Mountain Xpress 08.02.23

ACROSS THE CITY

Asheville’s wide array of musical talent and venues will be on display Thursday, Aug. 3-Sunday, Aug. 6, during the inaugural AVLFest. Over 200 bands — the large majority of them local — will perform on 20-plus stages across the city. COVER

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City must act now on water system

[Regarding “Water Under the Bridge: City Tries to Learn From Holiday Water Outages,” July 19, Xpress:]

I’m very concerned about the lackadaisical responses by the city. I appreciate the effort put into this report, but it seems it’s too little, too late.

I live at Givens Gerber Park, and we didn’t have water for almost a week. Some of our elderly residents with serious health challenges require water for their respiratory aids and other medical needs. This was very serious for them. They are not able to simply flex to go to the store to buy water even if it was available nearby. It wasn’t.

Gerber Park management did what they could, but of course this never should have happened to begin with.

I called on City Council member Kim Roney, who was the most responsive in this emergency. She had water delivered the same day it was requested by the Fire Department.

It’s time for the city to consider the consequences of their decisions, check their priorities and do what’s right now.

— Carole Schaefer Asheville

Water system fixes need highest priority

[ Regarding “Water Under the Bridge: City Tries to Learn From Holiday Water Outages,” July 19, Xpress:]

It’s unbelievable that the remedies recommended and accepted by the city are not given the highest priority! What’s it gonna take? This is what taxes are for, people!

— Libi Libner

Enka-Candler

Can city be forced to pay for water crisis?

[Regarding “Water Under the Bridge: City Tries to Learn From Holiday Water Outages,” July 19, Xpress:]

Can the city be sued? It is ridiculous that we all had to suffer because of their incompetence.

— Connie French Asheville

Perfect Asheville Monday

I just have to share my perfect Asheville Monday: eating a Harmony Bowl at Laughing Seed on Wall Street and reading Jerry Sternberg‘s column in Mountain Xpress

I want to encourage all my Asheville friends who have been disparaging downtown to please come back. It’s beautiful and clean, and

you need to be part of all this. We are truly blessed.

— Susan Roderick Asheville

The right to be free, happy and transgender

In recent months, I have had the opportunity to see two television programs about the trans community. One of them, Casa Susanna, was a PBS documentary about a cross-dressers’ (that’s the term the participants used, as the word “transgender” had yet to be coined) retreat in the Catskills of New York in the late ’50s-early ’60s, and the other was ABC’s The Freedom to Exist about being transgender in America today in the face of the many anti-trans laws being passed, including some right here in North Carolina.

I have heard my friends talk about the old Southern Comfort

Conference, an annual trans gathering in Atlanta, and I have had an opportunity to spend time at a regular get-together with younger trans women here in Asheville.

The common thread in all of it was how happy we are when we are free to simply live our lives and not be constantly under attack from right-wing politicians and so-called Christians. It becomes clear to me that these attacks happen because the attackers don’t want us to be happy.

Is it just because we’re different, or is it because they are not happy and, as such, don’t want to see anyone else’s happiness? They will not be satisfied unless they erase us. Well, it ain’t gonna happen. We’ve been around forever and aren’t going anywhere.

— Penelope Boulder Stephens Asheville

The consequences of forced pregnancy

It is time to correct our terminology. You are not pro-life if you do not believe in abortion; you are simply anti-choice. If you are truly pro-life, then the quality of each human life would be more valuable. There is a lack of concern about the mother’s health and the long-term care for the infant’s physical well-being into adulthood.

With all the new abortion bans and time limits placed on getting an abortion throughout the United States, there will be tremendous consequences. The lack of affordable day care will guarantee almost every woman will have no option but to quit her job to stay home and care for the infant. The financial burden on each state will substantially grow for social services, Medicaid, financial support and SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program). Every child born to a woman who is

CARTOON BY RANDY MOLTON

forced to be pregnant will be filing with the county for all these support services.

Forced pregnancy is the term for women who no longer have the choice to terminate an unplanned pregnancy. Who are being forced to continue a pregnancy of an unviable fetus or forced to continue with a pregnancy that risks the mother’s life or one that is simply unplanned for. Without any question, these are forced pregnancies.

So, besides the growing future state financial responsibilities, Western North Carolina already has a crisis. In The Charlotte Ledger, Michelle Crouch addresses the current dilemma in Mecklenburg County. Dozens of children have no choice but to sleep on air mattresses on the floor of Mecklenburg County offices. Not a home, but a county building floor because of a dire shortage of foster care homes and the lack of crisis beds available through the Department of Social Services.

So, what is going to happen now that women are being forced to have children that they are not physically, financially, emotionally and spiritually prepared to raise? What is going to happen to these children, what floors will be available to them as the number of unexpected and unplanned for children grow?

CARTOON BY BRENT BROWN

The burden on the county and to the state will not stop as these children turn 18 and outgrow the system that has been caring for them. Think about the cost that will be incurred by juvenile detention centers and the legal system. What about as adults as they continue to be incarcerated?

The lawmakers are not thinking ahead. Our own representatives such as Chuck Edwards, Ted Budd and Tricia Cotham are not thinking about their entire constituency. They are only pandering to a small population of Americans who believe abortion is wrong. In that case, those individuals should certainly not have an abortion, but they should not deny that right to others. Sixty-one percent of Americans believe that abortion should be and stay legal.

Planned Parenthood is a godsend to so many women. They offer cancer screening, birth control, reproductive education, HIV testing, STD testing, vasectomies and reproductive health care at affordable prices. If folks want to do away with abortion, let’s start with affordable birth control. In my lengthy life, birth control pills went from $15 per month to $50-plus. A woman or a family should not have to weigh the cost of birth control or paying their rent.

It is imperative that we reverse the ongoing attack on women’s reproductive care and abortion. Every

child should be a wanted child, a cared-for and loved child.

— Mena Kates Asheville

Editor’s note: A longer version of this letter will appear at mountainx. com.

No appetite for hot dog eating contest

Given the number of hungry people in Asheville, let alone in North Carolina and the world, I found the article in the July 19 Mountain Xpress that seemed to support the Four Feet to Hell hot dog eating contest sponsored by DSSOLVR brewery and The Chop Shop Butchery abhorrently deplorable [“What’s New in Food: The Village Food Truck Park Opens in Fletcher”]. Such gluttony amid a community and a world suffering from hunger is disgraceful.

Yes, I know that the $5 ticket price paid by those who want to be entertained by the needless and egregiously excessiveness of such an eating contest will go to MANNA FoodBank. I appreciate that. But perhaps we should ask those willing to pay $5 just to be entertained to alternatively consider giving those $5 to feed the hungry simply out of care and kindness for their fellow human beings who endure impoverishment,

not always of their own doing. We are quickly becoming a culture that is entertaining itself to death. When the last bird falls from the sky, when the last beast collapses to the ground, when the last eagle soars alone over the crumbling mountains, when the last green thing withers and dies, when the last clean river dries up, when the last wolf howls unheard beneath the lonely moon and when the last breath of fresh air is taken, only then will humans understand that money, fame and power cannot nourish the soul, the spirit, the body or the mind, nor can it be eaten.

— Donald P. Cameron Candler

What’s in a name?

It’s time we stopped honoring racists

BY PETER ROBBINS

Despite the peacekeeping efforts of good people like myself, a battle continues to rage about what to do with old Confederate monuments in these polarized times, when not everyone considers treason and racism to be worthy of veneration. Though their side has suffered some major defeats in the last few years, many people still believe that these beautiful examples of Lost Cause propaganda should not be torn down but rather “contextualized” so as to make the choice of honoree seem marginally less nauseating to the contemporary viewer.

Here at home, for instance, a recent commentary by retired history professor Milton Ready (“Down by Law: The Monumental Toppling of Zeb Vance”) suggested, in a tone of almost wistful longing, that the now-defunct Vance Monument could have been supplemented with some sort of explanatory marker designed to encourage an “affirming yet critical” understanding of our iconic governor and his morally messy past.

Somewhat more forcefully, I proposed in a follow-up letter to the editor (“Getting Zeb Vance’s Context Just Right”) that the magnificent obelisk should be rebuilt just like new, except with the contextualizing words “Champion of White Supremacy” and “Scourge of African Savages” chiseled into the pedestal underneath the name Zebulon Baird Vance. That way, people would have a better feel for why he was so popular back in the day.

My wife said I should have used stronger language, but I didn’t want to be confrontational. I really just wanted to start a healthy conversation with skeptics who, for whatever reason, might have misgivings about Western North Carolina’s great statesman, orator, rebel soldier and world-class race-baiter.

In the midst of this scholarly exchange, however, an online reader identified only as “MV” posed a

thought-provoking question: If the Vance Monument was so bad, why weren’t people also demanding that the name Asheville be changed?

One hears that a lot. It’s kind of the go-to argument for folks who want to shut down any criticism of The Way Things Have Always Been.

After all, Asheville’s namesake, early North Carolina Gov. Samuel Ashe, did enslave lots of human beings — more than the Vance family, in fact. As did, for that matter, the namesakes of numerous other cities, counties and towns in the area (including Buncombe and my own beloved Madison and Marshall). So, what about them?

The tone of MV’s comment suggested that he/she/they felt it would be unthinkable to rename a whole city merely to remove a slaveholding taint.

But is that really so?

Sure, there may be disagreements over what other name could possibly do justice to the quirky little city that I like to think of as the Muncie, Ind., of the South. In light of the Asheville Watchdog’s recent multipart exposé on the decline of the downtown, I might be tempted to propose something like Squalor City or Lawlesstown.

Then again, maybe not. As my fellow Marshall residents can tell you, people in our big sister upriver can be very provincial, and you never know how they’ll react to suggestions from outsiders.

Practical roadblocks might prove daunting, too. I remember a couple of years ago people were talking about renaming Asheville streets, but the idea died the death of a lizard when business owners complained that it would cost them too much to make the transition.

In theory, though, the concept of changing the names of towns, cities and streets appears to be a perfectly sensible way to remove embarrassing references to prior infamies. To see why, let’s try a little thought experiment.

Imagine there’s a small town called Bondageville, named after its distinguished founder, Samuel Ashe Bondage. One hundred years after the founder’s death, an enterprising historian discovers a diary in which old Bondage boasts about kidnapping, raping and torturing one girl and allowing a second kidnapped girl under his control to be raped and tortured. As the historian turns the pages, he learns that Bondage did this to hundreds of girls.

Would the residents want to change the town’s name? Would any local even stand up at the town meeting in defense of long-gone Bondage?

Now think about what it meant to be a slaveholder from a moral rather than a strictly legalistic perspective.

By definition, the man was a kidnapper because all enslaved people were held against their will. Many slaveholders also routinely ravished enslaved girls who could not possibly have given consent because they possessed no freedom within which choice could be exercised.

Even if he didn’t rape enslaved girls himself, the slaveholder at least had a business incentive to turn a blind eye to rapes committed by others, such as overseers, because the master could then claim any resulting chattel either for sale or forced labor. And the slaveholder was free to torture the enslaved people in his possession (by whipping, say) on mere suspicion of disobedience — or, indeed, for no reason at all.

Do the math, and we have conclusive evidence that every slaveholder

after whom a county, city, town or street is named was at the very least a kidnapper — a mass kidnapper of adults and children, no less — and we have reason to suspect that many were also rapists, human traffickers and torturers. Every slaveholder was also an extortionist who obtained valuable labor by force or threat of force. Add, where applicable, Confederate treason into the mix, and we’re talking about some pretty bad dudes.

Would you say that what’s done is done, it’s time to let bygones be bygones, and it shouldn’t matter what evils our namesakes committed long ago? Then, why did you find the Bondageville hypothetical troubling?

Would you say that we’re used to these familiar names, and change makes us uncomfortable? At one time, people were used to slavery, and some expressed annoyance at the very idea of tampering with tradition.

Would you say that it’s wrong to judge people in the past by today’s more enlightened values? Don’t make me laugh.

Would you say that it costs too much money to change place names, particularly for innocent businesses and residents?

Oops, that last one may have some merit. It’s why the chair of the African American Heritage Commission came out against changing Asheville street names.

But cost is merely a pragmatic, not a principled objection. Many worthy projects are too expensive or inconvenient to fully undertake. That doesn’t make the goal any less worthwhile. As Preacher in the movie Pale Rider asked, how much is it worth to have a clear conscience?

So, I’ll bite the bullet and propose that, to the extent practicable, we really should look into changing some of those odious slaveholder names, if we can accomplish the task in a cost-tolerable fashion. Asheville wasn’t always called Asheville, you know. Marshall wasn’t always Marshall.

It might be hard to rename everything all at once, but according to Wikipedia, dozens of places have managed the feat — and for far more quotidian reasons than the moral imperative we’re talking about here. Maybe the smaller towns can lead the way.

The concept is not unthinkable. What is unthinkable is making excuses for criminals and calling it historical nuance. Which brings us back to those damn Confederate monuments, doesn’t it?

Peter Robbins is a retired lawyer who lives near Marshall.

PETER ROBBINS

“Imagine there’s a small town called Bondageville, named after its distinguished founder, Samuel Ashe Bondage.”

‘Game changer’

BY JUSTIN M c GUIRE

jmcguire@mountainx.com

When Steve Line and his wife were looking for a new house in Henderson County a few years ago, one thing was certain: It had to be within walking distance of the future Ecusta Trail, the 19.4-mile greenway that will connect Brevard and Hendersonville via an abandoned rail line.

“It was very important to us, and so we looked for houses for a long time,” says Line, who has seen firsthand the benefits of living near bike trails in Colorado and Tennessee. “We had another house, and that was a great house, but it wasn’t close to the Ecusta Trail. We wanted a safe place for our 5-year-old son to ride his bike.”

The owners of Trailside Brewing Co., Cognative Brew House and other new businesses similarly saw the advantages of being near the Ecusta, which is expected to draw thousands of bicyclists, walkers and runners from Western North Carolina and beyond.

“Starting any kind of business is hard enough, and knowing that this trail was going to be there really was the icing on the cake for us,” says David Schnitzer, general manager and co-owner of Trailside, which opened in May in Hendersonville’s Lennox Station, a development next to the trail.

The first stretch of the Ecusta Trail has yet to be paved, and the project is several years from being complete, but the economic and social benefits of the “linear park” already are evident, advocates say.

“It’s really going to be a game-changer regionally, not just for Brevard or Hendersonville,” says Brevard Mayor Maureen Copelof. “I think this whole region is going to realize just how important the trail can be. This really

About the Ecusta Trail

The Ecusta Trail is named after the Ecusta paper mill, which operated from 1939 to 2002 in the town of Pisgah Forest and was once the largest employer in Transylvania County

The 19.4-mile trail will start on South Main Street in downtown Hendersonville and run through fields and forests as well as the communities of Laurel Park, Horse Shoe and Etowah in Henderson County and Blantyne, Penrose and Pisgah Forest in Transylvania County.

Ecusta Trail’s economic impact already underway in Western North Carolina

is an economic driver because it connects where people live. It connects businesses, it connects schools, shopping, health care.”

The Ecusta Trail has been planned since 2009 and is now closer to reality than ever. Henderson County officials hope to pave the first 6-mile stretch of the path, which runs from downtown Hendersonville to the Horse Shoe community, by next spring. And the announcement of two recent federal grants totaling about $46 million means design and construction work can get underway on the Transylvania County side.

It will end in Brevard behind the Oskar Blues Brewery on Mountain Industrial Drive.

About 11 miles of the trail will be in Henderson County, with the remainder in Transylvania County.

Many details, including parking, signage and the location of trailheads, bathrooms and trash cans still are being worked on.

In Brevard, it will link up with the Estatoe Trail, which will connect it to Pisgah National Forest.

The city of Hendersonville recently was awarded a $77,250 grant by the N.C. Department of Transportation

Work is scheduled to be completed in 2028.

TRAIL PROXIMITY

Lennox Station is in the heart of Hendersonville’s Lennox Park Historic District, an area that includes five buildings that date back a century or more and housed businesses like the Freeze-Bacon Hosiery Mill and the Wing Paper Box Co. The largest building, now home to Trailside Brewing, was the first Lowe’s in Hendersonville and more recently housed Presto Framing Arts.

to study connecting the trail to the city’s 3.5-mile Oklawaha Greenway.

In the long term, the trail could be linked to existing and proposed trails in Buncombe and Haywood counties and as far south as Landrum, S.C., via the Saluda Grade Trail.

Key players in the development include Conserving Carolina, which holds legal title to the 19-mile rail corridor, Friends of the Ecusta Trail, Henderson County, the cities of Hendersonville and Brevard and the town of Laurel Park. The state and federal governments have provided funding as well. X

Trailside Brewing was the first business to open in the newly developed Lennox Station. Lennox Station, which will house other businesses, was founded by three Hendersonville couples in 2022 to be a gathering spot near the beginning of the Ecusta Trail.

Trailside’s Schnitzer and his partners, who also own breweries in Georgia, were inspired to choose a location near the trail after seeing the success of the Swamp Rabbit Trail in nearby Greenville County, S.C., he explains. The Swamp Rabbit, which opened in 2009, is a 22-mile trail along a former rail line that connects Travelers Rest in the northern part of the county with the city of Greenville.

“Nobody ever wanted to visit Travelers Rest,” Schnitzer says. “But you put in the Swamp Rabbit, and they’ve got a great little community down there now. Everybody already wanted to visit Hendersonville, so when you add the trail on top of it, it just felt like it was going to work out. So far, it has, but once this trail hits, I just know our sales will be even higher.”

