits and vegetables, mountain crafts, jams, jellies, preserves, sourwood honey, and other farm fresh items. Open daily 8am, year-round.

570 Brevard Rd

Meadow Market

Browse goods and gifts from local makers and artisans with different vendors every week, you’ll find specialty items. Shop for handmade jewelry, housewares, vintage goods, and crafts.

SU (6/23), 1pm, The Meadow at Highland Brewing Co., 12 Old Charlotte Hwy, Ste 200 West Asheville Tailgate Market

Featuring an array of goods including fruits, vegetables, baked goods, bread, eggs, cheese, milk, poultry, and fish to locally made specialty items such as natural beauty products, herbal medicine and locally made art and crafts. Every Tuesday through November 26.

TU (6/25), 3:30pm, 718 Haywood Rd

FESTIVALS & SPECIAL EVENTS

Third Thursday

An evening featuring live music from Xor Music, a screening of the film Style Wars, special cocktails in the rooftop Perspective Café, and a public tour: Discovering

Art in Asheville. TH (6/20), 5pm, Asheville Art Museum, 2 S Pack Square

Juneteenth Gala

A tie or no tie celebration and commemoration of Juneteenth. Enjoy a soul food feast with beer from Burial Beer, wine from Biltmore, non-alcoholic beverages, music, dancing, and an African fashioned fashion show. See p40

TH (6/20), 7pm, Stephens-Lee Recreation Center, 30 George Washington Carver Ave

2024 Rhythm & Brews: Queen Bee & The Honeylovers w/ Peggy Ratusz & Daddy

LongLegs

Free outdoor shows with a variety of established acts as well as up-and-coming artists from around the region. This week, blues and jazz bands Queen Bee and the Honeylovers will be performing alongside Peggy Ratusz and Daddy LongLegs.

TH (6/20), 5:30pm, Downtown Hendersonville S Main St, Hendersonville

Summer Solstice & One World West 6th Anniversary Party

Celebrate the Summer solstice and One World West’s 6th Anniversary with an outside show by Sun of Stars and and inside show of Organ Fairchild.

TH (6/20), 6pm, One World Brewing W, 520 Haywood Rd

Taylor's Wave Groundbreaking

A groundbreaking ceremony and celebration of the start of construction of Taylor’s Wave, a Whitewater Wave that will be a world-class river wave.

FR (6/21), 4pm, Future Site of Woodfin Greenway/Blueway & Taylor's Wave, 1476 Riverside Dr, Woodfin

Taking Pride: Postcard Party & Social Time

An opportunity for like-minded individuals to mingle and write postcards to elected

officials and others on current topics and concerns of participants.

FR (6/21), 4:30pm, Oklawaha Brewing Co., 147 1st Ave E, Hendersonville

Downtown After 5

A free monthly St festival with live music, food, drinks and a craft market. This month spotlights Juneteenth with the the soulful sounds of Sierra Green and the Giants as well as Lyric.

FR (6/21), 5pm, Downtown After 5, 100 Block N Lexington Ave

Opulance: Pride After Party

A Pride after party with drag performances by Josie & The Pu$$ycats, followed by an open format DJ session by LC Tamagotchi.

FR (6/21), 9pm, Eulogy, 10 Buxton Ave

EDM Dance Party & Late Night Art Installation

A glitter cafe featuring live EDM DJs as well as eclectic, whimsical art installations from local Asheville artists.

FR (6/21), 10pm, Urban Orchard Cider Co. S Slope, 24 Buxton Ave

MAGMA: Summer Gem Show

This gem show will have over 25 vendors with everything from affordable treasures to the finest gems, minerals and jewelry in the Southeast. Browse for minerals, crystals, and handcrafted jewelry from locally and nationally known vendors.

FR (6/21), SA (6/22), 9am, SU (6/23), 10am, Land of Sky Shrine Club, 39 Spring Cove Rd, Swannanoa

The Family Block Party

An opportunity for local families with little ones to come together for a morning of summer fun. There will be an interactive music party, hula hoop family yoga, mini photo sessions, chair massages for grownups, and so much more.

SA (6/22), 9:30am, Haw Creek Commons, 315 Old Haw Creek Rd

Carolina CiderFest

Enjoy ample tastings of hard cider, mead, apple wine, and seltzers along with artisanal food, live music, and more. In addition to tasting cider and mead, attendees can enjoy food vendors and local makers.

SA (6/22), 11:30am, Urban Orchard Cider Co. S Slope, 24 Buxton Ave

The Light Within Wellness Fair

An empowering, and supportive healing event that will include massage, yoga, reiki, chiropractic, sound healing, live music, demonstrations and more. All proceeds will be donated to local non-profit organization, Seek Healing.

SA (6/22), 1pm, Elevated Kava Lounge, 747 Haywood Rd, Ste 200 7th Annual Pride Bar

Crawl

Dress in vibrant attire and express your true self in a safe, welcoming space. This event is more than just a pub crawl; it's a celebration of love, diversity, and inclusion. A portion of every ticket sold goes directly to Pride Non-Profit Organizations nationwide, SA (6/22), 4pm, Catawba Brewing Company S Slope, 32 Banks Ave

CiderFest 2024 After Party

DJ Rexxstep will be spinning dance vinyls while people enjoy special drinks after the Carolina CiderFest.

SA (6/22), 4pm, Urban Orchard Cider Co. S Slope, 24 Buxton Ave

StarTribe Summer

Solstice Dance

An annual celebration of Light with a 22 speaker StarTribe sound system and musicians like ATYYA, Katt, Kevin Spears and more.

SA (6/22), 5:45pm, Pack Square Park, 121 College St

Sausage Party w/DJ

Rexxstep

An afternoon of celebrating PRIDE with community through yard games, queer socializing, a special cookout and a live DJ set by Rexxstep. SA (6/22), 6pm, The Getaway River Bar, 790 Riverside Dr

EDM Dance Party & Late Night Art Installation

A glitter cafe featuring live EDM DJs as well as eclectic, whimsical art installations from local Asheville artists. SA (6/22), 10pm, Urban Orchard Cider Co. S Slope, 24 Buxton Ave

BENEFITS & VOLUNTEERING

Silent Vigil for Immigration Reform

The goal of this event is to heighten public awareness of and support for immigration reform legislation that: promotes reunification of families; meets economic needs of our nation; is responsive to those seeking to enter the United States legally and more.

FR (6/21), 4pm, Hendersonville Historic Courthouse Square, 1 Historic Courthouse Square, Hendersonville Asheville FM & Blue Ridge Pride Presents: Voices

A celebration of queer community to benefit Asheville FMs Queer Youth programming. Featuring Erica Dawn Lyle, writer, curator, experimental musician, and cultural instigator. FR (6/21), 5pm, Eulogy, 10 Buxton Ave

Full Moon in June Fundraiser

Celebrate the midsummer strawberry full moon with an evening of music featuring the Ada Khoury Band, The Moon and You band and Kim Nelson. Donations will support

Aura Home Women

Vets' goal of preventing homelessness in women Veterans.

FR (6/21), 6pm, Patton Parker House, 95 Charlotte St Standup Comedy Contest: Benefit for AFM

A fun Asheville standup comedy pageant that aims to raise money for 103.3 Asheville FM, the local community radio station. There will be games, stand up, food and all sorts of silliness. FR (6/21), 7pm, plēb urban winery, 289 Lyman St Run For Resilience 5k Run, walk, roll, and reset to support Resources for Resilience. This family-friendly fundraising event will feature fun for all ages, including a 5K race, raffles food and fun. SU (6/23), 2:30pm, Carrier Park, 220 Amboy Rd

99.9 Kiss Country Birthday Jam

An evening of live music and celebration with Rodney Atkins, George Birge, Zach Top and Ryan Larkins. All proceeds wil benefit cops on top and Special Olympics NC. MO (6/24), 7pm, Silverados, 2898 US-70, Black Mountain

The pollen problem

BY GINA SMITH

Early summer is a beautiful time in Western North Carolina. For people who suffer from seasonal allergies, however, it’s not always pleasant. For more than 25% of people in the U.S., according to the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the pollen from blooming trees and plants translates to sneezing, runny nose, itchy eyes, scratchy throat, hives, eczema and other uncomfortable symptoms. As climate change creates longer growing seasons, the annual window for pollen is also expanding. Asheville-area health professionals tell Xpress they’re seeing itchy, sniffling allergy sufferers up to nine months of the year.

Dr. Jordan Smallwood , an allergist-immunologist with Allergy Partners of Western North Carolina, observed that this year’s allergy season began long before March 19, the first day of spring. “I started seeing spring allergy symptoms as early as February and expect they will last through June,” he says.

“Obviously, not everyone’s symptoms will be severe that entire time, and symptoms may fluctuate based on cooler and warmer temperatures,” he continues. “Over the past several years, I have seen tree pollen allergy symptoms starting earlier than expected and lasting longer than expected as well.”

Christy McCall, a family nurse practitioner with Medical Associates of Transylvania in Brevard and a lifelong WNC resident, has noticed her own seasonal allergies change depending on the chill. “If we have

Longer growing seasons mean more allergy issues for WNC

a winter when the temperature gets low for a long period of time, allergy season is going to be better the next year,” she says.

Likewise, a very late, heavy frost can be good news for allergy sufferers (although it’s bad for farmers). “With apple trees and [other spring-blooming plants], a heavy frost will basically stop the blooming process, so the allergies aren’t as bad that year,” says McCall.

Blissful Chiropractic

Experience

NOTHING TO SNEEZE AT

Allergic reactions occur when the body’s immune system mistakenly identifies a substance as dangerous. It attacks that substance by releasing histamines, which are the chemicals that cause the unpleasant symptoms.

However, individuals can experience different symptoms from the same allergens, says Smallwood. Spring tree pollen, for instance, may contribute to flares of eczema in some, but it is also an asthma trigger — sometimes leading to severely restricted breathing.

Other common symptoms are what Smallwood calls the “downstream effects of nasal congestion,” such as itchy eyes and coughing. “Many patients with environmental allergies will have headaches, more frequent sinus infections, sinus pain or pressure and fatigue due to difficulty sleeping from nasal blockage,” he explains.

Itchy eyes can swell and cause a condition called allergic conjunctivitis, which resembles pinkeye, McCall adds. Fatigue is another side effect, she says, “mainly just from being sort of chronically ill with the allergies.”

PROFESSIONAL HELP

So what can beleaguered WNC allergy sufferers do?

McCall and Smallwood advise starting with defensive action, such as regularly changing the filters on indoor air conditioning and heat pumps and keeping doors and windows shut as much as possible.

Smallwood emphasizes the importance of thoroughly washing hands.

“So many people get pollen and other allergens on their hands without realizing it and then touch their eyes and nose, contributing to their symptoms,” he explains.

