10.07.20 Mountain Xpress

OUR 27TH YEAR OF WEEKLY INDEPENDENT NEWS, ARTS & EVENTS FOR WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA VOL. 27 NO. 10 OCT. 7-13, 2020

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OCT. 7-13, 2020

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OCT. 7-13, 2020

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C ONT ENTS

WELLNESS

FEATURE

NEWS

FEATURES 7 SILENCED BY VIOLENCE Remembrance Project spotlights Buncombe County’s history of racial terror

13 COVID CONVERSATIONS Tom Elmore marks 70 years with 700 miles

PAGE 12 LOVE BUG How did the unselfish impulses of a Florida meditation teacher and a Hollywood actress lead Asheville residents to help one another out during the COVID-19 crisis? Through the internet, of course, and via the local generosity tapped by the nonprofit Pandemic of Love.

COVER PHOTO Getty Images COVER DESIGN Scott Southwick 4 LETTERS

16 MAN OF MYSTERY Dogwood CEO Chiang takes unexplained leave of foundation

4 CARTOON: MOLTON 5 CARTOON: BRENT BROWN 7 NEWS

GREEN

13 BUNCOMBE BEAT 18 WOOLLY SITUATION Hemlock Restoration Initiative seeks long-term state support

13 COVID CONVERSATIONS 14 ASHEVILLE ARCHIVES 15 COMMUNITY CALENDAR

FOOD

16 WELLNESS 20 COMFORT ZONE Local cookbooks and chefs provide inspiration for cooler temps ahead

18 GREEN SCENE 20 FOOD 24 ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT 26 CLUBLAND

A&E

28 MOVIES 24 CINEMATIC FICTION Filmmaker Polly Schattel releases her debut novel

30 FREEWILL ASTROLOGY 30 CLASSIFIEDS 31 NY TIMES CROSSWORD

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OCT. 7-13, 2020

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OPINION

C AR T O O N B Y R AN DY M O L T O N

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

An RN working in hospitals and home care for over 40 years, I noticed racism.

Diagnosis of it as a public health emergency offers direction to its resolution. Unequal health care and having health care tethered to employment is a violence less obvious than police violence. As we demonstrate for transformation of police departments, the removal of statues and other symbols of racism, remember that unequal health care delivery to BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) is real, with lifelong and generational effects. I am so happy the Mission nurses now have a union to help them fight for the patient care issues that can be addressed with adequate staffing and equipment.

The current COVID-19 pandemic has laid bare the deep inequalities in our health system. The nation’s billionaires, all white, saw their combined net worth surge by $434 billion between March 18 and May 19 as ordinary Americans, particularly BIPOC, experience the economic toll of the pandemic. Black Americans are more than twice as likely (and in some states, seven times as likely) to die from the virus than whites. Physicians for National Health Program reports, “Among today’s 40-yearolds, whites will live nearly six years longer than Blacks. … Black mothers are twice as likely as white mothers to lack prenatal care and 320% more likely to die from pregnancy-related complications. Black babies are more than twice as likely to die than white babies.”

Connected with National Nurses United, which has been supporting health care for all from the beginning, they will be able

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to bring this consciousness to our area.

Health care from womb to tomb will begin to address the emergency and violence of racism that is perpetrated upon Black and brown bodies and will help everyone else, too. Candidates who support this are not only patriotic but protect our national security. Thank you, Mission nurses!

— Padma Dyvine Bat Cave

Get virus under control to boost local economy I am writing in response to Chris Campbell’s letter, “Asheville is Dead Forever Unless We Wake Up” [Sept.

30, Xpress]. Although I agree with Mr. Campbell that more should be done to keep local small businesses open, I disagree with his proposed methods and the questionable facts used to back up his theories.

Mr. Campbell has grossly misunderstood the Stanford paper upon which he bases his statement, “for the average individual aged 50-64, your odds of dying from COVID-19 are 1 in 19.1 million.” Although spread around by right-wing media as proof of an overhyped COVID-19 risk, this statistic appears nowhere in the paper. Not only was the study in question not meant to calculate the risks of dying from COVID-19 on a national basis, but the study’s author specifically claims that this right-wing media interpretation was a “misrepresentation of the study and findings.”

Stating that the “curve is flat” and that no county hospital system in the U.S. was overwhelmed by COVID-19 are also provably false statements. While some states have managed to bring COVID-19 rates

down with stricter social distancing/mask rules and reduced reopenings, a number of Midwest states, such as Montana and Wisconsin, are undergoing major spikes in cases. In July, hospitals all over South Texas were at or above capacity. Wisconsin health officials are currently debating opening field hospitals to accommodate the increase in COVID patients.

Mr. Campbell also fails to consider another aspect of COVID-19 that we are just beginning to understand. Hundreds of scientific studies have shown that even for patients who had mild forms of the virus, long-term effects of COVID-19 might result in serious, permanent health conditions, including cardiac abnormalities, brain conditions leading to strokes and seizures, kidney injury, liver function abnormalities and cognition difficulties. Doctors have seen other conditions, such as debilitating brain fog and fatigue, last for months after recovery from the virus.

In order to keep local businesses open, instead of encouraging the myth that COVID-19 is an overhyped virus or hoax, let’s take actions that actually work. I do agree with Mr. Campbell that when possible, we should shop local, forgoing the national chains when we can support a local business. However, more importantly, both mask and social distancing regulations should be enforced. As the head of the CDC stated in September, masking is even more powerful than a vaccine.

To boost our economy, we must get the pandemic under control. By spreading false information about the virus and encouraging anyone under 65 to ignore actual risk, Mr. Campbell is doing the opposite.

— SB McKinlay Asheville

Asheville’s new union nurses are heroes!

I met dedicated, hard workers at Mission Hospital in the three years I was a nurse there. Though I loved providing patient care, by the time I left, I swore I’d never work in a hospital again. The main reason for this was short staffing. Nurses endure intense schooling and training because they want a job helping people. It is heartbreaking when too often, they’re made to feel they are failing to do that because of short staffing and unreasonable workloads.

When nurses are worked so hard that they’re pushed to the breaking point, patients suffer from it, too. There’s a limit to the number of patients a nurse can safely assume responsibility for and a limit to the hours a nurse can go without time for bathroom, water or eating breaks. When profit motives push that limit to the max and beyond, quality of care pays the price, and nurses get the blame. These are the conditions I witnessed too often at my job, and that was before Mission was bought out

C AR T O O N B Y B R E N T B R O W N by a huge, for-profit corporation. It was also before the pandemic, which exacerbates short-staffing issues.

Nurses care about their patients and risk their lives caring for COVID patients in hospitals with inadequate PPE. To go above and beyond all of the already extremely exhausting and emotionally stressful work in these conditions in order to make the difficult effort to unionize — now, that is dedication.

Make no mistake, unions can be a vital tool in providing safe working conditions and safe, quality care for patients. But unions require participation by good people, as do democracies. It’s not easy, and it is time-consuming. These nurses deserve support and thanks from the community. Please encourage them in the coming weeks and months as they navigate their way to positive hospital reforms benefiting everyone.

— Lillie Wallace Former Asheville resident of 20-plus years Athens, Ga., area

A time for action, relearning and loving The future is open and ours to create.

The COVID-19 pandemic and worldwide demonstrations triggered by the George Floyd murder are an opportunity to remake our world. It is an absolute necessi-

ty. Reality has visited us with a vengeance, unveiling the economic and racial inequities that plague us and making visible the underlying shifts in society that have been simmering for years.

Local Veterans for Peace and nonviolent demonstrators in downtown Asheville show their patriotism by advocating fairness and justice for all. ... At their very best, peacemakers are expressing a vision of unity and building relationships. It is a sign of hope, a beacon of light for us. But it is not enough to just hope or talk about it. Action is required.

Nonviolent demonstrations reject not only destruction of property, but violent, demeaning language. We will never find peace within our hearts if we go on blaming and hating those who are different. The use of our free speech to fight violence with violence is merely a replacement of one diabolic force for another. Nonviolence needs an entirely different energy: the energy of love that heals and brings us closer. One cannot merely dabble at this. Participation is required.

Our problems are daunting. We can’t fix everything at once, nor can we merely rely on the government, but we can change ourselves. We can resist divisive language and support the ideals and virtues and allow the spirit to move our hearts. There is no action too small. We can pick one or two issues to focus on, or if this is not possible, simply pass on friendship, a smile or respect to people you come in contact with.

And, as many do, simply toot the horn or give a thumbs-up to the Veterans for Peace who vigil every Tuesday downtown.

We each have a gift to do our thing, but it may take living where your fear is. It requires you to leave your comfort zone. ... We can start by transforming our local schools. Parents, teachers, all of us have a profound moral and spiritual responsibility of educating our children and transforming our way of life reflected in politics, the media, colleges, entertainment, sports and religion. And we in our local areas need to accept this responsibility in our small part of the world.