Schnitzer and his partners soon will open a business in a second Lennox Station building. It will be a coffee shop in the morning and a bar with a liquor license, music venue and seating area for the brewery in

CHANGES BREWING: Trailside Brewing Co., which opened in Hendersonville’s Lennox Station in May, sits right next to the former rail line that will become the Ecusta Trail. Photo by Callie Horwath

the afternoon and evening. He anticipates the coffee shop opening within a few months, with the bar shortly after that.

Another business, Ecusta Market & Cafe, is scheduled to open in Lennox Station early next year.

About 6 miles to the northwest, Cognative Brew House opened in June on U.S. 64 in the Henderson County community of Horse Shoe. The Ecusta Trail will run behind Horse Shoe Plaza and other buildings on the other side of the busy highway.

Austin and Andrea Bankert started the coffee shop as an extension of Cognative MTB, an online mountain bike apparel company Austin Bankert founded in 2017. The store, which also sells beer, wine and food, has a retail section featuring some of the company’s products.

“We were very strategic knowing that the Ecusta Trail was going to be coming in,” Andrea Bankert says. “I wouldn’t say that was the defining factor in us choosing this location, but it definitely played a part knowing that it would fit really well with our business model and knowing bikers and outdoor enthusiasts are going to be coming off the trail into this community.”

One concern is how people will safely make their way from the trail to the coffee shop and other businesses on the other side of the highway, given the lack of crosswalks or bike access areas, she says. The Bankerts have met with Henderson County officials to express their concerns. “They want the local business owners to be heard and to work in conjunction with the county as this goes in,” she says. “So I find that really encouraging that there really is a partnership mentality.”

SLEEPY NO MORE

Andrea Bankert thinks the trail could transform the Horse Shoe area the way the Swamp Rabbit transformed Travelers Rest. “The whole point of the trail is to connect communities,” she says. “Once people get to the connecting area, they’re going to be frequenting the local businesses. We’re just excited to see new things brought to this area, which has been a little sleepy area of town.”

Mark Tooley, president of the nonprofit Friends of the Ecusta Trail, expects other communities along the trail, including Etowah in Henderson County and Pisgah Forest, Penrose and Blantyre in Transylvania County, to get an economic boost. Campgrounds already are being built in Penrose and Etowah.

“It’ll be exciting to see the amount of private investment that gets made

as the trail develops,” he says. “Go take a picture of downtown Pisgah Forest right now, where the post office is, and come back in five years and see what it looks like.”

Brevard Mayor Copelof says existing businesses in her town will benefit from the trail as well, even if they are not located right next to it. “I think it’s really going to bring a lot more visitors to Transylvania County, to the center of Brevard. People will be staying here overnight in our hotels, in our B&Bs.”

The Transylvania County end of the Ecusta will link up with the city of Brevard’s existing Estatoe Trail, which will connect it to Pisgah National Forest. That could further boost tourism in the area, she says, because the forest is much easier to enter by bike than car in the busy summer months.

The trail also could spur residential growth, as evidenced by Ecusta Crossing, a 56-unit housing development approved by the town of Laurel Park in 2022. And people living near the trail will have better commuting options, Copelof says.

“We already have a lot of people that commute from, say, Etowah to Brevard, and a lot of them right now actually ride their bicycles on U.S. 64, which is very, very dangerous,” she explains. “People that live in some of the smaller communities outside of Brevard and Hendersonville will be able to have an ultimate means of transportation to get to work.”

Line and his wife found a house off Turley Fall Road between Laurel Park and Horse Shoe, just a few blocks from the trail.

“It’ll be great if we want to take a walk with our son after dinner,” he says. “I was a pretty serious cyclist, probably for 30 years. I’m starting to slow down, but I would get on the Ecusta, I go 5 miles toward Brevard, then get off on Grove Bridge Road and then go down Pleasant Grove Road or Talley Road. There’s lots of great roads for cycling if I just get a little bit further away from Hendersonville.”

Christopher Todd , Henderson County’s director of business and community development, thinks people like Line and his family will be the biggest beneficiaries of the Ecusta Trail.

“We can talk about business all day long, and business is a big part of why we’re doing this, don’t get me wrong,” he says. “But we’re also doing this for the residents who can use this trail to go out and do things. I just imagine on a fall day there’s going to be a lot of people out there, and it’s going to be a very active hub for the community.” X

Full steam ahead

6 takeaways from the downtown safety update

BY JESSICA WAKEMAN

jwakeman@mountainx.com

The downtown safety initiative the city of Asheville implemented during May and June is permanent — at least for now.

At a Downtown Commission meeting July 14, Assistant City Manager Rachel Wood said that portions of the 60-day downtown safety and cleanliness pilot have transitioned into ongoing services. She told the attendees that the pilot “received very positive feedback and encouragement to continue.”

The program increased the presence of law enforcement downtown, focused on litter removal, addressed poor lighting and launched a team of firefighters to address the concerns of business owners and the needs of unhoused people downtown.

Wood told the Downtown Commission, which makes recommendations to City Council about downtown development, that city employees are exploring which of the pilot’s many efforts can be implemented for “the long term.” Among those efforts, she identified safety and cleanliness as top priorities and said city staff is working to enhance those efforts. Additionally, she said the

pilot demonstrated the importance of providing resources and guidance to business owners and residents.

Wood briefly recapped observations from the pilot, as well as data gathered during the two months.

Asheville Fire Department Lt. TJ Fortenberry and Deputy Chief of Police Mike Lamb briefly addressed the commission as well.

Xpress gleaned six takeaways from the downtown safety initiative update. The July 14 meeting can be viewed on the city of Asheville YouTube channel at avl.mx/cvm.

1. THE IMPORTANCE OF PROACTIVE LAW ENFORCEMENT AND SUPPORTIVE SERVICES

The downtown community has been increasingly vocal about crime, including assaults and persistent fear. In March, workers from seven downtown businesses shared concerns and frustration over what many referred to as “vagrancy” at a listening session organized by the Asheville Area Chamber of Commerce and the Buncombe County Tourism Development Authority.

During the pilot, the APD made 888 contacts with businesses and shared loss-prevention strategies and steps to reduce crime. APD gave 463 verbal

warnings, issued 56 citations and made 94 arrests. “Our enforcement activity is getting close to where we were pre-pandemic,” Lamb told the commission. “We made some key arrests with some folks that were really causing a lot of issues downtown … and that also sends a message insofar as compliance.”

Before the initiative, community members said there didn’t appear to be consequences for “outrageous behavior,” Lamb said. “So, that was our goal in the initiative, to say, ‘Yes, there are consequences for outrageous behavior.’”

However, City Council member Sage Turner, a commission board member, questioned the number of verbal warnings issued and asked what could prompt further law enforcement action. “Is it ‘everyone gets five warnings?’” Turner asked. “What’s the process there? Will it be indefinitely verbal warnings?”

Lamb responded that it’s up to the officer to decide which action to take. He said just the presence of uniformed police officers encourages compliance. People “understand if they don’t comply — and these are usually trespassing or loitering, some very minor charge — that there’s going to be a consequence with that,” he said.

Lamb also updated the commission on APD’s staffing, saying the department is currently “breaking even on [new hires with] retirements and the handful of resignations.”

Wood said APD would continue to have a proactive presence, with downtown as a priority.

“We heard a lot of community support for continued presence of public safety,” Wood said. “We also need to have additional engagement from the public to ensure we’re able to sustainably interrupt patterns of violence and reduce crime citywide.”

The Asheville Downtown Association, an advocacy group for businesses and residents, surveyed employees and customers in February and June for input on the community’s concerns. In February, the top concern of 199 people surveyed was “reducing homelessness,” and in June the top response of 117 people surveyed was “reducing criminal activity.” In February, 68% of those surveyed reported feeling unsafe downtown during nighttime compared with 62% in June.

Additionally, 45% of respondents in June said they felt safer during the daytime, up from 34% in February. Fewer respondents said they felt “very unsafe at night”: 21% in June compared with 30% in February.

2. THE FIRE DEPARTMENT’S COMMUNITY RESPONDER PROGRAM WILL ‘RAMP UP’

The pilot launched a community responder program with four staffers from AFD. Wood said community responders initiated 361 “proactive” interactions and responded to 85 calls for service. The team also conducted

CONSTANT CONTACT: During the 60-day downtown safety and cleanliness pilot, the Asheville Police Department made 888 contacts with businesses and shared loss-prevention strategies and steps to reduce crime. Pictured, from left, are APD officers Garrett Proffitt and Joseph Savastano. Photo courtesy of APD

115 wellness checks, which included administering first aid and wound care.

When encountering people who may be in crisis or unhoused, the community responders tried to direct them to services. Wood told the Downtown Commission, “They’re assisting where they’re able.”

The community responders work daily from 9 a.m.-9 p.m. The program will continue as a pilot. “We’re looking at how we ramp up our service model to ensure it’s meeting the gaps in community needs,” Wood says.

According to previous Xpress reporting, AFD’s community responder program covers some of the same ground as Buncombe County Emergency Medical Services’ four-person mobile community outreach team, or MCOT.

3. CLEANLINESS IS STILL A PRIORITY

During the pilot, eight volunteer cleanups occurred, and over 4,000 graffiti tags were removed.

The city also will continue to clean up biohazardous waste as well as “hot-spot cleaning,” meaning in areas where litter tends to accumulate.

Asheville City Council approved a contract with Steri-Clean North Carolina at its June 27 meeting for up to $200,000 in biohazard cleanup, in addition to picking up roadside litter. However, the program is funded through money from the American Rescue Plan Act, and plans are unclear after that funding runs out, the Sanitation Division’s report notes.

4. POOR LIGHTING WAS FIXED, AND PARKING GARAGE SAFETY SHOULD STRENGTHEN

The safety initiative addressed a need for increased lighting downtown, which was often mentioned by residents, Wood said. The city’s Traffic Engineering Division focused on street lamps, identifying 54 lighting issues. Of those, 41 were resolved during the pilot, according to the city data shared in the presentation.

“We’re working with Duke [Energy, the power company] as well as other entities to get the remaining issues resolved,” Wood said.

Parking garages will get more security cameras. The city’s Information Technology Services and Transportation departments are installing 11 new and two replacement parking security cameras this year, said city spokesperson Kim Miller. The city also issued a request for proposals for security services for its 14 parking garages to supplement its two guards.

5. INTERDEPARTMENTAL COORDINATION WAS ADDRESSED

The pilot addressed overlapping areas of specialization.

“This effort brought staff who maybe haven’t been in the same room together in the same meeting room where we were able to talk about cross-departmental collaboration,” Wood said. Staff members from different departments who may

need to collaborate were brought together to create “opportunities to have those conversations.”

For example, Wood said parking enforcement officers are now trained to report streetlight outages, potholes and graffiti. “Over the past few years, as we’ve been pretty much working in a virtual environment, those conversations haven’t taken place,” she said.

Wood said the Planning and Urban Design Department’s downtown

manager, Dana Frankel, who served as project manager of the pilot, led meetings and retreats to bring city employees together. Many positions, some with high turnover, have reestablished relationships, she said.

6. A NEW STAFF ROLE WILL ADDRESS CONSTITUENT SERVICES

Asheville residents shared frustrations about interacting with the city, Wood said.

“People want clearer, more effective ways to route their concerns, specifically related to those who are unhoused or experiencing mental distress,” she said. Currently, the city website directs questions about homelessness to special projects coordinator Stephanie Gilliam via the email helpendhomelessness@asheville.gov.

Gilliam was moved into a constituent services role June 1. She’s working on internal protocols to improve responsiveness to resident and business owner requests. Wood said Gilliam is trying to create better internal networks “to ensure that we’re not just responding, saying, ‘Thank you, we’ve received your email,’ but have those good processes in place to ensure that we truly resolve the issues.”

SIDEWALK SUPPORT: An unidentified man in a wheelchair is assisted by Asheville Fire Department Lt. TJ Fortenberry, a member of the community responder team. Photo courtesy of AFD

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Man about town

Asheville food and beverage industry gets new representative on BCTDA board

BY GREG PARLIER

gparlier@mountainx.com

Lucious Wilson says he isn’t beholden to anyone, except maybe his two kids, ages 6 and 9. They are what motivates him to volunteer to serve on numerous boards and commissions around Asheville despite describing himself as “superintroverted.”

“I want to build a community that I feel comfortable putting my kids in. So you have to be part of that,” he says.

Wilson, general manager of Wedge Brewing Co., will join the Buncombe County Tourism Development Authority in September as one of two representatives of businesses not in the hotel or vacation rental industry. (The other is Kathleen Mosher, vice president of communications at The Biltmore Co.) He replaces Andrew Celwyn , co-owner of downtown retail shop Herbiary, who has served on the board for six years.

Wilson is adding the TDA to an already crowded calendar of community meetings. He’s on the board of directors for the Asheville Area Chamber of Commerce, serves on the Asheville Buncombe Regional Sports Commission and is the treasurer of the Asheville Brewers Alliance. Previously, he served on the city of Asheville’s Recreation Board and participated in UNC Asheville’s Leadership Asheville program.

“Lucious personally represents a diverse community we aim to engage locally and welcome as visitors. As residents who live, work and play in our community, each BCTDA board member puts their own personal experiences and pathways into service on behalf of our community and industry,” says Vic Isley, president and CEO of the Explore Asheville Convention and Visitors Bureau, which the TDA board oversees.

Wilson says he is considering pulling back from doing so much community work to avoid overextending himself, but he has valued learning about the inner workings of the city and other entities. Participating on community boards is Wilson’s way to search for answers to problems that many people don’t know how to begin to solve, he says.

“I think many people want things that are reasonable, but not within

the constraints of what is [reality]. And so for me, [I got involved] to understand, what are those constraints? And why are they there? And how does that affect business? And how does that affect my kid? How do the hazards around us affect the world that I live in? I want to be a part of that as opposed to just kind of complaining about them,” he says.

FAMILY FIRST, FOOD AND BEVERAGE SECOND

A native of Queens, N.Y., Wilson moved to Asheville in 2000 to finish his bachelor’s degree in political science at UNCA. While still in school, he worked at Asheville Pizza and Brewing Co., where he stayed for seven years as assistant general manager, eventually helping the business open the Coxe Avenue location in 2006.

He says owner Mike Rangel gave him the freedom to be creative in his growth as a manager in those early days.

“It was one of the rare opportunities in those seven years of my career that I could really, authentically just be me and make mistakes and be successful, and be whatever and learn as a manager and do all those things. And so I’m very thankful for that.”

He moved to Charlotte in 2007 to take care of his mom, who had health issues. He had tried to care for her by driving back and forth between the two cities weekly, but he was wearing himself down.

“It was one of the most gut-wrenching decisions I’ve ever had to make because it wasn’t something that I wanted at all. I had a really great world and life [in Asheville],” he says.

In Charlotte, he worked with a friend he calls family, expanding Stomp, Chomp and Roll food and beverage brands to as many as eight locations by the time he left in 2019 as director of operations.

Wilson still made regular visits to Asheville, where he played ultimate Frisbee. It was there that a romance sparked with his now wife.

While family brought him to Charlotte initially, it was family that brought him back to Asheville in 2019, when his wife, Ally Wilson, found a job here.

“One day my wife came to me and said, ‘I don’t want to be in Charlotte anymore. And I found a job, and we’re moving.’ I said, ‘Oh, that’s interesting,’” Wilson says with a chuckle.

“We thought about where we wanted to raise our kids, and I’m pretty big on family. At the end of the day, if my wife is in a space to move, and my kids are going to have opportunities there, then I have to pick that. But certainly, from a business standpoint, it was disappointing,” he says about leaving his friend’s business in Charlotte.

A DIFFERENT APPROACH

Back in Asheville, Wilson worked as a consultant for a few different food and beverage operations before he decided that Wedge owner Tim Schaller would allow him to do more

of the community work he was interested in.

That interest led him to the TDA, just as it launches the Legacy Investment from Tourism fund,

Why I support

which directs grants to projects that could more directly benefit the community at large.

For the last six years, Celwyn, whom Wilson is replacing, developed a repu-

tation for being the board’s skeptic. He often was the lone dissenting vote on various issues, including voting no in June on the annual budget because he said Explore Asheville staff made too much more than other employees paid with public funds like teachers and city and county staff. In July, Celwyn was the only member to vote against funding McCormick Field. (For more information, see “TDA approves McCormick Field investment project by narrow vote” as seen on page 17.)

Wilson, who admits that he doesn’t like conflict, doesn’t necessarily intend to take the same combative approach.

“I think what he does is very valuable,” Wilson says, speaking of Celwyn. “And I think that that process is very valuable. But I also think that you have to lead from your heart. And you have to lead from who you are. And that’s not necessarily who I am. At the end of the day, I’m superintroverted. But I now have a forum. I understand that. I understand that people listen to me more.”

Wilson says he started to understand the importance of his role after a March meeting in which several business owners addressed city leaders about safety issues downtown.

At that meeting, Wilson tried to distinguish between the issues of homelessness and what he called vagrancy.

He said he acknowledges that as a Black man, he is often the “darkest person in the room” and his words sometimes carry more weight. But he wants his track record to speak for itself, so he focuses on pushing for unity and getting results.

“For a while, I just let things figure themselves out. But now I’m like, ‘What if it doesn’t figure itself out?’ Then you feel more of an obligation to be a part of the conversations,” he says. “Explore Asheville is a resource. It is a resource that has a tremendous amount of money. I think people don’t always understand that resource. But before I figure that out, I need to know the resource.” X

BEER ON BOARD: Lucious Wilson will join the Buncombe County Tourism Development Authority in September as the lone representative of the area’s brewery scene. Photo by Greg Parlier

“I depend on Mountain Xpress every Wednesday for keeping me in the know. Can’t imagine life without it!”