He also recommends regular house-cleaning to remove pollen from living areas, including vacuuming all carpeting at least twice a week and washing bedding in hot water once a week. “All of these can go a long way toward reducing exposure to your allergens,” says Smallwood.

As a primary care provider, McCall typically recommends that her patients first try over-the-counter antihistamines to alleviate allergy symptoms. She refers more severe cases to allergists like Smallwood,

SNEEZE SCHEDULE: In spring, tree pollens tend to be most prolific. The season starts with junipers and cedars and progresses to oaks, pines and maples. Weeds, including ragweed, become prevalent in the fall. Photo courtesy of iStock

who can test for specific allergens and offer further treatment options.

Smallwood begins by listening to patients describe their symptoms and history. From there, he uses a combination of physical examination, allergy skin testing (applying small amounts of many potential allergens — such as pollens, pet dander and dust mites — to the skin to test for reactions) and sometimes lab tests to determine what triggers symptoms.

After testing, Smallwood reviews over-the-counter and prescription medications that could help relieve symptoms. For patients who have not had good results from such medicines or are tired of taking them, immunotherapy — also known as allergy shots — can be an option.

Immunotherapy administers gradually increased dosages of an allergen over time to reduce the sensitivity to the patient’s immune system. “Many people have achieved long-lasting relief from their allergies without the need for frequent medication because of these allergy treatments,” he says.

Some people swear by old-fashioned home remedies for allergies, such as eating local honey. “They say it’s kind of like doing allergy shots,” McCall says. “You’re actually ingesting the allergen itself from the bees that bring in the pollen from the surrounding area.”

Allergy sufferers may want to address other areas in their lives as well. Dr. Zachari Cahn, an acupuncturist, herbalist and practitioner of traditional Chinese medicine at Asheville Alternative Wellness Center, calls allergy symptoms a small part of a bigger picture.

“It’s complicated — allergies are not as simple as I think they’re made out to be,” he says. Cortisol, a hormone produced by stress, increases inflammation in the body, Cahn points out. And research shows that chronic, unchecked, inflammatory patterns significantly impact tissues that interact with the outside world, from the skin, eyes and mouth to nasal cavities, lungs and digestive tract — the parts of the body that experience allergic reactions.

Other factors, including blood sugar dysregulation, hormone imbalances, diet and thyroid health also contribute to an individual’s sensitivity to pollen and other allergens, Cahn continues. “Allergies are kind of our body’s way of letting us know, ‘Hey, your game is a little off, something’s not working here,’” he says.

When treating seasonal allergies, Cahn typically relies on a proprietary blend of research-based, natural compounds — herbs, nutri-

“So many people get pollen and other allergens on their hands without realizing it and then touch their eyes and nose, contributing to their symptoms.”

— Dr. Jordan Smallwood, an allergist-immunologist

ent-based supplements and chemical compounds — to address the inflammation that is at the root of the problem. But he starts by carefully explaining to patients the complex connection between overall health, the immune system and allergic reactions. Inflammation, he says, is “the low common denominator with chronic allergies most of the time.”

SIZE MATTERS

Plant species’ individual pollination cycles, weather and geography are among the factors that determine the severity and length of pollen seasons, explains Shawn Taylor, spokesperson for the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality’s Division of Air Quality (NCDEQDAQ), which monitors and collects data on pollen.

In spring, tree pollens tend to be most prolific, starting with junipers and cedars early in the season and progressing to oaks, pines and maples. “As summer starts, we’ll see tree pollen decrease while grass and weed pollen increase,” says Taylor. “That trend will generally continue until the pollen season ends in October or November. Fall is the traditional ragweed season.”

The NCDEQDAQ collects and analyzes pollen samples from around February to October each year at its testing facility in Raleigh. For each 24-hour period Monday-Friday, it releases a detailed pollen report on the types of pollen that are prevalent and their severity, ranking them low, medium, high or very high.

Dr. Robert Bardon, professor of forestry at N.C. State University’s College of Natural Resources, agrees that not all pollen is created equal, especially when it comes to how var-

ious types trigger allergic reactions in humans.

Yellow powder, which comes from pine trees, is abundantly visible in the springtime, and it does trigger allergies. However, there are tinier, less visible culprits afoot as well. “Most of the allergies that we see are related to the hardwood pollen,” Bardon explains.

Bardon concurs with the health professionals who say the pollen season is lengthening. Data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency shows growing seasons, and therefore pollen seasons, have extended under a warming climate. And anecdotal evidence indicates that pollen season begins about a week earlier now than in years past, says Bardon.

In WNC’s mountainous terrain, plants and trees at higher elevations begin to pollinate when the same species at lower levels have already finished. Pollen grains can travel up to 50 miles on the wind, so this effectively prolongs the area’s pollen season.

“Until winter comes along and everything’s done pollinating, allergy sufferers don’t get a reprieve,” Bardon says. X

ARTS & CULTURE

Onward and upward

BY EDWIN ARNAUDIN

earnaudin@mountainx.com

Andrew Ross and Jesse Van Note are back where it all began — sort of.

As the co-owners of the globally revered beer bar The Whale :: A Craft Beer Collective prepare to open their third Asheville location (and fifth across the Carolinas) at 21 Buxton Ave., they can’t help but reflect on their time working together a decade ago at Wicked Weed Brewing’s Funkatorium, which they can almost see from their new spot’s rooftop deck.

In 2014, Ross and Van Note were on the team that opened Wicked Weed’s first expansion, which still focuses on sour and farmhouse-style ales. Van Note created the Funkatorium’s tour program while Ross tended bar. And when business was slow in the early days, the new friends used to fantasize about opening a tiki bar in the vacant lot across the street and selling Miller Lites.

“Just thatched roof, no inside seating,” Ross recalls with a laugh. “If it’s raining, it’s closed.”

Now they’re the owners of an establishment that was recently voted the fourth-best beer bar in the country by USA Today readers, and the 11th-best beer bar in the world according to Craft Beer and Brewing Magazine.

“To be back on this block that we started from is really cool,” Ross says. “And I lived [nearby] for, like, 16 years. So our attachment to this area is huge.”

Though no precise opening date is set, the Whale team will have the new space ready in time for the City of Asheville’s Independence Day celebrations, which are taking place on the South Slope with fireworks being shot off the new parking garage at 45 Federal Alley. Buxton Avenue will be blocked off throughout the day.

The Whale and DSSOLVR add new spaces

THEY GOT FIVE ON IT: The addition of the new South Slope location brings the total of Whale beer bars in the Carolinas to five. Pictured outside the new spot are co-owners Jesse Van Note, left, and Andrew Ross. Photo by Edwin Arnaudin

After opening the original West Asheville Whale in 2017, each subsequent location has been in response to life changes for the co-owners. The Greenville bar arose after Van Note moved to Upstate South Carolina in 2019, and The Outpost was inspired by Ross relocating to Haw Creek in 2021 and his desire to enhance the packaged beer offerings in East Asheville.

A Charleston, S.C., Whale was also added in 2021 — somewhat selfishly, jokes Ross, who’s made frequent trips there since his teenage days. But after that, he and Van Note figured they were all set with four spots.

“A third [Asheville location] never would have been a thought, and we also never would have looked downtown,” Van Note says. “It’s too expensive. We

know where our margins need to be. We know what we’re looking to do.”

But then Ross got an intriguing call from Green Man Brewery owner Dennis Thies, the former longtime boss of Ross’ wife, Elise. In 2022, Thies purchased the former French Broad Chocolate Factory & Tasting Room, across the parking lot from his brewery, and made it the home of Green Man Eats, which delivers pub fare to taproom visitors.

However, he otherwise wasn’t using the space and thought it would be the perfect place for a new Whale bar. Despite their initial hesitations about adding yet another location, the deal quickly appealed to Ross and Van Note.

“The price made sense; working with Dennis made sense; having food built in made sense; the place was already a pretty good shell,” Van Note says. “It was like we couldn’t say no.”

The South Slope edition complements the neighborhood-oriented vibes of the original Whale and The Outpost with a location for downtown residents and beer tourists visiting the city’s craft beverage district. Patrons will be able to order food from Green Man Eats and choose from 20 beers on tap, as well as various packaged options.

Prioritizing consistency and ease of operations, Ross and Van Note are working with essentially the same construction team that built their other four locations. They also credit operations manager Nathan Ormand and events coordinator Dale Murphy for helping them be strategic in their growth.

The Whale team is keeping the original light blue paint on the walls to honor French Broad Chocolates’ role in helping build up the South Slope, adorning them with imagery from local graphic artist Savannah Bockus and bringing in the signature slat benches that are at each of their bars. But the space is allowing them to do some new things that aren’t as feasible in their other spots.

In addition to a shuffleboard table and a big-screen TV, the main level will have at least one tabletop multicade machine with classic games like PacMan, and the upstairs will be home to several pinball machines. The second floor is also the access point to the rooftop deck, which faces south with plentiful views of Kenilworth and beyond.

Along with what Ross calls the “full circle” feeling of being back on the South Slope, the new addition puts the business partners in the heart of the city’s celebrated beer industry instead of merely on its fringes. There, they seek to enhance an already

SIR MIX-A-LOTS: From left, DSSOLVER co-founder/head brewer Vince Tursi, co-founder Mike Semenec and VOWL cocktail lead Zane Bucholtz post up in their new space. Photo courtesy of VOWL

robust central scene that continues to rise in quality.

“I think you’re really seeing this brewing renaissance in Asheville right now,” Van Note says. “Whereas Asheville used to have this accolade of having the most breweries per capita, in the last five years everything that’s opened pretty much has to be good. You can’t just open a brewery and expect people to show up. That’s not happening anymore. Now, the whole package has to be good.”

To learn more, visit avl.mx/drw.

WALL TO WALL

In early 2022, the DSSOLVR ownership team was on the hunt for a second Asheville location. Then that quest suddenly got a whole lot easier. “It just so happened that this [space] became available right next door,” says co-founder Mike Semenec

Dubbed DSSOLVR 2.0, the adjoining room at 61 1/2 N. Lexington Ave. was originally envisioned as merely a second beer bar. But as construction advanced, reshaping the addition’s focus became increasingly appealing. Steering that new direction was the addition of the brewery’s Durham location, which opened in September. During the licensing process, head brewer and co-founder Vince Tursi was pleasantly surprised to learn that it only cost $25 to apply for a liquor license. The addition of spirits got his and Semenec’s minds whirring, and they soon recruited DSSOLVR bar-

tender — and experienced mixologist — Zane Buchholz to do a few pop-up cocktail events in Durham.

The trial runs were a success and convinced the team that a cocktail program would likewise work in Asheville. On May 17, they opened VOWL. The name is a nod to initial queries of why they spelled DSSOLVR incorrectly, and their tongue-in-cheek reply, “We couldn’t afford any vowels.”

