Mountain Xpress 07.06.22

OU R 28TH Y E A R OF W E E K LY I N DE PE N DE N T N E W S, A RTS & E V E N TS FOR W E STE R N NORTH CA ROL I NA VOL . 28 NO. 49 J U LY 6 -12, 2022

C O NT E NT S

FEATURES

NEWS

NEWS

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‘IT JUST FEELS GOOD HERE’ Local VFWs engage vets socially and civically

LEG UP TO PAY DOWN Down payment assistance lends hand to homebuyers

PAGE 20 CANINE CONNECTION The nonprofit Warrior Canine Connection is a community service option for Buncombe County Veterans Treatment Court. In the program, veterans with substance use and mental health issues help to train service dogs for other veterans — and this helps with their own healing.

FEATURE

COVER PHOTO iStock 17 Q&A WITH MATTHEW BACOATE U.S. Army veteran shares his passion for the Skyview Golf Tournament

A&C

22 CREATIVE SERVICE Veterans find healing through the arts

COVER DESIGN Scott Southwick

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LETTERS

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CARTOON: MOLTON

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CARTOON: BRENT BROWN

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NEWS

12 BUNCOMBE BEAT 18 COMMUNITY CALENDAR

A&C

24 SERVICE TO FARM TO TABLE Local food initiatives assist area veterans

20 WELLNESS 22 ARTS & CULTURE 34 CLUBLAND

A&C

28 ‘KEEPER OF THE FIRE’ WNC poet Anne Maren-Hogan discusses the influence of community on her writing

38 FREEWILL ASTROLOGY 38 CLASSIFIEDS 39 NY TIMES CROSSWORD

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OPINION

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

Asheville, take responsibility for homeless problem As a country, we are at a crossroads for humanity. We have been awakened to the systemic racism that exists in the systems within our corporate structures, our government, our health care system and our financial institutions. We are being asked to no longer turn a blind eye to the injustices that are perpetuated on the weak and defenseless. A blind eye that is for the express purpose of the comfort, wealth expansion and interests of the ruling class.

Contrary to the beliefs of those few who are in charge of many, our country must take a step back, recognize and proceed to correct the overall attitude of indifference toward the less fortunate. You can no longer punish the righteous for doing what is humanly correct and expect your life to continue to thrive. The felony littering charges against the Aston Park 16 are a huge miscarriage of justice. You have the opportunity for greatness by suspending the litigation against the Aston Park 16 and using their sincere hearts and minds to create a team to examine and author a solution to the homeless problem in Asheville.

Asheville has been presented across the country as a progressive paradise. However, the truth of the matter is that it has become nothing more than an area of tourist entertainment and a bed of social injustice hidden beneath glitter and glam. We are being called nationally to become better, to be more, to take care of our own and find a way to flourish in the aftermath of a country that was built on hatred.

We are being called to shoulder mutual respect and clarity of care for all.

It is time for you the policymakers to take your responsibility for not just the pretty-in-pink crew, but for all of the citizens of Asheville. If there is a homeless problem, fix it.

Stop throwing people in the streets while making housing and access to food only for those that you are most comfortable with. Practice the love of Jesus, the awareness of Buddha, the peace of Prem Rawat and the understanding of Meher Baba. Be more because you can.

Ignorance is no longer an excuse for injustice.

— DeBorah Ogiste Satyagraha Hendersonville

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Look beyond past in plans for Pack Square Brent Brown’s cartoon in the June 22 issue of Mountain Xpress [“Dedication”], joking about the visioning process for renewing Pack Square as the former monument goes away, rekindled my imagination. It brought back my idea that as city and county governments get past the current legal obstructions to removing the remnants, they consider a repurposing of Pack Square that focuses on the present and the future, not just the past.

I trust that many folks from throughout the county and region contribute ideas for renovations of this public space. My own hope is that the design will keep the trees, and have spaces and objects and signage that promote valuing all

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our children and the people who promote their growth into healthy, happy, responsible adults.

A recent request for proposals

by Art in the Heart, a temporary public art program sponsored by the city, the Friends of Buncombe County Special Collections and Asheville’s Public Art and Cultural Commission, invited up to 10 art projects and/or experiences in Pack Square Plaza to stretch through the second half of 2022 [avl.mx/bqj]. Perhaps many of them can focus on youths and their future.

Indeed, a plan promoting a continuing rotation of student art and presentations would keep the plaza alive with hope and promise.

Please, everyone, be involved with the visioning process, and in the coming months, come down and enjoy Art in the Heart.

— Frank L. Fox Asheville

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OPI N I ON

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

Thumbs-down on monument ideas I want to comment on the letters printed in the June 15 issue (while I did not read the article, “The Bigger Picture: Local Historians Reflect on the Vance Monument, One Year After Its Removal,” in the May 25 Xpress).

The first letter was submitted by Lynda Cozart of Asheville [“Asheville’s 21st-century Monument”]. Her letter bothered me much more than the second. I’m sure that many local folks find the notion that celebrating the Iraq War, gay marriage, animal rights and her other suggestions are very offensive. If these are the ideals of this country, we are truly in deep, deep trouble. We need uplifting and moral examples to aspire to, not the filth she suggested.

Donald O. Funderud Sr. of Asheville said he thought the Vance Monument should be put back up [“Put Historic Monument Back Up”], but I believe for the wrong reasons.

It should be returned to its place of honor. It was illegally removed.

Notwithstanding the pontifications of the City Council and their attorney, the Vance Monument was a gift to the people of Asheville, largely paid for by Vance’s friend George Willis Pack, on property donated

by Pack on the condition that it be retained forever.

State law protected the monument and others like it by requiring any move to place one in a different location to be a location of prominence equal to the original site. However, when the governor of the state is allowed to break the law with impunity and the attorney general sits on his hands and doesn’t enforce the law, nothing is safe or sacred. At that point, no law is worth the paper on which it is written.

As far as Funderud’s statement that no one knows or cares who Vance was, that is not true. He is still the finest governor the state of North Carolina has ever had. The difficulty lies in the fact that the schools don’t teach history any longer. That is the fault of the educational establishment and our leftist government that wants to keep us ignorant. All nations that are going to survive must know their own history and need heroes to emulate.

— Tom Vernon Asheville

More opinion content, please I miss things that are suddenly no longer appearing in the Citizen Times (after 16 years, I am thinking of surrendering my subscription) and wish your paper would publish more editorials and letters to the editor — something is really missing, folks — a gap that you could fill, even if they’re “only” local in origin, even if they cost more. Please consider!

— Fran Ross Asheville Editor’s response: Thank you for your feedback and appreciation of letters to the editor and other opinion content. We are happy to take this opportunity to encourage our readers to send in locally focused letters and ideas for commentaries.

Reach us at letters@mountainx. com with guidelines found here: avl.mx/5ds.

Electric trolleys could be the (parking) ticket [Regarding “Car Wars: The Ripple Effects of Downtown Asheville Parking Costs,” June 15, Xpress]: Without knowing even

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CARTOON BY BRENT BROWN approximate numbers of people who work in the Montford area or the boundaries, it is hard to opine on the subject of parking there, but a first, off-the-cuff solution that might deserve some consideration would be running electric trolleys from available parking in small groupings of surface lots and small garages around the Square, the old auditorium or under the freeway and grow trolley stations along Broadway and points north and east dictated by demand.

Lots of advantages to electric vehicles, especially lack of pollution and noise, and trolleys have a fond heritage in Asheville. I don’t have any ideas of funding sources, but Asheville is creative and resourceful, and I would think an initial plan would not take too long to plan and implement. While nothing is that simple, it is food for thought.

— Gene Pfalzgraf An Asheville-born Texan Richmond, Texas

effectively a giveaway to developers under the guise of providing affordable housing. Make no mistake, higher density doesn’t mean affordable units will actually be provided. Most will still be market rate because that’s where the profit is.

Affordable is extremely expensive, and developers avoid getting entangled with the onerous requirements. We will lose our celebrated natural areas and gain little as a community. Demand keeping open-space protections and using other means to provide lower-cost housing.

Please read the proposal [avl.mx/bqk] and make comments via email (ashevillenccouncil@ ashevillenc.gov) or come to the meeting to speak.

— Janet Thew Asheville

Open-space protections under threat

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

Loss of open-space protection at Asheville City Council coming up at the July 26 meeting! This is

Editor’s note

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JULY 6-12, 2022

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NEWS

‘It just feels good here’ Local VFWs engage vets socially and civically

BY BEN WILLIAMSON bwilliamson@mountainx.com On a recent Sunday afternoon, a cavernous multistory building atop a West Asheville hill sits mostly empty and quiet. Inside the downstairs bar at Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 891, a few older veterans gather, enjoying beers and small talk. Their eyes look up toward the TV above the mirror and bottles on the back wall of the canteen, waiting for a NASCAR race to start. Across the room, pool cues rest on tables unused. Upstairs, a dance hall and kitchen are vacant, a drum kit on an otherwise unoccupied bandstand faces a sea of tables and chairs, and the room waits for Monday night’s bingo crowd.

“We used to have weekly dances, but you can’t dance with masks on,” says Larry Fowler. The post’s commander is a 30-year Air Force vet who spent another 15 years as a junior ROTC teacher in Buncombe County Schools’ Enka district. A picture of Fowler taken while he was stationed in Thailand during the Vietnam War — much younger, but sporting the same broad smile — looks out from the corner of the post’s canteen.

The COVID-19 pandemic, according to Fowler, continues to have a major impact on the post’s activities. The dances, formerly its largest source of revenue, have ceased; since January, members have run popular weekly bingo nights to keep the bills paid and support their charitable works. He estimates that membership is down 25% from before 2020, driven both by deaths among mem-

“COLDEST BEER IN TOWN”: From left, Larry Wheeler, Mike Bonham and Gary Scott enjoy a beverage and some conversation at the VFW Post 891 in Asheville. Photo by Ben Williamson bers and concerns over socializing during a pandemic.

But the bingo crowd restores some life to the event hall each week, and the post’s membership and auxiliary (family relatives connected to post members, who must have served overseas during a conflict and been discharged honorably) have stayed active in the community. Despite its currently sparse Sunday crowds and empty rooms, emphasizes Fowler, the VFW is much more than a bar.

“When people think of a place like this, they say, ‘I don’t like to go to bars.’ It’s not a bar. You could bring

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your mom here and you would not be embarrassed. A lot of this is children and youth, not just beers and boobs,” Fowler says with a laugh.

MAKING A DIFFERENCE Fowler beams when talking about the charitable work the Asheville post, which opened in 1929, has done in the community. VFW 891 sponsors yearly essay contests for local students, and members visit schools to honor winners with medals, certificates and cash prizes. Local JROTC cadets are also honored regularly, as are local teachers. A five-member funeral team has offered ceremonial salutes at over 1,000 military funerals over the last 15 years.

Additionally, the post has donated $35,000 over the last six years to the Butterfly Project, a collaboration with the Charles George VA Medical Center in Asheville. This project’s goal is to grant last wishes to vets in hospice. (Its activities were suspended at the start of the pandemic, Fowler says, and have yet to resume.)

Fowler recounts a former Marine who wanted to die while wearing a brand-new Marine Corps dress uniform. The Butterfly Project absorbed the $900 cost to provide that wish.

In another instance, the post helped

arrange an unexpected wedding ceremony at the VA. “This other guy was dying, and he wanted to remarry the wife he had loved for 65 years. He wanted to have another wedding right there at the hospital,” Fowler says. “We got the chaplain, and the nurses became bridesmaids. It was really special.”

Terry Browning is a member of VFW Post 5202 in Waynesville.

Browning, also a Vietnam vet, says VFW posts assist members and their families in informal ways as well. “If you’re a member of a VFW traveling across the country and happen to have car trouble, call the VFW. They will help you, or get you some help, one way or another,” he says.

On June 25, the Waynesville post conducted a flag retirement ceremony, where members formally retire worn, tattered or damaged American flags by burning them. “You can’t put them in the trash,” says Browning.

“People bring them by, and we save them all year long. We have a ceremony and invite the fire department.

It’s a big community thing, a good crowd. We always have a good meal and a big celebration.”

Additionally, the Waynesville VFW purchases Christmas gifts for low-income youths each year and collects donations for a fund to support low-income families of veterans. “If there is a family that needs help, we’re right there to help them,” Browning says.

At the state level, the VFW provides veterans resource officers, to whom local chapters can refer vets to coordinate VA medical claims, navigate paperwork and connect with benefits. Nationally, the VFW lobbies Congress around veterans rights and has distributed over $10 million in scholarships to veterans and service members to continue their education since 2014.

MILITARY RECRUITMENT Statewide VFW membership is over 22,000 across 138 posts, according to Charles Slater, North Carolina’s VFW quartermaster, who is based in Winston-Salem. The organization estimates its membership has grown slightly over the last four years across the state, with a 5% increase last year alone.

However, member recruitment is a big concern for the Asheville and Waynesville posts.

“We need to do a better job about bringing in younger members. We have had some posts shut down in the last few years,” says Browning.

Joseph Horn, state adjutant for North Carolina’s VFW, notes that Post 8013 in Cherokee may be

merged with another location due to low membership. He says local posts are primarily responsible for driving their own recruitment efforts.

“We don’t have as many joining up now. A lot of the younger vets coming back from Afghanistan aren’t here, and we don’t know why,” Browning continues. “I’m 75 before long. We have to have some young people to take over.”

Fowler, 85, cites the need for younger vets to support families and work as limitations to involvement.

He notes that many of Asheville’s 120 combined VFW and auxiliary members are retired and have more time to commit to the post.

Among the VFW’s younger local members is Stacie Litsenberger, an Army vet who served in the Gulf War and deployed for two tours of duty in Iraq. Despite her membership, she says she’s not active with the organization, primarily because she’s unsure about its local work and how to get involved.

“The key for these organizations is really talking with veterans and seeing what they are interested in.

The organizations have to work a lot harder,” Litsenberger says. “Vets may not be seeking them out, and

organizations have to spend a lot of time to get through that barrier and connect them.”

CORPS OF CAMARADERIE While the VFW’s charitable work reinforces the idea that it’s more than a bar, members say the post’s camaraderie and the comfort that comes from having a space dedicated to veterans are invaluable.

“All of us here, we’re a close knit group. We understand each other real well. We support one another all the way. We don’t show any prejudice. We don’t argue politics or religion,” says Browning of the Waynesville post, which still hosts bands on Saturday nights, as well as karaoke and bingo. “There is something going on all the time.”

The vets at the canteen in Asheville say the space is warm and welcoming.

“It’s a home away from home,” says Larry Wheeler, himself a Vietnam Army vet, over a half-empty beer “It’s just a lot of good people.”

At Wheeler’s left sits Mike Bonham, who can be seen younger and shirtless in his own Vietnam-era picture that hangs near Fowler’s in the corner. “It’s family oriented and

has the best waitress in town,” he says, referencing Joyce Bonham, the post’s canteen manager and, according to the guys, de facto boss. (The two were divorced five years ago but are, according to Fowler, “the best of friends.”)

“I always feel welcome,” says Gary Scott, himself not a vet but visiting as a guest. “And they have the coldest beer in town,” he adds as he lifts a bottle.

For Fowler, the social aspect of VFW events provides a vital service to its members and auxiliary, from the post’s July 4 cookout to casual Friday night gatherings. “Most of us are elderly, and some are stuck in their house. Some are widows of husbands who have passed away.

We come together on Friday nights, and people just take turns donating food,” he says. “They aren’t big meals, but people just like being together. We’ve got two or three guys that never leave their house except to come here.

“Nobody’s talking war, you know.

You don’t hear any war stories,” Fowler continues. “It’s quiet. You feel comfortable, the atmosphere and such. It just feels good here.” X

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JULY 6-12, 2022

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NEWS

Leg up to pay down

Down payment assistance lends hand to homebuyers

BY BROOKE RANDLE

house’s cost to as much as 20% or more, depending on the type of loan and whether the home will be used as a primary residence.

That money often comes from savings, the sale of an existing property or family support, Vance says. But many families, particularly first-time homebuyers, struggle to accumulate the amount needed.

Compounding matters is Asheville’s highly competitive housing market, which saw home prices jump 21.8% year-over-year in May to a median price of about $490,000, according to Redfin, a nationwide real estate brokerage.

Soaring home prices and cash purchases are pushing down payment amounts ever higher, Vance says.

“Ten years ago, people were getting mortgages for $100,000 and buying a house. A lot of people still can’t afford much more than [a] $150,000 mortgage, but the gap between a $150,000 mortgage and a $300,000 house is now $150,000,” he explains. “Down payments reduce the size of that loan, and therefore, the amount of the monthly payments.”

the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, federal Community Development Block Grants, Buncombe County and more.

Applicants must earn 80% of the area median income or less (in the Asheville metro area, $45,000 for an individual or $64,250 for a family of four). MHO caps the amount of help for qualified applicants at $40,000 for those within Asheville city limits and $30,000 elsewhere.

Homebuyers must secure a traditional fixed-rate mortgage, and funds can go toward either closing costs or reducing the home’s purchase price. Properties bought through the program must pass health and safety inspections.

MHO’s assistance comes through a “shared appreciation loan,” payment of which is deferred without interest until the borrower resells the home or no longer occupies it as a primary residence. When that happens, the homeowner repays the original loan plus interest equal to the house’s rate of appreciation.

“We’re essentially investing in that home. And we’re trying to keep our money in equal value with the rising price of houses,” Vance explains. “If we put $30,000 into a home, we’re going to [get] $30,000 as well as the percentage of the purchase price of the house.”

Since 2009, Vance says, the program has helped roughly 350 homebuyers. But that’s becoming harder to do with rising housing costs, especially within the Asheville’s limits. From 2019-21, 14 of 67 assisted buyers were in the city of Asheville; so far in 2022, he says, no city buyers have used the program.

“We’re finding it very difficult to help folks in the city. The price points are just way beyond our reach,” he says. “So our impact in the city has been falling year after year. We haven’t been able to raise the loan amounts to an amount that really works for the income population that we serve.”