– Susan Roderick

Asheville Council approves $1.9 million grant for microhousing development

Asheville City Council awarded a $1.9 million tax abatement to Aston Flats, a 231-unit microapartment development, at its July 25 meeting. The funding is through the city’s Land Use Incentive Grant. The approval came despite a staff recommendation to delay the project until new LUIG policies were established to address microhousing units.

“Currently, we do not have any guidelines in LUIG policy regarding microhousing,” said Sasha Vrtunski, affordable housing officer, in her presentation to the Council. “[City Council] previously voted to delay the consideration of this request, and staff would recommend another delay so that we are able to develop new policies for microhousing units.”

According to the presentation, the Affordable Housing Advisory Committee had previously expressed multiple concerns with the use of LUIG grants for microhousing, including whether the incentive should be adjusted to account for the smaller unit size, what the demand for smaller units would be among those people seeking affordable housing as well as whether micro-

housing projects need subsidies to be built.

Vrtunski stressed that the recommendation was “not a reflection of the overall quality” of the Aston Street project. The delay, she noted, was meant to offer additional time to revise the policy in “a more holistic way.”

This is not the first time that the project’s developer, David Moritz, has sought a grant for a microhousing development. In 2021, Council approved a roughly $593,000 grant for his 80-unit microhousing development at 217 Hilliard Ave. Each unit in the development was sized at no more than 250 square feet and would share a communal kitchen and living space with up to 17 other units.

The Hilliard project technically adheres to all requirements for the LUIG program. However, as mentioned by Vrtunski, the approved grant was a significantly smaller amount.

“City staff saw benefit in using the 217 Hilliard Ave. project as a pilot program for microhousing units,” Vrtunski said. “To date, that project still hasn’t gotten all of the neces-

sary permits required to even break ground, so we really haven’t seen the impact that this type of housing will have on the community.”

Despite this, several Council members voiced their concern that further delaying a decision on the grant for the Aston Street project, which Moritz initially applied for in September 2022, could lead to the development being canceled altogether. Vice Mayor Sandra Kilgore noted that while there may be risks associated with the project, it would ultimately bring in more affordable housing, which was the purpose of LUIG.

“I think that this development is a good fit for the city and will help to bring more diversity downtown because people could actually live where they work instead of having to commute,” Kilgore said. “Yes, it will serve as a pilot to see if this kind of housing will work, but I think that we may not want to take a chance at losing this development.”

After voting down the motion to delay the consideration of the request, Council member Sage Turner moved to approve the LUIG

application that evening. She noted that while the policies within the LUIG program should be updated, Council should not further delay a housing development that has been in the works for nearly a year.

“I fully agree that we need to look at our LUIG policies, but in the meantime, let’s not stop what is already in the queue,” Turner said. “We put so much effort into addressing our housing crisis … and this project is helping with the issue.”

The motion to use LUIG funding for the Aston Street development was approved in a 5-2 vote, with Council members Sheneika Smith and Antanette Mosley opposed on the grounds that they were unsure if the development would meet the needed requirements for affordability as laid out in the LUIG policies. With the development approved for grant funding, the developers will now begin the process of applying for building permits and approvals to begin construction. According to Moritz, they hope to begin breaking ground within 18 months.

— Chase Davis

NEW KIND OF HOUSING: City Council discusses the viability of microapartments as a new form of affordable housing. Photo by Chase Davis

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TDA approves McCormick Field improvement project investment by narrow vote

It took two tries for the Buncombe County Tourism Development Authority to approve spending nearly $23 million over 20 years for Asheville’s McCormick Field Centennial Restoration & Capital Improvements Project at its July 26 meeting.

The motion to fund the project failed the first time, on a 6-2 vote, because it required a supermajority of seven out of nine votes of the full board. (The board’s ninth voting member, HP Patel, was not present.) It passed 7-1 when the board voted again 25 minutes later. Board member Andrew Celwyn said before the first vote that he did not understand why Major League Baseball was asking local municipalities to fund the project in the first place.

“The top 10 baseball players in MLB have all been given a $30 million salary, but (the organization) is not willing to even give half as much to help make these improvements for player amenities,” Celwyn said. “If this was something that was fully funded and beneficial for the city, then I would reconsider, but it is hard for me to give charity to baseball.”

Celwyn also expressed concern about how the project would be funded. “The TDA has never made

a commitment before to spend occupancy taxes from future years to fund a current project,” Celwyn said.

“Also, this seems to be a violation, at least in spirit, of the bylaws of the Tourism Product Development Fund regarding funding for-profit entities. While this money is somewhat arguably going to the city of Asheville, it’s mostly benefiting the Asheville Tourists, the Houston Astros and Major League Baseball, with all three being for-profit entities.”

After Celwyn’s comment, the board took its first vote, which failed 6-2 with board member Scott Patel also voting no. During a discussion between votes, Patel said he believed that the funds could be better spent elsewhere.

“The city is requesting this money (for McCormick field), but wouldn’t it be nice if they had requested money for affordable housing instead?” Patel asked. “That impacts tourism, too, because people in the industry need affordable places to live. I am not opposed to the baseball stadium, but sometimes there are bigger priorities.”

Vic Isley, president and CEO of Explore Asheville and the BCTDA, reminded the board that funding from the TPDF had specific parameters intended to help increase

overnight visitation as opposed to affordable housing. She also stressed what the investment could mean for the BCTDA moving forward.

“This is the first opportunity for us to demonstrate a debt service project and potentially be able to do that more times over for this community over the long term,” Isley said.

After some back-and-forth, Patel agreed to vote again, this time in favor of the investment.

The BCTDA’s investment for McCormick Field depends on the city and the Tourists franchise meeting additional terms negotiated by the TPDF committee. The BCTDA requested naming rights to a concourse or similar area within the baseball field complex, giving Explore Asheville staff the right to rent the space for interested groups and requiring the Tourists to host one hospitality night each season allowing local hospitality workers to attend a game for free or at a reduced price.

“This is truly a historic moment for this board,” Isley said after the vote. “The decision today shows our commitment to improving community assets. This has been a long, detailed process, but I am proud that we are continuing to support the legacy of baseball

in Asheville and Buncombe County through this monumental partnership.”

As reported by Xpress, McCormick Field has been home to a minor league baseball team for 64 years. The current Tourists franchise, owned by the family of Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine and DeWine Seeds Silver Dollar Baseball, brings in roughly $9.8 million in local spending annually for Buncombe County.

At the beginning of this year, the Tourists’ owners requested about $30 million from the city of Asheville, Buncombe County and the BCTDA to pay for renovations to meet updated Major League Baseball standards. In an effort to keep the Tourists in Asheville, the city pledged $20 million over the next 20 years, while the county agreed to pay $5 million over the same period. The BCTDA was the last agency to agree to support the project.

The city of Asheville approved a $3.7 million contract with Ewing Cole Inc. to design and build improvements at the field at the July 25 City Council meeting. With funding from the BCTDA now approved, construction is expected to begin in September 2024 and be completed by March 2026.

— Chase Davis

BATTER UP: A nearly $23 million commitment approved by the Buncombe County Tourism Development Authority is only part of the funding needed to cover the upgrades for McCormick Field. Photo courtesy of the city of Asheville

Unmarked A

When Conda Painter was riding her bike down West Asheville’s Nevada Avenue in 1979, a man stopped to ask her if she knew of an old cemetery that was rumored to be “somewhere between the houses.” He was looking for the grave of his great-grandmother. She had heard rumors about gravesites through chatter among her older neighbors, but there was no proof.

She’s sought the answer to that question ever since.

On June 16, Painter — a third-generation Ashevillaen who still lives in her family’s house — walked to the corner of Haywood Road and Virginia Avenue to watch work on the construction of a proposed residential and retail building underway since 2021. Excavation had stopped once before on reports that Wilson’s Chapel AME Church cemetery was there, but nothing had been found. But a few minutes after Painter arrived, two graves were discovered.

There isn’t much documentation on the church, but supposedly when the church moved to a new site on Burton Street in 1925, those buried in its cemetery were relocated as well. The gravesites, which are visible from Haywood Road, will be protected from the ongoing development by a retaining wall.

Painter says she feels a sense of satisfaction that the cemetery has been found. After she was stopped by the man in 1979, she started asking her neighbors about the cemetery. Today, she is the curator of the West Asheville History Museum at 67 Haywood Road, which she opened four years ago, partially because of her years of research on Wilson’s Chapel. Painter now hopes to raise funds via a GoFundMe campaign to build a monument that will honor the church and those interred on its former grounds.

“It’s really strange,” she tells Xpress during a visit on the screenedin porch of her house, which borders the site. “It sounds crazy, but it’s almost like there’s some kind of connection, like these people wanted me to make them known.”

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

Xpress: What led you to wanting to honor the folks you’ve heard about your whole life?

This has been something I’ve thought about throughout my life. It’s crazy how things just kind of fell into place, like a domino effect, you know — one thing after another. When I was on my bicycle in the street [that day],

West Asheville resident’s quest to honor recently discovered graves

I didn’t get to have the conversation I would’ve wanted. So, I started asking questions around my neighborhood.

This neighborhood mainly consisted of people in their 80s and 90s, and I used to go over and sit on their porches. They’d invite me over for ice cream, and they would tell stories. They’d say, “Well, we think there used to be a church or cemetery somewhere in this neighborhood,” but they didn’t know exactly where it was. It was just like rumors, and you couldn’t really figure out where it was. Until one day, a lady a street over asked me to come and look at her scrapbook. And she showed me a picture and said, “I believe this is a picture of your street.” And it was my street, and these two people are standing in the driveway, and I studied the slant of the street, and I could tell about where the chapel was, which is in the picture. I said, “Yep, that’s it. That’s Wilson’s Chapel.” And that is the only known photograph. I just felt like this was really proof.

That was the start of it all. Later on, we shared a garden with the neighbors connected to the back of our property, where there’s a parking lot now. But it used to be a field I would walk through as a kid. And I always had this peaceful feeling — almost like you’re walking through a cemetery. It sounds crazy, but that’s what it felt like.

One day the neighbor who had the house in the field found a casket handle and a set of teeth in the garden. And we thought, “Wow, maybe there was something there.” Well, my neighbor put the teeth up in a tree, and a crow came along and ran off with them.

And there’s still no real proof at this point, just bits and pieces and stories. When my dad passed away, I felt like I needed to carry on with the research.

What was it like on the day the gravesites were discovered?

I had gotten permission and was going back and forth to the site to watch. They (the N.C. Office of State Archaeology) had been doing fieldwork for weeks and were about ready to wrap up. When I went up there on June 16, I don’t know what it was ... but I felt like I needed to hurry and get up there. I don’t know how, but I had the feeling that this was going to be the day. It was really strange.

I was standing on the sidewalk watching them do their work and had been up for 10 minutes when I realized that they had found something. It was exciting to be standing there and actually see proof come to life after all these years. It was actually mind-blowing.

I wish those people that had come looking all those years ago could finally have an answer. But they’re probably long gone.

Looking back on how everything just kind of played out, I wondered, “Who would’ve thought that this would happen in 2023?” And I wish my dad was alive to be able to see this because, he kept saying, “One of these days, I think something’s going to come up where this is going to be proven.”

Why is the memorial important to you?

The monument is so important to me because I thought about it while

growing up. I think my dad would feel the same way. I feel like I’m supposed to do it and I really can’t explain why. It’s just that feeling. It’s been such a big part of my life.

Is there anything else you’d like to share about this journey?

During the fieldwork, my mom got up in her attic, and she pulled out a box of old papers. And this is crazy, but when I was in the 10th grade, I did a paper on Wilson’s Chapel. And she found these old papers, as well as a little journal that I had doodled in.

And in that journal, I put, “Well, I’m looking forward to the day that these people are found and are discovered.”

It almost brought tears to my eyes.

Tasha Benyshek, senior archaeologist with cultural resources management firm TRC, told Asheville Watchdog, “Conda Painter is to be credited completely for making sure the story of the Wilson Chapel cemetery was not forgotten.” How does hearing that make you feel?

I have to pinch myself to see if this is all real. We’ve actually arrived to where people will now know it actually existed. And that’s really important to me, that these people got known, you know. It was completely lost. That’s what’s so amazing about the story. And it’s good that the story’s being told. And I’m glad that the discovery happened in my lifetime. I feel like if it hadn’t, maybe the building and all the changes would’ve just kept going and nobody would’ve ever known.

— Andy Hall

LOST NO MORE: Conda Painter, who spent her entire life researching the “lost” graves of Wilson’s Chapel AME Church, stands at the construction site where two graves were recently found. Photo by Andy Hall

AUG. 2 - AUG. 10, 2023

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

 Online-only events

 Feature, page 24-25

 More info, page 30-31

WELLNESS

Tai Chi for Balance

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

WE (8/2, 9), 11:30am, Dragon Phoenix, 51 N Merrimon Ave, Ste 109

Tai Chi Fan

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

WE (8/2, 9), 1pm, Dragon Phoenix, 51 N Merrimon Ave, Ste 109

Sunset Herbal Therapy Yoga

A yoga session at sunset with freshly picked herbs from the farm's garden. Please bring a yoga mat and/ or towel.

WE (8/2), 7pm, Well Seasoned Table Farm, 9 Glady Knoll, Candler

Nia Dance Fitness

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

TH (8/3, 10), 9:30am,

TU (8/8),10:30am, Dragon Phoenix, 51 N Merrimon Ave, Ste 109

Tai Chi for Beginners

A great class for anyone interested in Tai Chi and building balance as well as body awareness.

TH (8/3, 10), MO (8/7), 11:30am, Dragon Phoenix, 51 N Merrimon Ave, Ste 109

Dharma & Discuss

People coming together in friendship to meditate, learn and discuss the Dharma.

Beginners and experienced practitioners are welcome.

TH (8/3, 10), 7pm, Quietude Micro-retreat Center, 1130 Montreat Rd, Black Mountain

Morning Meditation

A grounding meditation experience with a silent group sit. Everyone is welcome to join the sit; however no meditation instructions are provided.

FR (8/4), TU (8/8)

7:30am, Quietude Micro-retreat Center, 1130 Montreat Rd, Black Mountain

Qigong for Health

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

FR (8/4), TU (8/8) 9am, Dragon Phoenix, 51 N Merrimon Ave, Ste109

Therapeutic Slow Flow

Yoga

A blend of mediation, breathing and movement. All bodies, genders, and identities welcome. Bring your own mat.

SA (8/5), 10am, Mount Inspiration Apparel, 444 Haywood Rd, Ste 103

Wild Souls Authentic Movement Class

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

SU (8/6), 9:30am, Dunn's Rock Community Center, 461 Connestee Rd, Brevard

Walking Meditation

A short walk with meditation instructions to reduce stress, anxiety and increase health and balance. Afterwards, there will be tea and snacks.

SU (8/6), 10am, Lake Tomahawk Park, 401 S Laurel Circle Dr Black Mountain

Summer Flow w/Jamie

This class is designed to cool the body during the summer months. Expect a slow flow with long cool downs. Class is held outside. Bring a mat.

SU (8/6), 10:30am, One World Brewing West, 520 Haywood Rd

Yoga in the Park

All-levels welcomed, but bring your own props and mat. Pre-register at avl.mx/9n6

SA (8/5), SU (8/6), 11am, 220 Amboy Rd

Gentle Yoga for Queer & GNC Folks

This class is centered towards creating an affirming and inclusive space for queer and gender non-conforming individuals.

SU (8/6), 1:30pm, W Asheville Yoga, 602 Haywood Rd

5K BENEFIT: Western Carolina Rescue Ministries’ fifth annual Light Up the Night 5K race takes place at Carrier Park on Friday, Aug. 4, at 7 p.m. This glow-in-the-dark, nighttime run (or walk) aims to raise funds for the ministry’s programs and spread awareness of its community impact. Photo courtesy of Western Carolina Rescue Ministries

Free Zumba

A fun hour of dance fitness. No experience required, all fitness levels are welcome. Bring a towel and dancing shoes.

MO (8/7), 11:30am, AmeriHealth Caritas, 216 Asheland Ave

Metta & Meditation

In-person guided meditation focused on benevolence & loving-kindness. This event is free to attend. Beginners and experienced practitioners are welcome.

MO (8/7), 7pm, Quietude Micro-retreat Center, 1130 Montreat Rd, Black Mountain

Zumba

Mask and social distancing required.

Registration not necessary. Por Favor usa tu cubre bocas antes de la clase.

TU (8/8), 6:30pm, St. James Episcopal Church, 424 W State St, Black Mountain

Free Zumba Gold Fitness program that involves cardio and Latin-inspired dance. Free, but donations for the instructor are appreciated. For more information please call (828) 350-2058.

WE (8/9), noon, Stephens Lee Recreation Center, 30 George Washington Carver Ave

ART

Bailey Mountain Art Show

and benefit

of Bailey Mountain Preserve by local artists and community. Gallery open Monday through Friday, 10am, closed on Tuesday. Exhibition through Aug. 18.

Mars Hill University, Weizenblatt Gallery, 79 Cascade St, Mars Hill

Rachel Meginnes: Snapshot

A collection of deconstructed quilts and discarded textiles woven on a digital loom, utilizing images sourced from Rachel Meginnes’ surrounding environment. Gallery open Tuesday through Saturday, 11am. Exhibition through September 9. Tracey Morgan Gallery, 188 Coxe Ave

Arts-N-Scraps

Bring your creativity and interest in craft. All the supplies will be provided for you.