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

Put trust in Davis’ experience and maturity I don’t typically write letters of support for political candidates, but this one time I am writing to my fellow “Unaffiliated” voters to urge support for Col. Moe Davis as our next congressman in N.C.-11. My reason can be summarized in one word: maturity. Like me, he is of a mature age.

He has seen and experienced a lot of life in his 60-plus years. Equally important, he has demonstrated maturity in thought and judgment. Apart from his more recent

work as a congressional staffer, law school professor and administrative law judge, he served with distinction as a career JAG officer in the U.S. Air Force. Yet when he was directed to compromise his principles, he chose instead to stand on principle, even at the expense of the advancement of his military career.

Throughout his campaign, he has offered policy statements relevant to all who live in N.C.-11, including health care, education, jobs and economic development. He has consistently offered a unifying message to all of us, irrespective of petty political distinctions. In a time of unprecedented national division, I want a representative who will speak to the better angels of our nature.

By contrast, his opponent, Mr. Madison Cawthorn, is both very young and quite inexperienced. He has completed no schooling beyond high school. He has yet to hold a full-time 40-hour/week job. And his behavior in the recent past has demonstrated a profound lack of judgment.

Let’s send someone to Congress whose career reflects significant education, training, relevant work experience — and maturity. I have no doubt that Mr. Cawthorn is a pleasant young man. If government is his goal, I recommend he start at the local level. For the present, I urge voters to put your trust in the experience and maturity of Col. Moe Davis.

— Richard R. (Dick) Benson Jr. Brevard

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OCT. 7-13, 2020

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OPINION

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

Looking at you, Asheville To all those who want names changed and statues torn down, you had better check out who Asheville is named after — yes, a major slaveowner. Please stop with the ridiculousness of all this.

— Betty Whitford Marshall

Increased deaths from ‘opening up’ aren’t worth it [Regarding “Asheville Is Dead Forever Unless We Wake Up,” Sept. 30, Xpress:] Wow, someone has really been drinking a lot of Kool-Aid during the lockdown. There are many statements in your letter that I could respond to, but instead I simply want to ask you to take some time to get your news and science from real news sites and real pandemic scientists. Or are you focused solely on Asheville and therefore can’t see the increased numbers in the Midwest and upper Midwest? Do you not see the increased positivity rate and the fact that hospitals are being overwhelmed and that the deaths continue to multiply in the nation at an alarming rate?

And my guess is that you don’t get real news from outside the country and therefore don’t know that most of Europe is in a second wave, and several countries and communities are about to go to total lockdown again.

The new pandemic czar (a radiologist by the way) touts just going ahead and “open up” to reach herd immunity; but if you just look mathematically at the 55%-60% of the population needed to be infected to get to “herd immunity” and suppose a death rate of 2%, it means that of the 327,239,523 population of America (in 2019) at a 1% fatality rate, we will need 3,272,395 people to die; if we can only lower the rate to 2%, we will lose 6,544,790. That is really unacceptable to me. If you want to volunteer to be one of them, go ahead, give it a try.

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We are suffering, we are facing changes at every level of society and are doing as best we can to survive and move forward.

But I, for one, think that the increased deaths from “opening” up are not worth it. As a nation, we have survived worse in history, and if we work together, mask, social distance, sanitize and listen to real experts, we will pull through this with far less deaths.

— Michael E. Beech Asheville

Has coronavirus gone postal?

From the onset of this pandemic to date, I have not seen a single postal delivery worker, privately or federally employed, wearing a mask or utilizing any other such protective equipment as recommended under official guidelines. Recently, I spoke with a shopkeeper who informed me that she had just encountered a delivery driver who became argumentative when she confronted him about not wearing a mask; he claimed he had one out in his work vehicle but refused to retrieve it.

She then expressed further concerns, telling me that she had a 3-month-old granddaughter living with her. I voiced my shared frustration over the incident, disclosing similar domestic circumstances of my own, to which she replied: “We’re all in this together.” Upon leaving, I asked if there was a public restroom on the premises I could use, doubting my luck. She told me they couldn’t accommodate anyone, but that I could use her private, employee bathroom. “It’s clean,” she said with a humble smile.

Of course, her experience, disconcerting as it was, came as no surprise. In fact, on one occasion, I witnessed a FedEx worker delivering a package to my door without gloves or a mask; he opened my porch door and left the package on the floor without knocking. But heading back to his truck, he exhibited such a belabored gait that I couldn’t determine if he was inordinately tired, sick or some combination thereof.

He was, indeed, walking so feebly and with such overexerted effort that I speculated whether he might actually have come down with coronavirus or some other such affliction and was nonetheless working due to enormous pressures recently imposed on delivery workers by their overtaxed employers.

I did some research on the subject and found a substantial amount of testimonies from postal workers attesting to the validity of this dilemma. Their stories range from being pushed to keep working without taking sick days to companywide peer pressure to refrain from wearing masks (and the attendant ridicule resulting from wearing them), the withholding of such protective equipment for employee use and even threats of termination if they were to

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take any such sick leave. The results are evident: Postal employees coming to work and remaining at work despite suffering from and exhibiting acute symptoms of coronavirus, in fear of losing their jobs and jeopardizing the well-being of their families.

I can’t more urgently stress, or thankfully express, for that matter, the vital role our delivery workers play in our local community and throughout our nation as a whole.

If one could consider the community as a single organism, then, metaphorically, the postal delivery system is not at all unlike the crucial red blood cells we all rely upon to deliver the much-needed oxygenation for our optimal functioning and survival.

If the safety and security of this system is compromised by such a formidable threat as coronavirus, then the possible repercussions could be devastating. Instead of receiving the essential service normally provided, we would, quite literally, be having a deadly virus delivered straight to our doors.

“We’re all in this together.” The shopkeeper with the 3-month-old granddaughter awaiting her at home again comes to mind, and her astute summation of the situation echoed in my bones as I drove out of the store’s parking lot, trying to squeeze my way safely into the stampede of midafternoon traffic, heavy with wet, midsummer heat and the innumerable weight of teeming cars accentuated by various parcel vans.

— George Bazley Black Mountain

Homestay rules penalize city residents One example of how our local government gets stuck in the weeds — versus putting energy into how to be more efficient and effective as a government — is the issue of homestay rentals in Asheville.

I believe affordable housing is unbelievably important for the health of any community, and I would venture to say that all our Council members would agree, hence why it is such a big topic. However, is the best approach to use our most valuable resource, our energy in a moment of time, to jump into the weeds of the issue and ultimately try to control the marketplace while simultaneously we waste millions of dollars on ineffective government organizational structure?

At the current time, homestay rental policies for Asheville city and Buncombe County are not aligned. To make matters more unfair, if you live in the city, you pay significantly more taxes than people who live in the county (double taxation).

While at the same time, people who live and own property in Buncombe County, who pay less taxes, can have as many homestay rentals as they would like with little to no restrictions on the amenities

of the homestay portion of the house. ...

Currently, City Council has some of the strictest homestay rental policies in the country. ...

To make matters even more misaligned, recovery homes and halfway houses are popping up all over the city and are granted less restrictive living policies than the homestay rental policies. ...

In my case, this really hit home when an investor who bought the house next door to me opened a recovery home for recovering addicts on a substandard lot that the city sold back in the ’80s as part of an affordable housing initiative for $1. This house, which sits literally 20 feet from my house, has been a complete revolving door with new tenants, their guests and probation officers. It completely dumbfounds me that this investor can operate such a house in the city limits and at the same time is not able to legally turn the same house into a homestay or short-term rental that caters to traveling tourists. Who would you prefer living next to you?

This whole situation becomes even more maddening when you live in a neighborhood that has had two multimillion-dollar hotels built that contain hundreds of shortterm rental units. Of course, these areas have been zoned differently, even though just separated by one street and thus are granted the ability to be in the short-term rental business while those of us who live in the same neighborhood are not offered the same ability.

Please stop punishing those of us who work so hard and pay double taxes for Asheville and Buncombe. Loosen homestay policies so that they are aligned with the policies of Buncombe County and recovery homes or make sure the county adopts similar homestay policies to align with the city of Asheville. At the bare minimum, city residents ought to be allowed to put sinks, stoves and any size refrigerator wherever they want in the homestay portion of the house. Plus, full-time residents (deemed by filing a tax return in the city limits) ought to be able to operate three homestay rentals and not be forced to be in town when the houses are rented.

Most importantly, stop spending so much time and energy on policies and issues like these and redirect the same energy to figure out ways to make our local governments more effective and efficient so that we can have more impact on important issues. Combining Asheville and Buncombe County governments into one entity is likely the place to start. Why do we have two governments overseeing the same jurisdiction anyway?

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

NEWS

Silenced by violence

Remembrance Project spotlights Buncombe County’s history of racial terror Community Foundation of Western North Carolina with a goal of raising $80,000 over the next six months. The Community Foundation has committed to matching the first $10,000 in contributions.