The menu features seven of Buchholz’s original creations, plus a few standards (e.g., the perfect Manhattan) alongside DSSOLVR’s draft wine and cider, a few draft beer options, a handful of boilermakers and multiple nonalcoholic choices.

“I like a lot of highbrow/lowbrow situations where you have something that’s viewed as a cheaper ingredient and making it as fun and exciting as it can be,” Buchholz says. “I think cocktails should be fun and not superpretentious.”

So far, recipe development has been a team effort. For example, when Buchholz suggested making an espresso martini, Tursi sourced coffee beans from Cooperative Coffee Roasters in West Asheville.

“It’s been nice to leverage some things that we know process-wise or supply-wise from the brewing side of things and bring it to some of the cocktail stuff,” Tursi says. “And it’s going vice versa. Because we’re doing more cocktails and it’s a little bit more food oriented, we’re able to have different avenues for sourcing citrus fruit or local vegetables for [brewing].”

Along those lines, Buchholz is collaborating with Duke’s Mayonnaise and Good Hot Fish chef Ashleigh Shanti on a hard juice called “Good Hot Tomayo,” which will debut Friday, July 19, at VOWL. The space, featuring colorful murals by Noelle Miller and Semenec, additionally serves as DSSOLVR’s home for private parties and special events, including a recurring vinyl night where a different genre will be highlighted each time, and possibly karaoke in the near future.

Semenec and Tursi also plan to add a kitchen space at the back of VOWL, hopefully by autumn. In the meantime, Night Dogs hot dog cart — which Semenec says has been doing well at Off the Wagon Dueling Piano Bar — will set up a second location in VOWL and help feed the late-night crowd, particularly on Fridays and Saturdays, when hours run until 2 a.m.

“And we’re already talking about the next evolution of the cocktail menu,” Semenec says. “Like the taps next door, there’s going to be rotations. So what you had a couple months ago might change up.”

To learn more, visit avl.mx/drx. X

Under instruction

BY BRIONNA DALLARA

Hood Huggers International is described as a “whole network of good’ by founder DeWayne Barton

The organization works to create a system of enterprises to get youths engaged in the arts, environment and community, with a focus on marginalized communities.

Its youth development program, Under Construction, is launching an exhibit of its work, Creatives Under Instruction, on Friday, June 21, at the New Media Gallery at UNC Asheville’s Owen Hall.

“They’ve had the freedom to create what they like and what they feel they want to put in an art show,” Barton says of the artists. “This exhibit will be an important celebration of young people, mostly from the Burton Street neighborhood, who are using the arts to say something about themselves and their community.”

The Burton Street community is a historically Black neighborhood in West Asheville, established in the 1900s, that Barton’s family has lived in for generations. Barton returned to his hometown in 2001 with a commitment to youths and community development.

His goal is to bring youths together to connect with not only one another but also organizations, institutions and policymakers to create a culture that is sustainable and inclusive.

The upcoming exhibit features paintings, metalwork and drawings from youths in the program, some of which are already displayed in the Peace Gardens and Market, situated on the side of the hill in the heart of the community.

Youth art exhibit highlights work from emerging creatives

EMPOWERMENT: “A lot of young people feel like they’re not artists,” says DeWayne Barton, founder of Hood Huggers International. In an effort to change that mindset, Barton’s organization launched the youth development program Under Construction. The group will celebrate its forthcoming exhibit, Creatives Under Instruction, on Friday, June 21. Group members pictured here, from left, are Nore Williams, Makayan Barton, Bentley Harper, Aljour Edgerton, Mari Smith, Jhalil Morris, Aiden Mann and Jeremiah Stokley. Photo by Brionna Dallara

The gardens are intertwined with colorful structures and artworks, showcasing an accumulation of pieces created over decades, many using discarded items.

“A lot of young people feel like they’re not artists. So the exhibit is for those who want to perform, can

perform. If you just want to make something, you can make something,” Barton says. “Whichever way a young person has been creative, we want to highlight that and continue to promote that creativity.”

A SNEAK PEAK INTO THE ART

whose mission is to “Disarm Hearts, Forge Peace and Cultivate Justice.”

A few artists plan to display metalwork they crafted when partnering with RAWtools, a network of blacksmiths that repurpose guns into garden tools and other sculptures and

“We took pieces of a gun, and we made a hook and a shovel with them. You can weld different parts together and make whatever, really,” says artist Nore Williams. “We worked with this guy named Scotty [Utz]; he’s the dude that does it. His whole reasoning of welding is because there’s a lot of gun use in America right now.”

Utz also runs the local nonprofit Old School Asheville, which has been a supporter and sponsor of Hood Huggers.

Exhibit specifics

The Creatives Under Instruction exhibit opens Friday, June 21, at 5 p.m. on the third floor of UNCA’s Owen Hall, 100 Theatre Lane.

The gallery will be open to the public Saturday, June 22, and Sunday, June 23, 1-3 p.m. and Thursday, June 27, 5-7 p.m. A closing celebration featuring spoken word and performance poetry is at 5 p.m. Friday, June 28.

Admission is free, and select works will be available for sale. More information is available at avl.mx/dru and avl.mx/drv. X

Fellow member Dante Peterson has spent the last six months diving into photography and took photos for a recent RAWtools Guns to Garden Safe Surrender event.

“I go to botanical gardens, stuff like that,” Peterson says. “I took some at the River Arts District, and then a couple parties, baby showers. I’m trying to do some more.”

He’s also a sculptor. A sculpture he made repurposing an old sink and other scrap metal will reside in the garden.

Jeremiah Stockley translates his concepts into drawings and paintings that he plans to sell at the upcoming exhibit.

Stockley incorporates symbolism into his creations. One drawing features a face that displays different expressions depending on which way it’s turned. He used reds and blues on the drawing to represent wisdom and power.

“It’s a spiritual picture, I guess you could say,” Stockley says. “Just like looking right here, this represents that there are two sides of everything.”

A GROUP EFFORT

The program invites young artists to try their hand at media they’d never explored before, like welding or using a water jet cutter that cuts through different objects using highspeed, ultra-high-pressure water at UNCA’s STEAM studio.

“They’ve got the opportunity to work on all types of art. From performing arts to visual arts, we try to get them involved in behind-the-scenes marketing and stuff,” says program partner Abby Felder of Asheville Creative Arts. “We’re trying to get everybody involved in all aspects so that if they wanted to produce their own art show one day, they could do it from beginning to end.”

The group worked together to make shadow boxes that represent the aspects of the neighborhood they want to include in a kiosk for the planned Blue Note Junction, which will be a health and business incubator for the area’s entrepreneur who are Black, Indigenous and people of color.

Led by staff at the STEAM studio, building the 12-by-12-inch boxes helps youths gain proficiency in skills they’ll need when assembling the kiosks coming to Burton Street.

Members made boxes with pictures of their significant other or statement pieces like Williams’ box that displays a person kicking the word “not” off of the phrase, “I can not.”

“You see in movies, you see people go to a museum and all that,” Stockley says. “But then to have your own picture or piece of art in there. It’s a pretty good feeling.” X

Fresh Dish

From pintxos to pizza

BY GINA SMITH

gsmith@mountainx.com

When married chefs Brittany Kroeyr-Brown and Matt Brown arrived in Asheville in 2019, making pizza was not on their lists of career goals. But fate had other plans.

This month, the couple roll out Paperhouse Pizza, a mobile restaurant concept that capitalizes on their combined industry experience, sourdough mastery and passion for great pie.

Following years of Michelin-starstudded experience in New York and Chicago — including at Bar Boulud, Gramercy Tavern, Eleven Madison Park, Daniel, Alinea and Next — the chefs decided to put down roots in Brown’s native Western North Carolina, allowing them to be closer to his parents in Franklin and explore Asheville’s flourishing culinary scene. They both took jobs with Katie Button Restaurants (KBR) — Kroeyr-Brown in the role of culinary director and Brown ultimately helming La Bodega by Cúrate as chef de cuisine when it opened in 2022.

Later that same year, Kroeyr-Brown left KBR to begin developing a restaurant concept, and Brown followed in late 2023. While hosting pop-ups around the area, they took business classes at Mountain BizWorks and eventually found a spot to open their dream restaurant. But in December, the deal for the lease on the space fell through, and they shifted their plans to pizza on wheels.

The Paperhouse Pizza trailer debuted early this month with a menu of sourdough-crust pies, salads and starters, including arancini and charcuterie. The couple will keep the tires moving on their pizza business this summer, scheduling frequent dates at a variety of locations around Western North Carolina.

“We still have designs on having a brick-and-mortar eventually; I still think that’s the destination,” says Brown. “But in the meantime, in addition to this being something we can execute now, I think this is a really great way to drum up awareness, hitting a bunch of different spots. It’s not going to be easy, but I think it’ll pay off.”

As part of Xpress’ ongoing “Fresh Dish” feature, we sat down with the two chefs to talk about their new mobile restaurant, pizza research and why bitter greens are beautiful.

This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.

Xpress: After long careers in highend restaurants and focusing on Spanish cuisine at La Bodega by Cúrate, how did you land on pizza? Brown: When I first got hired with KBR, it was actually to head up an event space that they had been planning at the time where the Bodega is now. The upstairs was going to be the event space and downstairs was Button and Co. Bagels. There were a lot of conversations about what to do at the bagel shop at night when we didn’t have an event, and one of the ideas was to use the deck ovens that were there for the bagels to make pizza. And that was kind of the genesis of it.

You know, I didn’t really have any experience making pizza — I shouldn’t even qualify that; I just had no experience making pizza. So I bought some books and tried to teach myself how to make dough, learning about bread-making, dough-making, starting there as kind of the foundation. And I really took to it right away. When we lived in New York, we always talked about wanting to have a restaurant together someday. And we would plan these elaborate menus, really drawing on fine dining and stuff. And meanwhile, on our days off, we would find ourselves in these restaurants like Roberta’s in Bushwick or Franny’s that used to be in Park Slope ... that were pizza restaurants, but with great beverage programs, great cocktail lists, great wine lists, great salads and sides and seasonal produce.

Kroeyr-Brown: Those are the kinds of places we like to eat. Not that we don’t enjoy fine dining, but it’s just more that it’s something for everyone. Tell me about your pizza. Brown: The pizza that we’ve arrived at is sourdough-based. If you’re going to categorize it, it’s not Neapolitan but on the other hand, it’s definitely not slice-oriented. It’s artisanal dough, naturally leavened, long fermentation; so we get a really, airy crumb contained within a blistered, crispy exterior. As far as the toppings, I wouldn’t say it’s minimalist, but I’d say it’s just very thoughtfully topped, trying to pick out a few really special ingredients to highlight.