SHARING THE COST

PAY TO STAY

MHO offers a down payment assistance program in Buncombe, Haywood, Henderson and Madison counties. Funding comes from a variety of sources, including

Local government employers are also trying their hand at offering down payment support to help recruit and retain staff, albeit with mixed success. In March, Asheville

brandle@mountainx.com Deidre Barrett thought she’d never buy another home in Asheville. Though she had bought and sold home in West Asheville 20 years ago, the 51-year-old elementary school teacher says that the city’s cost of living today — among the highest in the state — made the notion of qualifying for a mortgage seem more like a dream than a real possibility.

But in the summer of 2021, her landlord decided to put Barrett’s Leicester home on the market, and the teacher saw her chance. “I really had no idea how on earth I could make it work, but I started jumping through just about every hoop I could think of,” she says.

Those hoops included completing an online homebuying class through OnTrack WNC, an Asheville-based nonprofit. It was there that Barrett first heard about

HOME SWEET HOME: Elementary school teacher Deidre Barrett was able to purchase her home by utilizing a down payment assistance program offered

by Mountain Housing Opportunities. Photo courtesy of Barrett down payment assistance through another Asheville organization, Mountain Housing Opportunities.

After contacting MHO and completing an extensive vetting process over four months, Barrett qualified for roughly $25,000 in down payment assistance, which allowed her to close on her home in late January. “At the end of the day, I was sitting in somebody’s office and was signing the papers, and they said the house was mine,” she recalls.

Down payments are a crucial part of the equation that determines how much of a loan prospective homebuyers can qualify for — and by extension, what houses they can afford. As residents cope with Asheville’s red-hot housing market and rising mortgage rates, some low- and moderate-income families are turning to local and national down payment assistance programs to overcome one of homebuying’s biggest barriers.

NUMBERS GAME Down payments represent the portion of a home’s purchase price that buyers pay upfront and aren’t part of loans from mortgage lenders, says Mike Vance, vice president and director of operations at Mountain Housing Opportunities.

The size of a down payment can range from as little as 0% of a

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City Schools announced a new partnership with Landed, a San Francisco-based company that offers shared appreciation loans to people in medical, education and civil service positions.

“In expensive cities like Asheville, prices of homes are making it difficult for essential professionals, such as educators, to become long-term residents in the communities that depend on them,” says Claire Goebel, who represents Landed’s Southeast office in Rocky Mount. “And if we want stronger schools and healthier communities, we need to be able to support those who make it possible.”

Loans of up to $120,000 are available to help homebuyers reach a 20% down payment, a level Goebel says allows them to avoid paying for expensive private mortgage insurance. The program is available to ACS employees who work more than 20 hours a week for more than 12 weeks a year.

Landed’s loans operate similarly to those offered by MHO in that loan payments are not due until the home is sold or no longer occupied by the borrower. But

compared with the MHO program, Landed requires repayment within 30 years and claims a greater portion of a home’s appreciation.

Goebel says that around 50 ACS employees have expressed interest in the program or taken initial steps to apply for loans. “It’s typical for it to take a year or so in a new partnership to really start to see people move through the pipeline. But we’re excited about the interest and about people who are already starting to kind of move into their next steps,” she says.

In a press release announcing the program, former ACS Superintendent Gene Freeman called Landed’s work “a valuable solution to support our staff and make homeownership more accessible.” But when pressed on details of the partnership, ACS Director of Recruitment and Induction Kimberly Dechant said that Landed’s service was “not officially endorsed by, or a program of, Asheville City Schools.”

“Our goal is to keep staff informed about the myriad of opportunities available to them,” she wrote in a June 9 email to Xpress.

BUYING IN BUNCOMBE? Buncombe County also offers an Employee Housing Assistance Program, which lends funds to fullor part-time county employees who have been employed for at least a year, earn at or below 80% AMI and currently do not own their own home. The county offers loans of up to $10,000 at 2% interest, repayable through payroll deduction over five years, that can be used for down payment assistance, home rehabilitation or new construction.

Since its launch in 2013, says county spokesperson Lillian Govus, 18 employees have accessed the program, 14 of whom have completed repayment; only three of those have used the money for down payments. The program has distributed nearly $135,000 in assistance to date.

“As we look for ways to remain competitive in the job market, programs like this provide a huge resource to employees that isn’t always available with other employers, so it’s another way for us to show that Buncombe County is a great place to work,” says Govus.

The county’s tightening real estate market may be reducing the program’s impact, as only two employees have used it since 2019.

Govus notes that the county is currently reevaluating the program to determine if updates are needed to adapt to Asheville’s current housing landscape.

Meanwhile, the city of Asheville launched its own down payment assistance program in 2019, dedicating $1 million from its affordable housing bond proceeds and securing another $400,000 through a public-private partnership with the Federal Home Loan Bank. Of those funds, $400,000 were dedicated to full-time city employees, with the remainder available to any lowor moderate-income residents.

But the program fell apart before it actually helped anyone.

A request for proposals for a loan officer that could meet the city’s proposed terms for managing the work was never met, says city spokesperson Kim Miller. Miller says that Asheville City Council will determine how best to redirect the funds to other affordable housing programs but did not say when a decision was expected. X

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DEVELOPMENT ROUNDUP

South Slope Vision Plan up for review City of Asheville The public will be able to provide input on a neighborhood plan, a hotel proposal and two zoning map amendments at the Planning and Zoning Commission meeting at 5 p.m.

Wednesday, July 6, which will take place in person at City Hall’s first-floor North Conference Room at 70 Court Plaza. A pre-meeting of the same body to review the agenda, which is open to the public but does not allow public comment, will be held at 4:30 p.m. in the fifth-floor Large Conference Room.

The Design Review Committee will meet virtually at 12:30 p.m. Thursday, July 21. The agenda for that meeting was not available as of press time.

Additionally, the DRC will begin holding a 15-minute pre-meeting prior to its regular start time. This pre-meeting will be open to the public but will not allow for public comment.

Both pre-meetings and meetings can be viewed on the city’s YouTube channel at avl.mx/6h6.

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

South Slope: A Neighborhood Vision Plan Review The city’s Planning & Urban Design and Community and Economic Development departments have requested the review of a 92-page

VISION OF THE FUTURE: Coxe Avenue may be redesigned as a “green Main Street” as part of a city plan for the South Slope.

The plan will be up for review at this month’s Planning and Zoning Commission meeting. Rendering courtesy of the city of Asheville development plan for the South Slope neighborhood. The Planning and Zoning will issue a recommendation on the plan, with Asheville City Council having the final say.

The plan contains 10 key initiatives, including a gateway to reconnect McCormick Field and Memorial Stadium with downtown, public art installations, commemoration of the neighborhood’s African American history, affordable housing and transforming Coxe Avenue into a tree-lined “green Main Street” with improved stormwater drainage, native vegetation and solar lights.

According to the draft, most of the plan was developed prior to the COVID-19 pandemic and the 2020

racial justice activism that led to the city’s reparations resolution. “This plan is a long-range plan. There are concepts which may not happen for years to come or may not happen at all, but the strategies and goals around a strong economy, housing and inclusion are more important than ever,” the document’s authors say regarding its continued relevance.

Further information, including the plan draft, is available at avl.mx/bqc.

221 Long Shoals Road, 28704 Indianapolis-based developer Millstone Ventures LLC and a group of Asheville property owners — including former Asheville Mayor Charles R. Worley — request a zoning change from CB II (Community Business

II) to RES EXP - CZ (Residential Expansion – Conditional Zone) to construct a 186-unit multifamily development over three buildings on 5.36 acres.

The current plans include 37 units designated as affordable for those making 80% or less of the area median income ($45,000 for an individual or $64,250 for a family of four) for 20 years, or 20% of the total. Of those affordable units, 19 will accept housing vouchers.

Detailed project documents can be found at avl.mx/bqd.

Woodland Development (100 Woodland Drive, 28806) Asheville-based Birch Circle Associates LLC requests a condition-

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al rezoning from RM-8 (Residential Multifamily) to RES EXP - CZ to build a 72-unit development on 9.12 acres.

Available documents do not indicate that any of the townhome-style rental units will be designated as affordable.

Detailed project documents can be found at avl.mx/bqb.

Create 72 Broadway (72 Broadway, 28801) The commission will review the Level II site plan for Create 72 Broadway, a proposed nine-story mixed-use building. The plan includes a 22-unit hotel, 18 condo units and 2,002 square feet of ground level retail space across nearly 100,000 total square feet. BPR Asheville LLC is the owner.

As a Level II project, the work will not need approval from Asheville City Council. A prior proposal for the site, which would have built 137 hotel rooms and 37 residential units, was unanimously denied by Council members in September 2019.

Detailed project documents can be found at avl.mx/bqe.

Buncombe County Four projects requiring special use permits, a rezoning and a road variance will be on the agenda for the Buncombe County Board of Adjustment meeting at noon on Wednesday, July 13. The in-person meeting will take place at the Board of Commissioners Chambers, 200 College St. Information on how to attend the meeting and apply for comment can be found at avl.mx/anq. Xpress is highlighting four projects of particular community impact.

BOARD OF ADJUSTMENT Brevard Road Apartments SUP (1754 Brevard Road, 4 and 6 Atrium Trail, Avery Creek Township) Carmel, Ind.-based Oscar Land Acquisitions LLC, Arden property owner Charles B. Lytle and Wyoming-based property owner Ernest Anthony Lytle request a SUP to build a 244-unit multifamily apartment complex on 22.06 acres. The complex will include 10 residential buildings, a clubhouse, pool, playground and dog park. The plan also includes a maintenance building and four parking garages. The proposed density is 11.1 units per acre.

Detailed project documents are available at avl.mx/bqa.

Carolina Ready Mix & Builders Supply SUP (1186 Smokey Park Highway, Lower Hominy Township) Alabama-based property owner Vulcan Materials and Swannanoa-

based Carolina Ready Mix and Builders Supply, LLC request a SUP to build a concrete plant on 2.9 acres within a 138-acre site currently in use as a quarry. Carolina Ready Mix will lease the lot from Vulcan Materials.

The company employs over 50 people across Buncombe, Madison and Henderson counties at three locations.

Detailed project documents are available at avl.mx/bq9.

Clayton Crossing SUP (642 Long Shoals Road, Arden, 28704) Greenville. S.C.-based developer Deep River South Development and Skyland-based property owners Michael David Brown and David Craig Brown request a SUP to build 70 units of multifamily housing and 14 residential townhouses on 7.36 acres.

The design and construction will be similar to that of an adjacent, existing development, The Villas at Avery Creek. The proposed density is 9.51 units per acre.

Detailed project documents are available at avl.mx/bq8.

Creekside Community SUP (2177 Brevard Road, Arden, 28704) Boca Raton, Fla.-based developer Ambach Community LLC and Weaverville-based property owners West Family Limited Partnerships request a SUP to construct a 497unit multifamily residential development on 42.1 acres. Thirty-four buildings will house 495 rental units.

Two three-story buildings will contain 176 and 80 units, respectively; six three-story buildings will contain 10 units each; and an unspecified number of three-story townhouses will contain six to eight units each.

Finally, two single-family homes will be constructed at the west end of the property. The proposed density is 11.8 units per acre.

The proposal also includes three dog parks, a community pool and community garden, two pickleball courts, a landscaped common area and walking path.

Detailed documents can be found at avl.mx/bq7.

— Sara Murphy X

Development Guide now online The Xpress Development Guide is now online in linkable format! Access it anytime at avl.mx/bqg to learn about planning processes, how projects get approved and how you can make your voice heard on development issues. X

WNC Citizens for Equality, Inc. We are an area volunteer group attempting to challenge constitutional missteps by Asheville City, Buncombe County, and other local governments. If you have been a victim of any of the following because of your race and would like to see what we might be able to accomplish together, please contact us. We will keep your inquiry in strictest confidence. No costs to you at any point. We are serious about holding local government accountable.

• Has your child been refused admittance to an Asheville public charter school?

• Has your child been denied internship opportunities funded by the City of Asheville?

• Have you been denied employment at an Asheville public charter school ?

• Are you an Asheville City Schools educator that has been denied access to funds to pursue further education?

• Has your business been denied Asheville city sponsored retail space?

• Has your business been denied contracts with the city of Asheville?

• Has your business been denied development grants funded by the City of Asheville and/or Buncombe County?

• Have you felt forced by the city to support special interests as a condition for developing your property?

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BUNCOMBE BEAT we need to expand, not back out, with transit. Transit can’t wait.”

Meanwhile, Wisler, who was first elected to Council in 2013, noted that this budget vote would be her last, as she is not seeking reelection after her term expires later this year.

“Doing the budget is the hardest thing, and the most important thing, that Council members do, and this circle of women on this Council has probably spent more time and more energy and more passion around the budget adoption than I have ever seen,” she said. “You’ve all given it your all, and I just wanted to express my appreciation.”

Council approves $217 million Asheville budget During their June 28 meeting, Asheville City Council members voted 6-1 to approve the city’s fiscal year 2022-23 operating budget — but not without feedback.

“Defund APD! Cops don’t need more money!” shouted a group of five protesters, seconds after Council member Gwen Wisler moved to adopt the budget. The group was escorted out of City Hall

by Asheville Police Department officers moments after interrupting the meeting. (A search of police records found no arrests tied to the protest, but a report filed for disorderly conduct at City Hall notes that the incident is under “further investigation.”)

Despite those objections, Council approved the $217.6 million budget, which includes over $30.1 million for the APD, an increase of about $1.65 million over estimated police spending in fiscal year 202122. Salaries and benefits are the APD’s largest spending driver at more than $24.1 million, even as the department expects about 40 of its 269 listed positions to remain vacant over the next fiscal year.

The budget also includes $500,000 for the city’s reparations fund, $108,000 to create an urban

CITY HALL UPDATES 1920S PAINTINGS

LOUD AND CLEAR: Five protesters disrupted the June 28 Asheville City Council meeting with chants asking that the Council defund the Asheville Police Department. Photo by Brooke Randle forester position and $300,000 to increase full-time employee salaries to a minimum of $36,816 per year. The city will allocate $2.5 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act funds to build a six-lane track for Memorial Stadium at the request of the historically Black East End/Valley Street neighborhood. Other new items include funding for a homeless strategy project specialist position at an

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estimated annual cost of $92,000 and $50,000 in recurring funds for Code Purple winter shelter.

Council member Kim Roney, the sole vote against the budget’s adoption, said she could not support it due to her concerns around the city’s public safety, the delayed implementation of the city’s new living wage and transit spending.

The city’s Parking Services Fund typically earns enough revenue to provide about $1.6 million in support for city transit; however, the city missed out on roughly $800,000 in revenue due to faulty gate equipment at city garages, causing the amount transferred to transit to be cut to $1 million. The shortfall will continue to delay the implementation of the 2018 Transit Master Plan, a scheme for expanding the city’s bus system.

“I will not be supporting this budget tonight because I remain committed to affordability and to public safety, and I have concerns about how we’re doing the budget,” Roney said. “We are backing out of our commitment to expand transit funding. We do have to shore up our core service first, but

Council’s return to City Hall for the first time in over two years also revealed that the city had covered murals located in Council Chambers that depict Indigenous people and white settlers. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Council had been meeting virtually or in the Banquet Hall at Harrah’s Cherokee Center – Asheville.

The paintings, by New York artist Clifford Addams, included one piece titled “White Man’s Family Council.” The work was once praised by art historians but has been criticized as containing racist stereotypes and imagery in recent years.

The panels containing the paintings are now covered with images of mountain landscapes. Mayor Esther Manheimer said that the change occurred during Council’s break from City Hall but did not explicitly say why the original paintings had been covered.

Several members of the public praised the change, including Southside resident and community advocate Roy Harris. “I think the last time I was in this room, I commented on the pictures that were on the wall. They’ve been changed — thank you,” said Harris, who is Black. “I feel more represented here now.”

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— Brooke Randle X

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Reparations commission considers youth involvement Asheville’s Community Reparations Commission debated how to involve youth in its work during its June 27 meeting, continuing a discussion floated by commission Chair Dwight Mullen May 23. The group, tasked with developing recommendations for the city and Buncombe County to address the impacts of systemic racism, currently consists of 25 members and seven alternates but has no youth representation.

Dewana Little, the commission’s vice chair, presented four options for youth engagement: have commission members meet with local youth organizations on a monthly basis; create a separate Black youth council to suggest priorities for the commission to consider; appoint Black youth liaisons to commission focus groups; or appoint youth members to the commission itself.

Representatives from Black youth organizations advocated for youth involvement in the reparations commission. “We have to make sure that we’re including our youth,” said Keynon Lake, executive director of My Daddy Taught Me That. “I think this committee would do great justice by allowing our youth to be a part of it.”

Lake and other speakers bemoaned what they called a lack of space and resources for Black youths in Asheville, pointing to closed recreation centers and a lack of the historically Black colleges or professional sports teams that often provide those services in larger cities. Youth representatives who had been invited to the discussion declined to speak.

Some members of the commission expressed concern that discussions over including youths were taking time and focus away from progress toward the commission’s goals.

“As a commission, we’re not getting our work done. We’re sitting here, we’re talking about all this that we have got to do,” said Bobbette Mays, “This process of how you would bring youth into this group — you want to pay them, you want to interview them, you want to schedule them to be in our meetings. We’re already meeting once a month. Time is winding down.”

Dee Williams suggested that decisions on youth involvement be delegated to a committee, and Little put forward a motion to that effect.

After Mullen said the commission was not prepared to vote on the

IN FOR THE LONG HAUL: An updated timeline for the Community Reparations Commission, presented by consultant Debra Clark Jones June 27, indicates that the group’s final report won’t be prepared until March 2024. An earlier timeline had predicted that report would be published by April 2023. Graphic courtesy of the city of Asheville matter, however, the motion did not receive a second, and the discussion was tabled until the next meeting.