The money, says Fox, will primarily support implementing virtual community-led programming, as well as sponsored group trips to the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, lectures by national speakers and the creation of a YouTube channel addressing racial justice issues.

In the past, notes Fox, “When people tried to tell the true history of the United States, they were silenced through violence.” His hope for the Remembrance Project is to steer the community toward “the first step in healing — recognition.”

BY THOMAS CALDER tcalder@mountainx.com EDITOR’S NOTE: Thomas Calder serves as a volunteer researcher for the Buncombe County Remembrance Project, documenting local lynchings.

Joseph Fox, vice chair of The Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Association of Asheville and Buncombe County, believes that when it comes to our nation’s racist past, “The true history of the United States has not really been told.” That’s a problem, he continues, because “most models for transformation say the first step in healing is acknowledgment and recognition.”

The recent police killings of Breonna Taylor, a Black woman in Louisville, Ky., and George Floyd, a Black man in Minneapolis, Minn., “shine a spotlight on the fact that the racial violence of the past has not disappeared,” says Fox. Addressing the country’s brutal past and confronting its present racial injustices, Fox and fellow members of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Association are leading the Buncombe County Remembrance Project, a community coalition aimed at researching racially motivated lynchings in the region and educating the public about them. Currently, there are three known Buncombe County victims: John Humphreys (1888), Hezekiah Rankin(1891) and Bob Brachett (1897).

The group’s campaign is a direct response to the Equal Justice Initiative’s National Memorial for Peace and Justice, which opened in Montgomery, Ala., in April 2018.

The memorial features more than 800 monuments representing counties across the United States where African American men, women and children were publicly hanged, shot, burned alive or stabbed to death between 1877 and 1950 for alleged crimes ranging from murder to the use of profane language. Together, they document more than 4,400 such incidents.

The memorial also houses replicas of each of the monuments, as well as historical markers; these will be released to the counties they pertain to once those communities have established programs to engage their

CONTINUES ON PAGE 8

SAY THEIR NAMES: The National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Ala., recognizes individuals murdered by racially motivated lynchings, including Buncombe County’s three known victims: John Humphreys, Hezekiah Rankin and Bob Brachett/Brackett. Photo by Laurie Johnson Photography residents in addressing racial justice.

(For more information, see “Lynching Memorial Confronts Our Country’s Past,” Aug. 31, 2018, Xpress)

ACKNOWLEDGING THE PAST

Since its formation in June 2019, the Remembrance Project has

worked to meet the Equal Justice Initiative’s criteria for obtaining both the historical marker and the replica monument, though COVID-19 has delayed efforts to host planned public forums and other educational programs.

In September, the coalition opened a charitable fund at The

BOOSTING AWARENESS: Over the last year, the Buncombe County Remembrance Project has worked to boost residents’ awareness of the region’s history of racial terror. About 1,500 people are currently engaged with the project, notes coordinator Joseph Fox. “We’re getting more and more interest from communities — and not just communities of color,” he reports. Photo courtesy of Fox

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OCT. 7-13, 2020

7

“How can you heal what hasn’t been revealed?”

— local activist Rob Thomas

HURT PEOPLE HURT PEOPLE

The culture, however, has actively discouraged that kind of recognition, says local activist Rob Thomas.

“We’ve been raised to believe that anything that makes America look bad is not only divisive but completely un-American and should not be tolerated,” says Thomas, who was recently named named WNC’s 2020 Peacemaker by several local groups.

The problem with this approach, he maintains, is that when history is whitewashed, unresolved issues continue to manifest in the present day. People of color, he notes, still experience discrimination in the justice system, education, health care and housing.

“One of the most dividing factors that we face as a society is racism,” Thomas declares. “But how can you heal what hasn’t been revealed?”

Thomas, who considers Fox a mentor, sees the Remembrance Project as an important step in the right

direction. “If you keep trying to cover things up and you want the American history to only show the good sides, you can’t really understand where people are at presently and how to move forward and to produce a better future,” he explains.

Damita Wilder, an ordained elder in the AME Zion Church, agrees.

“Unless we confront this [past], I don’t think that we as a county or a city or even a nation can be completely healed,” she says.

Since the launch of the Remembrance Project, Wilder has worked as a liaison, sharing the organization’s efforts and mission with over 25 local churches.

“I believe that as a community, we can start the healing process not by pointing fingers at each other but by saying, ‘Let’s make this better,’” Wilder points out.

Otherwise, she fears, the racial problems and violence this country is currently experiencing will persist.

“When I minister, I tell people this,

and I see it everywhere now: ‘Hurt people hurt people.’”

FACING THE PAST

Along with the current fundraising efforts, the Remembrance Project is actively pursuing community outreach, historical research and an awareness campaign. In addition to churches, Fox says the group has worked to maintain contacts with members of historically Black neighborhood associations, including the East End, South Side, Shiloh, Burton Street and Hillcrest.

The organization’s monthly newsletter, he continues, is another way the Remembrance Project keeps residents informed about its efforts as well as the latest news on voter registration, poll locations, COVID19 and the 2020 census.

In the coming months, Fox says he hopes the project reaches enough people “with a conscience and an awakening of conscience to understand the inequalities that have occurred and that continue to occur.

And I hope their voices — politically, socially and economically — will be

HONORING THOSE LOST: Local activist Rob Thomas says the Remembrance Project is about respect. “We need to remember these individuals and allow their legacies and names to live on, even though they lost their lives to a very violent ending.” Photo courtesy of Thomas 8

OCT. 7-13, 2020

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BEYOND THE SURFACE: Damita Wilder has worked to help communicate the Buncombe County Remembrance Project’s findings and programs to local churches. “I believe that the Remembrance Project is going to help us go deeper,” she says.

Photo courtesy of Wilder heard over those voices that want to keep things as they have been.”

Thomas, meanwhile, sees the Remembrance Project’s end goal of bringing both the historical marker and replica monument to Asheville as an opportunity for deeper reflection and a chance for the community to better understand its past.

“This country has raised monuments that have been dedicated to individuals that upheld slavery,” he says. “And though a lot of those are coming down nationwide, I think it’s time to move in the opposite direction and start bringing some awareness and a little bit of gratitude to the individuals who lost their lives because of the racism that existed in America and that still exists today.”

Wilder concurs. “What we’re seeing on a broad spectrum now are triggers going off in people from years of oppression,” she says. “Even though generations change, nobody really got over the past. What happened then does affect us now.”

Nonetheless, Wilder remains hopeful that the Remembrance Project will help break the cycle of silence and denial, which she believes is the only way the country can move forward. “We can never heal as a nation until we confront the evils of the past.”

To learn more about the Buncombe County Remembrance Project, visit avl.mx/8cl. X

NEWS

Into the sunset

0 20 02 2 20

As McGrady departs, Henderson GOP likely to pick Moffitt as replacement Oct. 8

BY VIRGINIA DAFFRON vdaffron@mountainx.com As Republican Rep. Chuck McGrady of Hendersonville prepared to resign his seat in the state House of Representatives on Oct. 5, people on both sides of the aisle said they were sorry to see him go.

McGrady describes himself as an “environmental Republican” who’s secured significant funding and protections for natural resources in Western North Carolina. He’s also been a champion for the burgeoning local brewing and distilling industries as chair of the House Alcoholic Beverage Control Committee.

“We really appreciated Chuck McGrady’s service,” said Merry Guy, chair of the Henderson County Republican Party. “We will miss him.

He served us very well and honorably and has been a great benefit to Henderson County and the state.”

Julie Mayfield, a member of Asheville City Council, co-director of nonprofit MountainTrue and the Democratic candidate for state Senate District 49, told Xpress that McGrady not only pursued sound environmental policy, “he also kept many environmentally damaging bills from moving forward.”

While Mayfield hasn’t agreed with McGrady on every issue (“Certainly we had polar opposite stances on the Asheville water system fight”), she credited the former camp director with knowing “what was possible within a Republican-led legislature.”

In the process, McGrady plowed a “difficult middle ground,” she said.

The Republican nominee to fill McGrady’s District 117 seat, Tim Moffitt, generates less enthusiasm among local Democrats. Moffitt grew up in Henderson County and now lives in its Bearwallow community, but he is also modestly famous — to some, infamous — in Buncombe County, where he served as representative for state House District 116 for two terms beginning in 2010.

Democrat Brian Turner has held that seat since besting Moffitt in the 2014 general election.

Many Buncombe residents associate Moffitt with legislation he filed

to wrest control of Asheville’s water system from the city. After a five-year battle, the state’s Supreme Court returned ownership and control over the system to Asheville on Dec. 21, 2016.

And Moffitt also championed a 2011 bill that created election districts for seats on the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners, a move David Gantt, then-chair of the all-Democratic board, said “blindsided” him.

Buncombe Republicans appointed Moffitt to a brief term on the board in 2016 after the resignation of former Commissioner Miranda DeBruhl.