Kroeyr-Brown: When you eat it, it’s not something that brings you down where you feel like, ugh, I just ate a whole pizza. It’s gut-friendly, and I think that comes from the sourdough and from the flours we’re using. We’re

still continually tweaking our dough, trying to use some local Carolina Ground flour with Italian double O [very finely ground flour] that allows us to get the airiness in the crust that we’re really striving for.

We’ve been eating a lot of pizza. We took a trip to New York last July, and I think we ate at 11 pizza restaurants in like three days. We’re trying to see what other people are doing, tasting their dough, kind of getting an idea where we want to be how we want to top our pizzas. Like Matt said, we’re not minimalist but really trying to hit on the flavor profiles that we want with the ingredients that are on the pizzas. We’re going to try to use as much local produce as possible. I think that’s important. When I worked for Katie Button Restaurants, part of my job was connecting with local farmers, so we want to stick with that. We also want to use the best ingredients possible. So we’ll try to use a lot of local charcuterie, but if there’s something that we’re really drawn to that’s Italian or something like that, we’ll use that as well.

What dish on your menu do you feel people don’t order enough?

Brown: I definitely encourage people to venture beyond just the margherita pizza and pepperoni. … If you’ve got a table of four, I’m not going to tell anyone

they shouldn’t order a margherita — it’s a classic for a reason. But make your second pizza something that is more interpretive, more off the beaten path, because those are the places where we can kind of draw on our backgrounds and maybe show some of our culinary lineage, as well as highlighting really special product. And the same kind of goes for salads and arancini. … In my mind, I would want it to be so someone could come to our pizza trailer and not even get pizza and still feel like they had a great dining experience. That’s important to us.

What’s a local dish either of you tried recently that left a big impression?

Brown: I guess I’ll just say the roast chicken at Tall John’s. That’s our favorite restaurant, and it’s a place that has what we were talking about with those neighborhoody pizza places that we like so much. They don’t do pizza there, obviously, but if you think about an X-Y axis of concept execution, they nail it. And the roast chicken — I could pick any number of dishes there — but that kind of exemplifies that for me. Just beautifully crispy, golden brown skin; nice pan sauce. Supersimple.

NEW locally-owned restaurant & bar in South Asheville

Serving

eclectic menu

Kroeyr-Brown: I would go with Little Chango. [Chef and co-owner] Iris [Rodriguez] and I worked at Cúrate together when we first moved here, and they’re doing tasty, amazing food out of such a small space.

What’s a seasonal ingredient you feel home cooks should embrace more?

Brown: Chicories, bitter greens like radicchio, endive and chicory frisee. It has a couple of different little pockets of seasons. I think it’s most closely associated with the fall, but you find that stuff now at the farmers markets, too, as far as like, lola rosa [lettuce]. To me, starting a salad with bitter, crunchy greens gives you the possibility to complement that bitterness in a way that you can bring sweetness and round fatty flavors into the salad, more than if you’re just doing romaine or some sort of mixed baby greens where it might throw the balance off. And they obviously thrive here. If you go to the market, you’ll see lots of different stands that have that kind of stuff, and I think it’s underutilized, if what you see at the grocery store is any representation. There aren’t a lot of options there.

What type of cuisine do you think we need more of in Asheville?

Kroeyr-Brown: Szechuan. Szechuan food is definitely something from New York that I miss.

Do you have a favorite food destination within driving distance of Asheville?

Brown: Nashville. We don’t get to go as often as we’d like, but we’ve had two really great experiences there, and we’re definitely going back, time permitting. That’s an example of a very multifaceted food scene that has the trendy natural wine bars, but also it has everything from the meat-andthree kind of restaurants all the way up to fine dining, chef’s counter type places. That’s my favorite regional food city so far.

For the next “Fresh Dish" interview, chefs Brown and KroeyrBrown have tagged pastry chef Camille Cogswell. X

ON THE MOVE: Chefs Brittany Kroeyr-Brown and Matt Brown launched their mobile food business, Paperhouse Pizza, earlier this month. Both chefs had long careers working in high-profile restaurants in New York City, Chicago and Asheville before deciding to shift gears and hit the road. Photo by Caleb Johnson

What’s new in food

Sipping and

When Danny Childs heard the June 8 announcement that his book, Slow Drinks: A Field Guide to Foraging and Fermenting Seasonal Sodas, Botanical Cocktails, Homemade Wines, and More , had won a 2024 James Beard Foundation Media Award in the Beverage with Recipes category, the words seemed to come out of the presenter’s mouth in slow motion. “I kissed my wife, Katie , and we went to the stage together,” he told Xpress two days after the ceremony was held in Chicago. “It’s her award too. She photographed the whole book; she was the sounding board for every decision.”

In a jam-packed long weekend of events, Saturday, June 29-Tuesday, July 2, Western North Carolina residents will have multiple opportunities to congratulate the author in person, taste cocktails from his book, go foraging and experience the intersection of slow drinks and the Slow Food movement at a fivecourse Slow Drinks Foraged Dinner at Gemelli restaurant.

Childs is from New Jersey but is a regular visitor to Asheville — he and Katie even got engaged on the Blue Ridge Parkway at Mile Marker 420. His uncle, Craig Childs , an Asheville resident and regular customer at Gemelli and Strada Italiano, informed their owner, chef Anthony Cerrato , that the Slow Drinks book tour would pass through the area.

“We came up with the idea of a foraged dinner as a way to unify the slow drinks and slow food ethos,” Cerrato explains, noting that the

with award-winning mixologist Danny Childs

Slow Food movement, which promotes local food and traditional cooking, originated in Italy.

“Slow” describes the path from his book’s conception to its publication, recalls Childs, who during college trained as a field anthropologist and ethnobotanist in locales including the Peruvian Amazon, Patagonia and Chile. Back in the States, he and Katie settled onto a farm in New Jersey, which led circuitously to a job in 2014 at The Farm and Fisherman Tavern in Cherry Hill, N.J., where he mined his experience in the wild to build a beverage program reliant on foraged and farmed ingredients.

Childs began pitching the idea for a book in 2017 and finally signed a contract with Hardie Grant North America in fall 2021; Slow Drinks was published in 2023. Arranged by season, the book includes recipes, tips, instructions on fermenting and a guide to foraging.

Childs’ Asheville events kick off Saturday, June 29, 6-9 p.m., with Amaro Adventure at Wrong Way Lodge & Cabins, a foraging trek along the French Broad River that will end with participants crafting their own amaro by campfire with snacks from New Stock Pantry . Tickets are $65. Wrong Way Lodge & Cabins is at 9 Midnight Drive. For tickets and details, visit avl.mx/dso.

On Sunday, June 30, 6-9 p.m. at Gemelli, Cerrato plus Gemelli chefs Gabe Ceratto and Vladimir Martino and Strada’s Luke Lavenski will collaborate for a five-course dinner paired with

Slow Drinks beverages. Tickets are $175 per person. Gemelli is at 70 Westgate Parkway. For tickets and details, visit avl.mx/dsp.

On Monday July 1, Childs will take over the MG Mini mezzanine bar at the new Chai Pani location to prepare Slow Drinks specials Chai Pani is at 32 Banks Ave. For more information, visit avl.mx/dsq.

Finally, from 6-9 p.m. Tuesday, July 2, Eda Rhyne Distilling Co. co-owner Chris Bower will host a cocktail lab with Childs at Eda Rhyne’s Biltmore Village facility. Tickets are $40 per person and include one spirit flight . Eda Rhyne Distilling Co. is at 101 Fairview Road. For tickets and details, visit avl.mx/dsm.

For more information on Slow Drinks, visit avl.mx/dsn.

Eda Rhyne releases new aperitivo

Asheville-based Eda Rhyne Distilling Co. has added Bitter Tooth, a woodland aperitivo, to its succinct and select repertoire of small-batch spirits. A combination of fresh citrus and forest plants including yarrow, chicory, angelica and spice bush, Eda Rhyne’s take on the classic Italian red bitter is the brainchild of co-owners Chris Bower and Rett Murphy

They developed it over the course of more than six years with the help of lead distiller Rider Burton , says Eda Rhyne marketing and media manager Savannah Gibson . “It can be used in place of Campari in any

SLOW BURN: Danny Childs, author of 2024 James Beard Award-winning book Slow Drinks, will be in Asheville Saturday, June 29-Tuesday, July 2, for a whirlwind of events. Photo by Katie Childs

cocktail. A few of our favorites are the Negroni paired with our Pinnix gin, the Garibaldi and the Spritz, a classic summer cocktail.”

Upon founding in 2017, Eda Rhyne staked an early claim within the growing popularity of bitter liqueurs, particularly among distillers of fernet — a traditional Italian amaro — who were mostly in cities such as Brooklyn, Chicago, San Francisco and Portland, Maine. Eda Rhyne claimed its place in that world with the 2018 introduction of its Appalachian Fernet and continued to mine Appalachian heritage, folk knowledge and regional medicinals to produce other spirits, including Amaro Flora herbal liqueur, Rustic Nocino black walnut liqueur and Amaro Oscura liqueur.

Bitter Tooth is available in cocktails or by the bottle at the Eda Rhyne’s Biltmore Village tasting room at 101 Fairview Road and Eda’s Hide-A-Way in Weaverville, 1098 New Stock Road.

For more on Eda Rhyne, visit avl.mx/ds0.

Burial Beer opens new rooftop bar at Eulogy

In an area known as Land of the Sky, there can never be enough rooftop bars. Earlier this month, just in time for summer’s blue skies and fiery sunsets, Burial Beer opened VISUALS Wine & Cocktail Bar atop its Eulogy music hall on the South Slope.

Founded in 2013 by friends Tim Gormley and Jess and Doug Reiser , Burial’s original brewery and taproom on Collier Avenue has gradually grown its downtown compound with a bottle shop, Eulogy, Asheigh Shanti’s Good Hot Fish restaurant and now VISUALS. The home of Burial’s production brewery and VISUALS winery operations Forestry Camp, opened in 2019 on the grounds of a former Civilian Conservation Corps property near Biltmore Village.

The partially covered and canopied roof at the new VISUALS location has a bar, tables and a lounge seating area. Along with a view of the Blue Ridge Mountains, the bar serves VISUALS natural wines, ciders, aperitifs, wine flights and cocktails crafted with VISUALS products, plus a small food menu of cheese, cured meats, tinned fish and sweets.

VISUALS Wine & Cocktail Bar is at 10 Buxton Ave. For more information, visit avl.mx/ds2.

10th Muse Too launches

After a runaway vehicle drove into his West Asheville drive-thru ice cream shop, 10th Muse Comfort Food, it took tasty-treat entrepreneur Christian Watts six months to reopen the business on May 10.