TH (8/3), 5pm, The Burger Bar, 1 Craven St Transient Bodies

This exhibition will expound upon the fragmented, damaged, and repaired body to demonstrate ideas of transience and resilience despite limitations, pain and trauma. Gallery open Monday through Friday, 9 am. Exhibition through August 30. Revolve, 821 Riverside Dr, Ste 179

Sparkfire Comics Release Party Issue #1 of the Sparkfire Comic series, The Chronicles of Sparkfire Blade. Enjoy light

refreshments and meet the artist.

FR (8/4), 5pm, Open Hearts Art Center, 217 Coxe Ave

Geometry of Nature

This show brings together 18 glass artists to create representations of the geometry of nature and its symmetry that both thrill and mystify artists, scientists, and laymen alike.

FR (8/4), SA (8/5), SU (8/6), 10am, North Carolina Glass Center, 140 Roberts St, Ste B

Altruistic Genius: Buckminster Fuller’s Plans to Save the Planet This exhibition brings the inventions and designs of R. Buckminster Fuller to

Western North Carolina and introduces visitors to Fuller’s strategies for the sustainability of humans and the planet relating to housing, transportation, mathematics, and engineering. Gallery open daily, 11am, closed Tuesday. Exhibition through August 21.

Asheville Art Museum, 2 S Pack Square

Caturday Crafternoon

Quick and fun crafternoon, all the tools, materials and instruction will be provided so you will take home your very own cat heat pad.

SA (8/5), noon, Center for Craft, 67 Broadway St

Opening Reception:

My Soul: Mexican Surrealism with a Japanese Heart Yui Sakamoto paints large colorful and highly detailed dream-like works, carrying forward the rich history of Surrealism in Mexico.

SA (8/5), 5pm, Bender Gallery, 29 Biltmore Ave

My Soul: Mexican Surrealism with a Japanese Heart Japanese-Mexican artist, Yui Sakamoto paints large colorful and highly detailed dream-like works, carrying forward the rich history of Surrealism in Mexico.

Gallery open Monday through Saturday, 10am and Sunday, noon. Exhibition runs through Aug. 26. Bender Gallery, 29 Biltmore Ave

Daily Craft Demonstrations

Two artists of different media will explain and demonstrate their craft with informative materials displayed at their booths, daily. These free and educational opportunities are open to the public. Daily, 10am.

Folk Art Center, MP 382, Blue Ridge Pkwy Free Art Class

Learn how to make jelly plates monotype prints in this free workshop with Asheville Art Museum. All materials provided.

TU (8/8), 6pm, Different Wrld, 701 Haywood Rd. Ste 101

The Art of Food: From the Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and His Family Foundation

This exhibition explores the many identities of food in daily life: whether a source of pleasure, a reason for gathering, a mass-produced commodity, or a reflection of social ideologies and divisions. Gallery open daily, 11am, closed on Tuesday. Exhibition through Oct. 22.

Asheville Art Museum, 2 S Pack Square

Black Mountain College & Mexico Exhibition

Includes original visual works and sound installations by prominent contemporary Mexican artists alongside vintage works by BMC artists and relevant archival materials. Gallery open Monday through Saturday, 11am, closed Sunday. Exhibition through September 9.

Black Mountain College Museum & Arts Center, 120 College St

COMMUNITY

MUSIC

Music To Your

Ears: Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers' Greatest Hits

A monthly discussion series that provides deeper understanding and greater enjoyment of classic albums and recording artists. This discussion is led by music journalist Bill Kopp. WE (8/2), 7pm, Asheville Guitar Bar, 122 Riverside Dr Pritchard Park Songwriter Series

Each week will feature two songwriters from the community playing songs about life in the 21st century. TH (8/3), 5:45pm, Pritchard Park, 4 College St Summer Music Series

Live music from some of our favorite local artists around town. This week enjoy music from Clara New. FR (8/4), 6pm, Oak and Grist Distilling Co., 1556 Grovestone Rd, Black Mountain Concert Series on the Creek: Tuxedo Junction

Free concert series for the community with Tuxedo Junction providing the classic hits. These events are free with donations encouraged. Everyone is welcome. There will be food trucks available

on most nights.

FR (8/4), 7pm, Bridge Park Gazebo, 76 Railroad Ave, Sylva

Pianist Brian Turner

Pianist Brian Turner plays solo piano favorites in the Great Hall.

FR (8/4), 7pm, The Omni Grove Park Inn, 290 Macon Ave

The Embers

One of most prominent, successful and long-running bands playing Beach music.

SA (8/5), 6pm, Point

Lookout Vineyards, 408 Appleola Rd, Hendersonville

Kirtan w/Mantra

Mandala

Sing your way to joy and peace with Kirtan, a sweet meditative practice of chanting mantras and divine names. No experience is needed.

SA (8/5), 7:30pm, W Asheville Yoga, 602 Haywood Rd

Polyphony Marimba

Authentic to its Zimbabwean roots, presenting beloved traditional songs with passion and precision.

SA (8/5), 8pm, White Horse Black Mountain, 105C Montreat Rd, Black Mountain

Mark's House Jam & Beggar's Banquet

Weekly Sunday pot luck and musician's jam with acoustic and plug in players. It's a family friendly community day so bring a dish to share.

SU (8/6), 3pm, Asheville Guitar Bar, 122 Riverside Dr

David Phelps

An evening music with nationally celebrated vocalist, multi-dove and Grammy Award-winning record artist.

SU (8/6), 7pm, Stuart Auditorium, 20 Chapel Dr, Lake Junaluska

Sirens of Hominy Series

A collaborative in-the-round, featuring a different set of Asheville songstresses every week. Hosted by CaroMia, genres ranging from soul, r&b,

pop, jazz, to country.

TU (8/8), 6pm, FBO Hominy Creek, 230 Hominy Creek Rd

LITERARY

Joke Writing Workshop

Hosted by Disclaimer

Stand Up Lounge and moderated by Cody Hughes, weekly. Bring 90 seconds of material that isn't working.

WE (8/2, 9), 6:30pm, Asheville Music Hall, 31 Patton Ave

All Arts Open Mic

Prepare a five minute original piece in storytelling, music, poetry, literature, comedy, dance or simply come to enjoy and support the local arts community.

TH (8/3), 6:30pm, Story Parlor, 227 Haywood Rd

Poetry Open Mic

Hendo

A poetry-centered open mic that welcomes all kinds of performers every Thursday night.

18+

TH (8/3, 10), 7:30pm, Shakedown Lounge, 706 Seventh Ave E, Hendersonville

Teen Poetry Writing & Slam

Explore styles, work with prompts, flex your voice and share your prose. Unique lesson plans every Tuesday.

TU (8/8), 2pm, The Elephant Door, 126 Swannanoa River Rd

Summer of Love Book Club

A community discussion of Wired for Dating by Stan Tatkin, MFT.

WE (8/9), 6pm, Swannanoa Library, 101 West Charleston St, Swannanoa

Rosie’s Sweat Box: Marking Time Till

Home

A book club discussion of Rosie’s Sweat Box: Marking Time Till Home followed by a presentation from the late author David Rozzell’s family.

TH (8/10), 10am, Black Mountain Public Library, 105 N Dougherty St, Black Mountain

THEATER & FILM

Antigone

In the aftermath of civil war, a young woman defies the command of the king in a stand for human dignity.

WE (8/2, 9), TH (8/3, 10), SA (8/5), SU (8/6), 7:30pm, North Carolina Stage Co., 15 Stage Ln

The Tragedy of Macbeth

Young actors bring the story of power, ambition, and betrayal to life with passion and energy in a beautiful outdoor amphitheater.

TH (8/3), FR (8/4), SA (8/5), SU (8/60 5pm, Hazel Robinson Amphitheatre, 92 Gay St

Tales from All Over the Place

Four local performers will grace the stage to tell both personal stories and those from the treasure trove of historical tales from the Blue Ridge.

TH (8/3), 7pm, Weaverville Community Center, 60 Lakeshore Dr, Weaverville

Every Brilliant Thing

This is a one woman show about the brilliant things in life that make it worth living for.

Content Warning: While this is an incredibly uplifting show it does contain subject matter of suicide and depression

FR (8/4), SA (8/5), 7:30pm, SU (8/6), 2pm, Hart Theatre, 250 Pigeon St, Waynesville

Treasure Island

A new take on Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic tale of buccaneers and buried gold, from local playwright Honor Moor.

FR (8/4), SA (8/5), SU (8/6), 7:30pm, Hazel Robinson Amphitheatre, 92 Gay St

BMC Dance

This event brings together accomplished dance artists Eleanor Hullihan, Rashaun Mitchell, Silas Riener, and Mina Nishimura for a series of performances and conversations.

SA (8/5), 11am, Black Mountain College Museum & Arts Center, 120 College St

Sing: Movie Night

Free outdoor movie screening.

SA (8/5), 11:30am, Rabbit Rabbit, 75 Coxe Ave

The Princess Bride Broker Asheville is hosting an outdoor movie. Also, help support Asheville City Schools Foundation by donating schools supplies.

SU (8/6), 4:30pm, Rabbit Rabbit, 75 Coxe Ave

The Campfireball

An immersive storytelling show created live and in the moment out of stories from the audience. No two shows are alike, none will ever be seen again.

TH (8/10), 7pm, Story Parlor, 227 Haywood Rd

4th Annual One Act Play Festival

Two weekends, 24 short plays, and a small army of local actors will be delivering a jam packed entertainment docket.

FR (8/4), SA (8/5),TH (8/10), SU (8/6), 4pm, 7:30pm, The Magnetic Theatre, 375 Depot St

MEETINGS & PROGRAMS

Free E-Bike Rental

A free one hour bike adventure to experience Asheville's historic River Arts District, French Broad River Greenway, local breweries, restaurants and more.

WE (8/2, 9), 10am, ACE BIKES, 342 Depot St

Beginners Aerial Silks

Learn a new skill and be part of a supportive community. All bodies are welcome. Space is limited so registration is required.

WE (8/2, 9), 4pm, Amethyst Realm, 244 Short Coxe Ave

Intro to Ballroom

Dance

Explore the world of latin and ballroom dancing with such styles as swing, salsa, foxtrot, rumba, merengue and more.

WE (8/2, 9 ), 6pm, Black Mountain Center for the Arts, 225 W State St, Black Mountain

Butts & Boots: Line Dancing Beginner line dance and two-step lessons, every Thursday. No cover. No partner or experience needed.

TH (8/3, 10), 6pm, Banks Ave., 32 Banks Ave

Farm to Fabric Summer Camp

Local Cloth's initiative to reach out to the youth in our area to spread the love of these arts is highlighted with the debut of this summer camp. Six fiber arts skills will be offered to learn in our Farm to Fabric class series.

TH (8/3, 10), TU (8/8) 9am, Local Cloth, 408 Depot St, Ste 100 Embroiderers' Guild of America: Laurel Chapter Carlie Holdredge will provide instruction in creating  a fabric thread holder with an attached strawberry pin cushion.  This project uses the blanket stitch as a design element. There is a nominal kit fee.

TH (8/3), 9:30am, Horse Shoe Community Church, 3 Banner Farm Rd, Mills River

Dahlia Series: Disbudding Dahlias for Better Blooms

Learn all the steps of pruning in order to get the best blooms from your plants. Attendance is limited and registration is required.

TH (8/3), 10am, Buncombe County Cooperative Ext Center, 49 Mount Carmel Rd, Ste 102

Swing Dance Lesson & Dance

Swing dancing lesson and dance, every Thursday.

TH (8/3, 10), 7pm, Alley Cat Social Club, 797 Haywood Rd

A Cautious, Non-Technical, Introduction to AI

In this class you will learn how Large Language Models (like ChatGPT) work and how they don't. Additionally, you will learn a few, basic, ways that you can use AI to help on your small business. Bring a laptop

or tablet.

FR (8/4), 11am, A-B Tech Small Business Center, 1465 Sand Hill Rd, Candler

Skate Night

Free outdoor skate night. Bring cash for old school candy and refreshments. Some skates will available to borrow, but bringing your own is recommended. For more information call (828) 274-7739.

FR (8/4), 6pm, Carrier Park, 220 Amboy Rd

Mentoring Workshop:

How to Join the Southern Highland Craft Guild

Learn what it takes to join our organization of fine craftsman, and prepare for your application. Be sure to bring at least five pieces of your work and digital images of your work.

SA (8/5), 1pm, Folk Art Center, MP 382, Blue Ridge Pkwy

Ladies Sunday Cycles

This is a non drop ride, we have cue sheets via Ride with GPS, and there are options to either do the whole ride or head back when needed. Routes will be posted on the Ride My GPS app under WNC Outdoor Collective.

SU (8/6), 7:30am, WNC Outdoor Collective, 110 Black Mountain Ave, Black Mountain

Tiny Tykes Triathlon

Annual triathlon modified for little ones ages 3-6 years old. Kids will bike, run, and splash their way through Pack Square Park. Participants should provide their own bike and helmet for the race.

SU (8/6), 9am, Pack Square Park, 80 Court Plaza

Weekly Sunday Scrabble Club

Tournament-style scrabble. All levels of play.

SU (8/6), 12:15pm, Stephens Lee Recreation Center, 30 George Washington Carver Ave

Emote Clothing Swap: Plus Size Edition

Clean out your closets and come participate in this XL clothing swap.

SU (8/6), 1pm, Different Wrld, 701 Haywood Rd, Ste 101

Game Day: Perspective Café

Traditional game day with board and card games as well as refreshments from the Perspective Cafe.

SU (8/6), 2pm, Asheville

Art Museum, 2 S Pack Square

Headshot Photoshoot

Event

This event is perfect for anyone looking to update their professional photos, especially for local performers. SU (8/6), 2pm, Ginger's Revenge S Slope Lounge, 32 Banks Ave

Looking Glass Rock Group Hike to Support Conservation

These hikes are specifically raising money for Muddy Sneakers, an organization founded in Brevard that exposes children to nature through outdoor education.

SU (8/6), 2pm, Pisgah National Forest, Pisgah Forest

Imagination Monday

Giant building blocks, tunnels and fun games await on a special day of open play geared for ages 1-5 years-old. No advance registration or sign up required, adults must accompany children the entire time.

MO (8/7), 10am, Jake Rusher Park, 160 Sycamore Dr, Arden

Sew Co./Rite of Passage Factory Tour

On this 30 minute micro-tour, learn about sustainable and transparent business practices and hear about production processes and client collaborations. Preregister at avl.mx/cec

MO (8/7), 11am, Rite of Passage Clothing & Sew Co, 240 Clingman Ave Ext.

Chess Club

Open to all ages and any skill set. There will be a few boards available, but folks are welcome to bring their own as well.

MO (8/7), 4pm, Black Mountain Brewing, 131 NC-9, Black Mountain

Kids & Teens Kung Fu

A class designed to teach high level Kung Fu with Sifu Aaron. Learn fighting skills as well as conflict resolution and mindfulness.

TH (8/3, 10), MO (8/7), TU (8/8) 4pm, Dragon Phoenix, 51 N Merrimon Ave, Ste 109 Menopause Cafe

Asheville

An informative and fun event all about menopause. Share your experiences, ask questions, and connect. Space is limited, registration is required.

MO (8/7), 6pm, Hello, Gorgeous!, 61 N Merimon Ave

How To Get What You Want

Learn insight into opportunities for problem-solving and turning barriers into opportunities. All genders are welcome.

Anonymous Q&A to follow.

MO (8/7), 7pm, The Grey Eagle, 185 Clingman Ave

Leadership Is... Leadership & Mentorship Training

This training will explore your potential in leadership and how re-shifting your focus impacts your attitude and how that attitude effects and influences your work, performance and overall outcomes of

the products or services you provide to your employer or customer.

TU (8/8), 2pm, AmeriHealth Caritas, 216 Asheland Ave 2024 Craft Research Fund Project & Exhibition Grant Information Session

The information session will provide an overview of the grant opportunities and offer tips to simplify the application process and aid applicants in successfully completing their applications. Followed by an audience Q&A. Register at avl.mx/cvx

TU (8/8), 4pm, Online Cribbage in the Park Friendly cribbage competition nights. Meet others who love to play. Light refreshments will be provided.

TU (8/8), 5pm, West Asheville Park, 11 Vermont Ave

Money Visioning & Goal Setting

In this live and interactive online class, you will get a clear picture of your money goals through an interactive visioning exercise. Then, you’ll learn how to create a realistic savings goal and plan the steps needed to reach it. Register at avl.mx/cr0

TU (8/8), 5:30pm, Online

Let's Talk About Consent

This class will teach the basics of consent and provide practical tools to model consent in an age-appropriate way for the youth you live and work with.

TU (8/8), 6pm, AmeriHealth Caritas, 216 Asheland Ave

Bikes 'N Brews

A weekly group ride that takes in the views of Black Mountain and Old Fort and concludes at the WNC Outdoor Collective with your favorite beer or kombucha.

WE (8/9), 5:30pm, WNC Outdoor Collective, 110 Black Mountain Ave, Black Mountain Public Forum on the Opioid & Fentanyl Crisis Buncombe County has received settlement funding to address the opioid epidemic with various strategies to be discussed during this public forum.