With Moffitt now also the presumptive candidate to replace McGrady until the Tuesday, Nov. 3, general election, how might his brief incumbency affect the outcome of the race and the new legislative session set to start in January?

CHANGE OF PLAN

While McGrady says he initially expected to retire from active public service after wrapping up his fifth term in the state legislature on Thursday, Dec. 31, plans changed when House Republicans selected him to fill an at-large seat on the N.C. Board of Transportation in August.

As a budget chair in the state House, McGrady says he felt an obligation to stay on until the legislature had completed spending bills for the year.

Because separation-of-powers rules prohibit an official from working in more than one branch of state government simultaneously, McGrady then resigned his House seat on Oct. 5 ahead of his swearing-in as a member of the transportation board, which next meets Thursday, Oct. 8.

According to Guy, the vote to appoint McGrady’s replacement will also take place Oct. 8. The decision will include county Republican precinct chairs and other party executives who live in District 117.

Sometime after that vote, Gov. Roy Cooper will appoint the local pick.

Guy says Moffitt has confirmed that he will be present for the vote and that he’s ready and willing to accept the appointment.

NEXT CHAPTER: State House Rep. Chuck McGrady, left, resigned his District 117 seat on Oct. 5 to take an at-large appointment to the N.C. Board of Transportation.

Henderson County Republican Party leaders will meet Thursday, Oct. 8, to pick his replacement — widely expected to be former District 116 Rep. Tim Moffitt, who’s the party’s candidate for the seat on the 2020 general election ballot. Photo of McGrady courtesy of the representative; photo of Moffitt from campaign website

GROUP DYNAMICS

Even before McGrady’s resignation became a factor in the race, Moffitt appeared to hold an advantage over his Democratic opponent, Josh Remillard. In the primary, Moffitt received 79.4% of the Republican vote (8,713 ballots); his primary opponent, Dennis Justice, took 20.6%.

Remillard had faced Democrat Danae Aicher in the primary, but Aicher withdrew before the election.

Her name still appeared on the ballot, however, and received 45.8% of the vote, compared to Remillard’s 54.2%. Between the two candidates, Democratic primary voters cast 9,007 votes, just 294 more than Moffitt’s vote total.

Unaffiliated voters make up the plurality — 26,008 — of registered voters in state House District 117, which covers northern Henderson County and encompasses Hendersonville, Fletcher, Laurel Park and Mills River. Republicans account for 22,443 district voters, while registered Democrats total 13,240.

In addition to his numerical advantage, Moffitt has greater name recognition than Remillard, an Army veteran who moved to the area two years ago. But Remillard says he’s not sure Henderson County voters know much about the Republican.

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9

NEWS While Remillard says he’s had several conversations with McGrady, he’s yet to meet his opponent. He argues that Moffitt hasn’t been an active presence in Henderson County during the campaign: Save for attending President Donald Trump’s August rally in Mills River, Remillard says he’s not aware of any public appearances this year by Moffitt.

“My guess is they don’t run in the same circles,” responds Guy, when asked about Remillard’s assertion.

“Tim’s been very active with the party for several years, so there’s a whole lot of folks who have met him through that,” she adds.

Moffitt did not respond to several phone and email requests for comment submitted by Xpress.

ON DECK

Taking office prior to the election could give Moffitt “a little bit of a

while supplies last !

head start, potentially, serving in that capacity,” says McGrady. “It’s sort of traditional that the party will nominate whoever the nominee is at this point. He’s already won a primary, so there’s not a lot of point in appointing somebody else.”

Guy agrees but adds that “I don’t know that running as an incumbent will help at this late date. Should [Moffitt] win the general, which we’re hopeful, he’ll already have things in place.”

Chris Cooper, professor of political science at Western Carolina University, also thinks the advantages of incumbency will be minimal “given that Moffitt has already served, has relatively high name recognition and this appointment will only be for a very short period of time.”

District 117 is “considered a fairly safe Republican district,” Cooper notes.

Still, a Moffitt victory isn’t a foregone conclusion: “Every now and again, there are upsets in the General Assembly. Remillard has shown some ability to fundraise and is running a professional campaign,” Cooper says. Early absentee voting-by-mail returns in the district tilt heavily in Democrats’ direction, with only 20% of the 7,657 votes accepted as of Oct. 5 coming from registered Republicans.

That asymmetry, however, isn’t expected to hold throughout early and Election Day voting, says Cooper.

Moffitt’s campaign website states that his prior stints in office will

count toward his seniority in the state legislature. “His experience with the machinery of government and the players involved puts him in a unique position: He can really hit the ground running,” the site says.

HAPPY TRAILS

For his part, McGrady is tying up loose ends on initiatives near and dear to his heart — chief among them the Ecusta Trail, a proposed 19-mile walking and biking greenway.

McGrady notes he was laying groundwork for the project years before taking state office. Of the four municipalities and two counties the corridor connects, “Laurel Park, Hendersonville, Henderson County and Brevard are all on board,” McGrady says; Transylvania County and Pisgah Forest have yet to approve their roles in the trail. “It’s still a work in progress.”

With semiretirement on the horizon, McGrady adds, he’s been on a health kick and feels in his best shape in years.

“I’m not going to completely leave the public policy area, obviously now because of this [Board of Transportation] appointment,” McGrady says. “But I do intend to spend a lot more time visiting some of those places that I had some responsibility for protecting.” X

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11

NEWS

Love bug

Online initiative sparks pandemic of local giving

BY KAY WEST kswest55@comcast.net Long before most folks in the U.S. were on a first-name basis with COVID19, Florida mindfulness and meditation instructor Shelly Tygielski noticed that friends and followers on her social media accounts were hurting — losing or fearful of losing jobs and income due to the disease’s ever increasing repercussions.

In response, she created a website with a simple mission: to connect people in need to people with the means to help.

On March 14, she announced the launch of Pandemic of Love on her Instagram account, went to bed and woke up the next morning with 400 requests for assistance. Simultaneously, however, her followers were sharing the link to the new initiative, and one of them, the actress Debra Messing, cast a wide net. The Emmy-winning star of “Will & Grace” proved to be the entry point for Asheville resident Suzi Israel.

“My son lives in California and was in a terrible housing situation due to COVID and needed to get out,” Israel explains.

“I didn’t have the funds to help him so I went online to see if there was some kind of aid in California and came across Pandemic of Love on Debra Messing’s social media. I went onto the website and was blown away by what they do.”

The process is simple. People in need fill out a form, providing basic contact information and spelling out what they need assistance with: grocery purchases, gas for their car, utility bills or other expenses. Potential donors do the same, supplying general information about how they feel they can help. Israel requested assistance with her son’s housing costs,

ELECTION INFORMATION YOU NEED VOTE411.org - the League of Women Voters' award-winning, one-stop-shop for nonpartisan election information.

12

OCT. 7-13, 2020

she was able to find meant a significant cut in income, and she quickly fell behind on bills.

“I found Pandemic through a friend,” says Beddingfield. “I went to the site, and it was so easy to fill out, it almost felt like a scam, but within three days I heard from Suzi, who put me in touch with Regina.” Bennett sent her a check to cover a car payment, and Israel found someone else to reinstate lapsed auto insurance. “It was so simple, but it meant so much,” says Beddingfield.

LOVE CONNECTION: Pandemic of Love Asheville connected patron Katie Alexander with furloughed restaurant worker and single dad Kevin Polk when he needed financial assistance to remain in his home. It’s one of 250 matches made locally since the end of March. Photo by Emily Quinlan was swiftly matched with a donor and then took what she saw as the natural next step.

“I noticed there was not an Asheville chapter, so I emailed the organization

through their work together at Asheville Community Theatre. “Volunteering has been a part of my life since high school,” Nowik reveals. “In mid-March I was unemployed and trapped in my house,

“I went onto the website and was blown away by what they do.”

— Pandemic of Love volunteer Suzi Israel and let them know I’d be interested in helping start one,” she explains. Because she has Stage 4 lymphoma, Israel cannot risk in-person contact and does not have discretionary funds to donate. She was referred to Lara Hollaway, who had already gotten the wheels turning in Asheville. “I told her that as long as I could do everything on the internet, I would do whatever I could to help.”

THE PERSONAL TOUCH

In Israel’s case, “whatever” has turned out to mean serving as volunteer leader for the Asheville chapter, connecting recipients and patrons and working with a team of volunteers. They include outreach leader Ness Nowik, a furloughed employee of a Biltmore Estate restaurant who knew Hollaway

MOUNTAINX.COM

so when Lara asked if I would help with media and social media, I was really excited to help get the word out to people who need help, but especially people who can give help. I think if you give people the opportunity to help, they grab it.”

That was the case with Regina Bennett. Laid off from her job but financially stable, she wanted to support people who were suffering economic hardship in ways that would not involve in-person contact. “Pandemic of Love popped up on Facebook, so I checked it out,” she explains. “I liked the fact that because of the personal connection, you knew where your funds were going, to whom and for what.”