ASHEVILLE, BUNCOMBE DISCUSS ONGOING REPARATIONS FUNDING Commission members also heard a presentation from city and county officials about reparations funding in their respective fiscal year 202223 budgets.

At the time of the meeting, Asheville had proposed $500,000 for reparations in its budget, which was subsequently approved in a 6-1 vote

by City Council June 28. In the budget initially proposed by City Manager Debra Campbell May 24, that figure had been $365,000, meant to replace the funds spent on a contract for consulting firm TEQuity to oversee the reparations process.

Brenda Mills, the city’s director of equity and inclusion, said staff will recommend that at least $500,000 for reparations be considered as part of the budget each year, “subject to financial feasibility and budget approval by City Council.”

Asheville’s reparations fund currently contains about $2.23 million.

The reparations fund may also receive money from hotel developments that opt to contribute as part

of meeting the city’s public benefits table requirements. This system allows developers to avoid bringing hotel projects before Council if they meet certain criteria, including making contributions to affordable housing or reparations. Mills said that the city is considering a similar benefits table for other types of development.

Reparations commission members questioned the city’s decision to not fund reparations in perpetuity, a request they had voted to recommend May 23. Little said she was also confused by the city’s recommendation of a dollar amount instead of a percentage of the budget, as had been discussed in prior meetings. (The recommendation voted on by the commission did not include a specific dollar amount or percentage.)

Mills emphasized that the commission should submit recommendations with specific funding needs.

She said that the commission should write a letter to the city and the county stating exactly what it wants.

“You need to come up with recommendations that have dollar amounts,” Mills said, “We can’t fund something if we have no dollar amounts.”

Meanwhile, the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners authorized $2 million for repara-

tions as its members unanimously approved the county’s budget June 21. Rachel Edens, Buncombe’s chief equity and human rights officer, said the allocation is intended to fund reparations recommendations through June 2023. The county commissioners will consider any additional budget appropriations after that deadline as part of their annual budget cycle.

TEQuity’s Debra Clark Jones presented an updated timeline for the reparations commission that would have the group issue its final report in March 2024. When the commission was first announced, it was expected to publish that report

by April 2023.

The commission is currently in the third of nine phases proposed

by Jones, a seven-month research period that will include expert testimony, community panels and documenting harm. Members will simultaneously work to create immediate recommendations, to be submitted to the city and the county by October. That deadline was established after commission members said they wanted to get something concrete done before the November election cycle.

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— Nikki Gensert X JULY 6-12, 2022

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BUNCOMBE BEAT

Abortion ruling will impact Asheville’s Planned Parenthood On June 24, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in Dobbs v. Jackson that abortion is not a right under the Constitution, overturning the precedent set by Roe v. Wade in 1973. Legislation on abortion is now solely up to individual states.

While the procedure remains legal in North Carolina to the point of fetal viability (roughly 24-26 weeks into pregnancy), many nearby states have either enacted stricter abortion laws or are expected to do so in the coming months.

The Supreme Court’s decision has thus made Planned Parenthood’s Asheville Health Center, which provides abortions, an even more significant destination for reproductive health care in the Southeast.

As the sole abortion provider in Western North Carolina, the Asheville center will become the closest legal abortion destination for millions of people.

“Our Asheville health center, even before the Supreme Court decision, was already seeing people from out of state — folks from Tennessee, South Carolina, other neighboring states and even states far away,” says Molly Rivera, spokesperson for Planned Parenthood South Atlantic. “We only expect that influx to increase with this decision.”

She says Asheville’s clinic is trying to increase hours of operation and anticipates adding an another day when a physician can terminate pregnancies. Rivera also says the clinic is hiring more staff, including a patient navigator. This role will help patients locate the nearest and soonest abortion appointment available and connect them to resources for child care, housing and travel.

Through June 27, nine states, including Kentucky and Ohio, had put in place more restrictive abortion legislation following Dobbs.

Barring legal challenges, an abortion ban in Tennessee will take effect Sunday, July 24. According to the Guttmacher Institute, a national nonprofit focused on sexual and reproductive health, 26 states are expected to ban abortion overall, including South Carolina, Georgia and Florida.

Planned Parenthood’s Asheville facility provides surgical abortions, performed in the clinic, and med14

JULY 6-12, 2022

INCOMING: While abortion is legal in North Carolina, many nearby states have either enacted stricter abortion laws or are expected to do so in the coming months. Photo by Vicki Catalano ication abortions, during which the patient takes a combination of mifepristone and misoprostol pills.

In North Carolina, a physician must be physically present when the first dose is administered; the patient takes the remaining pills at home.

Asheville’s clinic accepts Medicaid and private insurance plans for services like testing for sexually transmitted diseases, Pap smears and breast exams. But North Carolina’s Medicaid program only covers abortion in cases of rape, incest or life endangerment; this is also true for insurance plans offered on the state’s health exchange under the federal Affordable Care Act and policies provided for public employees. Additionally, private insurance plans aren’t required to offer abortion coverage.

The nonprofit Carolina Abortion Fund works directly with clinics to

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provide financial support to people who have scheduled an abortion appointment in North or South Carolina or who live in either state.

(Nationwide, the mean cost of an abortion at 10 weeks is $550, according to the Guttmacher Institute.)

More out-of-state patients coming to Asheville to terminate a pregnancy will likely cause more people to rely on those funds.

Xpress was unable to reach the CAF for comment.

‘SURPRISED OR RATTLED’ Patients at Asheville’s Planned Parenthood are likely to encounter both anti-abortion protesters and abortion rights supporters outside the property, explains Ellen, who volunteers at the Asheville clinic as a patient greeter on the days it

provides abortion services. (Xpress is using her middle name only due to credible safety threats clinic staff and volunteers have received.)

A patient greeter, also called a clinic escort, meets patients in the parking lot and escorts them inside the clinic. These volunteers, Ellen says, are meant to be a friendly face to counter anti-abortion protesters.

People other than staff, patient greeters, patients or companions of patients who enter the clinic’s property will receive a trespassing charge, Ellen says. She notes that anti-abortion protesters often stand on ladders or climb trees outside the property to yell at patients as they enter or exit cars.

Asheville city officials have affirmed that they will respond to potential security concerns at the clinic. On June 29, Asheville City Council issued a proclamation affirming reproductive freedom, an item not previously listed on the agenda for that evening’s meeting.

“One of the roles the city will and does play is supporting our Planned Parenthood here in Asheville, which you see frequently is the subject of a lot of demonstrations and activity happening around the property, which makes some folks feel unsafe and makes it difficult to manage operations,” said Mayor Esther Manheimer. “That’s an area where the city’s Police Department offers partnership in trying to provide security for that facility.”

In an email to Xpress, Asheville Police Department spokesperson Bill Davis wrote, “APD is maintaining a heightened sense of awareness of facilities within the city that may be targeted as a result of the recent Supreme Court decision. Also, APD remains in communication with staff as needed and will continue to be responsive to the needs of our community members.”

Patient greeters place numerous signs leading to the clinic that indicate patients should continue driving along McDowell Street until they reach Planned Parenthood’s parking lot. Ellen warns that some anti-abortion protesters will stand alongside the road with a clipboard attempting to look like a clinic employee.

“Most [patients] are a combination of surprised or rattled” by the protesters, Ellen says. “Most patients coming in are not feeling one way or the other about the abortion debate or the news — they’re just trying to get to their doctor.”

— Jessica Wakeman X

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JULY 6-12, 2022

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FEA T U RE S

Q&A: Veteran Matthew Bacoate shares his passion for the Skyview Golf Tournament In 1943, at 13, Matthew Bacoate, Jr. found work caddying at the Biltmore Forest Country Club. At the time, African Americans were not permitted to join the club, but he and his friends absorbed the intricacies of the game while hauling golf bags for the course’s white players.

On occasion, Bacoate recalls, golfers would give the young caddies equipment to take home.

But Bacoate’s initial exposure to the game was brief. The same year he began caddying, his parents moved the family out of the South to pursue better work opportunities in the North.

In 1951, at 21, Bacoate was drafted into the U.S. Army to serve in Korea.

Three years prior, President Harry Truman had signed Executive Order 9981, desegregating the country’s armed forces.

Nevertheless, Bacoate says, “The people who were in charge went beyond the call of duty to make things difficult for the Negro. But I was determined that I would not allow the meanness to get to me. I overcame it by being positive and doing everything properly. It got the attention of those who were otherwise mean, and I gained their respect all the way through the military.”

After serving, Bacoate returned to his hometown in 1956, intent on making a positive change. “I got involved in civil rights and have been here ever since,” he says.

Three years later, the Skyview Golf Association was formed by Charles Collette, Sam Chavis, Raymond Bland, John Dendy, Sam Quick, Tommy Lee Nance, Boyce Layton, and Jesse G. Ray Sr. — some of whom, Bacoate points out, caddied with him back in 1943. According to the SGA website, the nonprofit was created “to promote golf competition among African American golfers throughout the United States.”

The following year, the association launched the inaugural Skyview Golf Tournament at the Asheville Municipal Golf Course. Bacoate was approached by the organizers to help promote the tournament, as well as manage the scoreboard.

Inspired by watching the great golfers at the 1960 competition, Bacoate picked back up the sport.

Since then, he’s been a regular on the greens, where he connects with friends and business associates alike.

FORE! U.S. Army veteran Matthew Bacoate Jr. shares his passion for golf, civil rights and military service. Photo by Jennifer Castillo The 62nd annual Skyview Golf Tournament takes place TuesdayThursday, July 12-14, at the Asheville Municipal Golf Course, 226 Fairway Drive. As in years past, Bacoate has helped organize the event.

Xpress recently caught up with Bacoate about his continued interest in the sport, the importance of Skyview Golf Association and how his military service informs who he is today.

This interview has been lightly edited and condensed.

Xpress: What keeps you returning to the golf course?

Bacoate: One thing that I’ve learned from playing is that when I’m concentrating on trying to hit the golf ball straight and arc properly, my mind is devoted only to that mission. I also notice that after I play golf, my mind is refreshed. It’s a therapy and also gives me an opportunity to be physical.

I also make it a little harder than it actually is. Even if I don’t hit a ball out of bounds on a hill, I will purposely run up and down the hill in order to strengthen my body. It’s a body and mind proposition with me.

Can you speak to the historical significance of the Skyview Golf Association?

Skyview Golf Association is one of 32 such organizations that helped

launch Negro golfing. The Skyview is, to our knowledge, the only one left of those 32 that has a threeday golf tournament. Over 70% of the Negroes that went on to the PGA Tour cut their teeth coming to Asheville. Renowned players such as Chuck Thorpe and his brother, Jim Thorpe, as well as Lee Elder and Jim Dent all became high winners on the PGA Tour. Joe Louis [the famed boxer and avid golfer] even came here and played the Skyview one time.

Skyview was part of the Chitlin Circuit back in the ’60s and early ’70s. Folks would leave from New York or wherever they lived, travel here mostly by vehicle and bus, and stay with people whom they had met.

When we were not allowed to stay in hotels, I recall the golfers who traveled here stayed in their cars.

Several of the golfers even had their own cooking utensils so they could warm up their baked beans and their hotdogs. And those guys continued playing. They honed their skills and they became good at it. They went on to show up great for the Negro community at the top levels of golf.

Do you have a favorite memory from the tournament?

The latest one is [Harold] Varner.

He is one of three Negroes on the big PGA Tour. He has been playing

awesome the past three months. He’s won two tournaments. He played the Skyview as a youth and played the Skyview as a pro in 2014. And I had a chance to talk with him and be with him as he was ascending to the PGA. Otherwise, it’s just being around golfers who made it to the PGA Tour — in particular, Jim Thorpe, Jim Dent and Nate Stark. Just being in their presence here, sharing conversations as guys do is a great memory.

And the fact that they played so well.

How does your military service support the work you do today?

It helped develop a discipline that I still use because my work requires a lot of time. I work the entire year promoting Skyview, and I work with three other nonprofits: YMI Cultural Center, LEAF Global Arts and the African American Heritage Committee. Daily, I’m motivated because of the good that I feel and see coming in as a result of my labor in making Skyview the golf presence that it is today — not only in Asheville but across the country.

As a veteran, is there a particular moment of recognition for your service that stands out?

I went on the Honor Flight in 2017 to Washington, D.C. One of the most awesome one-day excursions that a veteran could ever participate in. You board a plane and fly to Washington, D.C., and you’re carried by charter bus all over to historic sites, and then you assemble at the Vietnam, Second World War and Korean memorials.

During my trip there, I was chosen out of 1,200 soldiers to lay the wreath at the Korean Memorial — a big deal and a humbling experience. And the only training you get is to remember how you’ve seen the president do it.

It was just surreal.

When I was told that I had been chosen, my mind went to the other 1,200 people that came from all over the country. It could have been any one of those gentlemen. But here I am from Asheville, North Carolina, chosen to lay the wreath.

I’ve had many humbling experiences. I’ve been invited to the White House twice, by President [Richard] Nixon in 1970 and President [Jimmy] Carter in 1980. I’ve had experiences working and traveling with [former N.C.] Gov. Jim Hunt. But nothing felt like that day in Washington, D.C., when I was chosen to lay the wreath.

For more information on how to observe or participate at this year’s 62nd Skyview Golf Tournament, visit skyviewgolfasheville.com.

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— LA Bourgeois X JULY 6-12, 2022

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COMMUNITY CALENDAR JULY 6 - JULY 14, 2022

The Music Man The classic musical, featuring over 40 WNC actors.

FR (7/8), SA (7/9), 7:30pm, SU (7/10), 2pm, Hart Theatre, 250 Pigeon St, Waynesville

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 Events = Shaded WELLNESS Men's Cancer Support Group Safely meet in a large conference room and stay socially distant while wearing masks. RSVP to Will (412)913-0272 or acwein123@gmail.com.

WE (7/6), 6pm, Woodfin YMCA, 40 N. Merrimon Ave, Ste 101 Zoom into AWE Healer Dwight Dale Miller will present on how to explore and experience your ability to heal, access your divinity and live a life without limits - then will guide the group through a live healing session.

WE (7/6), 7pm, avl.mx/bpr Skate Night at Carrier Park Bring your own skates for a community roll bounce.

FR (7/8), 6pm, Carrier Park, 220 Amboy Rd Goat Yoga SA (7/9), 11am & 12:15pm, Whistle Hop Brewing Co, 1288 Charlotte Hwy, Fairview Tiny Tots Yoga Taught by Brandon Hudson, trained yoga instructor. Caregivers or parents must be present during the event.

Outdoors, bring yoga mats.

SA (7/9), 11am, Swannanoa Library, 101 West Charleston St, Swannanoa Yoga in the Park Join together alongside the French Broad River for this all-level friendly yoga class based on Hatha and Vinyasa traditions.

SA (7/9) & SU (7/10), 1:30pm, $10, 220 Amboy Rd Montford Tai Chi Hosted by local acupuncturist Tyler White. All ages, every Thursday.

TH (7/14), 9am, Montford Recreation Center, 34 Pearson Dr

ART 16th Annual Art in Bloom This multi-faceted fundraising event celebrating nature and art combines two gallery exhibits, live floral arrangements, local garden tours featuring working artists, and floral-inspired workshops.

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Sunday Sinema Free popcorn ... no burgers. 21+ SU (7/10), 9pm, The Burger Bar, 1 Craven St

TH (7/7), 5pm, Black Mountain Center for the Arts, 225 W State St, Black Mountain

PAW Patrol Live! The Great Pirate Adventure An interactive stage show using puppetry elements, based on the hit Nickolodeon show.

TU (7/12), 5pm, Thomas Wolfe Auditorium at Harrah's Cherokee Center

Blown Glass Demos with Andrew Montrie FR (7/8), 1-5pm, Appalachian Craft Center, 10 N Spruce St, Ste 120 Girl with Flowers Twelve large scale portrait paintings by artist Jeffrey Luque, with 3D glasses for guests to enhance the experience.

FR (7/8), 5pm, SA (7/9), 12pm, Jeffrey Luque Art, 162 W French Broad St, Brevard Unconventional Perceptions Contemporary photographic essays that play with the possibilities of everyday imagery.. Daily 11am, closed Sunday.

Contemporaneo Asheville Gallery-Shop, 4 Biltmore Ave No Man's Land/Tierra de Nadie A multimedia exhibit by Cuban born artist and photographer Ernesto Javier Fernández. Daily 11am, closed Sunday.

Contemporaneo Asheville Gallery-Shop, 4 Biltmore Ave Home and the Journey There: a collection and exhibition of Augmented Reality artworks by Asheville artist Jaime Byrd An immersive art experience combining paintings and AR by multimedia artist Jaime Byrd, inspired by her travels around the globe.

Daily 10am.

Trackside Studios, 375 Depot St Bullington Gardens Fairy Trail Three hundred yards of tiny fairy life scenes.

Daily 9am, closed Sunday.

Bullington Gardens, 95 Upper Red Oak Trail, Hendersonville American Perspectives: Stories from the American Folk Art Museum Collection Over 80 works of folk and self-taught art, including assemblages, needlework, paintings, pottery, quilts and sculpture. Daily 11am, closed Tuesday..

Asheville Art Museum, 2 S Pack Square Rise: Carolina Lebar A solo exhibit of original works by Colombian-born WNC resident; in graphite, watercolor,

JULY 6-12, 2022

BEAR NECESSITIES: The Western North Carolina Nature Center will hold its monthly after-hours summer event series, Brews & Bears, Friday, July 8, 5:30-8 p.m. at 75 Gashes Creek Road. The fundraiser — which will include local beer, cider, food trucks and music — will feature educational programming from BearWise and a popsicle enrichment activity for resident bears Uno and Ursa. Photo courtesy of Friends of the WNC Nature Center and oil. Daily 11am, closed Wednesday.

Art Garden AVL, 191 Lyman St, Ste 316 Nature and Nurture: The Voorhees Family Artistic Legacy This multi-generational, multi-media exhibit displays paintings, pottery and jewelry from seven members of the Voorhees family. Daily 9am, through Sept. 5.