After that relaunch, it took him less than a month to open a second location — 10th Muse Too — on Tunnel Road in East Asheville. The new shop occupies the former Jack the Dipper storefront at the Asheville Market shopping center anchored by Whole Foods, with indoor seating space for 30.

Having launched the West Asheville 10th Muse in 2020 during COVID-19, then having it demolished by a car three years later, “Opening a second place in a week was a piece of cake compared with those,” Watts says.

Cake is not on the menu at 10th Too, and neither is the soft serve ice cream or deep-fried treats for which Watts is famous. “We have 32 flavors of Hershey’s hard-scoop [three are vegan] and will be making

the waffle cones people loved at Jack the Dipper. We’ll have sundaes, milkshakes and coffee drinks,” he says. 10th Muse Too is open noon-8 p.m. Sunday-Thursday and noon-9 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays at 4 S. Tunnel Road, Suite 500. Find the business on Instagram at avl.mx/dsd.

Fundraisers for Bountiful Cities

Botiwalla restaurant and Urban Orchard Cider Co. are making the month that kicks off summer better with two ways to give back to community. Through the end of June, order the bhel puri snack at Botiwalla or the Sunglasses at Night strawberry basil cider at Urban Orchard, and $1 of the purchase will go to support local nonprofit Bountiful Cities’ urban gardening and longterm food-security programs.

Botiwalla is at 697 Haywood Road. Urban Orchard is at 24 Buxton Ave.

New summer gelato flavor at Sugar & Snow

Sugar & Snow Gelato has added a summer flavor to its gelato case. Strawberry Sweet Tart is a pretty-inpink blend of sweet local strawberries with a splash of tart buttermilk. In addition to that creamy Italian treat, Sugar & Snow scoops housemade nondairy sorbets and serves sandwiches, soups, salads, baked goods, smoothies and coffee drinks at its café along the Wilma Dykeman Greenway in the River Arts District,. Sugar & Snow is inside Second Gear at 99 Riverside Drive For more information, visit avl.mx/ds4.

Pasta-making class at Bargello

Get your hands on the dough at Bargello’s immersive pasta-making class on Wednesday, June 26, 2-4 p.m. Led by the restaurant’s chefs, the workshop will allow participants to observe and learn the art of creating various pasta shapes such as ravioli, agnolotti and tortellini, plus pick up expert tips and techniques. After mastering the art of flavoring and coloring dough and stuffing and shaping the pasta, it’s time for participants to mangia what they’ve made. Cost is $85 per person.

Bargello is at 7 Patton Ave. To register, visit avl.mx/ds3

— Kay West  X

Come to Cam’s place, because Coffee with friends tastes so much better!

@Camdenscoffeehouse • 40 N Main St, Mars Hill, NC

Buncombe County Fire Marshals will be on hand June 27th with their smoke safety house.

The safety house can simulate smoke and heat to show you and your family what to do in the event of a house fire.

Thursdays 3:30-6:30 | Through October 31 | 1465 Sand Hill Rd

Magical Offerings

June

6/20: Reader: Alondra 3-7

Local Vendor Pop-Up: Magical Thinking Shoppe 12:30-6:30

6/21: Reader: Krysta 12-6:30

Beginner’s Tarot, Pt. One 4-5

6/22: Reader: Edward 12-6

Reading & Book Signing: Jennifer Fae of My Big Heart 11:30-1

6/23: Reader: Andrea 12-5

Local Vendor Pop-Up: Red Enchantress & The Dirty Dungeon 12-5

CUSTOM OUTDOOR

LIVING SPACES

ARTS & CULTURE

Around Town

Juneteenth Gala returns

The Martin Luther King Jr. Association of Asheville and Buncombe County, along with the City of Asheville, will host the annual Juneteenth Gala at the Stephens-Lee Community Center on Thursday, June 20, 7-9:30 p.m.

The free public event celebrates the liberation of enslaved people with dancing and live music by Darrell Griffin . Celebrity chef Clarence Robinson ’s catering company, Cooking with Comedy, will provide Southern soul food. The gala is black-tie optional, though attendees are invited to dress for the African attire fashion show at the event.

“Our association has been celebrating Juneteenth for many years,” says Oralene Simmons, the association’s president and founder. “Last year was our first year with the City of Asheville co-sponsoring our gala, and we’re looking forward to socializing with the community for a cause and celebrating this holiday.”

The Juneteenth Gala is part of a weeklong Juneteenth celebration, which includes daily Lunch and Learn speaking events with catered lunch. The final Lunch and Learn session will take place at the Tempie Avery Montford Community Center on Friday, June 21, noon-1:30 p.m. Clinical ethicist Sharon K. West will lead a panel to discuss “Early African American Health Care and Today’s African American Inequities,” focusing on medical access for Black citizens in Asheville.

The week of Juneteenth events culminates with the Downtown After 5

MOVIE REVIEWS

INSIDE OUT 2: Pixar Animation Studios returns to form with this witty and intelligent continuation of one of its greatest hits. Grade: A-minus — Edwin Arnaudin

Juneteenth celebration on Lexington Avenue on Friday, June 21.

The Stephens-Lee Community Center is at 30 George Washington Carver Ave. For more information, visit avl.mx/dse.

Book exchange and DIY workshop

Board & Brush Creative Studio will host a book exchange and a Time Crunch Mini Workshop on Sunday, June 23, 2-4 p.m. and 6:30-8:30 p.m. Board & Brush DIY workshops offer the materials and direction to create handpainted wooden signs for home decor.

Participants in the book exchange are invited to bring a gently used novel, wrapped, with some details on the outside such as genre, a star rating and a short blurb about the book. “Some of our sister studios in the U.S. came up with the idea,” says Lynette Stewart, co-owner of Board & Brush Asheville. “We think it’s a great way to change up a typical book club night or a way to swap out your read books.” Stewart hopes to plan more book exchanges every quarter.

Following the book exchange, Board & Brush will lead a sign-making workshop. Snacks, soda and water will be available, and all events are BYOB. Tickets cost $40, and pre-registration is required.

Board & Brush Creative Studio Asheville is at 1011 Tunnel Road, Suite 120. For more information, visit avl.mx/dsf.

The Moth story slam

The Moth will hold its next true storytelling competition at The Grey Eagle on Thursday, June 20, 7:30 p.m.

The theme of this story slam is “guts.” Performers will be asked to prepare a five-minute story about moments of courage. “Scaling mountains or admitting to mistakes. Being the first in line to try a never-beforetested remedy or the last diver at the safety stop in shark-infested waters,” reads the prompt on The Moth’s website. “Tell us about your nervyest (or most nervous) experiences.”

Stories at The Moth events are not screened or censored and may range from inspiring to heartbreaking. Profanity and material about death, grief and violence are permitted.

BACK AT IT: Oralene Simmons, the president and founder of the Martin Luther King Jr. Association of Asheville and Buncombe County, says she is “looking forward to socializing with the community” at the latest Juneteenth Gala. Photo by Cindy Kunst

Seating for the show is limited and available on a first-come, first-served basis. Tickets are $15. Doors open at 6:30 p.m.

The Grey Eagle is at 185 Clingman Ave. For more information, visit avl.mx/dsg.

Asheville band goes prime time

Local band Ashes & Arrows performed an original song on the show

“America’s Got Talent” on NBC

The group, made up of Ciaran McMeeken, Jonathan Calhoun and Benjamin Voigt, formed in 2021 after meeting at a Nashville open mic night. “[Ciaran] was playing a song onstage, and I used to cover the same song that he was playing,” said Calhoun on the show. “And then I was like, ‘Dude, you did a really good job on that song. I used to cover that song too.’ He was like, ‘Well, I wrote that song.’”

For its televised performance, Ashes & Arrows performed its country rock ballad titled “Born to Love.” The performance impressed three of four judges, including Simon Cowell,

who complimented the band’s harmonies. Howie Mandel, the only judge who voted “no” on the performance, said of the group, “If I was in a bar and you guys were playing, I would have the best night ever.”

Ashes & Arrows released its debut EP, Forward, in fall 2022. The band has a full album forthcoming. For more information, visit avl.mx/dsh.

Comedy contest finale

Slice of Life Comedy will present the Asheville Standup Comedy Pageant at plēb urban winery on Friday, June 21, 7-9 p.m., to choose the Standup Champion of Asheville Comedy for 2024.

This is the final performance in a multiweek Asheville comedy showcase hosted by local comedian Hilliary Begley. The finale will feature slides and interactive games for the audience. A portion of the proceeds will go toward local community radio station 103.3 Asheville FM’s yearly capital campaign.

Jake Frankel, Ali McGhee and Michele Scheve from the Asheville FM talk show “Slumber Party AVL” will moderate the event. “Asheville FM is planning big things in the next year to further benefit our Asheville community in greater ways,” says Scheve, who is also a founder of Slice of Life. “It’s been a dream of mine over the years to pair my two passions together. I’m thrilled to have my co-hosts Jake Frankel and Ali McGhee moderate this event with me.”

Performers must answer personal and trivia questions, play silly games and attempt to woo the audience. Pageant contestants will be the winners of three previous comedy contests held at The Orange Peel’s Pulp. Following the performances, the audience will vote by ballot, and the winning comic will perform an encore set.

Food will be available on-site, provided by food truck Mean Pies Pizza. The event is for ages 18 and older. Tickets cost $18.

plēb urban winery is at 289 Lyman St. For more information, visit avl.mx/dsi.

Mind reader returns to Story Parlor

Story Parlor will host Joshua Pritchard for the Asheville Mind Reading Show on Saturday, June 22, 8-10 p.m.

An Asheville native, mentalist, business consultant and author, Pritchard uses a mixture of comedy, storytelling and showmanship to create his effect. In his 70-minute performance, he will seem to read minds, predict the future and perform hypnosis. Often described as a kind of magic trick, mentalism involves memory, mathematics and applied psychology.

A percentage of the proceeds go to the Rathbun House, a nonprofit organization that provides accommodations for family members of patients at Mission Hospital. Doors for the seated performance open at 7:30 p.m. No children younger than 18 are permitted.

Story Parlor is at 227 Haywood Road. For more information, visit avl.mx/dsj.

Music for the longest day of the year

The Blue Ridge Orchestra will celebrate the longest day of the year with Solstice Soirée at Souther Williams Vineyard on Saturday, June 22, 6 p.m.

Milton Crotts is the music director for the alfresco chamber concert. The Blue Ridge Orchestra Chamber Ensemble will incorporate popular music from local artists into its

eclectic program, which represents Mozart, Vivaldi and Albinoni. Fancy Marie and Craig Kellberg will contribute the honky tonk, Southern gothic sound of Fancy and the Gentlemen. The Walker Family Band will share traditional old-time Celtic sounds. Trombonists Rienette Davis and Emily Songster will perform unexpected arrangements of a classical work by Vivaldi as well as the popular work “Over the Rainbow.”