Israel connected Bennett to Ashley Beddingfield, a single mother of three who had to leave her job at a financial institution to help her kids deal with remote learning. The part-time night job

HELPING TOTAL STRANGERS

Another connection facilitated by Israel has meant everything to Kevin Polk, a single father with an 11-year-old daughter. Polk had been working full time at O’Charley’s and part time at Carrabba’s until March 17, when Gov. Roy Cooper ordered restaurants in the state to close. Polk eventually resumed working but with significantly reduced hours. Israel put him in touch with Asheville resident Katie Alexander, who works remotely for the American Cancer Society’s Cancer Action Network.

“When I first checked out the program, I didn’t think it was for real, that someone would help a total stranger,” Polk recalls. “When I heard from Katie, I was amazed. If it wasn’t for the program and Katie, my daughter and I would probably be homeless now.”

Alexander, who’s committed to assisting Polk through the end of the year — and beyond, if need be and she is able — says that what drew her to Pandemic of Love was the fact that she could provide help directly to an actual, identifiable human being. “What I love about this is the human, one-on-one connection. We haven’t met in person, but I have gotten to know Kevin over the phone, and he is so kind, hard-working and devoted to his daughter. I can’t wait to meet them when we are able.”

Polk says he’s ready. “We have a real friendship, and as soon as it’s safe, I want her to come to dinner on me. She lets me know that God and good exist.”

In each of the nonprofit’s more than 100 “microcommunities” in the U.S. and beyond, volunteers connect local donors with residents in need. Once contact has been made, it’s up to the donor and recipient to work out the details. As of Sept.

16, Pandemic of Love had made over 301,000 matches worldwide and facilitated more than $39.4 million in direct payments to people in need, according to the organization’s website. Closer to home, notes Israel, the Asheville community has already been responsible for over 250 matches and $60,000 in direct aid.

BUNCOMBE BEAT

Two proposed developments could add 1,500+ housing units

AT THE CROSSROADS: If approved in its current form, the revised Crossroads West Asheville development will contain a total of 660 housing units. This preliminary rendering shows one of 14 buildings proposed for the site off South Bear Creek Road. Image from Buncombe County The Buncombe County Board of Adjustment will hear proposals for two massive development projects at its virtual meeting of Wednesday, Oct. 14, at 9 a.m.

First on the list is Busbee, an 852unit complex off Sweeten Creek Road between the Blue Ridge Parkway and the Ballantree subdivision on land owned by Biltmore Farms. Covering approximately 133 acres of the 331-acre property, the project will include residential apartments for adults ages 55 and older and single-family residences.

In the project application, developers Flournoy Development Group of Columbus, Ga., say that construction will “cluster development in the lower portions of the property adjacent to Sweeten Creek Road while preserving the steeper slopes and stream corridors for open space.”

The application notes N.C. Department of Transportation plans to widen Sweeten Creek Road and says that traffic studies have been completed for the project. The plan includes multiple points of access off Sweeten Creek Road, with the main entrance located across the road from the Carolina Day School athletic complex.

The project site is located outside the boundaries of the city of Asheville in Buncombe County and, according to the application, the “project will meet zoning development standards without a variance.”

The second large project to be considered on Oct. 14 is located at 20 S. Bear Creek Road adjacent to Interstate 240. A previous development proposal for the property was withdrawn after significant public outcry last year. That proposal — known as Crossroads at West Asheville — included 802 apartment units, 14,400

square feet of retail space, 50,400 square feet of office space and a 64,000-square-foot self-storage business spread across 16 primary buildings and six smaller structures.

The new proposal includes 660 apartment units on the site which, like the Busbee property, lies outside city limits.

The project will also include “open public green amenity areas, extended public walkways, public trailhead parking, pet walk areas, bike lanes, public trails along Hominy Creek, and fitness centers, community clubhouse, and pools for the residential buildings,” according to the application. The project developer is Catalyst Capital Partners of Charlotte, which holds an option to purchase the property from its current owner, Crossroads Church.

The Crossroads property abuts the Hominy Creek Greenway, a 14-acre park that borders a mile-long section of Hominy Creek in Asheville.

In a statement, the Friends of the Hominy Creek Greenway, a citizen group that maintains and advocates for the park, flags ongoing concerns about the development project and requests the inclusion of new conditions for the developer, including, “That Buncombe County require the developer build a section of greenway that is open to the public and require it to connect to existing greenways/pedestrian thoroughfares.”

While anyone may watch the meeting on Zoom at avl.mx/8ff, those wishing to speak must provide notice in writing at least 24 hours prior to the hearing at PlanningInfo@buncombecounty.org.

More information is available at that email, bit.ly/37h90Jy or 828-250-4830.

— Virginia Daffron X

COVID CONVERSATIONS

Road warrior Tom Elmore marks 70 years with 700 miles Celebrating milestones in the age of COVID-19 calls for a measure of creativity. But local organic farmer Tom Elmore took a road far less traveled when he decided to mark his 70th birthday with a 700-mile bike ride.

A former environmental engineer and city planner for both Brevard and Asheville, Elmore has been cycling since his 20s, when he began commuting by bicycle during stints living in Washington, D.C., and Denver.

Many long touring rides have since followed, including some with his wife, Karen Thatcher.

In 1980, after recovering from knee-replacement surgery, Elmore rode from Vancouver, British Columbia, to Tijuana, Mexico. And in 1985, before moving from Colorado to Western North Carolina, he and Thatcher spent several months cycling Europe from Athens to London. “Some of my vacations, I’d throw the bike on a plane and just go someplace and ride from one city to another and fly back,” he says.

For his 70th birthday tour, Elmore had originally intended to ride 700 miles in one stretch, following the route from Greensboro through the Cumberland Gap to Boonesborough, Ky., taken by his ancestors as they settled central Kentucky. “But when COVID arrived, it sounded like hanging around in a bunch of motels was not the wisest thing to do,” he says.

Instead, he rode a variety of routes around Leicester and north Buncombe County, beginning and ending at his own doorstep at Thatchmore Farm in Leicester. “It started off pretty slow — maybe 30 miles a week — and worked up to over 100 miles a week,” Elmore says, noting that he ended the tour with a 100-mile day.

At that point, Elmore observes, he was as aerobically fit as he’d ever been in his life. He’d like to keep it that way.

“I still feel like I’m 30, but the clock keeps ticking, and when I look in the mirror, I see a 70-year-old guy,” he

Why I support Xpress:

YEARLY CYCLE: To celebrate his 70th birthday, local organic farmer Tom Elmore embarked on 700 miles of biking throughout Leicester and north Buncombe County. Photo courtesy of Elmore says. “So I’d like to stay in as good a physical shape as I can as I get older.”

This article is part of COVID Conversations, a series of short features based on interviews with members of our community during the coronavirus pandemic in Western North Carolina. If you or someone you know has a unique story you think should be featured in a future issue of Xpress, please let us know at news@mountainx.com.

— Gina Smith X

“I’ve relied on Mountain Xpress for real local news and announcements for 20 years.”

– Becca Hall

Join Becca and become a member at SupportMountainX.com MOUNTAINX.COM

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13

F E AT UR E S

ASHEVILLE ARCHIVES

by Thomas Calder | tcalder@mountainx.com

‘Families will suffer’ City confronts unemployment, 1930-32

wood from Bent Creek since Dec. 15, 1930. Each day, roughly 50 men felled trees at the site and hauled the load to the community wood yard, where cords sold for $5 (roughly $26.25 in today’s dollar). “About 17 cords out of 100 are given to needy families,” the paper wrote.

Throughout the winter, fundraisers and benefits were also hosted to help families in need. By spring, warmer weather ended production at the wood yard. The Unemployment Council shifted its focus to a community gardens program, seeking public and private work for the city’s unemployed.

In a public statement featured in The Asheville Citizen on April 18, 1931, Ottis Green, general chairman of the Unemployment Council (and soon-tobe mayor of Asheville) declared: “I cannot stress too much the fact that unless people who are able to will create work which will take care of the surplus workers, these men and their families will suffer as they did in the winter. … Work for them can be found in gardens and houses.”

WORK AND DIGNITY: Previously unemployed residents, wrote the Asheville Citizen-Times on Feb. 8, 1931, managed “to dodge soup kitchens and bread lines and to preserve their morale and self respect” through work at the community wood yard. The exact date and location of this image is unknown. Photo courtesy of E.M. Ball Collection, Special Collections, UNC Asheville In the winter of 1930, amid the onset of the Great Depression, city officials authorized the formation of the Unemployment Council. At the time, Asheville’s unemployment rate stood at 3% with roughly 1,500 of the city’s 50,000 residents jobless, according to a Dec. 2, 1930, report in The Asheville Citizen.