NC Arboretum, 100 Frederick Law Olmsted Way Cultivating Collections: Vitreographs, Glass and Works by Black Artists Exhibition Exhibitions that highlight research by museum and WCU students identifying key acquisition areas, coming together to tell the story of past, present as well as future collecting directions.

Tuesday through Friday, 10am.

WCU Bardo Arts Center, 199 Centennial Dr, Cullowhee

COMMUNITY MUSIC Shindig on the Green A mountain tradition since 1967, with bluegrass and old-time string bands, cloggers, ballad singers and storytellers.

SA (7/9), 7pm, Pack Square Park Monday Night Live Live music from Nu-Blu. Bring a chair or blanket.

MO (7/11), 7pm, Historic Downtown Hendersonville

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Groovin' on Grovemont Outdoor summer concert series with live vintage-inspired Americana and soul rock from Abby Bryant and the Echoes, food and a used book sale.

All proceeds go to the Swannanoa Community Council and Friends of The Swannanoa Library.

TU (7/12), 6pm, Grovemont Square, 101 W Charleston Ave, Swannanoa Tuesday Night Block Party Whitewater Bluegrass Co and an experienced caller will take attendees step-by-step through a collection of moves that combine square and contra dancing styles.

Family-friendly with food vendors and other activities.

TU (7/12), 6pm, Downtown Brevard Steve Newbrough and Kate Steinbeck Kate Steinbeck of Pan Harmonia plays the flute, joining Steve Newbrough on classical guitar.

WE (7/13), 8pm, Asheville Guitar Bar, 122 Riverside Dr

Malaprop's Crime and Politics Book Club Participants will discuss The Death of Raymond Yellow Thunder by Stew Magnuson. Registration required.

TH (7/7), 7pm, avl.mx/ahj Poetrio: Marlanda Dekine, Hilda Downer, and Ann Shurgin Monthly poetry event featuring three poets.

Registration required for in-person or online.

SU (7/10), 4:30pm, Malaprop's Bookstore and Cafe, 55 Haywood St Malaprop's Mystery Book Club Participants will discuss Lowcountry Boil by Susan M. Boyer. Registration required.

MO (7/11), 7pm, avl.mx/acg UNC Press Presents J. Brent Morris, author of Dismal Freedom The author discusses his book about the Great Dismal Swamp of North Carolina and Virginia. Sponsored by Malaprop's. Registration required.

TU (7/12), 5pm, avl.mx/bq0

SPOKEN & WRITTEN WORD

Corban Addison presents Wastelands The author discusses his non-fiction legal thriller. Sponsored by Malaprop's. Registration required.

WE (7/13), 6pm, avl.mx/bq1

Malaprop's Book Club Participants will discuss Cloud Cuckoo, a novel

by Anthony Doerr.

Registration required.

WE (7/6), 6:30pm, avl.mx/720

Book Discussion and Author Reading: Woodsmoke by Wayne Caldwell Swannanoa Valley Museum will host a discussion of the author's poetry collection, followed by

a presentation by the author.

TH (7/14), 10am, Black Mountain Public Library, 105 N Dougherty St, Black Mountain Foreplay! In the Mountains Monthly open mic adult storytelling event. 21+ TH (7/14), 7pm, Asheville Beauty Academy, 28 Broadway

THEATER & FILM The Hunchback of Notre Dame Based on the Victor Hugo novel with songs from the Disney animated feature, this musical showcases the film’s Academy Award-nominated score, as well as new songs by Menken and Schwartz.

WE (7/6), TH (7/7), FR (7/8), SA (7/9), 7:30pm, SU (7/10), 2:30pm, Southern Appalachian Repertory Theatre, 44 College St, Mars Hill Outdoor Movie Night: Sleepaway Camp II Free showing of 1980s horror flick. Popcorn provided.

WE (7/6), 8:30pm, The Odditorium, 1045 Haywood Rd West Side Story The number one requested musical from the venue's 2019 show survey. Various dates and times, through July 30.

Flat Rock Playhouse, 2661 Hwy 225, Flat Rock The Moppets present The Tempest Shakespeare's comedy about the misadventures of a group of sailors

and royals shipwrecked on an enchanted island where all is not as it seems.

FR (7/8), 5pm, SA (7/9) 11am, Hazel Robinson Amphitheatre, 92 Gay St Movies in the Park: Jungle Cruise The Disney film outdoors, presented by Asheville Parks and Rec. FR (7/8), 7pm, Pack Square Park Footloose: The Musical With an Oscar and Tony-nominated Top 40 score, augmented with new songs, this classic celebrates the wisdom of listening to young people while guiding them with an open mind. A two-act musical production presented by The Overlook Theatre Company.

FR (7/8), SA (7/9) 7:30pm, Smoky Mountain Center for the Performing Arts, 1028 Georgia Rd, Franklin

Terpsicorps presents: Vampyre, A Gothic Tale of Love, Death and Immortality Featuring a cast of critically acclaimed dancers from ballet companies across the United States and abroad. Inspired by the gothic short story by John Polidori.

TH (7/14), 8pm, Wortham Center for the Performing Arts, 18 Biltmore Ave

CLASSES, MEETINGS & WORKSHOPS Music to Your Ears Discussion Series: Emerson Lake & Palmer's Trilogy Music journalist and historian Bill Kopp will lead an evening of music and discussion of ELP’s Trilogy. With special guest André Cholmondeley, crew and instrument technician for Emerson Lake and Palmer.

WE (7/6), 7pm, Asheville Guitar Bar, 122 Riverside Dr

The Magnetic Theatre presents: Starbright Written by Asheville resident Sean David Robinson. Through July 23.

FR (7/8), SA (7/9) 7:30pm, SU (7/10), The Magnetic Theatre, 375 Depot St

Embroiderers' Guild of America - Laurel Chapter Roberta Smith, education committee chairwoman, will provide instruction on a reversible surface embroidery project of holly berries and leaves.

Contact Mary Ann Wyatt (828)681-0572 or Janet Stewart (828)575-9195.

TH (7/7), 9:30am, Cummings United Methodist Church, 3 Banner Farm Rd, Horse Shoe

Staged Reading Series A free public reading of a new play in development, with a talk back with the actors and playwright following each reading. Donations welcome.

SA (7/9), 4pm, Hendersonville Theatre, 229 S Washington St, Hendersonville

WNC Nature Center program: Fact or Myth?

A WNC Nature Center educator will lead a fun and interactive guessing game about local wildlife. This free program is for school age kids.

TH (7/7), 2pm, Leicester Library, 1561 Alexander Rd, Leicester

WNCHA History Hour: Musical Instruments in WNC This program will explore the arrival, creation, and development of instruments and playing styles in the mountains and their cultural origins and influences.

TH (7/7), 6pm, avl.mx/bps Cruise then Booze Paddle Outing A two hour paddle trip down the French Broad, ending at the brewery. Boats, life jackets, paddles and a two-minute shuttle trip to Pisgah Forest access provided.

FR (7/8), 4:30pm, Oskar Blues Brewery, 342 Mountain Industrial Dr, Brevard Michael Checkhov Method Originally developed as a movement theater technique, Noreen Sullivan has adapted the method to be inclusive for all artists and creatives seeking to expand their craft through modes of embodiment.

Visit ccc-avl.org. Sliding scale.

SA (7/9), 11am, $10-40, Center for Connection + Collaboration Asheville and Buncombe County: 1792 to the Turn of the 20th Century Explore the early development of Asheville and Buncombe County, focusing on the changes and developments in the region between the founding of the county in 1792 and the turn of the 20th century.

MO (7/11), 6:30pm, Free-$10, avl.mx/b99

LOCAL MARKETS Asheville City Market South Midweek market operated by the Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project (ASAP).

WE (7/6, 13), 12pm, Biltmore Town Square, 1 Town Square Blvd Weaverville Tailgate Market Local market located at Lake Louise. WNC vendors sell their locally raised meats, grown veggies and fruits, made cheese, herbal products, jams, jellies, pickles, baked goods, sourdough breads, drinks and more.

WE (7/6, 13), 3pm, 60 Lake Shore Dr Weaverville Flat Rock Tailgate Market A diverse group of local produce farmers, jam and jelly makers, bread bakers, wild crafters, and merrymakers.

TH (7/7, 14), 3pm, Pinecrest ARP Church, 1790 Greenville Hwy, Flat Rock Les-ter Farmers Market Support local farmers and craftspeople offering a variety of local

produce, herbs, flowers, cheese, meat, prepared foods, art, gifts and much more.

WE (7/6, 13), 3pm, Leicester Community Center, 2979 New Leicester Hwy, Leicester

local musicians, a wide variety of vegetables, fruits, meat, eggs, and high-quality crafts.

SA (7/9), 8am, Mills River Elementary School, 94 Schoolhouse Rd, Mills River

Meadow Market Runs every Sunday from May-Aug, featuring a rotation of local bakers, makers and artisans.

SU (7/10), 12pm, Highland Brewing Company, 12 Old Charlotte Hwy

River Arts District (RAD) Farmers Market Located on the river with live music and over 30 local vendors.

Safely accessible via the greenway, plus ample parking.

WE (7/6, 13), 3pm, Smoky Park Supper Club, 350 Riverside Dr

North Asheville Tailgate Market The oldest Saturday morning market in WNC. Over 60 rotating vendors.

SA (7/9), 8am, 3300 University Heights

Rabbit Rabbit Sunday Market Celebrating and supporting local and indie craft, design and vintage. With live music and food.

SU (7/10), 12pm, Rabbit Rabbit, 75 Coxe Ave

Etowah Lions Club Farmers Market Fresh produce, meat, sweets, breads, arts, and more, through Oct. 26.

WE (7/6, 13), 3pm, Etowah Lions Club, 447 Etowah School Rd, Hendersonville Wednesday Night Market: Vintage and Crafts Vintage and crafts from area-based vendors.

WE (7/6, 13), 4pm, Fleetwood’s, 496 Haywood Rd Enka-Candler Tailgate Market Fresh local produce and heritage crafts, with live music. Weekly.

TH (7/7, 14), 3pm, A-B Tech Small Business Center, 1465 Sand Hill Rd, Candler YMCA Mobile Market Bring grocery bags and get fresh food for your family. The market provides fresh produce paired with healthy recipes and a Community Engagement Table with services such as cooking demonstrations. Distributions are free and all community members are welcome.

TH (7/7), 4:30pm, Enka-Candler Library, 1404 Sandhill Rd, Candler FR (7/8), 10:30am, Oakley/South Asheville Library, 749 Fairview Rd East Asheville Tailgate Market Local goods, every Friday.

FR (7/8), 3pm, 954 Tunnel Rd Henderson County Tailgate Market One of the oldest openair markets in WNC, this unique market has a festival feel, with local growers who operate small family farms in Henderson County.

SA (7/9), 8am, 100 N King St, Hendersonville Hendersonville Farmers Market Produce, meat, eggs, baked goods, coffee, crafts and more from 30+ local vendors. With live music, kids' activities and cooking demos weekly.

SA (7/9), 8am, 650 Maple St, Hendersonville Mills River Farmers Market A producer-only market, selling products raised or produced within 50 miles of the market. With

Asheville City Market Over 50 vendors and local food products, including fresh produce, meat, cheese, bread, pastries, and more.

SA (7/9), 9am, 52 N Market St Black Mountain Tailgate Market Seasonal community market event featuring organic and sustainably grown produce, plants, cut flowers, herbs, locally raised meats, seafood, breads, pastries, cheeses, eggs and local arts and handcrafted items.

SA (7/9), 9am, 130 Montreat Rd, Black Mountain Haywood's Historic Farmers Market Producer-only market, featuring produce sourced from Haywood or an adjacent county, meats, fish, veggies, honey, dairy, crafts and more.

SA (7/9), 9am, Hart Theatre, 250 Pigeon St, Waynesville Transylvania Farmers Market Fifty vendors offering fresh, locally-grown produce, meat, poultry, eggs, honey, cheese, coffee, plants, herbs, cut flowers, baked goods, jams, jellies, relishes, prepared foods and handcrafted items.

SA (7/9), 9am, 175 East Main St, Brevard Mars Hill Farmers & Artisans Market Producer-only tailgate market, weekly through Oct. SA (7/9), 10am, College St, Mars Hill University, Mars Hill Junk-O-Rama Saturday Vintage antiques market, every Saturday through Oct. SA (7/9), 11am, Fleetwood's, 496 Haywood Rd Jackson Arts Market Makers & Music Festival Locally produced, foraged, sourced, mined and crafted goods. Local musicians every Saturday with Babyl Ben Jacobs on July 9.

SA (7/9), SU (7/10), 1pm, Downtown Sylva Gladheart Farm Fest Market Fresh produce, bread and pastries, food vendors, and live music, weekly.

SU (7/10), 11am, Gladheart Farm, 9 Lora Ln

West Asheville Tailgate Market Over 40 local vendors, with live music from Watkins July 12.

TU (7/12), 3:30pm, 718 Haywood Rd SCB Summer Nights Market With live music, local vendors, barbecue and an outdoor bar. Every other Thursday through Oct. TH (7/14), 5:30pm, Sweeten Creek Brewing, 1127 Sweeten Creek Rd

FESTIVALS & SPECIAL EVENTS Arbor Evenings Sip and stroll through the gardens as the sun sets, while listening to live old-time bluegrass Americana from Kevin Scanlon at 5:30 and pop, jazz and Celtic from Melody Cooper at 7:15.

TH (7/7), 5:30pm, NC Arboretum, 100 Frederick Law Olmsted Way

Donations appreciated.

WE (7/6, 13), 7pm, Jubilee Community Church, 46 Wall St Prayer for Healing and Soaking Prayer A quiet time to seek the presence of Jesus, as prayer ministers move behind you, silently offering prayers on your behalf.

WE (7/13), Grace Lutheran Church, 1245 Sixth Ave W, Hendersonville

BENEFITS & VOLUNTEERING Oxford House of Asheville Drag Show Fundraiser An effort to raise $10K to go to the national convention in Seattle, WA, this non-profit organization provides safe and clean housing to recovering alcoholics and addicts. Performances by Asheville's Josie Glamour and Co, raffling prizes, mocktails, and hors d’oeuvres donated by local vendors.

SU (7/10), 6:30pm, Grove House Entertainment Complex, 11 Grove St Dip Dye supporting Manna Food Bank For a donation of $20, attendees will receive

a Highland Brewing Co shirt tie-dyed on site, available to take home with care instructions.

With a food truck, and live music in The Meadow fwith The JackTown Ramblers.

TU (7/12), 6pm, Highland Brewing Co, 12 Old Charlotte Hwy Project Linus: WNC Chapter Seeking volunteers to create and donate children’s blankets, providing a sense of security and warmth to children in crisis. Contact Ellen Knoefel at (828)645-8800 or gknoefel @charter. net or Pat Crawford (828)873-8746.

Experiential Garden Volunteers Needed Verner Experiential Garden (VEG) will host community garden nights, with gloves and tools provided. Email volunteer coordinator Polly: pphillips@ verneremail.org for more details.

TH (7/14), 4pm, Verner Center for Early Learning, 2586 Riceville Rd

Magical Offerings 7/8: Intuitive Readings: Shifra Nerenberg 1-7pm 7/9: Tarot Reader: Edward 12-6pm Binx’s Cat Adoption 12-5pm 7/11: Tarot Reader: Mandi Smith 12-4pm 7/13: FULL MOON Tarot Reader: EL 1-5pm 7/17: Tarot Reader: Pam Shook 1-6pm Exploring the Tarot w/ Traci 4-6pm NEW MOON: July 28th

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Brews and Bears Guests will be able to watch an enrichment activity for the Nature Center’s resident black bears, Uno and Ursa, while enjoying food, drinks and music.

FR (7/8), 5:30pm, WNC Nature Center, 75 Gashes Creek Rd The Big Crafty Biannual indie art and craft festival featuring 150+ artists, crafters and makers in the Asheville area.

SU (7/10), 12pm, Pack Square Park Truth Seekers Water Festival Co-creating an alternative pop-up society where attendees are choosing “resolutions to form solutions” - with tools, fresh water, food/ medicine, family and friends, information and self-healing ways. Visit truthseekerswaterfestival.com.

TH (7/14) - SU (7/14), $10-$200, Private Location, Burnsville

SPIRITUALITY Wednesday Night Thing A new weekly ritual meditation, celebration and connections with Daniel Barber, Billy Jonas, Whitney Moore and Jackie Dobrinska.

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JULY 6-12, 2022

19

WELLNESS

Canine connection

‘PART OF THEIR RECOVERY’

see a lot of veterans struggling with interpersonal skills and reintegrating into civilian life,” explains Michele Tate, Warrior Canine Connection’s other Asheville-based dog trainer.

Veterans Healing Farm in Hendersonville, which teaches veterans farming techniques and self-care skills, held a meet-and-greet for veterans to learn about Warrior Canine Connection on June 29.

A few veterans, as well as their family members, showed up to meet the animals. Tate demonstrates how Arliss, a yellow Labrador retriever, responds to cues of anxiety and sadness. As Tate taps her foot, signaling anxiety, Arliss comes over and lays his head on her knee. When Tate wrings her hands, Arliss moves his face to her hands and nuzzles them.

Finally, Tate leans forward with her head in her hands. Arliss immediately starts gently jumping to nuzzle Tate’s face.

Guidash and Tate work with 15-20 veterans per week in one-hour sessions with the dogs. Participation may depend on their agreement with Veterans Treatment Court, but veterans typically sign up for eight training sessions.

Anyone who has bonded with an animal knows it can be hard to say goodbye. “Many of our veterans stay on well past eight sessions — they stay on for some 200, 300 sessions,” Guidash says. Warrior Canine Connection also works with veterans who come to them through Asheville Buncombe Community Christian Ministry, the Veterans Healing Farm or word-of-mouth. She adds that people referred by Veterans Treatment Court are frequently the ones who stay on the longest.