WE (8/9), 5:30pm, OLLI/ Reuter Center, UNCA, 300 Campus View Rd Spanish Club Spanish speakers of all ages and levels are welcome to join together for conversation to practice the language in a group setting.

WE (8/9), 6pm, Black Mountain Brewing, 131 NC-9, Black Mountain Vegetable Series: Preserving Your Vegetable Harvest

Learn the many methods of preserving

AUGUST 11TH - 13TH

CLASSES, WORKSHOPS, TOE TALKS, FOOD AND CAMPING OPTIONS, FREE MARKET WITH BARTER AND TRADE PROGRAMS FOR KIDS

LAKE COVE

vegetables. The class will also review the latest safety recommendations for canning, freezing, dehydrating, pickling and fermentation. Attendance is limited and registration is required.

TH (8/10), 10am, Buncombe County Cooperative Ext Center, 49 Mount Carmel Rd, Ste 102

MBBC Networking

Event With a Focus on Leadership

A MBBC's networking meeting featuring Jason Muhammad. This class will focus on why leadership is key.

TH (8/10), 11:30am, AmeriHealth Caritas, 216 Asheland Ave

Mountain Horticultural Crops Research & Extension Center Field

Day 2023

Learn about different programs alongside the traditional tomato field day program. For more information about Field Day 2023, contact (828) 654-8590.

TH (8/10), 12:30pm, Mountain Horticultural Crops Research and Ext Center, 455 Research Dr, Mills River Neighbors for More Neighbors WNC

Kickoff

This is a pro-housing program in response to the severe housing shortage in WNC and the climate change crisis. This event will feature games, interactive elements, inspiring speakers and more.

Register at avl.mx/cvp

TH (8/10), 5pm, The Wedge at Foundation, 5 Foundy St

Nerd Nite Asheville

A global community of nerds who host events in cities around the world featuring presenters across a variety of subjects:

STEM expertise, crafts like glass blowing or metalworking, interesting jobs, nerd fandoms and more.

TH (8/10), 7:30pm, The RAD Brew Co., 13 Mystery St

LOCAL MARKETS

RAD Farmers Market

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

WE (8/2, 9), 3pm, Smoky Park Supper Club, 350 Riverside Dr Leicester Farmers Market

Over 30 vendors. Locally grown and sourced selection of meats, produce, eggs, plants and flowers, baked goods, cheese, honey,

sauces, crafts, art, and more. Every Wednesday through October 25.

WE (8/2, 9), 3pm, Leicester Community Center, 2979 New Leicester Hwy, Leicester

Weaverville Tailgate Market

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

Open year round.

WE (8/2, 9), 3pm, 60 Lake Shore Dr, Weaverville

Etowah Lions Club

Farmers Market

Fresh produce, honey, sweets, flowers, plant starts and locally crafted wares. Stop by to chat with vendors, the Lions club, and enjoy the fruits of their labors.

Every Wednesday through Oct. 25.

WE (8/2, 9), 3pm, Etowah Lions Club, 447 Etowah School Rd, Hendersonville

Biltmore Park Farmers Market

A wide array of farmfresh seasonal produce, eggs, honey, locally-grown flowers, artisan baked goods, foraged mushrooms, handmade soaps, and more from local farmers, specialty food producers, and crafters. Every Thursday through Aug. 17.

TH (8/3, 10), 3pm, Biltmore Park Town Square, Town Square Blvd.

Flat Rock Farmers Market

A diverse group of local produce and fruit farmers, craft-food makers, bread bakers, wild crafters, art-crafters, and merrymakers.

Every Thursday through Oct. 26.

TH (8/3, 10), 3pm, Pinecrest ARP Church, 1790 Greenville Hwy, Flat Rock

Enka-Candler Tailgate Market

A selection of local foods and crafts, everything from produce to pickles, baked goods to body care, with a hefty helping of made-to-order meals from our food trucks. Every Thursday through Oct.

TH (8/3, 10), 3pm, A-B

Tech Small Business Center, 1465 Sand Hill Rd, Candler

Pack Square Artisan Market

This market will showcase local handcrafted goods in the heart of downtown Asheville.

Every Friday through Oct. 27.

FR (8/4), 1pm,1 South Pack Square Park

Saluda Tailgate Market

With over a dozen vendors, this agriculture-only market features an assortment of homegrown produce,

meat, and eggs within a 25 mile radius.

FR (8/4), 4:30pm, W Main St, Saluda

Giant Church Flea Market

There will be several items for sale including antiques, action figures, furniture, home and garden tools, toys, and more. Proceeds will benefit local, regional and global missions and charities.

SA (8/5), 8am, Etowah United Methodist Church, 110 Brickyard Rd, Etowah

Henderson County Tailgate Market

Seasonal fruits, fresh mushrooms, vegetables, local honey, meat, eggs, garden plant starts, perennials and much more. Every Saturday through Oct. 28.

SA (8/5), 8am, 100 N King St, Hendersonville Hendersonville Farmers Market

A vibrant community gathering space with produce, meat, eggs, baked goods, coffee, crafts, food trucks, live music, kids' activities and more. Every Saturday through Oct. 28.

SA (8/5), 8am, 650 Maple St, Hendersonville

North Asheville

Tailgate Market

The oldest Saturday morning market in WNC, since 1980. Over 60 rotating vendors offer fresh Appalachian grown produce, meats, cheeses and eggs - with a variety of baked goods, value added foods, and unique craft items. Weekly through Dec. 16.

SA (8/5), 8am, 3300 University Heights

Asheville City Market

Local food products, including fresh produce, meat, cheese, bread, pastries, and other artisan products. Weekly through Dec. 17.

SA (8/5), 9am, 52 N Market St

Black Mountain

Tailgate Market

Featuring organic and sustainably grown produce, plants, cut flowers, herbs, locally raised meats, seafood, breads, pastries, cheeses, eggs and local arts and handcrafted items. Every Saturday through Nov. 18.

SA (8/5), 9am, 130 Montreat Rd, Black Mountain

The Odd Flea

Bring your own tables and display all of your wacky and tacky items such as taxidermy, antiques, records, junk, witchy tinctures, plants and more. First come first serve. 1st Saturday of every month.

SA (8/5), 9am, The Odd, 1045 Haywood Rd

Fairview Kids Maker's Market Young Fairview artists, entrepreneurs, and

bakers will be displaying and selling their best art, jewelry, baked goods, bath & body, home decor, and more.

SA (8/5), 11am, Spring Mountain Community Club, 807 Old Fort Rd, Fairview

Makers Market

Featuring a different combination of weekly vendors alongside resident studio artists.

SA (8/5), noon, The Elephant Door Night Markets

Discover handcrafted wonders, artisanal delights and treasures at this community market with local vendors and makers.

SA (8/5), 5pm, The Railyard Black Mountain, 141 Richardson Ave, Black Mountain

WNC Farmers Market

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

WNC Farmers Market, 570 Brevard Rd

BIPOC Farmer's Market

Everyone is encouraged to come out to support local BIPOC vendors. The market is EBT accessible with double dollars for fresh fruits and vegetables.

SU (8/6), noon, W.C. Reid Center, 133 Livingston St Marquee Live

This free community-wide event will feature a brunch, live music, live art demonstrations by Marquee cast members, food trucks, pastry pop-ups, special surprises and more.

SU (8/6), noon, Marquee Asheville, 36 Foundy St Meadow Market

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

SU (8/6), 1pm, Highland Brewing Co., 12 Old Charlotte Hwy. Ste 200

FESTIVALS & SPECIAL EVENTS

An A-Meow-Zing Pop Up

A quarterly crafternoon series in conjunction with a curated pop up shop inside the gallery. Browse all things cat inspired in this a-meow-zing collection of handmade and local items. A portion of pop up sales will go to the Mountain Pet Rescue Asheville.

WE (8/2), TH (8/3), FR (8/4), SA (8/5), 10am, Center for Craft, 67 Broadway St

Asheville Outlets

Summerfest Carnival

Enjoy carnival rides, games for all ages, carnival foods such as funnel cake, fried oreos, turkey legs and more. For more information visit avl.mx/ayt WE (8/2), TH (8/3), FR (8/4), 5pm, SA (8/5), SU (8/6), 1 pm, Asheville Outlets, 800 Brevard Rd

96th Annual Mountain Dance and Folk Festival

Performers aged two to ninety-two performing the traditions of music, dance and storytelling of the Southern Appalachian Mountains with more than 60 acts each evening. See p31 TH (8/3), FR (8/4), SA (8/5), 7pm, Lipinsky Auditorium at UNC Asheville, 300 Library Ln

Park Rhythms Summer Concert Series w/ Twain & Natalie Jane Hill

This week, folk artists Twain & Natalie Jane Hill will be providing the music. TH (8/3), 7pm, Black Mountain Veterans Park, 10 Veterans Park Dr, Black Mountain AVL Fest

A venue-based music and arts festival with over 20 area concert halls, clubs, and outdoor venues alike and an exceptional multi-genre lineup of local, regional, and national talent. Performances are set to take place throughout the 4-day festival with wristbands granting pass holders access to 100+ shows. Visit avl.mx/cvo for the full line up schedule and times. See p24-25 TH (8/3), FR (8/4), SA (8/5), SU (8/6) Multiple Locations, Citywide

Mt. Mitchell Arts & Crafts Fair

Around 250 artists will fill Burnsville's Town Square to display their arts and crafts. This juried event focuses on quality, handmade wares from local artists and regional artisans across the southern Appalachians. For more

information call (828) 682-7413.

FR (8/4), SA (8/5), 9am, Burnsville Town Square, 100 Town Square, Burnsville

4th Annual One Act Play Festival

Two weekends, 24 short plays, and a small army of local actors will be delivering a jam packed entertainment docket.

FR (8/4), SA (8/5), TH (8/10), 7:30pm, SU (8/6), 4pm, The Magnetic Theatre, 375 Depot St

The Way We Speak with the World: Cherokee Language Film Screening & Concert

A free film and concert event signaling the urgency of Cherokee language preservation and honoring the citizens who are working to learn and teach Tsalagi.

See p30

FR (8/4), SA (8/5), 7pm, Chief Joyce Dugan Cultural Arts Center, 86 Elk Crossing Ln, Cherokee Springmaid Splash Trail Race & Camping Event

This 5K and 10K trail races will take place on Springmaid Mountain’s 400-acre property. After the race, stick around for bluegrass mountain music and optional overnight stays at the campground or cabins. For the full schedule visit avl.mx/cps SA (8/5), 7am, Springmaid Mountain, 2171 Henredon Rd, Spruce Pine

Cat Video Fest 2023

A compilation reel of the latest and best cat videos pulled from countless hours of unique submissions and sourced animations, music videos and classic internet powerhouses. A portion of the proceeds benefit the Asheville Cat Weirdos Emergency Fund.

FR (8/4), SA (8/5), SU (8/6), 10am, Grail Moviehouse, 17 Foundy St

Take Root Festival

A day of family-friendly fun and a celebration of all things farm-tastic.

Immerse yourself in the vibrant world of gardens and community with rolling green pastures, blooming flowers, and a thriving community.

SA (8/5), 3pm, Root Cause Farm, 26 Joe Jenkins Rd, Fairview Bimbocon

A deeply Leo-centric event celebrating the bimbo-carnie intersection in the heart Leo season with vendor booths and DJs.

SA (8/5), 9pm, Different Wrld, 701 Haywood Rd, Ste 101

Groovin' on Grovemont Summer Concert Series

w/Queen Bee & the Honeylovers

Classic swing, blues and latin music band Queen Bee and the Honeylovers will be providing the music this week. Bring a blanket or lawn chair, and come enjoy this family-friendly evening.

TU (8/8), 6pm, Grovemont Park, 101 West Charleston Ave , Swannanoa

Park Rhythms Summer Concert Series w/ Thomas Dollbaum

This week, rock artist Thomas Dollbaum will be providing the music.

TH (8/10), 7pm, Black Mountain Veterans Park, 10 Veterans Park Dr Black Mountain

15th Annual Asheville Comedy Festival

The festival will showcase an eclectic mix of more than 30 comedians from around the globe, inclusive of all genders, races, and styles. A full list of participating comedians and more event information can be found at avl.mx/cvn.

WE (8/9), TH (8/10), 8pm, Wortham Center for the Performing Arts, 18 Biltmore Ave

Asheville Comedy Festival Late Night Showcase

Every show features a different lineup of the countries fastest rising stars in the comedy

world.

TH (8/10), 9:30pm, Dssolvr, 63 N Lexington Ave

BENEFITS & VOLUNTEERING

Tools for Schools Drive

New school supplies will be collected for students. A list of items needed can be found here avl.mx/cv2. For more information contact ksoule@ eblencharities.org.

WE (8/2), 7am, Ingles Smoky Park Hwy, 151 Smoky Park Hwy Light Up The Night 5K

A fundraising, glow-inthe-dark, night-time, walk or run that will be timed by Finish Well Timing. This event aims to raise funds to support the community and help break the cycles of homelessness and addiction in our region.

FR (8/4), 7pm, Carrier Park, 220 Amboy Rd

CrossFit for Hope Community Workout

A workout to support the Livestrong at the YMCA program. This program can be modified for all levels. SA (8/5), 8:30am, Ferguson Family YMCA, 31 Westridge Market Place, Candler Disco Drag Show

A free disco drag show and brunch. Food and beverages will be available for purchase on site. Proceeds benefit Henderson County Department of Social Services in support of their back to school supply drive. SU (8/6), 1pm, New Belgium Brewing Co., 21 Craven St Roger Howell, George Gibson & J.A.M Kids

A fundraiser for Junior Appalachian Musicians of Henderson Co with masters of old-time music, Roger Howell and George Gibson. WE (8/9), 6pm, Oklawaha Brewing Co., 147 1st Ave E, Hendersonville

Blissful Chiropractic

Experience a 45 minute adjustment that starts with a cranial sacral massage to relax the nerves followed by a gentle hands-on chiropractic adjustment.

Sacral Occipital, Applied Kinesiology, and traditional adjustments also available

The need is great

Sweeten Creek mental health facility opening this month

BY JESSICA WAKEMAN

jwakeman@mountainx.com

When Dr. M. Ed Kelley, the medical director of the new Sweeten Creek Mental Health and Wellness Center, spoke at the facility’s July 18 dedication, he described mental health care throughout history. Patients with behavioral health needs were essentially warehoused in “asylums,” he said, alluding to overcrowding and lack of therapeutic aid.

In more recent decades, the approach and science behind mental health treatment has progressed. And the new center, owned by HCA Healthcare and located in East Asheville, is part of that evolution.

The new facility adds 38 beds for mental health care in the community, totaling 120 beds across several units for children, adolescents, adults and seniors. Additionally, the single-level facility will provide an in-house pharmacy, an electroconvulsive therapy wing and a wing for intensive outpatient treatment for adults.

“Behavioral health is central to health,” said Kody Kinsley, N.C. Department of Health and Human Services secretary, during the July 18 dedication.

THERAPEUTIC SPACES

The chief operating officer of Mission Hospital Behavioral Health Services, Melina Arrowood, gave Xpress a tour of the site prior to its opening, while the building was under construction. Sweeten Creek

has units for low-acuity adults (meaning less intensive care) and high-acuity adults, an acute pediatric unit and an acute adolescent unit. Arrowood explained that people arriving from the hospital have a separate entrance to protect their privacy.

Arrowood told Xpress that designing a calm, safe environment for patients and staff was paramount to the project. For example, doors used by patients have two-way hinges so they can’t be barricaded shut. She pointed out specialty furniture, designed for safety in behavioral health settings, throughout the facility. In the cafeteria, tables and chairs have smooth edges and are either weighted with sand or bolted to the floor to prevent being picked up or thrown. The chairs also don’t have arms, which could be removed and used to cause injury.

Arrowood underscored how adult patients will never intermingle with underage patients in the facility. All units have their own sleeping areas and outdoor spaces. Meals in the cafeteria and recreational activities in the gymnasium will be scheduled at different times for each unit.

The nurses stations on each unit are open-facing and look out onto common areas with seating and televisions. Computers are mounted to the interior desks in the stations, and the height of the countertops is such that an adult cannot reach across to a nurse.

Meanwhile, walls throughout Sweeten Creek are painted in light blues and greens. Numerous murals throughout the facility depict peaceful scenes such as daisies, hot-air balloons, butterflies and a mountain setting.

Among the site’s many other features, there is a playground designed for kids in mental health care settings; the geriatric unit has a walking path; and the adolescent unit has outdoor-safe musical instruments.

‘LOOK NO FURTHER THAN THE JAIL’

At the dedication ceremony for the Sweeten Creek Mental Health and Wellness Center, several attendees also mentioned detention facilities and their role in the mental health care system.

“If you’d like to see the mental health facility in every county, I encourage you to look no further than the jail,” NCDHHS secretary Kinsley told the crowd, as audience members murmured their assent.

Kinsley said that county sheriffs across the state frequently tell him that “we will never arrest our way out of this problem,” meaning crimes that are caused by untreated mental illness and substance use issues that exacerbate such illness.

Kinsley praised the recent Medicaid expansion in North Carolina. He predicted that Medicaid expansion will make preventive mental health care more accessible for more people, so they don’t continue to primarily use emergency rooms for acute mental distress.

Medical clearance from the ER is required for patients before arriving at Sweeten Creek, however, according to medical director Kelley.

Buncombe County Sheriff Quentin Miller echoed the sentiment that jails are not a substitute for mental health

care when he spoke to Xpress after the event. He called Sweeten Creek an “opportunity” to care for people beyond holding them in detention facilities. “We are very fortunate to have this building built.”