On Dec. 14, 1930, the Sunday edition of the Asheville Citizen-Times announced the committee’s first official project — a community wood yard located at the YMCA’s athletic field in downtown Asheville, on the corner Broadway and Woodfin Street.

Heavy snow on Dec. 17, however, delayed the project. But the committee was quick to adapt, employing roughly 50 workers to clear sidewalks and roads.

Soon thereafter, on Dec. 20, The Asheville Citizen wrote that plans to open the wood yard were imminent and would provide immediate relief. According to a statement by the Unemployment Council, published in that day’s paper, “Every cord of wood 14

OCT. 7-13, 2020

MOUNTAINX.COM

one buys will feed an average family for one week.”

By Jan. 9, 1931, the paper reported 140 total employees at the site.

Divided into two groups, each crew worked three days a week. Instead of a paycheck, all participants received groceries, clothing and wood. Food items included: “12 pounds flour, two pounds fatback, 10 pounds meal, two cans tomatoes, five pounds pinto beans, five pounds grits, one can syrup, two pounds oatmeal, 15 pounds Irish potatoes, 10 pounds onions, two heads cabbage, one pound coffee, two pounds sugar, four pounds lard and two pounds of butter.”

On Feb. 8, 1931, the Sunday edition of the Asheville Citizen-Times proudly boasted that Thad Hold, a member of President Herbert Hoover’s Emergency Committee for Employment, called the city’s wood yard system “the best scheme in the South for the relief of unemployment.”

According to the same article, Asheville had secured 300 cords of

Mrs. W. Vance Brown, chairperson of the group’s central committee, added, “Let each individual consider his property a link in the chain.” If everyone participated, she continued, “Then there will be developed an unbroken chain of giving a job and getting something from it.”

By Oct. 8, 1931, The Asheville Citizen stated that an average of 41 residents had secured work through the initiative over the previous 29 weeks.

The community wood yard returned that winter. But demand was low, likely due to the ongoing economic crisis. Available reports show only 44 residents were hired that season. Exact figures for the total jobless rate in Asheville were not available.

The following year, as the Great Depression continued, the Normal Business Council formed in response to Asheville’s ongoing unemployment crisis. In a matter of weeks, the group infused $250,000 (roughly $4.7 million in today’s dollar) into the local economy through a pledge campaign. (To learn more, see “Asheville Archives: Citizens respond to the Great Depression, 1932,” Xpress, Aug. 16) Editor’s note: Spelling and punctuation are preserved from the original documents. X

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Dogs of God: Columbus, the Inquisition, and the Defeat of the Moors by James Reston.

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Movie at the Orchard: The Sandlot Outdoor screening.

FR (10/9), 6:30pm, $15/carload, Justus Orchard, 187 Garren Rd, Hendersonville

MUSIC Kimathi Moore: Oliver's Tail [We the Fish] Electronic concert presented by Black Mountain College.

TH (10/8), 7pm, Free, avl.mx/8d6 Perspectives: Steph Richards & Andrew Munsey Experimental trumpet and drum performance.

WE (10/14), 1pm, Free, avl.mx/8f6

ART Tryon Artist Colony, 1890-1940 A history of the area’s arts scene presented

by Mike McCue. TH (10/8), 10am, Registration required, $10, avl.mx/8gp Cultivating Collections: Works by Latinx & Latin American Artists WCU Fine Art Museum exhibition tour.

TH (10/8), 12pm, Free, avl.mx/8da Slow Art Friday: Talking Animals Discussion led by touring docent Susan Oliver at Asheville Art Museum.

FR (10/9), 12pm, Registration required, $10, avl.mx/8dn Art in the Parking Lot Street fair with woodworking, pottery and glass blowing demonstrations.

SA (10/10), 10am, Free, Market Street Courtyard River Arts District Second Saturday Open studios and galleries.

SA (10/10), 11am, Free, Depot St Discussion Bound Reading Group The Obama Portraits

by Richard J. Powell.

TU (10/13), 12pm, $10, avl.mx/8do AIGA WatchStack: Group Talk & Signal Buzz Networking for designers.

TU (10/13), 5:30pm, Registration required, Free, avl.mx/7dr Third Thursday in Marshall Open galleries.

TH (10/15), 5pm, Free, Downtown Marshall

Artful Trivia Night Hosted by Asheville Art Museum.

TH (10/15), 7pm, Registration required, $10, avl.mx/8ek Slow Art Friday: Beyond Audubon Discussion led by touring docents Hank Bovee and Sheila Langdon at Asheville Art Museum.

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LITERARY City Lights Author Discussion Featuring Ginny Sassaman, author of Preaching Happiness.

WE (10/7), 6pm, Registration required, avl.mx/8ej Stay Home & Write(rs) Group Community writing session with Firestorm.

WE (10/7), 7pm, Registration required, Free, avl.mx/83c WNC Historical Society: Lit Cafe George Ellison and Janet McCue present Back of Beyond: A Horace Kephart Biography.

TH (10/8), 2:30pm, Registration required, $5-$15, avl.mx/8dk Swannanoa Valley Museum Book Club An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz.

MO (10/12), 11:30am, Registration required, Free, avl.mx/8f5 Firestorm: Beyond Survival Weekly Book Club Strategies and stories from the transformative justice movement.

MO (10/12), 7pm, Free, avl.mx/8g2 West Asheville Library: Exploring & Settling the American West Lecture on A.B. Guthrie's The Big Sky

by Michael Sartisky.

TU (10/13), 7pm, Free, avl.mx/83p Stay Home & Write(rs) Group Community writing session with Firestorm.

WE (10/14), 7pm, Registration required, Free, avl.mx/83c Notorious HBC (History Book Club)

Magnetic Theatre in the (Smoky) Park Outdoor variety show.

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TU (10/13), 7pm, $15, 350 Riverside Dr Bardo Arts Center at WCU: Picture a Scientist Documentary screening and Q&A with filmmakers.

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ANIMALS Wolf Howl Educational program on wolves and coyotes, plus a viewing of the center’s wolf habitat.

FR (10/16), 6pm, $30, WNC Nature Center, 75 Gashes Creek Rd

CIVICS & ACTIVISM Blue Ridge Pride: What Are We Voting For? Panel discussion with Land of Sky Regional Council, Council on Aging and Equality NC. WE (10/7), 12pm, Registration required, Free, avl.mx/8cp Asheville Downtown Commission General meeting.

FR (10/9), 9am, avl.mx/85u Asheville City Council Formal meeting with public hearings.

TU (10/13), 5pm, avl.mx/7zw Silent Vigil for Immigration Reform Organized by Progressive Alliance of Henderson County.

FR (10/16), 4pm, Henderson Courthouse, 200 N Grove St, Hendersonville

BUSINESS & TECHNOLOGY Incredible Towns Business Network Weekly meeting.

WE (10/7), 11am, Registration required, Free, avl.mx/7g8 UNCA Economics Webinar Series III Featuring macroeconomic strategist Dr. Tomáš Sedlácek.

TH (10/8), 12pm, Registration required, Free, avl.mx/86d Emotional Intelligence for Small Business Success Western Women's Business Center webinar.

TU (10/13), 8am, Registration required, Free, avl.mx/8gj Intro to QuickBooks Accounting webinar by Mountain BizWorks.

WE (10/14), 10am, $15, avl.mx/8gl Prepare Your Business for the Holidays w/ Google Marketing Tools Haywood Chamber webinar.

WE (10/14), 12pm, Registration required, Free, avl.mx/8g9 Deep Dive Lab: Legal Building Blocks for New & Small Businesses Led by Martha S. Bradley.

TH (10/15), 10am, Registration required, Free, avl.mx/8gk UNCA Economics Webinar Series IV Featuring Dr. William Darity, co-author of From Here to Equality: Reparations for Black Americans in the Twenty-First Century.

TH (10/15), 7pm, Registration required, Free, avl.mx/86c

ECO & OUTDOOR Asheville Garden Club General meeting.

WE (10/7), 9:30am, Free, All Souls Cathedral, 9 Swan St Pop-up 5K in the Park Fully-marked, flat course with rolling starts.

WE (10/7), 5pm, $10, Fletcher Park, 300 Old Cane Creek Rd, Fletcher MountainTrue Green Drinks: A History of DuPont Forest Featuring author Danny Bernstein.

TH (10/8), 6pm, Registration required, Free, avl.mx/638 Asheville GreenWorks: Hard 2 Recycle Accepting cardboard, electronics, styrofoam and more: avl.mx/8em.

SA (10/10), 10am, Free, Blue Ridge Community College (TEDC Overflow Lot), 180 W Campus Dr, Flat Rock Black Mountain Seed Lending Library: Winter Sowing Led by master gardener John Bowen.

SA (10/10), 10am, Registration required, Free, avl.mx/8g4

WEEKLY MARKETS Tuesdays

CLASSES, MEETINGS & EVENTS What to Do When Your Income Doesn't Cover Expenses OnTrack WNC webinar.