Warrior Canine Connection is headquartered in Maryland with satellite programs across the country.

Amy Guidash, a licensed marriage and family therapist who also has a certificate in service dog training, brought the program to Asheville in 2018.

Service dogs trained by Warrior Canine Connection go on to assist veterans with physical disabilities or psychological issues, particularly post-traumatic stress disorder. The dogs being trained in Asheville won’t stay; they will return to Warrior Canine Connection headquarters for advanced training and eventually be assigned to a veteran. But from age 6 months to 24 months, they live with volunteer “puppy parents” and train with veterans.

Warrior Canine Connection calls its dog training model mission-based trauma recovery, as it teaches emotional skills like patience, emotional regulation and consistency. “We

EYES ON THE PRIZE: Tina, a 1-year-old black Labrador retriever, learns service dog skills with veterans through Warrior Canine Connection. She’s fixated on Army veteran Michael White, who has a pouch full of dog treats for training.

Photo by Jessica Wakeman

Training service dogs helps veterans heal

BY JESSICA WAKEMAN jwakeman@mountainx.com Asheville can feel as if dogs have the run of the place. They are seemingly in every brewery and restaurant and on every trail. Nearly all of these animals are pets that might occasionally earn their keep by barking at a black bear in the trash or chasing a gopher from the tomato patch.

But four of Asheville’s dogs live a different type of life — one more important than vegetable garden defense. Rumley, Slick, Tina and Arliss are Labrador retrievers who are training as service dogs with Warrior Canine Connection, a nonprofit in which veterans train service dogs for other veterans.

Warrior Canine Connection is a community service option through Buncombe County Veterans Treatment Court, Kevin Rumley, program director and a licensed clinical social worker, tells Xpress in an email. (Rumley the service-dog-intraining is named for him, which he calls “an honor and humbling.”)

Veterans Treatment Court is a post-plea diversion program that provides substance abuse and mental health treatment, as needed, over an 18-month probationary period.

The program allows veterans facing misdemeanor, gross misdemeanor or felony charges to complete a voluntary program and petition the court for dismissal of their charges one year after completion, according to the court’s website. Community service is a mandatory component of Veterans Treatment Court, and 45 veterans going through the program

WELCOME INTERRUPTION: Warrior Canine Connection dog trainer Michele Tate demonstrates how Arliss, a yellow Labrador retriever, is trained to respond to a veteran in distress. When Arliss sees Tate’s head in her hands, he knows he should put his nose in her face and distract her. Photo by Jessica Wakeman have served with Warrior Canine Connection, Rumley says.

“Veterans are learning evidence-based techniques to train the animals, but it is actually the dogs that are supporting the veterans’ healing process,” Rumley explains.

Learning emotion regulation and “showing up” for the dogs are skills that transfer to veterans’ personal lives as well, Rumley continues.

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It’s a backdoor approach to healing, he says.

Elizabeth Schane LCMHC, LPC, LMHC

A GOOD BOY: Arliss, a 16-month-old yellow Labrador retriever, is the most advanced in his service dog training.

His good temperament and intelligence mean he’ll be used for breeding, too. Photo by Jessica Wakeman “It becomes part of their recovery,” she says.

‘I’M ABLE TO SEE WHAT’S GOING ON WITH ME’ At the Veterans Healing Farm meet-and-greet, Michael D. White, who lives in West Asheville, shows his training success with Tina, a black Labrador retriever.

When Tina is eventually paired with a veteran as a service dog, she will need to respond to emotional distress cues, as well as provide practical help with physical tasks. White demonstrates how he has trained Tina to pick up a remote control off the floor, as well as pick up her own leash. He also trained Tina to sit down using only eye contact and a head nod. (For every task accomplished, Tina is rewarded with a dog biscuit, Pepperidge Farm Goldfish or a Cheerio from a treat pouch White wears.)

The days training Rumley, Slick, Tina and Arliss have been important for White. “They all will teach you different things about yourself,” he says of the dogs.

In 2006, the U.S. Army deployed White’s unit to Iraq. He was stationed 20 minutes away from Baghdad International Airport, serving several roles: combat radio retransmission operator, driver and a paratrooper with over 40 jumps. White calls himself “blessed to have made it unscathed,” as his only physical

injury was smashing his finger in a Humvee window.

But his 18-month tour of duty left psychological scars, particularly anxiety. “I’ve been on the brink of death so many times,” he explains.

“There’s nothing glorious about battle, and every day was a struggle,” White says. “There was a point where if I did wake up, I didn’t know if I’d make it through the day. And if I did make it through the day to sleep, I don’t know if I would make it through the night.”

White continued to struggle while reacclimating to civilian life when his service ended in 2008. He says he struggled to articulate his feelings and relate to other people. His marriage to his high school sweetheart suffered; he lost a house and went into debt. “Then I ended up turning to drugs to cope, and that doesn’t help,” White says. “I did that for a long time.” After getting into trouble last year, he ended up in Veterans Treatment Court.

White says he has gained self-awareness by training service dogs for Warrior Canine Connection.

“What’s great about this is that I’m able to see what’s going on with me,” he tells Xpress, as Tina sits at his feet. “Up until now with my mental health, my addiction and my diseases, I haven’t been able to say what’s wrong — I haven’t been able to communicate how I feel or how to articulate what’s really going on. So therefore, I’m frustrated, everybody else is frustrated, and it just causes a big mess. ” He adds, “I’ve been able to turn that around, though, and identify that. I’ve learned words to identify how I’m feeling and learned to ask questions.”

Tate, the dog trainer, says she’s seen how training service dogs has helped White develop patience, which is a crucial skill for dogs who have difficulty acclimating to new situations. “We’ll call Michael specifically to work with these dogs because we know he can be patient,” she says.

“We know he can give them what they need.”

It’s a symbiotic relationship that touches everyone.

“We tell [the veterans] regularly the dogs are never going to judge you and you’re not going to break them,” Tate says. “Dogs are the picture of resilience. And that’s why you’re here working with them — because they have things to teach you and you have things to teach them.” X

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21

ARTS & CULTURE

Creative service Veterans find healing through the arts

BY EDWIN ARNAUDIN earnaudin@mountainx.com Franklin Oldham describes his transition back to civilian life as “rocky at best.”

After serving in the Army, Oldham says a sense of detachment — which he attributes to the side effects of antidepressants — meant disengaging with his two primary passions, which his father introduced him to at a young age: motorcycles and photography.

“It’s not that I felt anger or anything; I just didn’t feel anything,” he explains.

Other than taking the occasional picture at a new location while serving in Germany, Kosovo and the Tikrit region of Iraq, Oldham set his camera aside while on active duty in the early 2000s. His interest in both photography and riding drifted further away after he suffered a significant back injury that resulted in him being medically processed out of the military. Extensive rehab followed, addressing the physical and psychological traumas Oldham sustained while in the service.

“When I got out, it was 2007, and nobody knew what was going on with us. I’d go to the VA [health care center in Wilmington] and they were like, ‘Man, here, take some pills and just please don’t kill yourself,’” he says. “When I got up to Asheville [in 2018], it was a much different setup as far as what was available for treatment.”

Counselors at the Charles George VA Medical Center, which Oldham says is one of the best of

TEMPO SETTER

RESTART, RECHARGE: Burnsville-based U.S. Army veteran Franklin Oldham rediscovered his childhood love for photography in 2020. Photo courtesy of Oldham its kind, offered him a range of treatments for his post-traumatic stress disorder. Of all the therapies he explored, Oldham feels that eye movement desensitization and

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While landscape photography is his passion, Oldham has recently been branching out into portraits.

He’s also resumed riding motorcycles and is exploring ways to combine his two loves, possibly in the form of videos taken while traversing the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Getting back to these outlets has helped Oldham feel more connected to society, as has the socialization that comes with sharing his work.

“Four or five years ago, you would’ve never caught me going to an art festival, putting up a tent and putting up 30-40 pictures and talking to people,” he says. “Just having that experience of being in a social scene, being around strangers and large groups, is a monumental step for somebody with a good amount of combat PTSD.” Oldham is fortunately far from alone among area veterans who’ve sought healing through the arts.

And in line with his observation regarding the many different therapeutic approaches for service members, there are plentiful creative pursuits by which such gains can occur.

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reprocessing — a psychotherapy treatment designed to alleviate the distress associated with traumatic memories — helped him the most.

Then in 2020, Michael Lopez, a photographer friend from Maryland, visited Oldham at his new house in Burnsville. The two went fly-fishing in one of Oldham’s favorite secluded spots. While Lopez was casting away, Oldham picked up his friend’s camera from the riverbank and started taking photos. Posted online, the images soon caught the attention of the Explore Burnsville tourism group, which asked to use the shots and relit Oldham’s interest.

“Signs come in many forms, so right after that, I dropped a bunch of money and bought some very, very good equipment,” Oldham says. “Now I’m back into it.”

Like Oldham, Kevin Rumley wasn’t able to practice his art much while on active duty. Nevertheless, the northern Virginia native carried a pair of drumsticks with him through his Marine Corps training and combat tours to sustain a connection with his love of percussion.

But the only time he performed was at a talent show when he did an improvised solo on his canteen, Kevlar vest and hat — to raucous applause.

“I was honored to be a Marine, but I felt like a part of me had been taken away by not being able to play music,” he says.

Rumley started on drums in fifth grade and was a member of numerous bands throughout middle and high school, taking on rock, punk and other genres. Upon graduating high school in 2003, he enlisted in the Marines and in 2004 was injured by an improvised explosive device while serving on the Iraq-Syria border. He then underwent 32 surgeries over the course of 18 months at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Maryland and was told he would never walk again.

In 2005, however, Rumley proved the diagnosis wrong, regaining mobility. But due to chronic physical pain, he developed an opioid and heroin addiction. Sober since 2010, Rumley’s currently the program director for the Buncombe

SIBLING STRENGTH: A decade after committing to make an album together, Kevin Rumley, left, and his brother, Matt, achieved their goal in April. Photo courtesy of the artists County Veterans Treatment Court, a rigorous two-year program for veterans facing felony charges. He also resumed drumming as part of his physical therapy, slowly regaining strength in his hands and calf muscles — and more.

“Music was always the expressive outlet. It was a part of me that I was able to communicate,” Rumley says. “So much about combat trauma is that it’s this experience you can’t put words to, so I found music to be the best form of communication, be it my soul pain, my psychic pain — whatever it was.”

In addition to bonding with friends though music, Rumley notes that his return to the drum kit marked the first time he felt connected to his mother, who’d passed away when he was young.

Through coming to terms with that loss, he became even closer with his brother, Matt Rumley, a fellow musician who was a constant positive presence for Kevin while he was struggling with addiction.

Once Kevin found recovery, he and his brother committed to making an album together. In April, the siblings released We Learn to Forget It under the name Her Marigold.

“It’s really the experience of losing our mother and almost dying in combat, and then the kind of catharsis of healing,” Rumley says. “That entire journey — that’s what the album is, is our experience going through these traumas together.”

OUT OF THE SHADOWS While Rumley and Oldham have found strength in reconnecting with long-held creative passions, many of the participants in the Brothers and Sisters Like These program have little experience with writing, especially as a means of therapy.

Launched in 2014 by Dr. Bruce Kelly, a primary care physician at the Charles George VA, and then-N.C. poet laureate Joseph Bathanti, the program sought to help veterans with unaddressed PTSD. Over the course of eight sessions in a room in the VA’s basement, Vietnam vets were given a series of writing prompts, starting with topics addressing where they came from, before easing into their experiences in the war and of returning home. Among these initial students was Ron Toler, who’s remained active as the program has grown into a nonprofit and expanded to include vets from Operation Desert Storm, the Iraq War and the Afghanistan War. “Most of the veterans — especially Vietnam, because of attitudes of the time when they came home — never shared their stories, so their families and the people they worked with didn’t know [what they’d been through],” says Toler, who also serves as a board member.

That form of self-preservation has gradually lifted as the Brothers and Sisters Like These program has held readings at Asheville

Community Theatre, Flat Rock Playhouse and multiple branches of Buncombe County Public Libraries.

A podcast series was also launched in April 2020 to help sustain momentum during the COVID-19 pandemic when meeting in person became impractical. Each episode typically features two speakers and, in Toler’s words, helps veterans — himself included — “come out of the shadows.”

Further encouraging their transformation is a community that Toler notes is more interested and willing to hear these stories.

“At the first ACT reading [in 2017], we had a few hundred attendees, mostly family members, and there was a collective gasp from the crowd [after each reading],” Toler says. “One vet was a medic, and he was extremely affected by what he saw for the rest of his life, and his family was totally unaware. He stood up and read his stories, and they were sobbing. That’s the kind of response we’ve gotten.”

Among those that the program has helped is Rumley, who’s presented some of his writing at Brothers and Sisters Like These events. In contemplating his music,

Oldham’s photography and the power of the written word, Rumley is fascinated by the different modalities of healing and forms of expression available to veterans.

“I’ve always struggled with words to articulate these heavier, bigger emotions. Drumming’s always been this kind of universal language, and it’s so communicative,” Rumley says. “But with Brothers and Sisters Like These, I’ve seen the tremendous healing that they’ve brought to the veteran community.” X

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ARTS & C U L T U R E

FOOD

Service to farm to table

Local food initiatives assist area veterans

BY EDWIN ARNAUDIN earnaudin@mountainx.com When Megan Landreth first stepped foot on the Veterans Healing Farm in January, she knew she was where she was meant to be.

A U.S. Air Force service member from 2002-11, Landreth went from active duty to caregiver for her husband, Shane Landreth, a fellow member of the armed service branch, until his death in 2019. As such, she says she’s had to “fight her own demons.” But since being hired as VHF’s farm administrator at the start of the year, she’s able to help fellow veterans heal in an environment that encourages wellness.

“There’s something about this place that is just calming,” Landreth says. “You come out here, and there’s peace and you can hear the water.”

That sense of welcoming has been at the heart of the VHF since founders Nicole and John Mahshie launched the nonprofit in 2013 on their family’s land in rural Hendersonville. A fellow Air Force veteran, John excelled as a ground equipment mechanic and rose to the rank of senior airman E-4 as a member of the Honor Guard. But after leaving the military, the lack of structure left him feeling isolated.

One of the most beneficial avenues that helped Mahshie heal was working in the ground, which prompted him to research agritherapy and how it could be used to aid other veterans as well as allies. By being outside and working with the land alongside people who understand what veterans have been through, the VHF community experiences

ABUZZ: Beekeeping is one of the many offerings at the Veterans Healing Farm in Hendersonville. Photo courtesy of VHF the therapeutic benefits of eating organic vegetables, absorbing vitamin D from being in the sun, partaking in physical exercise and being enveloped by the beauty of nature.

“We consider our community the veterans, families, caregivers and volunteers that have a passion for veterans,” Landreth says. “You

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might not have any affiliation with the military or a veteran, but if a passion for you is to help veterans, you can come out here and help us to work on the farm just like everybody else.”

Veterans are often referred to the farm through the VHF’s connections at the Charles George VA Medical

Center, particularly through mental health professionals. Dr. Laura Tugman, chief of Mental Health Services for the WNC VA Health Care System, sees such complementary services as extremely valuable in helping area veterans and augmenting her system’s variety of offerings.

“Mental health services and suicide prevention are a clinical priority for VA, and at the Asheville VA we strive to create a recovery community where veterans are supported in rebuilding a life of hope, meaning and purpose,” Tugman says.

But the VHF is also working to connect with as many area organizations that serve veterans, recently hosting a resource fair in May for nearly 30 such groups. Furthermore, the VHF community makes a point of not asking veterans anything about their service and takes all interested parties at their word.

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ARTS & CU L T U R E “Our biggest thing is that we want people to feel comfortable, and if we’re asking you, ‘Where’d you serve? When did you serve? What did you do?,’ that becomes very standoffish,” Landreth says. “A lot of people don’t want to talk about that — and that’s why we’re here. You can talk about if you want, or you don’t have to. If you are more content to come out here and not speak to a single soul, we’re good with that. This farm is for everybody.”

Volunteer opportunities are available on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday mornings. The VHF also puts out calls for help on harvest days, including a recent one whenthe year’s lettuce, kale, broccoli and collards crops were picked.

The vegetables were then taken to Asheville Buncombe Community Christian Ministry, Safelight and other area shelters.

In an effort to produce further into the year, the VHF planted over 2,000 sweet potatoes in its flag garden.

Landreth also reports that the farm’s greenhouse tomatoes are getting tall and that the property’s various berry bushes are producing well.

But the farm’s offerings extend far beyond agritherapy. Classes on beekeeping, art, self-defense, fermentation, canning and more are slated for this summer, with more on the way in fall. The goal is to provide the VHF community with an array of outlets for healing and/or skill development, and the staff plans to resume threeto four-day overnight workshops that have been put on pause during the COVID-19 pandemic.

While Landreth feels that anyone who gets involved with the farm ends up having a success story, she says the standout example is Mahshie himself. In late 2021, he and Nicole transitioned out of their leadership roles with the farm to travel and spend more time with their children, paving the way for Alan Yeck to step in as executive director in November. For those who’ve seen all the hard work that John put into the VHF, its benefits for him are especially evident.

“Even as the founder, he kind of burned the candle at both ends with running this and trying to deal with his own mental health. And now he’s out here, and all he does is the farming aspect of it,” Landreth says. “He smiles and he’s happy. Just watching him be able to relax finally — that’s the whole reason why we have this.”

For more information, visit avl.mx/bpo.

VET CHEFS In addition to using produce donated by the Veterans Healing Farm, MANNA FoodBank and other organizations to help feed the homeless, Asheville Buncombe Community Christian Ministry has steadily ramped up its services for veterans since 1985.

The formation of A Vet’s Place in 2002 was followed by a partnership with the Charles George VA in 2003 to intentionally start transitional housing for veterans with employment and training services that led to living wage jobs and permanent homes. During this time, ABCCM provided three meals a day, including bag lunches for individuals who were working. But a significant shift occurred on the food service front in 2008 when A Vet’s Place moved into the Veterans Restoration Quarters at 1329 Tunnel Road, and cooking courses became a possibility.