The evening of music, wine and hors d’oeuvres will be held rain or shine, with a choice of table seating or lawn seating. Table seating includes wine and food and must be purchased in advance. Concertgoers must be at least 21 to enter the vineyard.

Souther Williams Vineyard is at 655 Hoopers Creek Road, Fletcher. For more information, visit avl.mx/dsk.

Man Ray film screening

Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center will screen several short films by Man Ray on Thursday, June 20, 7 p.m.

Man Ray was a visual artist whose work is often associated with

surrealist and Dadaist traditions. Black Mountain College will be screening newly restored versions of Ray’s experimental collection Return to Reason, filmed between 1923 and 1929. The collection combines experimental techniques, surrealism, abstraction, geometric patterns and eroticism. Ray’s footage explores the possibilities of montage; he also applied salt, pins and thumbtacks to the film itself to generate surprising effects. The film will be accompanied by a new cosmic drone-rock soundtrack by Jim Jarmusch and Carter Logan under the name Sqü rl. The evening will begin with a solo performance by Asheville-based instrumentalist Chad Beattie

The restoration process was led by WOMANRAY and Cinenovo, which sourced the original prints in partnership with Cinémathèque française, the Centre Pompidou, the Library of Congress, the CNC and the Cineteca di Bologna.

Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center is at 120 College St., Black Mountain. For more information, visit avl.mx/9e4.

— Oby Arnold  X

CLUBLAND

Wednesday, June 19, 7pm

ThurSDAY, June

The Loverfaces

INDIE ROCK: On Saturday, June 22, Wilderado performs at The Orange Peel, starting at 8 p.m. The Oklahoma-based band promises to bring soaring melodies, lush harmonies and driving indie rock to the stage. Photo courtesy of Cassidy Mandel For questions about free listings, call 828-251-1333, opt. 4.

JACK OF THE WOOD

Grab

Friday,

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 19

12 BONES BREWERY

Robert's Totally Rad Trivia, 7pm

27 CLUB

ADJY, Drowning Leo, Sunset Electric & WhoamI (pop, punk, electronic), 10pm

ASHEVILLE PIZZA & BREWING CO. Trivia Trivia!, 6:30pm

BARLEY'S TAPROOM & PIZZERIA

Trivia Night w/ PartyGrampa, 7pm

EDA'S HIDE-A-WAY Alma Russ (country), 8pm

EULOGY

Wolves in the Taproom: Black Metal Night, 7pm

FRENCH BROAD

RIVER BREWERY

Saylor Brothers & Friends (jamgrass), 6pm

HI-WIRE BREWING

BIG TOP Trivia, 7pm

IMPERIÁL

DJ Otto Maddox (soul, funk), 9pm

PUB

Old Time Jam, 5pm

MAD CO. BREW

HOUSE

Jim Hampton (country), 5pm

OKLAWAHA

BREWING CO.

Bluegrass Jam w/Derek McCoy & Friends, 6pm

ONE STOP AT ASHEVILLE MUSIC

HALL

Le Gato (funk, jazz, pro-rock), 10pm

ONE WORLD

BREWING WEST

Latin Night Wednesday w/DJ Mtn Vibez, 8pm

SHAKEY'S Sexy Service Industry Night, 10pm

SHILOH & GAINES Trivia Wednesdays, 7pm

SOVEREIGN KAVA Poetry Open Mic, 8pm

STATIC AGE

RECORDS

Jessie & the Jinx & R. Hundro (country, honky-tonk), 9pm

THE DRAFTSMAN

BAR + LOUNGE

Trivia Nights, 7pm

THE JOINT NEXT DOOR

Rod Sphere (soul, rock), 6:30pm

THE MEADOW AT HIGHLAND BREWING CO.

Well-crafted Music Series: Aaron Woody Wood & Matt Smith, 6pm

THE OUTPOST

Bluegrass Jam w/Sam Wharton, 6pm

THE RAILYARD BLACK MOUNTAIN

Dan's Jam (bluegrass), 7pm

URBAN ORCHARD

CIDER CO. SOUTH SLOPE Trivia, 6:30pm

VOWL

SpinKick (punk, rock hardcore), 7pm

THURSDAY, JUNE 20

27 CLUB

Forsaken Profits, Weightshift, Wide Open Wound & Hashwitch (punk, metal), 8pm

BATTERY PARK BOOK

EXCHANGE

Mike Kenton & Jim Tanner (jazz), 5:30pm

BOWL IN THE WALL Trivia Night, 6:30pm

CROW & QUILL

Russ Wilson & The Kings of Jazz, 8pm

EDA'S HIDE-A-WAY Karaoke, 8pm

FLEETWOOD'S Creekbed Carter

Hogan, Jude Brothers, Nordmoe & The Rodeo (country, folk, punk), 9pm

FRENCH BROAD

RIVER BREWERY

Jerry's Dead (Grateful Dead & JGB Tribute), 6pm

IMPERIÁL

DJ Roselle (hip-hop), 9pm

JACK OF THE WOOD PUB

Bluegrass Jam w/Drew Matulich, 7pm

LA TAPA LOUNGE

Iggy Radio (southern-rock), 7pm

LAZOOM ROOM BAR & GORILLA

Eyes Up Here Comedy Presents: AVLGBTQ, 8:30pm

MAD CO. BREW

HOUSE

Connor Hunt (Appalachian, country), 6pm

OKLAWAHA BREWING CO.

81 Drifters Band (bluegrass, Americana, old-time), 7pm

ONE WORLD BREWING

The Knotty G's Duo (Americana), 8pm

OUTSIDER BREWING

Robert's Totally Rad Trivia, 7pm

PISGAH BREWING CO.

Bald Mountain Boys (bluegrass), 6:30pm

SALVAGE STATION

The Menzingers w/ Lucero & The Dirty Nil (rock, punk), 8pm

SHAKEY'S

• Comedy Showcase, 8pm

• Karaoke w/DJ Franco, 9pm

SHILOH & GAINES Karaoke Night, 8pm

SIERRA NEVADA BREWING CO.

JMSN (R&B, soul), 6pm

STATIC AGE LOFT Karaoke Night, 10pm

STATIC AGE

RECORDS

Mere Fever, Claire Whall, Superflower & Yoni Bologna (pop, folk, experiemntal), 8:30pm

THE JOINT NEXT DOOR

The Loudes (punk, folk, rock'n'roll), 7pm

THE ODD Palm Ghosts & Half

Blind Eyes (pop, postpunk), 9pm

THE ORANGE PEEL Lovett or Leave (live podcast), 8pm

THE OUTPOST Will Hartz w/SantiagoY Los Gatos (Appalchian, soul, blues), 8pm

THE RAILYARD BLACK MOUNTAIN

The Loverfaces (acoustic), 7pm

THE RIVER ARTS DISTRICT BREWING CO.

Howie Johnson(blues, jazz, soul), 7pm WICKED WEED BREWING Owen Walsh (folk), 6pm

FRIDAY, JUNE 21

27 CLUB Fiends, A Sense Of Purpose, Heirloom, Cleansing Of The Temple & Dark Hand (metal, grunge), 8pm

ASHEVILLE GUITAR BAR

Mr Jimmy's Friday Night Blues, 8pm

ASHEVILLE MUSIC HALL

The Frank White Experience (Notorious B.I.G tribute), 9pm BEARWALLOW PROVISION CO.

AL ‘StumpWater’ Lyons (folk, Irish, Celtic), 7pm CAMDEN'S COFFEE HOUSE

The Candleers (country), 6:30pm

CORK & KEG

Old-Time Jam, 8pm

CROW & QUILL

Drayton & The Dreamboats (vintage-jazz, rock'n'roll), 8pm

EDA'S HIDE-A-WAY

The Resonant Rogues (Appalachian, country, old-time), 8pm

FLEETWOOD'S

Faux Skater & Nintenbros (video game covers), 8pm

HIGHLAND BREWING

DOWNTOWN

TAPROOM

Drag Music Bingo w/ Divine the Bearded Lady, 7pm

IMPERIÁL

DJ Lake Solace (R&B, hip-hop), 9pm

JACK OF THE WOOD PUB

Laura Blackley & The Wildflowers (Appalachian, rock'n'roll, folk), 9pm

LA TAPA LOUNGE

Open Mic w/Hamza, 8pm

MAD CO. BREW

HOUSE

Chris Long (rock, Americana), 6pm

OKLAWAHA

BREWING CO.

Florencia & the Feeling (R&B, pop, funk), 8pm

ONE STOP AT ASHEVILLE MUSIC

HALL

Dropp Science & SC

Lofi w/Foul Mouth

Jerk & Evil Note Lab (hip-hop), 10pm

ONE WORLD BREWING

Stand Up Comedy: Story-Telling Showcase, 8pm

ONE WORLD BREWING WEST

Sister Ivy (neo-soul, funk, rock), 8pm

PISGAH BREWING CO.

Phuncle Sam (Grateful Dead tribute), 6:30pm

RABBIT RABBIT

Silent Disco w/DJ Spencer, 9pm

SALVAGE STATION

Reckless Kelly w/The Vegabonds (alt-rock, country), 6:30pm

SHAKEY'S Big Blue Jams Band (mult-genre), 9pm

SHILOH & GAINES

André Lassalle & The Musical Organization w/ Lyric (rock, funk, soul), 9pm

SOVEREIGN KAVA

Lo Wolf & Friends (acoustic), 9pm

THE GREY EAGLE

• Patio: Wyatt Espalin, Caitlin Cannon & Jack McKeon (indie-folk, alt-country, Americana), 5:30pm

• Charlie Brown

Superstar (nu-disco, electronic, funk), 9pm

THE MEADOW AT HIGHLAND BREWING CO.

Boat Command (post-lofi, jazz, yachthop), 7pm

THE OUTPOST

Kevin Daniel & The Bottom Line (rock, country, Appalachia), 8pm

THE RIVER ARTS

DISTRICT BREWING CO.