WE (10/7), 5:30pm, Registration required, Free, avl.mx/8d5 Weekly Spanish Conversation Group For adult language learners.

TH (10/8), 5pm, Free, avl.mx/7c6 Hendersonville Woman's Club Monthly meeting.

TU (10/13), 10am, 310 Freeman St, Hendersonville The Islamic-Byzantine Frontier: Interaction and Exchange Among Muslim and Christian Communities UNCA archaeology lecture by Asa Eger.

WE (10/14), 7pm, Registration required, Free, avl.mx/8g0 African Americans in WNC & Southern Appalachia Conference Led by UNCA history professor Darin Waters.

FR (10/16), 10am, Registration required, Free, avl.mx/8g1

• West Asheville Tailgate Market. 3:306:30pm, 718 Haywood Rd • The Whee Market.

4-7pm, 563 N Country Club Dr, Cullowhee Wednesdays

• RAD Farmers Market.

3-6pm, Pleb Urban Winery, 289 Lyman St • Locally Grown on the Green. 3-6pm, 35 Hwy 64, Cashiers • Jackson County Farmers Market. 3:306:30pm, Innovation Station, 40 Depot St, Dillsboro Thursdays • ASAP Farmers Market at A-B Tech.

9am-12pm, 340 Victoria Rd • Flat Rock Farmers Market. 3-6pm, 1790 Greenville Hwy, Hendersonville • Enka-Candler Tailgate Market. 3:30-6:30pm, 70 Pisgah Hwy, Candler Fridays • Marion Tailgate Market. 10am-3pm, 67 W Henderson St, Marion Saturdays • North Asheville Tailgate Market.

8am-12pm, UNC Asheville, Lot C • Mills River Farmers Market. 8am-12pm, 5046 Boylston Hwy, Mills River • Hendersonville Farmers Market.

8am-1pm, 650 Maple St, Hendersonville • Yancey County Farmers Market.

8:30am-12:30pm,10 S Main St, Burnsville • ASAP Farmers Market at A-B Tech.

9am-12pm, 340 Victoria Rd

• Asheville City Market South. 12-3pm, Biltmore Park Town Square

• Black Mountain Tailgate Market.

9am-12pm, 130 Montreat Rd, Black Mountain

• Weaverville Farmers Market. 2:30-6pm,17 Merrimon Ave, Weaverville

• Haywood’s Historic Farmers Market.

9am-12pm, 250 Pigeon St, Waynesville

KIDS Miss Malaprop's Storytime Ages 3-9.

WE (10/7), 10am, Free, avl.mx/73b Junior Wolf Howl Educational program on wolves and coyotes, plus a visit to the wolf habitat.

FR (10/9), 6pm, $10-$18, WNC Nature Center, 75 Gashes Creek Rd Family Outdoor Movie: Frozen SU (10/11), 5pm, $5, Rabbit Rabbit, 75 Coxe Ave

WELLNESS Dementia & the LGBT Experience Alzheimer’s Association webinar.

WE (10/7), 11:30am, Registration required, Free, avl.mx/8fz Adult Eating Disorder Support Group Hosted by Carolina Resource Center for Eating Disorders.

WE (10/7), 6pm, Registration required, Free, avl.mx/82e Steady Collective Syringe Access Outreach Free educational material, naloxone, syringes and supplies.

TU (10/13), 2pm, Firestorm Bookstore Co-op, 610 Haywood Rd Understanding Alzheimer’s & Dementia Alzheimer’s Association webinar.

TU (10/13), 2pm, Registration required, Free, avl.mx/8fx Adult Eating Disorder Support Group Hosted by Carolina Resource Center for Eating Disorders.

WE (10/14), 6pm, Registration required, Free, avl.mx/82e Recovery Support Meeting Hosted by First

Contact Ministries.

TH (10/15), 6:30pm, Free, avl.mx/7ko

SPIRITUALITY Julian of Norwich: Wisdom in a Time of Pandemic & Beyond FCC Ashley Series lecture by the Rev. Matthew Fox. SA (10/10), 4pm, Registration required, Free, avl.mx/8fw Let's Start a Pandemic: Kindness is Contagious Bahá'í Faith devotional with prayers and music.

TU (10/13), 7pm, Registration required, Free, avl.mx/8fj Spiritual Care during COVID-19 Small group session with Pastor Ken. WE (10/14), 3pm, Registration required, Free, Grace Lutheran Church, 1245 6th Ave W, Hendersonville

VOLUNTEERING Conserving Carolina: Volunteer Info Session Live Q&A. TH (10/8), 8am, avl.mx/8gi Literacy Council of Buncombe County: Volunteer Orientation Information on ESOL and adult and youth literacy programs.

TH (10/8), 10am, Registration required, litcouncil.com Conserving Carolina: Kudzu Warriors Invasive plant management. Tools and gloves provided. Directions: avl.mx/8dd.

MO (10/12), 9am, Registration required, Norman Wilder Forest, Tryon

EMPYREAN ARTS PRIVATE LESSONS & STUDIO RENTALS NOW AVAILABLE *MASKS ARE REQUIRED* WEEKLY ONLINE LIVE CLASSES 32 Banks Ave #108 • Downtown Asheville

EmpyreanArts.org 782.3321

MOUNTAINX.COM

OCT. 7-13, 2020

15

WELLNESS

Man of mystery

Dogwood CEO Chiang takes unexplained leave of foundation

BY MOLLY HORAK mhorak@mountainx.com Less than a year after Antony Chiang arrived in Asheville to lead the newly formed Dogwood Health Trust, he’s left the foundation — and despite repeated attempts, Xpress has yet to learn why.

On Sept. 23, the DHT announced that Chiang would step down as CEO, effective immediately. The statement, signed by Dogwood board Chair Janice Brumit, noted that “after careful and collaborative discussion, Antony and the board of directors have considered the needs of Dogwood Health Trust going forward; together, we have determined that a different approach is required.”

Chiang was supposed to speak with local press that same afternoon, his first public update since a teleconference with media outlets on March 25. The Sept. 23 press call was canceled minutes after news of Chiang’s departure broke and has yet to be rescheduled. Brumit also declined to comment on the shift in leadership, despite closing the aforementioned statement by encouraging individuals with questions to contact her “at any time.”

Xpress then sought comment from the other 12 members of the DHT board. None responded to inquiries; as staff made those emails and phone calls, foundation spokesperson Erica Allison told Xpress by email that the paper would “not be as successful as you might hope in gathering additional comments at this time.”

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OCT. 7-13, 2020

OUT OF OFFICE: Dogwood Health Trust CEO Antony Chiang has left the organization. An interim CEO will be appointed by the end of October. Photo by Virginia Daffron “No one else will be available and what we’ve provided so far is truly all that is available,” Allison added.

DARK MONEY

The DHT was formed in 2019 following the $1.5 billion sale of the nonprofit Mission Health System to HCA Healthcare, creating one of the largest foundations per capita in the world. In January, the trust awarded more than $3.7 million to nonprofit and government agencies in North Carolina’s 18 westernmost counties; in April, Dogwood committed $10 million to help slow the spread of COVID-19.

On Sept. 22 — a day before the announcement of Chiang’s departure — the DHT board approved $1 million

for one-time racial equity community grants of up to $25,000 benefiting “historically underfunded” organizations serving Black, Indigenous and communities of color. The grants are part of a larger $5.5 million allocation to address racial equity in the region, according to a press release.

Given its size and potential regional impact, the trust’s lack of transparency is worrying, argues Alan Sager, a professor and director of the health reform program at Boston University’s school of public health.

“When Asheville and much of Western North Carolina gave up community control over its hospitals, except for $1.5 billion in a charitable remainder, it could be asserted that the foundation has an obligation to describe important choices about its

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mission and how to implement that mission to the citizens of the area,” he says. “That is not happening.”

Dogwood’s statement is full of “vague rhetoric,” Sager continues, and doesn’t do anything to explain the reason for Chiang’s departure.

Without more information, he says, it’s possible to “speculate almost endlessly” about what may have caused the rift between him and the board.

“The new foundation and its trustees may not have thought through what they were trying to do, and they may not have hired someone — Antony Chiang — whose aims and methods were in accord with their intentions,” Sager hypothesized. “Or everyone may have been acting carefully and thoughtfully, but unexpected disagreements emerged during the past year. And if the disagreements mirror important choices about the mission or methods of Dogwood Health, some people might expect that the choices would be discussed publicly.”

Sources close to the DHT leadership team, who spoke with Xpress on background to avoid jeopardizing their professional relationships with the foundation, say they were completely surprised by the decision. Previous interactions with both Chiang and the board of directors, they said, did not suggest major conflict between the two parties.

Brumit’s Sept. 23 statement also highlights points of agreement between Chiang and the board.