“Since we had to install a commercial kitchen, we asked A-B Tech to help design a commercial/teaching kitchen that could serve 1,000 meals a day,” says Scott Rogers, ABCCM executive director. “When it opened in May 2008, this new kitchen provided the first opportunity to offer culinary training classes to our veterans.”

Courses began that fall under the tutelage of chef and A-B Tech instructor Eric Cox, who developed a culinary basic skills class and an advanced culinary skills class that taught men and women skills to be employed in high-end kitchens and be prepared as sous-chefs.

Cox offered three semesters a year in culinary training from 2008-19.

Classes ranged from eight-12 students, composed of both the veterans on ABCCM campuses and the general public.

“ABCCM has a person-centered approach, which means that the veterans were choosing this career rather than just being recruited,” Rogers says. “Unfortunately, COVID suspended these classes due to the nature of their close working environment in March 2020 and have not reopened at this time.”

Rogers adds that ABCCM is in the middle of its strategic planning for 2023 and that the decision on plans for the classes next year will not be determined until sometime between September and November.

But he hopes that the organization can resume training residents in the culinary arts and once more

contribute to the vibrant culinary community.

Each culinary class was required to develop a menu with four or five courses, with each student being trained in the serving and presentation of those courses. The veterans prepared the first gourmet meal for ABCCM staff, and Rogers recalls he and his colleagues being “so amazed at the five-star quality, that it raised the question of who [else] we could share their transformative success with.”

One student suggested that they thank ABCCM volunteers and donors through these meals, and thus began a series of monthly meals — later known as Tables of Faith — that gave them real-world experience and helped raise thousands of dollars to build Transformation Village, which provides transitional housing for homeless women, mothers with children and veterans.

With such exemplary results, it’s no wonder that, prior to the pandemic disruption, placement rates for program graduates in area kitchens were consistently 100%. Rogers adds that the retention rate after one year averaged nine out of 10, with the occasional person intentionally switching to another career.

“In the first five years, graduates could be found working at prestigious places like the Bistro on the Biltmore Estate, the Asheville Country Club and Grove Park Inn, to name a few,” Rogers says. “Some have gone on to be managers of restaurants. Some went on to further their degree at A-B Tech. Two came back and helped train.”

With the opening of Transformation Village in March 2021, Cox and A-B Tech helped ABCCM design another commercial teaching kitchen. While ABCCM has accepted female veterans since 2002 at its Steadfast House shelter, that tradition has grown at its newest facility, which now also has the capability to offer culinary training classes.

The more options like these, the better, says Tugman, who highly values support and collaboration with community organizations to provide the highest quality of care for veterans.

“Every veteran’s path to recovery is different,” she says. “Our community partners provide more opportunities for veterans to find a pathway to recovery that is meaningful to the individual veteran.”

For more information, visit avl.mx/bpp. X

American Legion Francy Burdett Post 70 has something for local veterans & active duty personnel...

These folks who have served or are currently serving our country are invited to Post 70 Coffee Shop for

free coffee, refreshments, donuts, & other snacks.

You deserve a break on us!

Together then, together again.

103 Reddick Rd, Asheville.

Not too far from the Charles George VA Medical Center.

Monday - Friday 8am - 3pm 828-299-8463 Come enjoy the camaraderie of other vets & learn about the American Legion and the programs it supports.

The American Legion is the largest veteran organization in the world with nearly 2.5 million members.

6pm Dinner & 7pm Business Meeting & Program the last Monday of every month.

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POETRY

in WEST ASHEVILLE Fri., 7/15 • 4-9pm

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Erotic Novel Reading!

Original Art! ALL WELCOME!

WNC poet Anne Maren-Hogan discusses the influence of community on her writing

BY THOMAS CALDER tcalder@mountainx.com When it comes to writing her award-winning poetry, Yancey County resident Anne Maren-Hogan points to postcards as her initiation into the form.

“I count my ardent postcard correspondence, by candlelight in the early mornings of raising children, as the seed of my writing poetry,” she says.

In 2002, Maren-Hogan, who grew up on a farm in Iowa, relocated with her family to Celo Community, a communal settlement near the South Toe River dedicated to simplicity, sustainability and consensus decision-making. Since that time, the poet has published three collections.

Her latest, Vernacular, won the 2021 Lena Shull Book Award from the N.C. Poetry Society.

Xpress recently caught up with the poet, who, along with discussing the places and people who inspire her work, shared her poem, “Alone on the Mountain,” from her latest book.

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Xpress: Thanks for sharing your poem with us. Can you tell us how you came to write it?

Maren-Hogan: Orene Boyd, the elderly woman I portray in my poem, befriended me when I first arrived in these Appalachian Mountains to begin life in a log cabin. A path was soon well-worn between our homes.

In the years afterwards, she became for me a symbol of quiet strength, which I was bent on cultivating. As she aged and died, I slowly grasped the fact that a generation of mountain traditions were dying with her. It has became harder and harder to find the old mountain folks who have the knowledge in their fingertips and minds — and the generosity to share the secrets of living a rugged rural life, fine-tuned with the seasons. ...

I think of my poem as a memorial to her and how she became a link for me to the unique traditions of the mountain culture.

That’s fantastic. Many of the other poems in Vernacular seem inspired by individuals in your life as well.

Have personal relationships always driven your work?

I love how writing a poem allows me to pause and hold an experience in the palm of my hand, with time to explore the relationships and circumstances of a situation at length.

I begin with a pencil and a timed free-write that helps me move from the conscious details to unconscious overtones. The poem slowly develops from this stage to the computer.

I focus on abiding images and people, those that keep coming back, teasing me to look at them. I’m grateful for deadlines that force me to carry a poem around for some days until it coalesces. So many of my poems highlight folks who have touched me profoundly. I search for a spiritual nuance that I long to convey to others.

Along with people, there is a strong sense of place in this poem and many others in your collection.

How have the places you’ve lived, particularly WNC, influenced your poetry over the years?

As modern agribusiness began to dominate the landscape of my

Alone on the Mountain

by Anne Maren-Hogan She lets down her hair, inviting me deep into her loveliness, to knead her knotted muscles, there at the last outpost of Keeney’s Mountain.

Keeper of the fire, her cookstove factory turns out quart jars of green beans, as fast as she feeds the stovewood. Ash, her preferred fuel, hickory too hot. Slow and steady her rhythm, fatback her secret ingredient.

Keeping company with her radio, a voice that tells her how much coal to haul up those stairs before the storm.

Her housemate, a stray Siamese, cries just like a baby. In her rocker on the vine covered porch, her mind creates scenes, says small children play by the woodshed, just out of reach.

Hunters come in the fall, chat a little, bent on the quarry ahead. She the first to see the bear or bobcat as they slide back down the mountain towards town. Her worry, she confesses, “lectric storms, they’ll run in on you.” Snow doesn’t scare her a bit, a white blanket to lay her loneliness on.

An old feather tick wards off the cold.

Her spirit leaps to join the season, day by day, warming her toes by the coal stove no matter what the day offers. Sweet potato slips, set in sand, incubate in an old wash tub snug by the fire. Seeds packed in tins, presents to herself. Her kitchen special, blackberry cobbler, from patch to bubbly black edges, fresh from the cookstove.

Her apron limp, beside the chair, after baking she asks, “Can you rub my back?” Kneading her coal-carrying muscles beneath the thin cotton dress, I stroke the ridges and folds of a mountain.

PEN IN HAND: “I love how writing a poem allows me to pause and hold an experience in the palm of my hand, with time to explore the relationships and circumstances of a situation at length,” says poet Anne Maren-Hogan. Photo

by Sam Hogan Midwest home, I longed for the slower, more earth-centered ways of my childhood. Traveling to the mountains, I encountered an unhurried attitude toward life. The nature of life here necessitated moving slower, whether it was driving winding mountain roads or walking wooded trails. This leisurely pace becomes my muse, offering spacious time in fields and woods, listening as the vireo sings and pines murmur. My writing hinges on my reflections congealing in this atmosphere.

The open sky dome of my Midwest childhood has remained an inspirational necessity as I’ve made my home here where open meadows lead to views of the Black Mountains. Living in close kinship with this beautiful, feral place in the South Toe River Valley and all its inhabitants — human, plant and animal — is critical to my writing process. Sharing life in a land-based intentional community helps me keep in mind I do not create in isolation but bring my gift of writing and collaborate with all my neighbors.

Could you tell us more about the Celo Community and how you came to it?

ASHEVILLE G E T T H E A P P !

I first heard of the Celo Community through friends in West Virginia, where we had built a homestead.

Twenty years ago we moved to the Celo Community in WNC for our son to attend the Arthur Morgan School — an experiential middle school embedded in this community. Quickly we realized the neighborly support and the Friends Meeting — a Quaker worship group — were nurturing us in remarkable ways we needed as a family. The Meeting House serves as a community church for all, whether they are attenders or not. Among the community’s membership there are many artists, including glassblowing, writers, sculptors, painters, musicians and potters. This atmosphere of creativity proved fertile for my writing to flourish.

Celo Community is a land trust founded in 1937 by Arthur Morgan with its own rules of taxation and land tenure run by the ideal of consensus.

The members have personal holdings, but the land itself, including the land under those homes, is owned by the community. Workdays, once a month, help us stay acquainted and feel the joy of working together on projects such as clearing beneath power lines and keeping up the miles of trails in

the community. Presently, about 40 families care for the 1,200 acres.

Shifting back to poetry, is there a recent collection by a fellow local poet that speaks to you?

A friend, neighbor and teacher of mine, Pat Riviere-Seel, is well known in both Asheville and Celo. She has a captivating new collection from Main Street Rag [Publishing Co.], When There Were Horses. Pat is one of those gifted authors who not only is a writer who teaches but a teacher who writes.

She begins her collection with an urgency that gives us the courage that comes with youth and, if we take her advice, continues, as she “clutched a fistful of mane, urging faster and faster.” Like the gorgeous misty cover of Pat’s book, she leads us into the unknown with these words “abandon the dock, row your way into the nightmare, further out is the only way back.”

Lastly, I’m asking all the poets I speak with for this series to list the four poets on their individual Mount Rushmore.

Natasha Trethewey, Ada Limón, Ted Kooser and Mary Oliver. X

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FOOD ROUNDUP

What’s new in food We Give a Share hires new director

Shortly after relocating to Asheville in January, Madi Holtzman began volunteering at Southside Kitchen.

With a master’s degree in food studies from New York University and experience in food justice dating back to her undergraduate days at Vanderbilt University where she interned for the Nashville Food Project, Hotlzman wanted to put her background to use in her new community.

Along with volunteering, Holtzman did consulting work for We Give a Share, an initiative that launched in 2020 with the goal of connecting local farmers, who were experiencing a surplus of produce due to COVID-19 lockdowns, with communities needing healthy meals. From the start, WGAS, now a 501(c)(3), partnered with the Southside Kitchen in the Arthur R. Edington Education & Career Center, preparing hundreds of meals a week for residents of Asheville public housing before adding lunches for students at Asheville PEAK Academy and Verner Center for Early Learning.

Holtzman’s involvement with Southside Kitchen and WGAS serendipitously began around the same time the latter organization was seeking a director. Says WGAS founding board member Elizabeth Sims: “We went through a fairly rigorous consultation with a human resources director who helped us better define the job. Once we put the position out there into the universe, the divine sent us Madi Holtzman.”

In mid-May, Holtzman assumed the role. Her appointment came at a time of transition for Southside Kitchen. Last fall, WGAS took on

the lease of the kitchen from the Asheville Housing Authority, becoming employers of Southside Kitchen chefs Kikkoman Shaw and Tarell Burton. With the meal-providing partnership between Southside Kitchen and the Housing authority now over, and school meals on pause for the summer, Holtzman is visualizing the path ahead for what WGAS and Southside can accomplish and how both entities can grow.

“It has always been part of the conversation that the Southside’s production team would break off and start their own for-profit social venture, probably a cooperative model,” she says.

Holtzman points to her time with the Nashville Food Project as inspiration for what she believes Southside Kitchen, supported

by We Give a Share, can become.

NFP began in 2007 as the Nashville branch of the Austin, Texas-based nonprofit Mobile Loaves & Fishes, delivering meals to homeless camps.

Its founder, the late Tallu Schuyler Quinn, grew the initiative, adding a production garden and second truck.

In 2011, NFP was incorporated as an independent nonprofit, reorganizing the meals model and adding a food recovery program. Today, the organization is a multifaceted operation with its own headquarters, commercial kitchen and community farm.

“NFP is kind of a road map of how multidimensional the impact of a food-based organization can be in a community,” Holtzman says. “It gives me hope and the patience to remember that while it may not feel it is evolving as fast as we’d like, if we

HARVESTING HOPE: Madi Holtzman, new director of We Give a Share, gathers vegetables from the Southside Community Farm for WGAS’ Southside Kitchen. Photo by Brett Wyatt keep taking each step with intention and trust, we’ll get there.”

John Fleer, also a founding board member of WGAS and the chef and owner of Rhubarb and The Rhu, is confident about Holtzman’s plan.

“Madi brings a very strong vision to We Give a Share and the kitchen,” he says. “She has experience in and exposure to what they can become.”

Currently, Southside Kitchen is testing recipes and refining production procedures with produce from WGAS and, in turn, providing meals to Food Connection. It will resume meal production for Asheville PEAK Academy and Verner Center for Early Learning in August.

The kitchen is also focused on growing revenue-generating operations by providing locally sourced meal and meeting catering for aligned organizations such as nonprofit boards and health care groups.

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Holtzman invites inquiries at madi@ wegiveashare.org For more information on We Give a Share, visit avl.mx/9bg.

Flight plan Asheville Independent Restaurant Association recently named Laura McCall as its new executive director.

McCall takes the reins from interim director Kim Murray, who succeeded longtime AIR leader Jane Anderson. “AIR is a well-established organization representing a passionate body of persons in the community at all levels of the industry,” McCall says. “I’m grateful for AIR’s dynamic board and for Kim’s and Jane’s past leadership.”

McCall’s immediate plan is to dive into the community, get to know available resources and to grow AIR’s four pillars — advocacy, education, workforce and connection. She notes that the nonprofit’s Affordable Housing Taskforce is meeting regularly and will soon release its mission and goals.

Long term, she wants AIR to be involved in all aspects of the decision-making that affects the food and beverage industry and its workforce for independent restaurants in Buncombe County. “I want AIR to continue to be a strong voice on behalf of our members. There is strength in numbers.”

For more information on AIR, visit avl.mx/asi.

On the move In her first year as manager of the River Arts District Farmers Market, Lyric Antio is overseeing a big move.

Beginning Wednesday, July 6, the year-round weekly outdoor market will move from its site in a gritty dirt lot behind Pleb Urban Winery on Lyman Street to the lush green riverside expanse at Smoky Park Supper Club. “[Our current location] hasn’t been the best fit for us and who we are,” she explains. “It’s not aesthetically pleasing, there’s no shade or green, there are huge, deep puddles when it rains and a lot of dust and dirt when it doesn’t. It’s been a challenge for vendors and shoppers.”

RAD vendor and Mother Ocean Seafood Market owner Sam Kosik facilitated a hookup with the owners of Smoky Park, and Antio says it was an instant match. “Smoky Park has a long and solid reputation of supporting local food and farmers,” Antio notes. “They have been so welcoming and excited.”

On June 22, RAD vendors did a walkthrough of the new site, which will encompass the front lot of the restaurant and the Boat House pavilion, and Antio reports they were practically giddy. Though Smoky Park is closed on Wednesdays, its Airstream bar will be open to serve alcoholic and nonalcoholic beverages during the market.

“Not only will vendors have room to spread out, but shoppers can grab a drink, buy some food, sit at a picnic table or bring a blanket to spread on the lawn, and just enjoy the river.

And the shade,” Antio says.

RAD Farmers Market is every Wednesday 3-6 p.m., 350 Riverside Drive. For more information, visit avl.mx/9ki.

Hash it out Corner Kitchen’s popular Sunday brunch, previously on hiatus due to pandemic-provoked staffing issues, is back and seven times better. Now available every day from 9 a.m.-2 p.m., Corner Kitchen’s brunch reprises the house-made, old-school corned beef hash with poached eggs (an homage to chef/co-founder Joe Scully’s dad), as well as housesmoked salmon, boozy French toast and the Biltmore basic. New to the menu are bacon cheddar tater tots and chef Brian Crow’s chicken and waffles with sausage gravy and chipotle honey. Lunch-bunch options are not left out — soups, salads, sandwiches and burgers remain.

Dinner is served seven nights a week beginning at 5 p.m.

Corner Kitchen is at 2 Boston Way. For more information, visit avl.mx/bpl.

Take a spin Citizen Vinyl’s Sessions Café has added Saturday brunch, expanding the weekday breakfast menu to include brunchy specials as well as breakfast cocktails. The Bossa Brunch will feature a vegetable strata; Bluegrass & Biscuits spins downhome biscuits and gravy. Meanwhile, a hit parade of pastries, bowls, savory bread pudding, chia cup, quiche and coffee drinks remain.

Sessions Café is at 14 O.Henry Ave. For more information, visit avl.mx/9hy.

Fired up Blaze Pizza has designated its meat eater and red vine pizzas as hero pies, and through Wednesday, July 20, 10% of the proceeds from hero pie sales will go to supporting police officers, firefighters and EMTs in North Carolina communities through the Support to Heroes Charlotte Foundation. The nonprofit provides first responders and their families with financial assistance in response to their need due to injury or illness. Owners of the two local Blaze Pizza stores have signed on to the effort.

Blaze Pizza is at 15 Peaks Center Lane and 1840 Hendersonville Road.

See avl.mx/bpm for more information.