Miller noted that while law enforcement officers may have some training in crisis management, they aren’t trained in mental health care or addiction medicine. In addition to being first responders, they are also asked to care for people with mental health and substance use issues in detention facilities, which is a challenging dual role.

“It’s so important that we have the opportunity to utilize a facility like this so that we could actually help people,” Miller continued. “What [Kinsley] said is true — we’re not going to be able to arrest our way out of this situation. We all know it, but now we’re doing something about it.” X

FRESH AIR: Each unit at Sweeten Creek Mental Health and Wellness Center has its own outdoor space. This area for the acute adolescent unit features funnel ball playground equipment, wind chimes and drums. Photo by Frances O’Connor

Across the city

BY EDWIN ARNAUDIN

From the moment AVLFest was announced in early February, comparisons were drawn between it and Bele Chere, the city’s former downtown outdoor street festival that ceased operations in 2013 after a 35-year run. Like Bele Chere, AVLFest is a multiday event featuring performing artists. But that’s about where the similarities end.

“It’s not (Bele Chere) at all,” says AVLFest co-founder Jeff Whitworth, owner of independent talent buying organization Worthwhile Sounds. The new music festival, he emphasizes, is “the antithesis of that.”

Whitworth, who previously owned The Grey Eagle from 2004-15, says he witnessed “the heyday of Bele Chere.” Though he acknowledges the beneficial influx of tourism and attention that the festival brought to Asheville, he mostly remembers the disruptions that the event caused, particularly for drivers and local businesses. Each year, like many other Asheville shops, he closed his River Arts District venue during the festival’s four-day run rather than compete with the street vendors and multiple music stages a few blocks away.

Following Bele Chere’s demise, Asheville’s music scene has continued to grow. Yet large-scale events, including Moogfest and All Go West, have come and gone, leaving the city without a signature showcase of a similar magnitude. So when the opportunity to launch a new festival arose, Whitworth tapped into his range of experiences.

His top priority was to raise greater awareness about Asheville’s music scene. “Based on the per capita numbers, I feel like we have the best collection and assortment of venues in the country,” he says.

That variety will be on display Thursday, Aug. 3-Sunday, Aug. 6 as over 200 bands — the large majority of them from the Asheville area — perform on 20-plus stages across the city. Despite a few minor hiccups, Whitworth says ticket sales and the overall reception have been so overwhelmingly positive that a second year is already in the works.

VENUE VISIONARIES

The roots of AVLFest go back to the early 2000s when Whitworth had a vision to establish South By Southeast in Asheville — a would-be

AVLFest celebrates local artists and venues

sister festival of the popular South By Southwest music, film and media festival in Austin, Texas.

“It was little more than a pipe dream,” Whitworth says. “We put together a proposal and went after it pretty aggressively. But that ended up not happening, obviously, so I just let it die down.”

Nearly two decades later, in December 2022, he was approached by Bryan Matheny, a transplant from Colorado with a similar vision. Not long after their introduction, the pair met with Wicked Weed Brewing’s sales and marketing team, ultimately forming a partnership. Whitworth knew the brewery’s long history of booking local musical acts at all three of its Asheville taprooms. He also remembered the company’s 2017 Festival of Artistry, which brought Georgia-based indie rockers of Montreal and local acts such as DJ Marley Carroll to the South Slope for a day of free outdoor shows.

“(The Festival of Artistry) was great, but we didn’t have the capability of scaling that just by ourselves,” says Cory Cunningham, Wicked Weed’s senior director of sales and a

longtime local with extensive knowledge of and history with the area music scene. “We know our lanes and know what we’re good at and things that we’re not good at. So it’s really a perfect marriage with Jeff and Bryan to have this concept and something that Wicked Weed’s been passionate about since the very beginning.”

From there, Whitworth tapped into his extensive network of area artists, many of whom, he notes, “confirmed on blind faith, not knowing exactly when or where they were playing — which was a huge ask.”

LOCAL SUPPORT

Confident that AVLFest’s success depended on the Asheville community’s support, Whitworth took an unconventional approach to ticket sales by offering discounted, $50 early-bird passes exclusively to area residents within a 75-mile radius of Asheville. At the time, no artists were announced. Instead, buyers were simply promised “a multiday music and arts festival taking place throughout the greater Asheville area” that would “fill area

concert halls, clubs and outdoor venues alike with an exceptional lineup of local, regional and national talent.”

The pass also granted exclusive access to reduced-price tickets for AVLFest’s standalone headliner shows.

As Cunningham notes, area music fans had to trust Whitworth’s 20-year track record of booking quality acts. Early sales were stronger than anticipated. And the numbers continued to climb once tickets were available to the broader public in late February. The trend remained steady once the first wave of artists — a who’s who of 60-plus Asheville-area acts, including Tyler Ramsey, Lyric and Toubab Krewe — were announced March 1.

Then in mid-April, Americana duo Watchhouse was named AVLfest’s first headliner, playing The Outpost at 8:15 p.m., Thursday, Aug. 3. The $20 ticket irked some potential attendees who had yet to purchase festival passes. On the festival’s Instagram page, one commenter voiced frustration at having to “buy a ticket that allows us to buy another ticket.”

As was always the plan, individual tickets for Watchhouse and fellow headliners Kurt Vile & The Violators

ASHEVILLE ALL-STARS: The inaugural AVLFest spotlights some of the city‘s brightest musical talents. Front row, starting left, Alex Krug, Josh Blake, Whitney Mongé, Andrew Scotchie and Caitlin Krisko. Middle row, starting left, Kyle Samples and Juan Holladay. Standing, starting left, Alex Deutsch, Debrissa McKinney, Larry “Po‘ Folk” Williams, Jeff Whitworth and Scott McMicken. Photo by Frances O’Connor

(who play Friday, Aug. 4, at 7:15 p.m. at Highland Brewing Co.’s Meadow Stage), were later made available to the general public for $40 each. But those who snagged passes were treated to two more waves of artist announcements, featuring additional local talent, as well as revered acts from across North Carolina, including rockers Sarah Shook & The Disarmers and folk duo Chatham Rabbits.

“You could buy a weekend pass, a ticket for Kurt Vile and a ticket to Watchhouse and still pay less than 100 bucks, which is still cheaper than any other four-day festival that you’re going to find with a lineup as substantial as AVLFest’s,” Whitworth says. “Keeping the buyer in mind was always front and center. We always wanted to make sure that we didn’t price anybody out.”

The variety of shows will bring attendees from large outdoor spaces to intimate indoor ones, including Fleetwood’s and Sovereign Kava. Participating venues will operate on a first-come, first-served basis, adhering to legal capacities. Concertgoers arriving after capacities are reached can wait in line outside and enter the venue as space becomes available. These approaches overlap with those of Raleigh’s Hopscotch Music Festival, but an important detail separates the two events.

“One of the things that I was dead set on from the beginning was no street closures. We all agreed that we wanted Asheville to be able to operate normal operating procedures,” Whitworth says. “The whole idea is raising awareness about what we do on a regular basis here. We don’t want to disrupt business for anybody. We want to promote and encourage business for all the local businesses here.”

To that end, AVLFest is partnering with over 100 Asheville restaurants and retailers — ranging from massage therapists to Tops for Shoes — that are offering a 10-20% discount to anyone with a festival wristband.

Organizers also partnered with Young Transportation & Tours to have four buses running a festival shuttle route throughout the festivities.

(ARCTIC) BLAST FROM THE PAST

While AVLFest features plenty of exciting performers on the lineup, it also includes the reunion of former Asheville-based indie rockers Kovacs & The Polar Bear. The group’s Aug. 4 show at 11:30 p.m. at The Orange Peel marks the first time that multi-instrumentalists/vocalists Nick Kovacs, Andrew Woodward, Chris Lee and Joe Chang have played together in 10 years.

Over that time, all but Chang moved out West for extended stretches. Kovacs currently lives in Fort Collins, Colo., and Lee is based in Portland, Ore. But the four pals have remained in constant contact over the past decade while pursuing their own musical projects. Early this year, a friend sent them a screenshot of a Reddit thread where, according to Lee, “someone said something flattering” about their band. Aware that AVLFest was taking shape, they started mulling the prospect of getting back together for a show.

“The first wave of the lineup had bands we love and know, like River Whyless and Floating Action. At some point in the group text, we were like, ‘What if?’ and ‘Why not?’” Lee says. “We contacted Jeff and he was superstoked to have us on board. I think our biggest concern was if people would even care that we were getting back together to do a show, but the positive response we’ve seen so far has been really encouraging.”

In preparation for the reunion — which will also include nonfestival shows at Static Age Records, Aug. 5-6 — Kovacs & The Polar Bear agreed to individually practice the songs from their lone album, 2011’s Second Sister. Once they’re all together in Asheville, they plan to play every day until AVLFest begins. But much progress has already been made: Lee and Kovacs rehearsed briefly during Lee’s recent visit to Colorado, and Chang says the songs are “coming back like riding a bike,” though they acknowledge that the true test will be playing them together live.

Whatever happens, the mere chance to perform three shows in the town where their bonds were forged has each artist excited about the festival weekend. The band will release a new EP ahead of AVLFest, and all four members are open to ongoing collaborations.

“I reckon we’ll see how that weekend goes and then maybe talk about what

any future things look like,” Chang says. “It’s felt like with us living in three different time zones the last 10 years that it’s been impossible to actually be a functioning band, but who knows? Maybe something will come of this. You can’t start a fire without a spark.”

Reunions weren’t foremost on Whitworth’s mind when he envisioned AVLFest, but bringing groups like Kovacs & The Polar Bear back into the local fold only adds to the already potent mix of established and up-and-coming Asheville-area artists. And while he can’t stop people from making comparisons between his event and a certain former downtown staple, he hopes that AVLFest will likewise become synonymous with the city’s musical history.

“We’re not necessarily trying to fill the Bele Chere void, but we are trying to fill the community engagement void from a musical standpoint, because that has been something severely missing,” Whitworth says.

“The landscape is perfect right now, post-COVID, because there’s an insatiable appetite for live music and an insatiable appetite for Asheville. So what better way to fill those?”

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

“One of the things that I was dead set on from the beginning was no street closures.”

— Jeff Whitworth, AVLFest co-founder

Fresh Dish

BY ANDY HALL

When I reached out to celebrity chef J Chong about participating in this month’s “Fresh Dish” feature, she was happy to comply. But unlike the column’s previous two guests — Katie Button and Iris Rodriguez — Chong did not have a brick-and-mortar to showcase her dishes. We agreed to meet at my house, which was both exciting and little intimidating. Later, when she asked if she could plate a dish while there, I became a tad self-conscious about my kitchen’s setup.

But as soon as Chong arrived at my front door, her genuine smile put me at ease. We spoke for a good chunk of time — chatting about what it’s like to be half-Asian in the South (my mother is from Thailand) and how fortunate we are to have access to so many locally grown and raised foods.

For many in the community, Chong is a familiar face — she sells Cantonese fare such as dumplings

J Chong on what Asheville can learn from Atlanta

and sauces at the East Asheville Tailgate Market on Friday afternoons and the North Asheville Tailgate Market every Saturday morning. She also participated in HBO Max’s cooking competition show “The Big Brunch,” where she was one of three finalists. Her cuisine can also be found at occasional pop-up events at local wineries and breweries.

Chong, who is originally from Toronto, has lived in Asheville with her wife, Danielle Wheeler, for seven years.

In the third installation of Xpress’ new monthly food column, I spoke with Chong about Chinese turnips, fried plantains and her passion for sharing her story and Cantonese heritage through her cooking.

“That is the sole purpose of why I have my business here in Western North Carolina: because it is so important for me,” she says. “It’s my identity. It’s so important for me to cook my people’s food, to reintroduce what Chinese food is to people. ... It’s not cheap and it’s not fast.”

Xpress: What is a current dish you serve that you feel is not getting the attention that it deserves, and why do you think it’s being overlooked?

From my pop-ups there’s a dish called lo bak go — that’s Chinese for turnip cakes. It’s made with turnips. But in Chinese it’s actually daikon because we call daikon “Chinese turnips.” It’s got some rice flour and cured Chinese sausage, with scallions and shiitake mushrooms. I steam them and cut them into whatever shape or size I want, and then I sear them just to get them to have a little crisp. These are sitting on green pea puree and garnished with pickled vegetables.

I love making this dish because many people have told me that it’s the first time they’ve ever had daikon, which is strange for me — being Asian, there is daikon in everything. I love introducing this dish to people. And this region grows a lot of really good turnips and radishes.

I think people don’t order it as much because, when they see turnip cakes, it doesn’t register what that can be. And if you don’t know what daikon is,

you’re probably not going to order it. Sometimes people aren’t very adventurous eaters and won’t choose something that they’re not used to, so I like getting people to try it. And every time, they’re shocked with the flavor.

Outside of your own, what’s a local dish that you’ve tried in the last month that completely blew you away, and why?

There’s so many. Have you heard of the food truck Guajiro Cuban Comfort Food? ... My wife got the Cuban sandwich, and it blew her mind — the pickles, the mustard, the pork, the cheese was all melty. I got fried pork bits and sweet fried plantains. I don’t know what they did, but the plantains were extra caramelized, so they were extra sweet. And they were ripe enough where I think they caramelized even more. The pork shoulder was marinated and deep-fried extra crispy. And it

was served with a vinegary pepper and red onion salad, almost like a salsa. My mouth is watering!

What’s a good seasonal ingredient underrepresented in home cooking?

We are very fortunate in this area to grow so much produce, and I think the farmers here do a fantastic job of growing everything possible. But right now we’re into summer turnips, specifically hakurei turnips, which are Japanese. They’re smaller, they’re white and their stems are beautiful and green and leafy.

The greens are mild flavors, juicier and kind of spicier than kale. And the turnips are just like the texture of a radish. So you could use them the same way you cook daikon. You could braise them, blanch them or boil them and then give them a nice pan syrup like butter or my chili oil.

I don’t think enough people eat turnips because at the farmers markets, I’m standing beside farmers with turnips on their table. People are constantly like, “Oh, what are those?”

I grew up eating turnips. Let’s say we had braised pork belly or beef, we would just throw turnips in there. They’re like a sponge and soak up all the broth. Or you can grill them. But my new thing is eating them raw with my chili oil and citrus and a squeeze of lime. Especially for summertime, it’s very refreshing.

What cuisine would you like to see represented more in Asheville?

I would say Asian cuisine, and we’ll go specific and say Cantonese food. I think that’s why I do it. I think that’s why people are very open and embrace me in this town, because we are missing it. I just think there needs to be more of it.

What’s a favorite food destination within driving distance of Asheville that readers should add to their list?

For me, it’s Atlanta. And I think it’s because it reminds me of Toronto in a sense. You can have any kind of cuisine possible. I’ve been there for Chinese food — dim sum, Chinese bakeries, char siu bao. There’s also Korean, Thai, really good Ethiopian and Mediterranean food.

Atlanta also has Ponce City Market, and it’s like being in Toronto, New York, or D.C. You walk into this food hall and you have all ethnicities being represented. Asheville needs that.

Who would you like to see us dish with next month?

I’d like to recommend chef Queenie Mcleod who owns Queens Island Cuisine food truck. In Toronto, I grew up with a lot of West Indian kids, so those flavors are very familiar to me. The first time I visited her food truck, I got the oxtail and the chicken curry, and it was out of this world. I like true island food. It’s good stuff.

TURN UP FOR TURNIPS: Chef J Chong poses with her version of lo bak go, or turnip cakes. Photo by Andy Hall

What’s new in food

Sweets & Seats serves French pastries and furniture options

Making desserts for a living has been Kanas Lam’s dream since she was a little girl — one that just came true late last month when her new cafe, Sweets & Seats, opened downtown.

The menu consists of coffee drinks, all-natural bubble teas and Taiwanese shaved ice with housemade syrups. The walk-up counter showcases French pastries made by Lam, who earned her Diplôme de Pâtisserie from Le Cordon Bleu Taiwan right before the pandemic. A native of Hong Kong who grew up in New York City, Lam arrived in Asheville a little over a year and a half ago.

Lam is no stranger to the food industry. Throughout her life she’s launched a number of restaurants. But until now, her culinary focus leaned more toward the savory than

the sweet. “This is my dream,” she says. “I love to create — and with dessert, I can create pretty things.”

After Lam semiretired five years ago, she started making desserts at home to share with friends. At the time, her son had just graduated from college, and she says she was experiencing empty-nest syndrome. Eventually, she began taking her desserts to employees at Red Ginger Dimsum & Tapas, which is owned by her sister-in-law, Mary Medvedev

“People loved it, and they’d ask why don’t I open a pastry shop,” Lam remembers. “I was sitting outside on the porch [at Red Ginger], and I laughed, ‘Yeah, maybe right across the street!’ I wasn’t serious at that time. And then it happened.”

Despite its name, Sweets & Seats is not a reference to the space’s large seating area and ample chairs. Rather, modern outdoor furniture samples from the Higold Group fill much of the lounge and are available to order via catalog or online. Lam says she wanted to meet Asheville’s outdoorsy interests with a new, modern outdoor concept.

The cafe is currently open Monday, Wednesday and Thursday, noon-9 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 9 a.m.-10 p.m.; and Sunday, 9 a.m.-8 p.m. But Lam is hoping to open at 7:30 a.m. on certain days in the near future to serve coffee and traditional Chinese milk buns to early birds.

Lam says although opening a brand-new business isn’t easy, she feels rewarded. “I fell in love with making pastries because I love to see the joy on people’s faces when they

try them. And every time I make dessert, it also makes me happy.”