The Paper Crowns (folk, rock), 7pm

URBAN ORCHARD

CIDER CO. SOUTH SLOPE

Trippin' Up the Stairs (Celtic, Irish, old-time), 6pm

WXYZ BAR AT ALOFT

The Hill Climbers (Appalachian, bluegrass), 7pm

SATURDAY, JUNE 22

ASHEVILLE CLUB

Mr Jimmy (blues), 6pm

ASHEVILLE MUSIC

HALL

Sneezy w/Ralph Roddenbery (funk, soul, hip-hop), 8pm

BATTERY PARK BOOK

EXCHANGE

Dinah's Daydream (jazz), 6pm

BURNTSHIRT

VINEYARDS

The Candleers (country), 2pm

CATAWBA BREWING CO. SOUTH SLOPE

ASHEVILLE

• Comedy at Catawba: Kate Willett (early show), 7pm

• Comedy at Catawba: Kate Willett (late show), 9pm

CORK & KEG

Zydeco Ya Ya (Cajun, Zydeco), 8pm

CROW & QUILL

Firecracker Jazz Band, 7pm

EDA'S HIDE-A-WAY

Olivia Ellen Lloyd & Gracie Lane (folk, country), 8pm

EULOGY

• Yellow Days w/DJ Harrison (indie, soulpop), 8pm

• Burning w/DJ Savvy G, 11pm

FLEETWOOD'S

• Chris Milam (rock), 7pm

• Issac Rother & The Phantoms, The Clones & Cadavernous (punk, psych, garage-rock), 9pm

GINGER'S REVENGE

CRAFT BREWERY & TASTING ROOM

Jody Carroll (blues, folks, roots), 6pm

HIGHLAND BREWING DOWNTOWN TAPROOM

The Gardening Club (psych-jazz,, 6pm

IMPERIÁL

DJ Nex Millen (hip-hop, R&B), 9pm

JACK OF THE WOOD PUB

• Bluegrass Brunch w/ Carolina Bluegrass Style, 12pm

• Nobody’s Darling String Band, 4pm

My Brother's Keeper (bluegrass, rock, blues), 9pm

LA TAPA LOUNGE Karaoke, 9pm

LAZOOM ROOM

Karaoke w/KJ Beanspice, 8:30pm

OKLAWAHA

BREWING CO.

Ten Toe Turbo (rock'n'roll), 8pm

ONE STOP AT ASHEVILLE MUSIC

HALL Uncle Kunkel's One Gram Band (funk-rock), 10pm

ONE WORLD BREWING

Acklen Walker (hip hop, pop, indie-rock), 8pm

ONE WORLD BREWING WEST

• Quickchester (rock, folk), 4pm

• Reedy River String Band (Appalachian, bluegrass, rock'n'roll), 8pm

PISGAH BREWING CO.

Spafford w/Gantzer (alt-rock), 7pm

SHAKEY'S

• Friday Late Nights w/ DJ Ek Balam, 12am

• Partyland Sessions w/ DJ GrimmJoi, 10pm

SHILOH & GAINES

Raphael Graves Trio (Americana, folk), 9pm

SIERRA NEVADA

BREWING CO.

• The Hope Griffin Band (folk, Americana), 2pm

• The Get Right Band (psych-rock, indie), 6:30pm

SOVEREIGN KAVA

Hip Hop Open Mic, 8pm

STATIC AGE RECORDS

No Eyes, Nostalgianoid, KC Onadine & X.Nite (electronic, experimental, house-ambience), 9pm

THE GREY EAGLE

• Patio: Stephen Evans & The True Grits (folk-rock, latin-folk, Americana), 5:30pm

• Drivin N Cryin (Southern-rock), 8pm

THE JOINT NEXT DOOR

Laron Huntley & Friends (rock, country), 7pm

THE MEADOW AT HIGHLAND BREWING CO.

Sauce Pocket (psych, funk), 6pm

THE ODD Party Foul Drag, 8pm

THE ORANGE PEEL Wilderado w/Flyte (alt-indie, folk), 8pm

THE RAILYARD BLACK

MOUNTAIN

Ashley Heath (Americana, blues), 7pm

WXYZ BAR AT ALOFT DJ Tato, 7pm

SUNDAY, JUNE 23

ARCHETYPE

BREWING

Sunday Funday w/DJs, 1pm

CATAWBA BREWING CO. SOUTH SLOPE

ASHEVILLE

Comedy at Catawba: Alan Massenburg, 6:30pm

EDA'S HIDE-A-WAY

Fancy & the Gentlemen (blues, Americana, honky-tonk), 8pm

EULOGY

Rosie City Band w/ Drunken Prayer (psychrock,, 8pm

FRENCH BROAD

RIVER BREWERY

Reggae Sunday w/ Chalwa, 3pm

GINGER'S REVENGE CRAFT BREWERY & TASTING ROOM

Jazz Sunday's, 2pm

IMPERIÁL

DJ Mad Mike (hip-hop, indie, funk), 9pm

JACK OF THE WOOD PUB

• Bluegrass Brunch w/ Cast Iron Bluegrass, 12pm

• Traditional Irish Jam, 3:30pm

OKLAWAHA

BREWING CO.

Whiskey Envy (bues, soul), 3pm

ONE WORLD

BREWING WEST

Virtuous (soul, R&B), 6pm

PISGAH BREWING CO.

Pisgah Sunday Jam, 6pm

S&W MARKET

Mr Jimmy (blues), 1pm

SALVAGE STATION

Burning Spear w/Kaba-

ka Pyramid (reggae), 6:30pm

SHAKEY'S LA Dies, Times Tables. Those Dogs & Father Figures(emo, rock, punk), 8pm

SIERRA NEVADA BREWING CO.

Blake Ellege & The Big Throwback (rock, jazz, R&B), 2pm

SOVEREIGN KAVA Cosmic Appalachian Soul Sundays, 7pm STATIC AGE RECORDS Reviler, Chained, No Grave, Lucky Feeling & L.O.C (metal, hardcore, punk), 8:30pm THE DRAFTSMAN BAR + LOUNGE Karaoke Nights, 7pm

THE GREY EAGLE Quasi (rock), 8pm

THE MEADOW AT HIGHLAND BREWING CO.

• Tina & Her Pony (Appalachian, indie, folk), 1pm

• Pinkish Floyd (Pink Floyd tribute), 7pm

THE ODD

The Big Bad Dad Bod Odd Chili Cook-Off & Drag Show, 6pm THE OUTPOST The Grateful Family (Grateful Dead tribute), 4pm THE RIVER ARTS DISTRICT BREWING CO.

Mike Hollan (rock), 4pm

PLĒB URBAN WINERY Robert's Totally Rad Trivia, 4pm

MONDAY, JUNE 24

27 CLUB Monday Karaoke, 9pm

5 WALNUT WINE BAR CaroMia, Rahm, Iannuci & Jaze Uries (dreampop, soul, R&B), 8pm DSSOLVR Robert's Totally Rad Trivia, 7pm FLEETWOOD'S Best Ever Karaoke w/KJ Chelsea, 9pm

FREEWILL ASTROLOGY

ARIES (March 21-April 19): I love being logical and reasonable! The scientific method is one of my favorite ways to understand how the world works. I am a big fan of trying to ascertain the objective facts about any situation I am in. However, I also love being intuitive and open to mystical perceptions. I don’t trust every one of my feelings as an infallible source of truth, but I rely on them a lot to guide my decisions. And I also believe that it’s sometimes impossible to figure out the objective facts. In the coming weeks, Aries, I suggest you give more weight than usual to the second set of perspectives I described. Don’t be crazily illogical, but proceed as if logic alone won’t provide the insights you need most.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): In their book Your Symphony of Selves, Jordan Gruber and James Fadiman propose a refreshing theory about human nature. They say that each of us is a community of multiple selves. It’s perfectly natural and healthy for us to be an amalgam of various voices, each with distinctive needs and forms of expression. We should celebrate our multifaceted identity and honor the richness it affords us. According to my analysis of astrological omens, the coming weeks will be an excellent time for you to exult in your own symphony of selves and make it a central feature of your self-understanding.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): In the second half of 2012 and the first half of 2013, you launched a journey that will finally culminate soon. What a long, strange and interesting trip it has been! The innovations you activated during that time have mostly ripened, though not entirely. The hopes that arose in you have brought mixed results, but the predominant themes have been entertaining lessons and soulful success. I hope you will give yourself a congratulatory gift, dear Gemini. I hope you will luxuriate in a ritual celebration to commemorate your epic journey. The process hasn’t been perfect, but even the imperfections have been magical additions to your life story.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): I suspect you may have metaphorical resemblances to a lightning rod in the coming weeks. Just in case I’m right, I urge you not to stroll across open fields during thunderstorms. On the other hand, I recommend that you be fully available to receive bolts of inspiration and insight. Put yourself in the presence of fascinating events, intriguing people, and stirring art. Make yourself ready and eager for the marvelous.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): “It’s hard to get lost if you don’t know where you’re going,” said experimental filmmaker Jim Jarmusch. He’s implying that there’s potential value in getting lost. Unexpected discoveries might arrive that contribute to the creative process. But that will only happen if you first have a clear vision of where you’re headed. Jarmusch’s movies benefit from this approach. They’re fun for me to watch because he knows exactly what he wants to create but is also willing to get lost and wander around in search of serendipitous inspirations. This is the approach I recommend for you in the coming weeks, dear Leo.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Does any person or institution own a part of you? Has anyone stolen some of your power? Does anyone insist that only they can give you what you need? If there are people who fit those descriptions, Virgo, the coming weeks will be an excellent time to fix the problems. According to my understanding of life’s rhythms, you can summon the ingenuity and strength to reclaim what rightfully belongs to you. You can recover any sovereignty and authority you may have surrendered or lost.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): In ancient Greek myth, Sisyphus was a forlorn character punished by the gods. He was required to

BY ROB BREZSNY

push a boulder from the bottom to the top of a hill. But each time he neared the peak, the big rock, which had been enchanted by the crabby god Zeus, slipped away and rolled back down the hill. The story says that Sisyphus had to do this for all eternity. If there have been even minor similarities between you and him, Libra, that will change in the coming months. I predict you will finally succeed — is this your fifth attempt?—in finishing a task or project that has, up until now, been frustrating.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Is it possible to reap spiritual epiphanies while having sex? Can intense physical pleasure be a meditation that provokes enlightened awareness? Can joy and bliss bring learning experiences as valuable as teachings that arise from suffering? Here are my answers to those three questions, Scorpio, especially for you during the next four weeks: yes, yes and yes. My astrological ruminations tell me that you are primed to harvest divine favors as you quest for delight.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Your animal magnetism and charisma could be wildly potent in the coming weeks. I’m worried that as a result, you may be susceptible to narcissistic feelings of entitlement. You will be extra attractive, maybe even irresistible! But now that you have received my little warning, I hope you will avoid that fate. Instead, you will harness your personal charm to spread blessings everywhere you go. You will activate a generosity of spirit in yourself that awakens and inspires others. Do not underestimate the electrifying energy pouring out of you, Sagittarius. Vow to make it a healing medicine and not a chaotic disruptor.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): I’ve had thousands of crucial teachers. There would be no such thing as me without their life-changing influences. Among that vast array have been 28 teachers whose wisdom has been especially riveting. I feel gratitude for them every day. And among those 28 have been five geniuses who taught me so much so fast in a short period of time that I am still integrating their lessons. One of those is Capricorn storyteller and mythologist Michael Meade. I offer you these thoughts because I suspect you are close to getting a major download from a guide who can be for you what Meade has been for me. At the very least, you will engage with an educational source akin to my top 28.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): In one of my previous lifetimes, I was a bricoleur — a collector and seller of junk who re-used the castaway stuff in new ways. That’s one reason why, during my current destiny, I am a passionate advocate for recycling, renewal, and redemption — both in the literal and metaphorical senses. I am tuned in to splendor that might be hidden within decay, treasures that are embedded in trash and bliss that can be retrieved from pain. So I’m excited about your prospects in the coming weeks, Aquarius. If you so desire, you can specialize in my specialties.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Some people imagine that being creative means having nonstop spontaneous fun. They think it’s primarily exuberant, adventurous and liberating. As a person who prizes imaginative artistry, I can testify that this description is accurate some of the time. But more often, the creative process involves meticulous organization and discipline, periods of trial-and-error experimentation and plenty of doubt and uncertainty. It’s hard work that requires persistence and faith. Having said that, Pisces, I am happy to say you are now in a phase when the freewheeling aspects of creativity will be extra available. You’re more likely than usual to enjoy spontaneous fun while dreaming up novel ideas and fresh approaches. Channel this energy into an art form or simply into the way you live your life.