Sam’s club Chef Sam Etheridge and Metro Wines presents First Ambrozia PopUp dinner, Wednesday, July 13, 6:30 p.m. The dinner is set to run simultaneous with Bastille Day in France, July 14.

Attendees will be greeted with a glass of bubbles, then seated for a three-course dinner, with wines imported, paired and poured by Thomas Meunier of AuthentiqueVin. Ambrozia, which Etheridge owned and operated for six years in North Asheville, closed in 2019.

“This is a day that celebrates new beginnings and unity and, for all of us, it marks the first of many PopUp collaborations with MetroWines and Ambrozia!”

Metro Wines is at 169 Charlotte St. Tickets are $69 each and can be reserved by calling 828-575-9525 or purchased at avl.mx/bpn.

— Kay West X

Ready for sunny days at the Supper Club SMOKYPARK.COM 350 RIVERSIDE DR. ASHEVILLE, NC 28801 828-350-0315

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ROUNDUP

Around Town Exhibit highlights Jewish experience in North Carolina

While Jewish people have called North Carolina home for more than 400 years, the Jewish experience in the state has been atypical in many ways.

“Jews, as urban people, have gravitated toward cities,” says Leonard Rogoff, president and lead historian for Jewish Heritage North Carolina.

“Thus, most states have a Jewish metropolitan capital like New York, Atlanta, Baltimore or Philadelphia.

North Carolina has never had such an urban concentration until very recently.”

Such topics will be the focus of Down Home: Jewish Life in North Carolina, a traveling museum exhibit that will be on display at Asheville’s Congregation Beth Israel Tuesdays and Thursdays in July, 9 a.m.-4 p.m. An opening reception with Rogoff and local historian Sharon Fahrer will be Wednesday, July 6, at 7:30 p.m.

The free, interactive exhibition, curated by Rogoff, debuted at the N.C. Museum of History in Raleigh in 2011 and has traveled to Wilmington, Greensboro and Charlotte. It consists of 10 panels detailing how Jews have shaped North Carolina

life and how Southern customs and manners have in turn transformed Jewish culture. The exhibit is based on Rogoff’s 2010 book by the same name.

Also on display will be artifacts and photocopies from the Asheville Jewish archives housed at the Ramsey Library at UNC Asheville.

“The exhibit illustrates faith, family, commerce, community and learning across the state,” says Rochelle Reich, executive director of Congregation Beth Israel.

After Congregation Beth Israel hosted a successful Hanukkah menorah exhibit in December, Fahrer recommended it host the Down Home exhibit. Fahrer is a board member of Jewish Heritage North Carolina.

“We hope that visitors will learn and appreciate the nuances of what Jewish life was like — and is still — in the South,” Reich says. “So many of us didn’t grow up here, so understanding our roots in North Carolina soil is very different than what many of us think we know.”

Congregation Beth Israel is at 229 Murdock Ave. For more information, go to avl.mx/5zn.

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JEWISH HERITAGE: Asheville’s Congregation Beth Israel will host Down Home: Jewish Life in North Carolina on Tuesdays and Thursdays in July. Local historian Sharon Fahrer, left, will speak at an opening reception on Wednesday, July 6. Rochelle Reich, right, is executive director of Congregation Beth Israel. Photo by Jen Castillo

Circus is in town When The Snozzberries drummer Sean Mason died unexpectedly in 2020, other members of the Asheville psychedelic band weren’t sure they should continue.

“But one of the things Sean always told us was that the music was bigger than any of us individually,” says group frontman Ethan Heller. “And so we knew that he would’ve wanted

us to keep playing. It’s kind of our way of keeping his spirit alive.”

With new drummer Jerard Sloan in place, The Snozzberries will bring back their Psychedelic Circus concert to Asheville Music Hall on Saturday, July 16. Fellow Asheville band Dr. Bacon will open the show.

Doors open at 9 p.m.

It will be the first Psychedelic Circus since the start of the pandemic. The show will feature projections, painters, performers and interactive exhibits. “You’re going

Mountain Xpress presents

The insider’s guide What to do and where to find it!

We provide tips on the well-known attractions, hidden gems and quirky oddities that make Asheville so beloved.

Available in boxes everywhere

to be surrounded by psychedelic artwork, and you’re just going to be immersed in this creative space,” Heller says.

Asheville Music Hall is at 31 Patton Ave. For more information, go to avl.mx/bpx.

Success story At 92, Charles Stallings knows he might not have much time left.

That’s why he decided to put his life story into a book.

“I wanted my readers to see how I grew up and maybe learn from the story,” says Stallings. “I wanted people to know how times were back then, and maybe compare them to how they are today.”

Stallings’ memoir, A Path From Tobacco Road, was published recently by Catch the Spirit of Appalachia.

Although he earned his doctorate from the University of Georgia and was principal of Western Carolina University’s Camp Laboratory School for 14 years, Stallings’ beginnings weren’t rooted in academia.

He grew up working in tobacco fields in Eastern North Carolina, attended WCU as a baseball player, found love and became a father. He also served four years with the Air Force in Korea.

Through this book, he hopes to help children with similar upbringings; the publication also fulfills a promise he made to his nephew about documenting his life story.

“In order to leave a record of a life, you must tell the story about the life, so everyone will know that person lived, loved and certainly existed,” Stallings says.

The book is available at City Lights Bookstore. 3 E. Jackson St. Sylva, avl.mx/bqf.

Flower power Art in Bloom, Black Mountain Center for the Arts’ annual flower-filled fundraiser, is back with a series of events through July.

Things officially get underway Thursday, July 7, 5-7 p.m., with a preview party featuring food, drinks, live music and a chance to meet the designers and be the first to see the designs.

The centerpiece of the event will be 20 floral designs created by local master florists who use works of art selected from regional galleries as their inspiration. The displays are only available for viewing FridaySaturday, July 8-9, 10 a.m.-4 p.m.

Also those days, the BMCA is offering self-guided tours of six Black

Mountain home gardens that will feature plein-air artists creating in each garden.

From Thursday, July 14-Friday, July 29, art created during the garden tours will be on display at the BMCA, Monday-Friday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.

The Black Mountain Center for the Arts is at 225 W. State St. Ticket prices range from $5-$65. For more information, go to avl.mx/bpv.

Application deadline The Community Foundation of Henderson County and the Arts Council of Henderson County are accepting applications for the Betty Taylor Memorial Award for Emerging Artists in visual arts and crafts through Friday, July 15.

Applicants may be either emerging or established artists and residing or working in Henderson, Polk or Transylvania counties for a minimum of one year prior to April.

Taylor was an artist who spent most of her career in Michigan.

After her death in 1990, her husband, Ross Taylor, established the Betty Taylor Memorial Fund with Community Foundation of Henderson County to promote and support emerging artists.

To apply for the grant, visit avl.mx/bpw.

— Justin McGuire X

With additional reporting by Flora Konz

MOVIE REVIEWS Local reviewers’ critiques of new films include: OFFICIAL COMPETITION: Penélope Cruz and Antonio Banderas are marvelous in this Spanish comedy that skewers pompous artistry in the movie business. Grade: A-minus — James Rosario MR. MALCOLM’S LIST: For a Jane Austen knockoff, director Emma Holly Jones’ period romcom about an extremely picky bachelor is suprisingly witty and delightful. Grade: B-plus — Edwin Arnaudin

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

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CLUBLAND

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The featured icon indicates which venues or artists require proof of vaccination for upcoming shows. Due to the evolving nature of the matter, the list may not be comprehensive.

Before heading out, please check with all venues for complete information on any vaccine or negative COVID-19 requirements.

For questions about free listings, call 828-251-1333, opt. 4.

WEDNESDAY, JULY 6

ONE WORLD BREWING Pingo Wednesdays, 7pm

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

RENDEZVOUS Albi (musique Francaise), 6pm

185 KING STREET Trivia and Karaoke, 7pm

SWEETEN CREEK BREWING Witty Wednesday Trivia, 6:30pm

ASHEVILLE BEAUTY ACADEMY • Queer Comedy Party: Shawna Jarrett, 7pm • AQUANET Goth Party w/Ash Black, 9pm ASHEVILLE MUSIC HALL Disclaimer Stand-Up Lounge Comedy Open Mic, 8pm ASHEVILLE PIZZA & BREWING CO. Trivia! Trivia! Night, 6:30pm BOLD ROCK MILLS RIVER Trivia Night, 6pm HI-WIRE BREWING RAD BEER GARDEN Game Night, 6pm HIGHLAND BREWING COMPANY Well-Crafted Wednesdays w/Matt Smith, 6pm

THE DUGOUT Karaoke Party, 8pm THE POE HOUSE Team Trivia w/Wes Ganey, 7pm TOWN PUMP Tall Boys (acoustic), 6:30pm TWIN LEAF BREWERY Open Mic, 6pm

THURSDAY, JULY 7 185 KING STREET Congdon & Co. (covers), 7pm ASHEVILLE BEAUTY ACADEMY Kiki Thursdays Drag and Dancing, 8pm ASHEVILLE GUITAR BAR Jazz Thursday, 8pm

JACK OF THE WOOD PUB Old Time Jam, 5pm

BLUE GHOST BREWING COMPANY All Music Trivia, 6:30pm

LAZY HIKER BREWING SYLVA Trivia Night, 6:30pm

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

OKLAWAHA BREWING CO. Mountain Music Jam, 6pm ONE STOP AT ASHEVILLE MUSIC HALL Wild Wednesday Funk-n-Rock w/Free Anesthesia, 10pm

CASCADE LOUNGE Weekly Trivia Night, 6:30pm CONTINUUM ART Singer Songwriter Open Mic, 6pm CORK & KEG Swing Dance & Lesson w/Swing Asheville, 7pm

CROW & QUILL Black Sea Beat Society (Baltic, Klezmer, Turkish), 8pm FLEETWOOD'S Dendrons, Dish, Bad Ties & Dust Fuss (garage, post-punk, indie), 8pm GIGI'S UNDERGROUND Mr Jimmy (blues), 7pm HIGHLAND DOWNTOWN TAPROOM Blase (acoustic), 6pm ISIS MUSIC HALL & KITCHEN 743 • Asheville Sessions ft Brian Hillgoss (Americana, country), 7pm • Will Overman & The Brothers Gillespie (rock, pop, Americana), 8:30pm JACK OF THE WOOD PUB Bluegrass Jam w/Drew Matulich & Friends, 7pm OKLAWAHA BREWING CO. Josh Dunkin (acoustic), 7pm ONE STOP AT ASHEVILLE MUSIC HALL Gunslinging Parrots (Phish tribute), 9pm ONE WORLD BREWING The Matt 'n' Dani Duo (acoustic), 8pm ONE WORLD BREWING WEST Lua Flora & Chilltonic (folk, rock, funk, reggae), 7pm RENDEVOUS Gin Mill Pickers (Americana, Piedmont blues, ragtime), 6:30pm RIVERSIDE RHAPSODY BEER CO. Saylor Brothers (bluegrass/jamgrass), 6pm ROOM NINE Thirsty Thursday w/DJ Moto, 9pm SALVAGE STATION The Larry Keel Experience w/Into The Fog (bluegrass, jamgrass), 8pm

SISTER ACT: Indie folk duo Rising Appalachia will perform an outdoor show at Salvage Station Saturday, July 9, at 6:30 p.m. Made up of sisters Chloe Smith, left, and Leah Smith, the band has released eight albums, including 2021’s The Lost Mystique of Being in the Know. Photo courtesy of Rising Appalachia SIERRA NEVADA BREWING CO. Joe Hertler & The Rainbow Seekers (Motown, funk, folk), 5:30pm SILVERADOS Moonshine Bandits (country rap), 7pm SOVEREIGN KAVA Free Weekly Table Tennis Tournament, 7pm STATIC AGE RECORDS Soft Talk, Jaguardini, Kangarot, Sleep Number & Neon Twin (synth, dark techo, darkpop, DBM, noise), 9pm THE BARRELHOUSE Trivia w/Po' Folk, 8pm THE GETAWAY RIVER BAR • Rum Punchlines Comedy Open Mic, 6pm • Karaoke w/Terraoke, 9pm

THE GREY EAGLE • Fwuit (indie, r&b, soul, 5pm • Damien Jurado w/ Chris Pureka (singer-songwriter), 8pm THE ODDITORIUM Calling All Enemies: Hip Hop, 7pm THE ROOT BAR Perry Wing Combo (rock), 6pm UPCOUNTRY BREWING COMPANY BREVARD Songwriters in the Round: Scott Stetson, Tin Roof Echo & Stephen Evans, 6pm

FRIDAY, JULY 8 AMERICAN VINYL CO. Blue Cactus & Darby Wilcox (country), 7pm ASHEVILLE BEAUTY ACADEMY • Early Dance Party w/ Local DJs, 7pm • Venus (dark house dance party), 10pm ASHEVILLE GUITAR BAR Mr Jimmy's Big City Blues, 7:30pm ASHEVILLE MUSIC HALL Mindex w/Entangled Mind, Mindtality & Medisin b2b McDubbin (edm), 8pm BIG PILLOW BREWING Doss Church & Friends (singer-songwriter), 6pm BOLD ROCK ASHEVILLE 90's Night, 6pm BREWSKIES Karaoke, 10pm BURNTSHIRT VINEYARDS Hope Griffin (acoustic, folk), 3pm

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CITIZEN VINYL Michael Flynn (singer-songwriter), 5pm CROW & QUILL The Krektones (surf rock, exotica), 8:30pm DIRTY JACK'S Ashley Heath w/Patrick Dodd (Americana, country, blues), 7:30pm DRY FALLS BREWING CO. Howl in the Valley (Americana), 7pm FBO AT HOMINY CREEK Random Animals (indie soul, 6pm GUIDON BREWING Craggy Blues (rock, blues), 6:30pm HIGHLAND BREWING COMPANY Jive Revival (rock), 7pm HIGHLAND DOWNTOWN TAPROOM Asheville 8 String Collective (jazz, funk, blues), 7pm ISIS MUSIC HALL & KITCHEN 743 • Ariella (jazz, blues, soul), 7pm • Imij of Soul (Jimi Hendrix tribute), 8:30pm MAD CO. BREW HOUSE J.C. Tokes Family Band (retro Americana), 6:30pm OKLAWAHA BREWING CO. Tameka Diaz Band (pop, rock, soul), 8pm ONE STOP AT ASHEVILLE MUSIC HALL Free Dead Friday w/ Generous Electric & FDF Band, 6pm

ONE WORLD BREWING 5j Barrow (folk rock), 8pm ONE WORLD BREWING WEST • Peggy Ratusz & Daddy Long Legs Blues Band, 6pm • High Flying Criminals (funk, soul, groove), 9pm

SATURDAY, JULY 9 185 KING STREET High Flying Criminals (funk, soul), 8pm 305 LOUNGE & EATERY Old Men of the Woods (folk, pop), 1pm

PULP In Plain Sight (dance party, house music), 8pm

ASHEVILLE BEAUTY ACADEMY Beauty Parlor Comedy: Kenice Mobley, 7pm

SALVAGE STATION Red Clay Revival w/ Brushfire Stankgrass, Josh Phillips & High Blue Heron, 7pm

ASHEVILLE GUITAR BAR Reverend Finster (R.E.M. tribute) & Robert Thomas Band (70s jazz fusion), 5pm

STATIC AGE RECORDS Brat, Cave Grave, Spite House (hardcore, metal), 9pm THE DUGOUT Fine Line (rock), 8pm THE GETAWAY RIVER BAR Getaway Comedy: Joe Pettis, 8pm THE GREY EAGLE • Derek Frye & Scott Stetson (Appalachian, blues, folk), 6pm • Cole Chaney & Justin Wells (country), 9pm THE IMPERIAL LIFE Friday Night Dance Party w/DJ Lil Meow Meow, 9pm THE ODDITORIUM BOLD Burlesque presents: Anniversary, 8pm

BATTERY PARK BOOK EXCHANGE Dinah's Daydream (Gypsy jazz), 5:30pm BOLD ROCK ASHEVILLE Buffalo Kings (country, soul, rock), 7pm BOOJUM BREWING COMPANY SOHCAHTOA (prog rock, jazz, funk), 9pm BREWSKIES Pool Tournament Saturdays, 7pm BURNTSHIRT VINEYARDS Wayne Taylor and George Giddens (bluegrass), 2pm CITIZEN VINYL Saturday Spins, 1pm

THE ROOT BAR Fancy and the Gentlemen (classic country), 9pm

CROW & QUILL Big Dawg Slingshots (Western swing), 8:30pm

TOWN PUMP Music Train (Grateful Dead, Southern rock), 9pm

DRY FALLS BREWING CO. License to Chill (rock), 7pm

FBO AT HOMINY CREEK Asheville Waits Band (Tom Waits tribute), 7pm GUIDON BREWING Daniel Sage (rock), 6:30pm HIGHLAND BREWING CO. The Early Worm (funk, rock), 6pm HIGHLAND BREWING DOWNTOWN TAPROOM Brady Turner (pop, soul, R&B), 7pm HIGHLAND DOWNTOWN TAPROOM Asheville 8 String Collective (jazz, funk, blues), 7pm ISIS MUSIC HALL & KITCHEN 743 • Don Merckle (dark modern folk), 7pm • Deep River: 30th Anniversary Concert (Americana, country)k 8:30pm JACK OF THE WOOD PUB Nobody's Darling String Band, 4pm MILLS RIVER BREWING Gin Mill Pickers (Americana, Piedmont blues, ragtime), 2pm

OKLAWAHA BREWING CO. Billingsley (rock), 8pm

THE BURGER BAR Best Worst Karaoke w/ KJ Thunder*unt, 9pm

ONE WORLD BREWING Max Sweeney (blues, gospel, NOLA jazz), 8pm

THE DFR ROOM The Julie McConnell Quartet (hot jazz), 6pm

ONE WORLD BREWING WEST • Rockstead (rock-reggae), 5pm • Muskrat Flats (jam band), 9pm