Sweets & Seats is at 81 Patton Ave. For more information, visit avl.mx/cvi.

Extra mayo

People in the South are almost as passionate about their mayonnaise choices as they are about their barbecue. On Thursday, Aug. 3, fans of Charlotte-based Duke’s Mayonnaise can slather on the love for its mascot, Tubby, from 9-11 a.m. in Pack Square Park.

Stu Helm, an Asheville food blogger and tour guide, invited the mascot to town. “Put your mayonnaise-eating pants on,” Helm wrote in a social media post, encouraging locals to come out in support.

“I’m from up North, and my last name is Helm, so take a guess which mayonnaise I grew up eating,” he says. “As soon as I got down to Asheville, though, I started hearing about Duke’s — not just from home cooks, but from fancy chefs and eat-

ers of all kinds. Once I tried it myself, I was like, ‘Yeah, that’s way better,’ and I have never looked back.”

City Council members will share the stage with Tubby and will present him with a spatula-shaped key to the city, designed and created by local artist Zen Sutherland. In case of rain or extreme heat, Tubby will be at Twisted Laurel Downtown Asheville at 130 College St.

Pack Square Park is at 80 Court Plaza. For more information, visit avl.mx/prxg.

A history of spirits

An award-winning documentary debunking myths about moonshining will debut on PBS NC on Thursday, Aug. 3, at 10 p.m. “The Spirits Still Move Them” features interviews with three dozen moonshiners and their families in Western North Carolina, east Tennessee and South Carolina.

The film was created by David Weintraub, executive director of the Center for Cultural Preservation,

SWEET DREAMS ARE MADE OF THIS: Kanas Lam poses with the French pastries she makes from scratch at her new dessert cafe, Sweets & Seats.

Photo by Andy Hall

a nonprofit in Hendersonville. According to Weintraub, “Everything we know about moonshiners and moonshining history is wrong.”

Weintraub says he makes films to uncover the real Appalachian heritage from under layers of mythology and falsehood, so that we can learn from the wisdom, creativity and resilience of our elders.

“The myth that all moonshiners are violent, lazy, drunk criminals hiding in the woods wearing long beards and longer arrest records has been recounted by the media for over 100 years,” he says in a press release. “In reality, liquor production was hard, backbreaking work that only the most entrepreneurial farmers conducted, which they did in order to survive difficult circumstances and put food on the table. It’s a fascinating story and far more interesting than the myths and distortions we’ve heard.”

For more information, visit avl.mx/prxi.

Top chefs

A-B Tech’s Culinary Arts team took home second place in the American Culinary Federation’s National Finals in New Orleans in July.

The student team secured its spot in the national contest in March by winning the Southeast Region at a qualifying competition in Overland Park, Kan. The team consisted of captain Jason Gray , Nickolas Abbott , Corrine Dowd , Abbey Franklin, Yajaira Marlen SandovalCastenada and Ashley Neri, and was led by coaches Chris Bugher and Stephen Hertz

“It has been a long, hard road to get these students to this point,” says Bugher, noting that the initial tryouts began in the fall.

He says the group’s wide age range, 19-52, made their team dynamic interesting. “They really

came together in May as we traveled to Kansas and competed.”

After placing in the final four, Bugher says, “we buckled down and everyone really put their heart into it.” This year’s competition marks a record-setting 14th time an A-B Tech student team has competed for the national title.

For more information on A-B Tech’s Culinary Arts and Hospitality Program, visit avl.mx/cjo.

Tacos, disco and an adult happy meal

West Asheville’s Taco Boy is offering some new options for both the brunch and late-night crowds.

Starting Sunday, Aug. 6, and running each Sunday throughout the month, the Daytime Disco Sunday Brunch will take place 10 a.m.-2 p.m.

“Boozy brunch pitchers” of house margaritas and frozen screwdrivers will be available, while DJ Dr. Get Right will offer “groovy, pool-partystyle vibes” on the patio.

For those wanting their Tex-Mex later in the evening, the restaurant is extending its hours to 9 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday, with a late-night menu consisting of shareables such as nachos and Mexican street corn. The newest item, the Adult Happy Meal, includes two tacos, a beer, a tequila shot and a “surprise.”

“We love the all-in-one solution for a late night meal that you don’t have to think too much about,” says Taco Boy founder and co-owner Karalee Nielson Fallert. “We also love the nostalgia and smile that the happy meal brings to everyone.”

Taco Boy is at 521 Haywood Road. For more information, visit avl.mx/byw.

Around Town

Celebrating Cherokee language preservation

The Museum of the Cherokee Indian will hold a free, two-night community event celebrating the Cherokee language at the Chief Joyce Dugan Cultural Arts Center at Cherokee Central School at 7 p.m. Friday, Aug. 4, and Saturday, Aug. 5.

The Way We Speak the World will kick off on Friday with a screening of “Dadiwonisi (ᏓᏗᏬᏂᏏ),” or “We Will Speak.” This documentary chronicles the efforts of Cherokee activists, artists and educators to save Tsalagi, the Cherokee language. Members of the film’s production team will participate in a Q&A session following the screening.

On Saturday, a Cherokee language concert will feature Cherokee Nation musicians who contributed to the 2022 compilation album Anvdvnelisgi (

).

The event highlights the urgency of language preservation and honors those who are working to preserve, learn and teach Tsalagi. North Carolina’s Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians estimates that only 152 of its 16,800 enrolled members fluently speak the language.

“Some context that is important to know when talking about language preservation is that at one time, our language, culture, traditions and spirituality were actively being suppressed,” says Shana Bushyhead Condill (Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians), executive director of the Museum of the Cherokee Indian. “Until the late 1970s and the passage of the American Indian Religious Freedom Act, it was illegal for Native people to practice ceremony. I think it’s important to note that’s within my lifetime.

“My grandfather Robert Bushyhead was punished for speaking Cherokee and made a conscious decision not to teach his children, including my father, in order to protect them from what he suffered. All of us in that situation are what is known as second-language speakers because Cherokee is not our first language.”

In the 1980s, Condill’s grandfather realized the dangers of losing the language and worked with other tribal members to develop curricula to teach in schools. Now the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians has an immersion school, as well as a council of first-language speakers who maintain the language by consensus and collect oral histories developed by language

specialists. Cherokee Central School also has a strong Tsalagi program.

“Through oral traditions, our Cherokee culture has been able to survive for millions of years,” says Shennelle Feather (Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, Diné, Lakota), education program manager at the museum, in a press release. “This event is honoring our language through film and music — two modern ways of sharing stories — and proves that we are still using oral history to teach the world and remind ourselves that we are still here. That our language is not dead, it is living, it is and can evolve just like the people who speak it and have spoken it since time immemorial.”

Cherokee Central School is at 86 Elk Crossing Lane in Cherokee. Registration is required for the event. For more information, visit avl.mx/cvj.

Chef Moss, artist

Many recognize Elliott Moss as a chef but may be surprised to hear he considers himself an artist first.

On Friday, Aug. 4, 5-7 p.m., Moss’ art can be viewed during an opening event for his art show at Harvest Records. The show will consist mostly of watercolors, with some pencil and ink drawings, comic book-related art and photography.

“It’s a collection of things I’ve doodled or drawn or painted over the past year and a half,” says Moss. “It’s inspirations just from everyday life, like anything, or nothing in particular — it’s just whatever you see.”

Moss says he took an interest in art at a very young age. “I took every art class that was available, first through 12th grade. I gave up the dream of being a visual artist a long time ago, [thinking] there’s no way I could make a living doing that. But I’ve always kind of dabbled with media arts.”

This will be Moss’ first official art show in close to 20 years, since he shared a studio in Columbia, S.C. He says he picked up art again when he stopped drinking alcohol three years ago and was trying to find hobbies that would “give me something to do and keep my mind off things.” He used to live across the street from Harvest Records, and he reached out to the owners in January about putting together a show.

Moss will bring his portable wood grill to the event and will cook kebabs

SAVING TSALAGI: Songwriter Kalyn Fay (Cherokee Nation, Muscogee Creek), who performs on the album Anvdvnelisgi (

), will perform at The Way We Speak with the World on Aug. 5. Photo courtesy of the Museum of the Cherokee Indian

and vegetables. “I’ll be there just to hang out and chat with anybody who wants to talk about my art,” he says. “I’m excited to see some friends and some new faces out there.”

Moss’ art will remain on display at the record shop during August.

Harvest Records is at 415 Haywood Road. For more information, visit avl.mx/prxh.

‘The Granddaddy’ of all festivals

The oldest continually running folk festival in the nation will take place at UNC Asheville’s Lipinsky Auditorium from Thursday, Aug. 3-Saturday, Aug. 5, at 7 p.m.

Nicknamed “The Granddaddy” of all festivals, the 96th Mountain Dance & Folk Festival will feature the traditions of the Southern Appalachian mountains through over 60 performances of music, dance and storytelling each evening.

In addition, the third Youth Talent Celebration will be held in the auditorium on Saturday, 2-4 p.m., with around 75 students and their instructors showcasing how these traditions are being continued.

The festival began in 1928 when folklorist Bascom Lamar Lunsford was asked by the city of Asheville to create a showcase that would promote Appalachian music, dance and storytelling during that year’s Rhododendron Festival. The popularity of the event led to the creation of the Mountain Dance & Folk Festival.

Making a statement

Local self-taught designer and artist Sala Menaya will hold a fashion show in honor of Black community leaders on Friday, Aug. 4, 6-8:30 p.m., at the Foundry Hotel Asheville.

The invitation-only show will feature Menaya’s statement neckpieces, which are inspired by the African diaspora. The models are the 23 honorees, who include Asheville City Manager Debra Campbell and Buncombe County Sheriff Quentin Miller. Jazz vocalist Kat Williams will perform.

Menaya began creating while living in Savannah, Ga., making large headpieces to be worn in the city’s annual St. Patrick’s Day parade. She then began to make handbags, accessories and jewelry with both beads and fabric. She says she learned from the women in her family that “accessorizing makes the outfit.”

Menaya first shared her creations on social media and in October 2021 left her job to make jewelry full time.

Magical Offerings

August Stone: Carnelian

August Herb: Calendula

BOS Class 2pm

Veneration Class 3pm

8/16: NEW MOON in Leo Reader: Jonathan 1-6pm Kids Story & Craft time with Sky 2pm

Handmade products from over 40 local vendors!

“The preservation of these music, dance and storytelling traditions keeps us grounded in who we are, and pays tribute to those on whose shoulders we stood to reach this time, in this place,” says festival co-chair Judy Miller.

Lipinsky Auditorium is in UNCA’s Lipinksy Hall at 300 Library Lane. For more information, visit avl.mx/7ut.

Arts for Schools grant applications

The Arts for Schools grant is open for applications, announces ArtsAVL, the designated arts agency for Buncombe County.

The grant is open to any 501(c)3 nonprofit arts organizations or qualified teaching artists in Buncombe County that will provide arts-focused performances, workshops, residencies and field trips for public school students in grades K-12. Grants range from $500 to $2,000. Applicants must have at least five years of experience working in arts education, and the programs proposed must align with North Carolina’s Common Core curriculum and standards. Projects should take place before June 30, 2024.

Priority will be given to projects benefiting underserved and economically disadvantaged schools and, secondarily, to multicultural programs — in keeping with ArtsAVL’s mission “to keep the arts at the heart of the community.”

For more information and to apply, visit avl.mx/cvl.

“I believe that one of my greatest inspirations is from my ancestors, as I just recently discovered through DNA that my people are from Cameroon — the Tikar tribe who are artists, artisans and storytellers,” she says. “They also specialize in creating intricate masks. It explained to me why I do what I do.”

Menaya notes that the honorees she chose have inspired her with their work in the community and reflect her own values.

“It is my hope that this event will be one that showcases in a different way the beauty, strength, resilience, greatness and power that we hold as Black people in Asheville.”

The Foundry Hotel is at 51 S. Market St. For more information, visit avl.mx/cvk.

— Andy Hall  X

MOVIE REVIEWS

BARBIE: Oh, to have been in the home of filmmakers/ partners Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach while they crafted this inspired silliness! Grade: B-plus — Edwin Arnaudin

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 2

ALLEY CAT AVL

Karaoke Dance Party, 8pm

FRENCH BROAD

RIVER BREWERY

Bluegrass Jam w/The Saylor Brothers, 6:30pm

HIGHLAND BREWING

CO.

Songwriter Series w/ Matt Smith, 6pm

JACK OF THE WOOD

PUB

Old Time Jam, 5pm

OKLAWAHA BREWING CO.

FBVMA: Mountain Music Jam, 6pm

ONE STOP AT

ASHEVILLE MUSIC HALL

Hump Day Hootenanny (rock, funk), 10pm

ONE WORLD BREWING WEST

Latin Night w/DJ Mtn Vibez, 8:30pm

SOVEREIGN KAVA

Poetry Open Mic, 8pm

THE ODD

Flying Too Close To

The Sun, EvilLeaf & Kalgon (post-metal, doom-metal), 8pm

RABBIT RABBIT

Dirty Heads w/Lupe

Fiasco, Little Stranger & Bikini Trill (reggae rock), 5:30pm

TWIN LEAF BREWERY

Wednesday Open Mic, 5:30pm

WHITE HORSE BLACK

MOUNTAIN

Irish Music Circle, 7pm

THURSDAY, AUGUST 3

AMAZING PUBCYCLE

The Office Trivia Night, 6pm

ASHEVILLE GUITAR BAR

The MGB's (acoustic), 7:30pm

BATTERY PARK BOOK EXCHANGE

Mike Kenton & Jim Tanner (jazz), 5:30pm

DIFFERENT WRLD

Talk Bazaar, Lavender

Blue & Annie Jo (psych, indie), 8pm

FRENCH BROAD

RIVER BREWERY

Jerry's Dead (Grateful Dead & JGB Tribute), 6pm

GREEN MAN BREWERY

Robert's Totally Rad Trivia, 7pm

HIGHLAND BREWING

DOWNTOWN TAPROOM

Not Rocket Science Trivia, 6pm

JACK OF THE WOOD

PUB

Bluegrass Jam w/Drew Matulich, 7:30pm

LA TAPA LOUNGE

Iggy Radio (southern-rock), 7pm

ONE WORLD BREWING

Muddy Guthrie (Americana, rock, blues), 8pm

ONE WORLD BREWING WEST

Andre Lasalle Frequencies (rock, R&B, soul), 8pm

PISGAH BREWING CO.

Mike Rhodes Fellowship (multiple genres), 6:30pm

THE DFR LOUNGE

Steve Simon & The Kings of Jazz (Latin, jazz), 7pm

THE ODD

The Absurd, The Build & Sun Goblin (rock, Americana), 7pm

THE ROOT BAR

Kendra & Friends (multiple genres), 6pm

URBAN ORCHARD Trivia Thursday, 7pm

WNC OUTDOOR COLLECTIVE Trivia, 6:30pm

SOUTHERN FOLK TROUBADOUR: Master acoustic guitarist Rod Abernethy performs at White Horse Black Mountain on Sunday, Aug., 6, at 7:30 p.m., with the award-winning songwriter and composer bringing his unique take on Southern folk music to the stage. Photo courtesy of Jonathan Byrd

WRONG WAY CAMPGROUND

Don't Tell Comedy: West Asheville, 7pm

FRIDAY, AUGUST 4

305 LOUNGE & EATERY

Geriatric Jukebox (oldies), 5pm

ASHEVILLE GUITAR BAR

Mr Jimmy's Friday Night Blues, 8pm

BEN'S TUNE UP

EK Balam (reggaeton, hip-hop), 8pm

BLACK MOUNTAIN BREWING

Dark City Kings (garage-rock, country, pop), 6pm

CATAWBA BREWING CO. SOUTH SLOPE

ASHEVILLE

• Comedy at Catawba: Kate Willett (early show), 7pm

• Comedy at Catawba: Kate Willett (late show), 9:30pm

CORK & KEG

Zydeco Ya Ya (Cajun, Zydeco), 8pm

CROW & QUILL

Sweet Megg (hot-jazz), 8pm

DIFFERENT WRLD

Wifi Mommy, Bedtimestory & Boys_Camp (house, disco, hip hop), 9:30pm

GINGER'S REVENGE

CRAFT BREWERY & TASTING ROOM

Frances Eliza (jazz, indie-folk, pop), 6pm

HIGHLAND BREWING

DOWNTOWN

TAPROOM

Drag Music Bingo w/ Divine the Bearded Lady, 7pm

JACK OF THE WOOD PUB

• Honky-Tonk Fridays w/Jackson Grimm, 4pm

• The Old Chevrolette Set (country, honkytonk), 9pm

LA TAPA LOUNGE

Open Mic Night w/ Hamza, 8pm

OKLAWAHA BREWING CO.