HIGHLAND BREWING CO.

Geeks Who Drink Trivia, 6pm

JACK OF THE WOOD PUB

Quizzo! Pub Trivia w/ Jason Mencer, 7:30pm

OKLAWAHA

BREWING CO.

Takes All Kinds Open Mic Nights, 7pm

ONE WORLD BREWING Open Mic Night, 7:30pm

ONE WORLD

BREWING WEST

Mashup Mondays w/ JLloyd, 8pm

PULP

The MGBS (Americana), 8pm

PRITCHARD PARK

Pickin' In The Park, 6pm

STATIC AGE RECORDS

Lagrimas (punk, emo, neo-crust), 9pm

THE GREY EAGLE

Tuba Skinny (jazz, country-blues, R&B), 8pm

THE JOINT NEXT DOOR

Mr Jimmy & Friends (blues), 7pm

THE RIVER ARTS

DISTRICT BREWING CO.

Trivia w/Billy, 7pm

TUESDAY, JUNE 25

ARCHETYPE

BREWING

Trivia Tuesday, 6:30pm

FRENCH BROAD RIVER BREWERY

Robert's Totally Rad Trivia, 7pm

FUNKATORIUM

Trivia, 12am

IMPERIÁL

DJ Mad Mike (hip-hop, indie, funk), 9pm

LOOKOUT BREWING CO.

Team Trivia Tuesday's, 6:30pm

MAD CO. BREW

HOUSE

Team Trivia Tuesday's, 6pm

OKLAWAHA

BREWING CO.

Team Trivia, 7pm

ONE WORLD

BREWING WEST

The Grateful Family Band Tuesdays (Grateful Dead tribute), 6pm

PULP

Kairos Creature Club, Leah Senior & Minorcan (trash-pop, folk, rock), 8pm

SHAKEY'S Booty Tuesday w/ Grimmjoi, 9pm

SHILOH & GAINES

Open Mic, 7pm

SOVEREIGN KAVA

Tuesday Night Open Jam, 8pm

THE GREY EAGLE

Hans Williams (indie, alt-pop), 8pm

THE JOINT NEXT DOOR

The Lads AVL (rock, blues), 6pm

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 26

12 BONES BREWERY

Robert's Totally Rad Trivia, 7pm

ASHEVILLE PIZZA & BREWING CO.

Trivia Trivia!, 6:30pm

BARLEY'S TAPROOM & PIZZERIA

Trivia Night w/ PartyGrampa, 7pm

EULOGY

Donnie Doolittle w/ Cold Choir & Dreamkill (dark-wave, electronic), 9pm

FRENCH BROAD

RIVER BREWERY

Saylor Brothers & Friends (jamgrass), 6pm

HI-WIRE BREWING

BIG TOP Trivia, 7pm

HIGHLAND BREWING CO.

Well-crafted Music Series: Life Like Water & Matt Smith, 6pm

IMPERIÁL

DJ Otto Maddox (soul, funk), 9pm

JACK OF THE WOOD PUB

Old Time Jam, 5pm

LAZOOM ROOM BAR & GORILLA

THEM: A Queer & Femme Comedy Showcase, 8:30pm

OKLAWAHA

BREWING CO.

Bluegrass Jam w/Derek McCoy & Friends, 6pm

ONE STOP AT ASHEVILLE MUSIC

HALL

Amabel Lee Band (country, folk), 10pm

ONE WORLD

BREWING WEST

Latin Night Wednesday w/DJ Mtn Vibez, 8pm

SHAKEY'S Sexy Service Industry Night, 10pm

SHILOH & GAINES Trivia Wednesdays, 7pm

SOVEREIGN KAVA Poetry Open Mic, 8pm

STATIC AGE RECORDS

Red Fred, Charli Jasper, DJ Tommy M & Natural Blk Invention (noise-pop, dub-techno), 9pm

THE DRAFTSMAN BAR + LOUNGE Trivia Nights, 7pm

THE GREY EAGLE Colicchie (rap, hip-hop), 7pm

THE JOINT NEXT DOOR

Knotty G's (Americana, soul), 7pm

THE ODD Boyscoutmarie, Peach Rings, Powder Horns & Feeling Format (prog-pop, indie-punk, lo-fi), 7pm

THE ORANGE PEEL

Jenny Lewis w/Dean Johnson (indie-rock, country), 8pm

THE OUTPOST Bluegrass Jam w/Sam Wharton, 6pm

THE RAILYARD BLACK MOUNTAIN Dan's Jam (bluegrass), 7pm

URBAN ORCHARD

CIDER CO. SOUTH SLOPE Trivia, 6:30pm

VOWL

SpinKick (punk, rock, hardcore), 7pm

THURSDAY, JUNE 27

27 CLUB

NiGHTofAL, Bruschetta Delorean, Disco Goddess & Abito Nero (psych, synth-wave, electronic), 9pm

ASHEVILLE GUITAR

BAR Mike & Pat's Band (rock, Americana, folk-country), 8pm

ASHEVILLE MUSIC HALL

Cordovas & Kendall Street Company (rock'n'roll, jazz, psych), 8pm

BOWL IN THE WALL Trivia Night, 6:30pm

CITIZEN VINYL

Mabilene & Sara Jean Kelley (folk, country), 8pm

CROW & QUILL Firecracker Jazz Band, 7pm

EDA'S HIDE-A-WAY Karaoke, 8pm

EULOGY Grails w/Nathan Bowles Trio (psych, experimental, hip-hop), 8pm

FLEETWOOD'S Space Grandma, Snake Prophecy & Acid Joe (punk, experimental), 9pm

FRENCH BROAD RIVER BREWERY Jerry's Dead (Grateful Dead & JGB Tribute), 6pm

JACK OF THE WOOD PUB

Bluegrass Jam w/Drew Matulich, 7pm

LA TAPA LOUNGE Iggy Radio (Southern-rock), 7pm MAD CO. BREW HOUSE

Karaoke w/Banjo Mitch, 6pm

OKLAWAHA BREWING CO. Sketoe's Ghost (soul, funk, rock), 7pm

ONE WORLD BREWING The Knotty G's Duo (Americana), 8pm OUTSIDER BREWING Robert's Totally Rad Trivia, 7pm

PISGAH BREWING CO. Shovels & Rope (indierock, folk), 6:30pm

SHAKEY'S Karaoke w/DJ Franco, 9pm

SHILOH & GAINES Karaoke Night, 8pm

SOVEREIGN KAVA Stand Up Comedy for Your Health, 8pm STATIC AGE LOFT Karaoke Night, 10pm

THE GREY EAGLE Erik Koskinen Band (rock'n'roll, gospel, blues), 8pm WICKED WEED BREWING Beer & Loathing (rock), 6pm

SUN: Cosmic Appalachian Soul Sundays, 7pm MON: Ping-Pong Tournament, 6pm TUE: Open Jam w/ house band the Lactones, 8pm WED: Poetry Open Mic AVL, 8:30pm/8pm signup

6/22 SAT HIP HOP OPEN MIC, 8pm Hosted by Eaze Dogg 6/28 FRI THE NEPTUNE DUNE, 9pm Space Fiddle 6/21 FRI LO

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CLASSES & WORKSHOPS

CLASSES & WORKSHOPS

SING FOR JOY AND CONNECTION IN A BIG GROUP! ~HARK COMMUNITY CHOIR~ Join our two-month season beginning June 30th and July 3rd. All songs taught by ear. Join in big group harmonies in a low-pressure but epic-sounding environment! Info/registration @ weringlikebells.com

ACROSS

1 Befitting the circumstances

4 “Belling the Cat” storyteller

9 Bing Crosby’s record label

14 Bovine expression

15 “Borat” followup from Sacha Baron Cohen

16 Belief system

17 Buzzer you wouldn’t want to hit?

19 Budweiser beer is aged using this wood

20 Break up, as a knot

21 Barrier for an aspiring D.A.

23 Biathlete’s need

24 Byron, by ancestry

25 Breast milk container

28 Bottom of a dress

29 Beatles hit “And I Love ___”

30 Beldames

31 Big name in D.C.

34 Burst, as of wind

35 Brewer’s implement

38 Bad-tempered sort

40 Blasphemes

41 Bacterium requiring oxygen

44 “Born in the ___” (Bruce Springsteen hit)

45 Block, in a way

48 Blissful soak

51 Blind, to a duck

52 Benedict follower?

53 By the 1980s, this sea had become two lakes

54 “Behold, the kingdom of God is in the ___ of you”: Luke

55 Battery type

57 “Best wishes for your once-a-year celebration!” (and a wish for solvers of this puzzle)

60 Bach exercise

61 Buy a drink for, say

62 Body part with a ball and socket

63 Brims (with)

64 Break into pieces

65 Barley brew

1 Blindside, say

2 Big cats and opportunists both do this

3 Basic drum

4 Blessed with skills

5 Before, in verse

6 Benchwarmer

7 Box of spaghetti’s weight: Abbr.

8 Burns books?

9 Bondservant, often 10 Bordeaux summer

11 Brownish-red shade

12 Bivalve mollusks

13 Beyond the pale?

18 Bridle attachment

22 “Bachelor in Paradise” network

25 Bieber’s “That Should ___”

26 Bedouins, e.g.

27 “Ben-Hur” getups

29 Bears, as a child

31 Beef on a skewer, e.g.

32 “Buckle up! It’s the ___”

Bind with

Bali product

Biden’s advisers

Bring back together

Business ends of swords

Bard’s “always”

Bo tree meditator

Beset

Bang out again, as a text

Bangkok coins

Burglar deterrent

Bone in a cage

Belief that bulls hate the color red, e.g.

Byrd’s rank: Abbr.

Black-eyed ___

Ballet step