THE GETAWAY RIVER BAR In Plain Sight Dance Party (house music), 7pm

THE FOUNDRY HOTEL Jazz Soul Trio, 7:30pm

ORCHARD AT ALTAPASS Jessi & The River Cats (country, rock, pop), 3pm

THE GREY EAGLE • 5j Barrow (folk rock), 6pm • Goodnight, Texas w/ Jarrod Dickenson (folk rock), 9pm

RABBIT RABBIT Beach House (dream pop, indie pop), 7pm

THE ORANGE PEEL Mustache the Band ('90s country), 8pm

RIVERSIDE RHAPSODY BEER CO. The Skuns (funk, rock, blues), 6pm

THE POE HOUSE The Gathering Dark (Americana, folk), 7pm

SALVAGE STATION Rising Appalachia (indie folk), 6:30pm STATIC AGE RECORDS Naturalblkinvention, Salamander Sam, Gos, Fix Collections (dance, electronic), 9pm SUNNY POINT CAFÉ Albi (fingerstyle guitar), 6pm SWEETEN CREEK BREWING Mr Jimmy Power Trio (blues), 5pm

WHITE HORSE BLACK MOUNTAIN The Po' Ramblin Boys w/Special Guests (bluegrass), 7pm

SUNDAY, JULY 10 185 KING STREET Open Electric Jam with the King Street House Band ft. Howie Johnson, 5pm AMERICAN VINYL CO. Savannah Conley (singer-songwriter), 7pm

ARCHETYPE BREWING Sunday Sessions, 3pm ASHEVILLE BEAUTY ACADEMY SOL Dance Party w/Zati (soul house), 9pm ASHEVILLE GUITAR BAR Mark's House Jam and Beggar's Banquet, 3pm

• Maybe April w/Bonner Black (Americana, country soul, indie pop), 7:30pm JACK OF THE WOOD PUB • Sunday Bluegrass Brunch w/Supper Break, 12pm • Irish Jam, 3:30pm

BREVARD MUSIC CENTER Robert Earl Keen (Americana), 7:30pm

OKLAWAHA BREWING CO. Bearded Bards (blues, classic rock, Americana), 3pm

BURNTSHIRT VINEYARDS Eric Congdon (acoustic), 2pm

ORCHARD AT ALTAPASS Speas & Griffin (traditional), 3pm

CROW & QUILL The Roaring Lions (parlour jazz), 8pm

PISGAH BREWING COMPANY Phuncle Sam (Grateful Dead tribute), 6:30pm

FBO AT HOMINY CREEK Jeb Rogers Band (funk, soul, bluegrass), 4pm HIGHLAND BREWING COMPANY Pleasure Chest (blues, soul, rock), 2pm HIGHLAND BREWING DOWNTOWN TAPROOM Mr Jimmy Duo Blues & Brews w/Kim Butler, 1pm ISIS MUSIC HALL & KITCHEN 743 • Danni Nichols (Americana), 6pm

POINT LOOKOUT VINEYARDS Chairmen of the Board (beach music), 6pm SALVAGE STATION Alien Music Club Presents: Leonard Cohen: The Deep Cuts w/ Headen-Law Collective, 7pm SOVEREIGN KAVA Weekly Chess Tournament, 2pm THE GREY EAGLE Abby The Spoon Lady and Dusty Whytis (folk), 8pm

THE ODDITORIUM Jr. Joy, Nina Garbus, The Styrofoam Turtles, Seismic Sutra (alt/indie), 7pm WICKED WEED WEST The Saylor Brothers (jamgrass fusion), 5pm ZILLICOAH BEER CO Sunday Bluegrass Jam Series, 4:30pm PLĒB URBAN WINERY Robert's Totally Rad Trivia, 4pm

Clubland Listings Advertise

MONDAY, JULY 11 5 WALNUT WINE BAR Freshen Up Comedy Open Mic, 7pm

Here

advertise@mountainx.com 828-251-1333 x1

BREWSKIES Open Jam w/Tall Paul, 7:30pm DSSOLVR Robert's Totally Rad Trivia, 7pm HAYWOOD COUNTRY CLUB Taylor Martin's Open Mic, 6:30pm JACK OF THE WOOD PUB Quizzo! Pub Trivia w/ Jason Mencer, 7:30pm LITTLE JUMBO Jay Sanders Trio (jazz), 7pm

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C LU BL A N D OKLAWAHA BREWING CO. It Takes All Kinds Open Mic Night, 7pm ONE WORLD BREWING Open Mic hosted by Tony Willingham, 8pm ONE WORLD BREWING WEST Mashup Mondays (funk, soul, jazz), 8pm WHITE HORSE BLACK MOUNTAIN Carolina Celtic: Brian Conway, 7:30pm

TUESDAY, JULY 12 185 KING STREET T Book Country Band w/ Mike Ashworth, Tommy Maher, Mary Lucey & Tim Gardner, 6:30pm 5 WALNUT WINE BAR The John Henrys (jazz, swing), 8pm ASHEVILLE BEAUTY ACADEMY Downtown Karaoke w/ Ganymede, 9pm

ASHEVILLE MUSIC HALL Tuesday Night Funk Jam, 10:30pm

FLEETWOOD'S Nordista Freeze, FloHy & Carver Commadore (indie/alt), 8pm

BOTTLE RIOT DJ Lil Meow Meow's Listening Room, 7pm

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

CBD CAFE Open Mic Night, 7pm CASCADE LOUNGE Tuesday Bluegrass Jam, 6pm FBO AT HOMINY CREEK Open Mic and Jam, 6pm

HIGHLAND DOWNTOWN TAPROOM Not Rocket Science Trivia, 6:30pm MAD CO. BREW HOUSE Team Trivia, 6pm

ONE STOP AT ASHEVILLE MUSIC HALL Early Tuesday Jam (funk), 9pm ONE WORLD BREWING WEST Grateful Family Band Tuesdays (Dead tribute), 6pm SWEETEN CREEK BREWING All Arts Open Mike w/ Mike Waters, 6pm THE BURGER BAR C U Next Tuesday! Late Night Trivia, 9pm

WEDNESDAY, JULY 13 12 BONES BREWERY Robert's Totally Rad Trivia, 7pm 185 KING STREET Trivia Night, 7pm ASHEVILLE BEAUTY ACADEMY • Beauty Parlor Comedy: Charlie Vergos, 7pm • Aquanet Goth Party w/Ash Black, 9pm

ASHEVILLE PIZZA & BREWING CO. Trivia! Trivia! Night, 6:30pm BOLD ROCK MILLS RIVER Trivia Night, 6pm HI-WIRE BREWING RAD BEER GARDEN Game Night, 6pm HIGHLAND BREWING COMPANY Well-Crafted Wednesdays w/Matt Smith, 6pm JACK OF THE WOOD PUB Old Time Jam, 5pm LAZY HIKER BREWING SYLVA Trivia Night, 6:30pm OKLAWAHA BREWING CO. Mountain Music Jam, 6pm ONE STOP AT ASHEVILLE MUSIC HALL Wild Wednesday Funk-n-Rock w/Free Anesthesia, 10pm ONE WORLD BREWING Pingo Wednesdays, 7pm RENDEZVOUS Albi (musique Francaise), 6pm SALVAGE STATION TreeHouse! w/Chalwa (reggae), 8pm SWEETEN CREEK BREWING Witty Wednesday Trivia, 6:30pm THE GETAWAY RIVER BAR Sausage Party cookout, 7pm THE GREY EAGLE • Suzie Brown & Scot Sax (folk pop), 5pm • Vision Video w/Blood Lemon & Cold Choir (alt/indie), 8pm THE POE HOUSE Team Trivia w/Wes Ganey, 7pm TWIN LEAF BREWERY Open Mic, 6pm WHITE HORSE BLACK MOUNTAIN Irish Music Circle, 7pm

THURSDAY, JULY 14 185 KING STREET Blue Cactus (Americana), 7pm ASHEVILLE BEAUTY ACADEMY Kiki Thursdays Drag and Dancing, 8pm ASHEVILLE GUITAR BAR Jazz Thursday, 7:30pm MGB at the AGB (covers, singer-songwriter), 8pm BLUE GHOST BREWING COMPANY Random AF Trivia, 6:30pm BOLD ROCK HARD CIDER Robert's Totally Rad Trivia, 7pm CASCADE LOUNGE Weekly Trivia Night, 6:30pm

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CROW & QUILL Black Sea Beat Society (Baltic, Klezmer, Turkish), 8pm GIGI'S UNDERGROUND Mr Jimmy (blues), 7pm HIGHLAND BREWING DOWNTOWN TAPROOM 5j Barrow (folk rock), 6pm HIGHLAND DOWNTOWN TAPROOM 5j Barrow (folk rock), 6pm ISIS MUSIC HALL & KITCHEN 743 • Asheville Sessions ft Melissa Hyman (jazz, blues), 7pm • Big Al and the Heavyweights, 8:30pm JACK OF THE WOOD PUB Bluegrass Jam w/Drew Matulich & Friends, 7pm MAD CO. BREW HOUSE Karaoke Night, 6pm OKLAWAHA BREWING CO. Paul Edelman (Americana), 7pm ONE STOP AT ASHEVILLE MUSIC HALL Gunslinging Parrots (Phish tribute), 9pm ONE WORLD BREWING WEST Keepers (rock), 8pm ONLINE Bonnie Jones, 7pm PISGAH BREWING COMPANY High Blue Heron (honky tonk, blues, folk), 6:30pm RENDEZVOUS Gin Mill Pickers (Americana, Piedmont blues, ragtime), 6:30pm ROOM NINE Thirsty Thursday w/DJ Moto, 9pm SOVEREIGN KAVA Free Weekly Table Tennis Tournament, 7pm THE GETAWAY RIVER BAR • Rum Punchlines Comedy Open Mic, 6pm • Karaoke w/Terraoke, 9pm THE GREY EAGLE Sara Jean Kelley & Sonia Leigh (folk), 5pm Rhett Miller w/Christopher Paul Stelling (alt country), 8pm THE ODDITORIUM Desolation w/DJ Exo (industrial, EBM, darkwave), 9pm

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FREEWILL ASTROLOGY ARIES (March 21-April 19): My readers and I have collaborated to provide insights and inspirations about the topic “How to Be an Aries.” Below is an amalgam of my thoughts and theirs — advice that will especially apply to your life in the coming days. 1. If it’s easy, it’s boring. —Beth Prouty. 2. If it isn’t challenging, do something else. —Jennifer Blackmon Guevara. 3. Be confident of your ability to gather the energy to get unstuck, to instigate, to rouse — for others as well as yourself. 4. You are a great initiator of ideas and you are also willing to let go of them in their pure and perfect forms so as to help them come to fruition. 5.

When people don’t get things done fast enough for you, be ready and able to DO IT YOURSELF. TAURUS (April 20-May 20): I know three people who have told me “I don’t like needing anyone for anything.” They fancy themselves to be rugged individualists with impeccable self-sufficiency. They imagine they can live without the help or support of other humans. I don’t argue with them; it’s impossible to dissuade anyone with such a high level of delusion. The fact is, we are all needy beings who depend on a vast array of benefactors. Who built our houses, grew our food, sewed our clothes, built the roads and create the art and entertainment we love? I bring this up, Taurus, because now is an excellent time for you to celebrate your own neediness. Be wildly grateful for all the things you need and all the people who provide them. Regard your vigorous interdependence as a strength, not a weakness.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Bounce up and down when you walk. Express 11 different kinds of laughs. Be impossible to pin down or figure out. Relish the openings that your restlessness spawns. Keep changing the way you change.

Be easily swayed and sway others easily. Let the words flowing out of your mouth reveal to you what you think. Live a dangerous life in your daydreams but not in real life. Don’t be everyone’s messenger, but be the messenger for as many people as is fun for you. If you have turned out to be the kind of Gemini who is both saintly and satanic, remember that God made you that way — so let God worry about it.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): As a child, Cancerian author June Jordan said, “I used to laugh all the time. I used to laugh so much and so hard in church, in school, at the kitchen table, on the subway! I used to laugh so much my nose would run and my eyes would tear and I just couldn’t stop.” That’s an ideal I invite you to aspire to in the coming days. You probably can’t match Jordan’s plenitude, but do your best. Why? The astrological omens suggest three reasons: 1. The world will seem funnier to you than it has in a long time. 2. Laughing freely and easily is the most healing action you can take right now. 3. It’s in the interests of everyone you know to have routines interrupted and disrupted by amusement, delight, and hilarity.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): In accordance with the astrological omens, here’s your assignment for the next three weeks: Love yourself more and more each day. Unleash your imagination to come up with new reasons to adore and revere your unique genius. Have fun doing it. Laugh about how easy and how hard it is to love yourself so well. Make it into a game that brings you an endless stream of amusement. P.S.: Yes, you really are a genius — by which I mean you are an intriguing blend of talents and specialties that is unprecedented in the history of the human race.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Novelist Lydia Peelle writes, “The trouble was, I knew exactly what I wasn’t. I just didn’t know who I was.” We all go through similar phases, in which we are highly aware of what we don’t want, don’t like and don’t seek to become. They are like negative grace periods that provide us with valuable knowledge. But it’s crucial for us to also enjoy periods of intensive self-revelation about what we do want, what we do like and what we do

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seek to become. In my astrological estimation, you Virgos are finished learning who you’re not, at least for now. You’re ready to begin an era of finding out much, much more about who you are.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): You need the following experiences at least once every other day during the next 15 days: a rapturous burst of unexpected grace; a gentle eruption of your strong willpower; an encounter with inspiration that propels you to make some practical improvement in your life; a brave adjustment in your understanding of how the world works; a sacrifice of an O.K. thing that gives you more time and energy to cultivate a really good thing.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): This might sound like an unusual assignment, but I swear it’s based on two unimpeachable sources: research by scientists and my many years of analyzing astrological data. Here’s my recommendation, Scorpio: In the coming weeks, spend extra time watching and listening to wild birds. Place yourself in locations where many birds fly and perch. Read stories about birds and talk about birds. Use your imagination to conjure up fantasies in which you soar alongside birds.

Now read this story about how birds are linked to happiness levels: tinyurl.com/BirdBliss SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): In accordance with current astrological omens, I have four related suggestions for you. 1. Begin three new projects that are seemingly beyond your capacity and impossible to achieve with your current levels of intelligence, skill, and experience — and then, in the coming months, accomplish them anyway. 2. Embrace optimism for both its beauty and its tactical advantages.

3. Keep uppermost in mind that you are a teacher who loves to teach and you are a student who loves to learn. 4. Be amazingly wise, be surprisingly brave, be expansively visionary — and always forgive yourself for not remembering where you left your house keys.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): If you ever wanted to use the Urdu language to advance your agendas for love and romance, here’s a list of endearments you could use: 1 .jaan-e-man (heart’s beloved); 2. humraaz (secret-sharer; confidante); 3. pritam (beloved); 4. sona (golden one); 5. bulbul (nightingale); 6. yaar (friend/lover); 7. natkhat (mischievous one).

Even if you’re not inclined to experiment with Urdu terms, I urge you to try innovations in the way you use language with your beloved allies.

It’s a favorable time to be more imaginative in how you communicate your affections.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Author John Berger described birch trees as “pliant” and “slender.” He said that “if they promise a kind of permanence, it has nothing to do with solidity or longevity — as with an oak or a linden — but only with the fact that they seed and spread quickly. They are ephemeral and recurring — like a conversation between earth and sky.” I propose we regard the birch tree as your personal power symbol in the coming months. When you are in closest alignment with cosmic rhythms, you will express its spirit.

You will be adaptable, flexible, resourceful and highly communicative. You will serve as an intermediary, a broker and a go-between.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): People who don’t know much about astrology sometimes say that Pisceans are wishy-washy. That’s a lie. The truth is, Pisceans are not habitually lukewarm about chaotic jumbles of possibilities. They are routinely in love with the world and its interwoven mysteries.

On a regular basis, they feel tender fervor and poignant awe. They see and feel how all life’s apparent fragments knit together into a luminous bundle of amazement. I bring these thoughts to your attention because the coming weeks will be an excellent time to relish these superpowers of yours — and express them to the max.

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5 What a lizard’s tail can do

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26 See 23-Across 27 Railroad stops: Abbr.

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37 Can type 39 Instinctive behavior for a mother-to-be 41 Arafat’s grp.

42 Writer Gay 44 Tiny salamanders 45 Reason to sleep with a night light 47 Spell-offs 48 Org. in “The Bourne Identity” 49 Positions 51 Full of noxious vapors 55 Pop singer Simpson 59 “Catch-22” character 60 Prized possessions for numismatists 63 Prefix with century or sentence 64 Just one little bite

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PUZZLE BY CHASE DITTRICH

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Organizations in Buncombe and Henderson counties can apply for free by July 10 to participate in the exciting team fundraising campaign.

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your community based fundraising project, is taking applications now!

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DOWN 1 Digital clock toggle 2 When doubled, seafood burger choice 3 Some causes of stubbornness 4 Switch maker 5 Sonata finale, often 6 Only living creature in the genus Dromaius 7 Little treasure 8 Broccoli ___ 9 City near Provo Bay 10 Vintage military planes 11 Rescue tool at a crash site 12 Lines that lift 13 Main section of text 18 Some reef dwellers 22 Mathematician Lovelace 24 Rice dish infused with saffron

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28 The Hanged Man and The Chariot, for two

47 “Yours truly” alternative

30 Scandinavianinspired shoe brand 31 Language spoken in the Canadian Prairies

50 Assails, with “into” 51 Place to see a Matisse in N.Y.C. 52 Biometric scan identifier, maybe 53 Smidge

32 Farmer’s market sights

54 Rap’s Wu-Tang ___

33 Droops

56 Gray wolf

34 Guitar clamp 35 Shoulder’s place

57 Children’s author Blyton

38 Early vehicle that could take up to 30 minutes to start

58 Italian for “it” 61 Psilocybin alternative, for short

40 One might be graphic

62 W.W. II zone: Abbr.

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS NY TIMES PUZZLE

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