TrancEnd (prog-rock), 8pm ONE WORLD BREWING

5J Barrow Friday Nights (folk), 8pm

RABBIT RABBIT

Shakey Graves & Trampled By Turtles (folk, country, alt-indie), 6:30pm

SALVAGE STATION

Stephen Marley w/ Artikal Sound System (reggae), 6:30pm

SHILOH & GAINES

Chilltonic (alt-rock, hip-hop, folk), 9pm

SILVERADOS

Hinder w/Saliva & Contagious (rock), 7pm

URBAN ORCHARD

Cider Celts (Celtic, folk, old-time), 6pm

WXYZ BAR AT ALOFT

Muddy Guthrie (Americana, rock, blues), 7pm

SATURDAY, AUGUST 5

12 BONES BREWERY

Tuxedo Junction (covers), 6pm

27 CLUB

Southron Rancor, Logos & Logselectricspacewhistle (experimental, synth), 9pm

ALLEY CAT AVL

Karaoke Dance Party, 8pm

ASHEVILLE CLUB

Mr Jimmy (blues), 7pm

ASHEVILLE GUITAR

BAR

Two Bird Stone w/Adam Booker (Americana), 8pm

BATTERY PARK BOOK

EXCHANGE

Dinah's Daydream (jazz), 5:30pm

BEN'S TUNE UP

Jaze Uries (house, electronic), 8pm

BLACK MOUNTAIN BREWING

Wife Island (folk-rock, jazz, country), 6pm

CROW & QUILL

Meschiya Lake's Nola Sextet (jazz), 8pm

FOUR POINTS BY SHERATON

Comedy Hypnosis w/ Jon Dee, 8am

GINGER'S REVENGE

Don't Tell Comedy: River Arts District, 8pm

HIGHLAND BREWING

DOWNTOWN

TAPROOM

Up Jumped 3 (jazz), 7pm

JACK OF THE WOOD PUB

• Nobody's Darling String Band, 4pm

• Dark City Kings (garage-rock, country, pop), 9pm

LA TAPA LOUNGE

Karaoke Night, 9pm

OKLAWAHA BREWING CO.

Samsun (techno, funk, dance), 8pm

RABBIT RABBIT

Silent Disco: Madonna v. Britney, 9pm

SHILOH & GAINES

Lazybirds (roots, blues, jazz), 9pm

SILVERADOS

Ward Davis w/Jon Cox & Jason Whitaker (country), 7pm

THE BURGER BAR

Best Worst Karaoke, 9pm

URBAN ORCHARD CIDER CO. SOUTH SLOPE

80's Dance Night, 7pm

SUNDAY, AUGUST 6

APPALACHIAN RIDGE

ARTISAN CIDERY

Geriatric Jukebox (oldies), 2:30pm

BLACK MOUNTAIN BREWING

Billy Presnell (folk, Americana), 2pm

CATAWBA BREWING

CO. SOUTH SLOPE

ASHEVILLE

Comedy at Catawba: Rob Haze, 6pm

CROW & QUILL

DJ Dr. Filth (jazz, soul, R&B), 9pm

FRENCH BROAD

RIVER BREWERY

Reggae Sunday w/ Chalwa, 3pm

JACK OF THE WOOD PUB

• Bluegrass Brunch, 1pm

• Traditional Irish Jam, 3:30pm

ONE WORLD BREWING WEST Sunday Jazz Jam, 1:30pm

PISGAH BREWING CO. Pisgah Sunday Jam, 6:30pm

SOVEREIGN KAVA

Aaron Woody Wood (Appalachia, soul, Americana), 7pm

TACO BOY WEST

ASHEVILLE Daytime Disco Sunday Brunch, 10am

WHITE HORSE BLACK MOUNTAIN Rod Abernethy (acoustic, folk), 7:30pm

PLĒB URBAN WINERY

Robert's Totally Rad Trivia, 4pm

MONDAY, AUGUST 7

27 CLUB Karaoke Monday, 10pm

DSSOLVR Robert's Totally Rad Trivia, 7pm

HIGHLAND BREWING CO.

Totally Rad Trivia w/ Mitch Fortune, 6pm

JACK OF THE WOOD PUB

Quizzo! Pub Trivia w/ Jason Mencer, 7:30pm

OKLAWAHA BREWING CO.

It Takes All Kinds Open Mic Nights, 7pm

ONE WORLD BREWING

Open Mic Downtown, 8pm

ONE WORLD BREWING WEST

Mashup Mondays w/ The JLloyd Mashup Band, 8pm

THE JOINT NEXT DOOR

Mr Jimmy & Friends (blues), 7pm

THE MONTE VISTA HOTEL Music Mondays, 5pm

THE RAD BREW CO. Trivia w/Billy, 7pm

WHITE HORSE BLACK MOUNTAIN Jay Brown (roots, blues, jazz), 7pm

TUESDAY, AUGUST 8

FRENCH BROAD BREWERY

Robert's Totally Rad Trivia, 7pm

SHILOH & GAINES

Songwriter Night, 7pm

OKLAWAHA BREWING CO. Team Trivia, 7pm

ONE WORLD BREWING WEST

The Grateful Family Band Tuesdays (Grateful Dead tribute), 6pm

VOTED

WNC #1 KAVA BAR

AVL Fest at Sovereign Kava

THURSDAY, AUGUST 3RD

Poetry Cabaret: Asheville Poets Showcase, 6:30-8pm Chikomo Marimba Band, 8:30-11pm

FRIDAY, AUGUST 4TH

Darien Crossley, 5-6pm

Thomas Kozak and the Poets, 6:30-7:30pm

Asheville Hip Hop Showcase, 8pm-12am

AUGUST

SALVAGE STATION

Black Flag w/Greg Ginn & Mike Vallely (punk), 7pm

SOVEREIGN KAVA

Weekly Open Jam

hosted by Chris Cooper & Friends, 6:30pm

STATIC AGE RECORDS

Melanie A. Davis w/ Kathryn O’Shea & Claire Hoke (indie, folk), 8pm

THE BURGER BAR

C U Next Tuesday Trivia, 9pm

THE GREY EAGLE

Patio: Brooks Forsyth & Shay Martin Lovette (Americana), 5:30pm

THE ODD

Open Mic Comedy, 8pm

THE ORANGE PEEL

Glaive w/Origami Angel & Polo Perks (emo, pop), 8pm

WHITE HORSE BLACK

MOUNTAIN

White Horse Open Mic, 7pm

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 9

12 BONES BREWERY

Robert's Totally Rad Trivia, 7pm

ALLEY CAT AVL

Karaoke Dance Party, 8pm

BLACK MOUNTAIN BREWING

Jay Brown (roots, blues, jazz), 6pm

FRENCH BROAD

RIVER BREWERY

Bluegrass Jam w/ The Saylor Brothers, 6:30pm

HIGHLAND BREWING CO.

Songwriter Series w/ Matt Smith, 6pm

JACK OF THE WOOD PUB

Old Time Jam, 5pm

LA TAPA LOUNGE

Bike Night w/Connor

Hunt (Appalachian, country), 6pm

OKLAWAHA BREWING CO.

FBVMA: Mountain Music Jam, 6pm

ONE WORLD BREWING WEST

Latin Night w/DJ Mtn Vibez, 8:30pm

SHILOH & GAINES

Trivia Night, 7pm

SOVEREIGN KAVA

Poetry Open Mic, 8pm

THE ODD

Sick Ride, Spill Mill & Tight (rock, disco-rock, garage), 7pm

WHITE HORSE BLACK

MOUNTAIN Irish Music Circle, 7pm

THURSDAY, AUGUST 10

AMAZING PUBCYCLE

The Office Trivia Night, 6pm

BATTERY PARK

BOOK EXCHANGE

Mike Kenton & Jim Tanner (jazz), 5:30pm

BLACK MOUNTAIN

BREWING

Ashley Heath (Americana, blues), 6pm

CROW & QUILL

Sparrow & Her Wingmen (swing, jazz), 8pm

FLEETWOOD'S Colossal Human Failure, Blistering

Dissonance & Call the Next Witness (punk), 9pm

FRENCH BROAD

RIVER BREWERY

Jerry's Dead (Grateful Dead & JGB Tribute), 6pm

HIGHLAND BREWING

DOWNTOWN

TAPROOM Not Rocket Science Trivia, 6pm

JACK OF THE WOOD PUB

Bluegrass Jam w/Drew

Matulich, 7:30pm

OKLAWAHA BREWING CO. Paul Edelman (folk, rock'n'roll), 7pm

ONE WORLD BREWING

Jody Carroll (Americana, folk, blues), 8pm

ONE WORLD BREWING WEST

André Lassalle Frequencies (soul, blues), 8pm

PISGAH BREWING

CO.

Brushfire Stankgrass (bluegrass), 6:30pm

SHILOH & GAINES

Karaoke Night, 8pm

SALVAGE STATION

Trouble No More (Allman Brothers tribute), 7pm

SOVEREIGN KAVA

Django Jazz Jam, 7pm

THE DFR LOUNGE

Steve Simon & The Kings of Jazz (Latin, jazz), 7pm

THE GREY EAGLE

The Supersuckers w/ The Rumours (rock, punk), 8pm

THE ROOT BAR

Kendra & Friends (multiple genres), 6pm

URBAN ORCHARD

Trivia Thursday, 7pm

WNC OUTDOOR COLLECTIVE Trivia, 6:30pm

WHITE HORSE BLACK MOUNTAIN David Cody & Michael J, 7:30pm

ARIES (March 21-April 19): Emotions are not inconvenient distractions from reason and logic. They are key to the rigorous functioning of our rational minds. Neurologist Antonio Damasio proved this conclusively in his book Descartes’ Error: Emotion, Reason, and the Human Brain The French philosopher’s famous formula — “I think, therefore I am” — offers an inadequate suggestion about how our intelligence works best. This is always true, but it will be especially crucial for you to keep in mind during the coming weeks. Here’s your mantra, courtesy of another French philosopher, Blaise Pascal: “The heart has its reasons, which reason does not know.”

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): The famous Taurus TV star Jay Leno once did a good deed for me. I was driving my Honda Accord on a freeway in Los Angeles when he drove up beside me in his classic Lamborghini. Using hand signals, he conveyed to me the fact that my trunk was open, and stuff was flying out. I waved in a gesture of thanks and pulled over onto the shoulder. I found that two books and a sweater were missing, but my laptop and briefcase remained. Hooray for Jay! In that spirit, Taurus, and in accordance with current astrological omens, I invite you to go out of your way to help and support strangers and friends alike. I believe it will lead to unexpected benefits.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): “Did you learn how to think or how to believe?” When my friend Amelie was nine years old, her father teased her with this query upon her return home from a day at school. It was a pivotal moment in her life. She began to develop an eagerness to question all she was told and taught. She cultivated a rebellious curiosity that kept her in a chronic state of delighted fascination. Being bored became virtually impossible. The whole world was her classroom. Can you guess her sign? Gemini! I invite you to make her your role model in the coming weeks.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): In the coming weeks, I advise you not to wear garments like a transparent Gianfranco Ferre black mesh shirt with a faux-tiger fur vest and a coral-snake jacket that shimmers with bright harlequin hues. Why? Because you will have most success by being down-to-earth, straightforward, and in service to the fundamentals. I’m not implying you should be demure and reserved, however. On the contrary: I hope you will be bold and vivid as you present yourself with simple grace and lucid authenticity.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): In 1811, Leo scientist Amedeo Avogadro (1776–1856) formulated a previously unknown principle about the properties of molecules. Unfortunately, his revolutionary idea wasn’t acknowledged and implemented until 1911, 100 years later. Today his well-proven theory is called Avogadro’s law. According to my analysis of the astrological omens, Leo, you will experience your equivalent of his 1911 event in the coming months. You will receive your proper due. Your potential contributions will no longer be mere potential. Congratulations in advance!

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Israeli poet Yona Wallach mourned the fact that her soul felt far too big for her, as if she were always wearing the clothes of a giant on her small body. I suspect you may be experiencing a comparable feeling right now, Virgo. If so, what can you do about it? The solution is NOT to shrink your soul. Instead, I hope you will expand your sense of who you are so your soul fits better. How might you do that? Here’s a suggestion to get you started: Spend time summoning memories from throughout your past. Watch the story of your life unfurl like a movie.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Nineteenth-century Libran physician James Salisbury had strong ideas about the proper ingredients of a healthy diet. Vegetables were toxic, he believed. He created Salisbury steak, a dish made of ground beef and onions, and advised everyone to eat

it three times a day. Best to wash it down with copious amounts of hot water and coffee, he said. I bring his kooky ideas to your attention in hopes of inspiring you to purge all bunkum and nonsense from your life — not just in relation to health issues, but everything. It’s a favorable time to find out what’s genuinely good and true for you. Do the necessary research and investigation.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): “I’m amazed that anyone gets along!” marvels self-help author SARK. She says it’s astonishing that love ever works at all, given our “idiosyncrasies, unconscious projections, re-stimulations from the past, and the relationship history of our partners.” I share her wonderment. On the other hand, I am optimistic about your chances to cultivate interesting intimacy during the coming months. From an astrological perspective, you are primed to be extra wise and lucky about togetherness. If you send out a big welcome for the lessons of affection, collaboration, and synergy, those lessons will come in abundance.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Please don’t make any of the following statements in the next three weeks: 1. “I took a shower with my clothes on.” 2. “I prefer to work on solving a trivial little problem rather than an interesting dilemma that means a lot to me.” 3. “I regard melancholy as a noble emotion that inspires my best work.” On the other hand, Sagittarius, I invite you to make declarations like the following: 1. “I will not run away from the prospect of greater intimacy — even if it’s scary to get closer to a person I care for.” 2. “I will have fun exploring the possibilities of achieving more liberty and justice for myself.” 3. “I will seek to learn interesting new truths about life from people who are unlike me.”

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Champions of the capitalist faith celebrate the fact that we consumers have over 100,000 brand names we can purchase. They say it’s proof of our marvelous freedom of choice. Here’s how I respond to their cheerleading: Yeah, I guess we should be glad we have the privilege of deciding which of 50 kinds of shampoo is best for us. But I also want to suggest that the profusion of these relatively inconsequential options may distract us from the fact that certain of our other choices are more limited. In the coming weeks, Capricorn, I invite you to ruminate about how you can expand your array of more important choices.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): My best friend in college was an Aquarius, as is my favorite cousin. Two ex-girlfriends are Aquarians, and so was my dad. The talented singer with whom I sang duets for years was an Aquarius. So I have intimate knowledge of the Aquarian nature. And in honor of your unbirthday — the time halfway between your last birthday and your next — I will tell you what I love most about you. No human is totally comfortable with change, but you are more so than others. To my delight, you are inclined to ignore the rule books and think differently. Is anyone better than you at coordinating your energies with a group’s? I don’t think so. And you’re eager to see the big picture, which means you’re less likely to get distracted by minor imperfections and transitory frustrations. Finally, you have a knack for seeing patterns that others find hard to discern. I adore you!

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Is the first sip always the best? Do you inevitably draw the most vivid enjoyment from the initial swig of coffee or beer? Similarly, are the first few bites of food the most delectable, and after that your taste buds get diminishing returns? Maybe these descriptions are often accurate, but I believe they will be less so for you in the coming weeks. There’s a good chance that flavors will be best later in the drink or the meal. And that is a good metaphor for other activities, as well. The further you go into every experience, the greater the pleasure and satisfaction will be — and the more interesting the learning.

FREEWILL ASTROLOGY BY ROB BREZSNY

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MENTAL HEALTH THERAPIST Blue Ridge Treks is seeking a full-time mental health therapist to serve participants ages 10+. Must have strong experience integrating nature and experiential techniques. Master's degree/ full state license required. Please email a resume to blueridgetreks@ gmail.com

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ACROSS

1 Sport of climbing mountains

9 SAG-___ (broadcast workers’ union)

14 See 3-Down

15 See 10-Down

16 Providers of in-flight entertainment?

17 Cold sauces

18 Parlor decoration, for short

19 Bit of braggadocio

21 Target of CRISPR editing

22 Fabric derived from wood pulp

25 Former Mideast alliance, in brief

27 Org. that looks into cases

28 Display utter contempt for

30 “You’re So Vain” singer Carly

32 With all one’s heart

33 Operative with access

37 Tokarczuk who won the 2018 Nobel Prize in Literature

38 See 30-Down

39 Having a fermented quality

40 Loses everything

42 See 35-Down

43 Saxophonist who pioneered modal jazz, to fans

44 Fruity red

45 Noted seashell seller?

48 Ceremonial sash

49 Rubbernecks

50 Match point?

52 Onetime boxy Toyota

54 Asian peninsula: Abbr.

57 Cell with pseudopods

59 See 44-Down

62 See 58-Down

63 Currency zone whose members include Finland and Malta

64 Struck, biblically

65 Advice on a fashion blog

DOWN

1 Pit-___

2 Organa who’s also a Skywalker

3 With 14-Across, first (and last) gift of a seasonal song

4 Part of a return address?

5 To the ___ power

6 Classic collection from the magazines Super Science Stories and Astounding Science Fiction

7 Attach, as a button

8 Feature of the Painted Desert

9 Yellowfin tuna

10 With 15-Across, cause of some hoarseness

11 Flat sign, maybe

12 Comes down

13 Completely disoriented

15 Straw mats

20 From Lausanne, par exemple

23 Finally

24 “Woo-hoo!”

26 Apt name for an angler

28 Air quality concern

29 ___ Alto

30 With 38-Across, hidden traitor

31 Largest city in New Jersey

33 Like a free ride when you’ve already paid, per a 1996 hit

34 Little attire

35 With 42-Across, source of restless anticipation

36 Wall St. landmark

38 Tries to get hold of

41 “Dude”

42 Seating on Sunday

44 With 59-Across, harbinger of danger

45 Cleans, as a deck

46 Stereotypical shout-out on a jumbotron

47 Prefix meaning budget-friendly

49 Recede 51 Superman, most of the time

53 Clinches

55 R.E.M.’s “The ___ Love”

56 Bring in the sheaves, say

58 With 62-Across, persistent little obsession

60 Reaction to a funny GIF

61 Endeavour astronaut Jemison