According to the press release, members were “immensely grateful” for Chiang’s contributions, including his role in launching the organization’s Leverage Fund, Impact Investing program and investments in substance use disorder. “Though DHT may require a different approach in its next phase, the Board has the utmost respect for Antony’s talents and impact,” the statement read.

WHAT’S NEXT?

For now, some oversight of the DHT will come from the office of Attorney General Josh Stein. In January 2019, Stein issued a series of conditions for approving the HCAMission Health transaction, including requirements that Dogwood cut the Buncombe County contingent of its board from seven members to four by 2021 and spend $25 million over a five-year span to address substance abuse in the region. He also created an independent monitor to oversee HCA’s commitment to the terms of the deal.

Laura Brewer, Stein’s communications director, responded to queries about Chiang’s departure by reaffirming that the AG’s office “looks forward to continuing to work with Dogwood Health Trust to strengthen Western North Carolina communities,” though she did not address how the changes would impact Stein’s work with HCA or the independent monitor.

The foundation has also established a strong working relationship with Asheville city staff and elected officials, said Mayor Esther Manheimer, when asked about the potential impacts of the leadership change.

“Since the launch of Dogwood, I have been pleased with the board’s direction to the director and staff to lean into a broad range of community challenges, including everything from jumping into the management of the pandemic crisis to long-term issues like affordable housing and student Wi-Fi connectivity,” Manheimer said.

“I am confident that our strong working relationship will continue and I’m looking forward to it.”

The 2019 search for the foundation’s CEO was led by executive

search firm WittKieffer. According to a leadership profile circulated in March 2019, the desired candidate would be “sophisticated yet humble,” with experience managing an innovative, complex organization.

When asked if the firm would be assisting in the search for Chiang’s replacement, consultant Julie Rosen referred Xpress back to Dogwood’s communications team, who did not offer comment.

Before his short stint with the DHT, Chiang served as president of Empire Health Foundation in Spokane, Wash. His salary at Dogwood has not been released in any of the trust’s public tax records to date; according to Empire Health Foundation’s tax records, he was making $235,100 annually, plus more than $49,000 in employee benefits and $11,000 in an expense account, before moving to Asheville.

The DHT will hold its annual meeting online Wednesday, Oct. 28, 3:30-5:30 p.m. Staff and board members are expected to share updates about Dogwood’s work and answer questions. X

MOUNTAINX.COM

OCT. 7-13, 2020

17

GREEN SCENE

Woolly situation

BY DANIEL WALTON dwalton@mountainx.com Margot Wallston is committed to playing the long game.

As director of the Hemlock Restoration Initiative, a program of Asheville-based nonprofit WNC Communities, Wallston leads the local battle against the hemlock woolly adelgid. The invasive insect, which originated in Asia and first appeared in the state in 1995, now infests all of Western North Carolina and has already killed hundreds of thousands of trees.

Since the HRI’s founding with $100,000 from the N.C. Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services in 2014, Wallston says, the program and its partners have been fighting back. Over 85,000 hemlocks have been treated with chemicals to kill the adelgid, populations of beetles that prey on the pest have been established in local forests, and researchers have honed methods for growing new trees to restore what’s

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OCT. 7-13, 2020

been lost. While the adelgid will likely never disappear from the landscape, she explains, momentum is building to keep it under control, helped along by state financial support.

That momentum is in danger of stalling — not because the adelgid has become wilier, but because of dysfunction at the N.C. General Assembly. Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler and former Rep. Chuck McGrady, R-Henderson, had requested $300,000 of recurring funds for the HRI in the state’s fiscal year 2019-20 budget. Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper then vetoed the budget on June 28, 2019, citing “tax breaks for corporations” inserted by Republican lawmakers.

Budget negotiations have since stalled, and emergency responses to the coronavirus pandemic have further hindered the process. “We’ve been experiencing the same shortages that so many others have been due to COVID and due to last year’s budget never getting passed,” Wallston says.

“Those challenges in obtaining that state funding have left us in a bit of a precarious situation.”

A joint proclamation between the HRI and the agriculture department, issued Sept. 2, aims to make the hemlock’s future more secure. The document commits both organizations to pursuing official status for the HRI as a state program with a guaranteed pot of money.

“There is ongoing management that has to be planned for,” says Wallston.

“Longevity will not only allow us to do that planning work, but it will also allow us to get some additional funding support from those who want to see it’s not going to die out in a year or two.”

SHADY GROVE

Sandy Stewart, the state’s assistant commissioner of agricultural services, emphasizes that the department sees hemlocks as a vital natural resource worthy of protection. Even without dedicated funding to put toward the HRI, he says, his department continues to support the program: Its Beneficial Insect Lab raises predator beetles that hunt the adelgid, while the N.C. Forest Service operates hemlock nurseries to help repopulate the tree’s range.

Hemlocks prefer to grow along creeks or in coves, notes Chris Sharpton, a forester with the Forest Service.

The trees help keep the water clean and cool, he says, benefiting both the

MOUNTAINX.COM

Hemlock Restoration Initiative seeks long-term state support

STANDING TALL: Staff and volunteers from the Hemlock Restoration Initiative gather in front of a tree treated for hemlock woolly adelgid at the Carolina Hemlocks Campground in Burnsville in November 2019. Photo courtesy of the HRI broader ecosystem and economically important trout populations.

If the woolly adelgid is allowed to run rampant through a stand of hemlocks, those benefits go away — and new problems emerge. Sharpton says that habitats protected by hemlocks are among the last to dry out during a drought, providing natural lines for wildfire control. Dead hemlock trunks, he continues, can become “large, heavy fuels” for fire, turning that help into a hindrance.

Under rainy conditions, adds Stewart, deadfall from hemlocks can clog up mountain waterways and cause

problematic logjams. “A few weeks ago, particularly over in Graham County, there were some torrential rains, and the old hemlocks that were in those streams caused a lot of damage with that much water falling at one time,” he says.

Both severe drought and heavy precipitation are predicted to become more common in WNC over the coming decades due to climate change, according to the N.C. Climate Science Report recently commissioned by the state Department of Environmental Quality.

Hemlocks give the region some resilience to those climate impacts, Stewart

and notes that they have treated over 45,000 hemlocks for adelgid control over the past several years. “When BRIDGE crews join us in the field, members frequently express their appreciation for being able to participate in the program and develop the natural resource management skills they learn through the program,” she says. “While a lot of our work is done without BRIDGE crews, when we do get to work together, it’s generally a good day all around.”

No matter who ends up in charge of the department, Wallston continues, the state should recognize the HRI’s progress and potential for protecting forests. She says hemlocks are well adapted to WNC and can fill in voids left when other trees succumb to environmental stressors.

The hemlock, she concludes, “can tolerate a lot of what nature throws at it. The one thing it hasn’t been able to tolerate is the introduction of this novel, invasive pest.” X

KEEP IT COOL: Hemlocks prefer cooler, wetter habitats such as those around the Toe River, where the Hemlock Restoration Initiative treated trees for hemlock woolly adelgid in November 2019. Photo courtesy of the HRI says, which makes their preservation even more critical.

By allocating dedicated funds to the HRI, Stewart continues, the General Assembly would build “staying power” into a program that tackles the ongoing threats of deforestation and climate. He says the money would allow the agriculture department to devote at least one full-time staff position to hemlock work and treat more trees.

GROWING PAINS

Stewart and Wallston say their respective organizations are eager to put those changes in place as early as 2021. But McGrady, whom Wallston calls “a champion” for the HRI in the state legislature, cautions that nothing should be taken for granted in an age of COVID-19 and deep political divisions.

(McGrady resigned from the General Assembly on Oct. 5 to serve on the N.C. Board of Transportation; see “Into the sunset,” page 9.)

“The state’s budget revenues have clearly been affected by COVID, and while we’ve made it through the last fiscal year OK, the expectation is that the coming fiscal year is going to be quite challenging,” McGrady says. And Troxler, a Republican, faces a challenger this year in Democrat Jenna Wadsworth; McGrady points out that she may set different priorities for department funding if elected.

Asked if her administration would make the same institutional commitment to the HRI as has Troxler, Wadsworth said she understands the importance of hemlocks to the Appalachian ecosystem and generally supports work to combat the woolly adelgid infestation. However, she raised concerns about the HRI’s

use of the Young Offenders Forest Conservation Program — commonly known as BRIDGE — an initiative of the N.C. Department of Public Safety that pays prisoners who opt in $1 per day while training them to fight fires and conduct other forestry work.

“I question the exploitation of offenders in order to achieve our agricultural and environmental aims on the cheap,” Wadsworth wrote. “There has to be a better solution to combating such a serious problem because the dependence on essentially unpaid labor is abhorrent.”

Wallston responds that the BRIDGE work crews are “a huge asset for us”

Get involved The Hemlock Restoration Initiative is hosting several educational events throughout October for those looking to learn more about efforts to protect hemlocks from the woolly adelgid.

• OAKtober Tree Health Walk — Swannanoa River Greenway, 11 a.m.-1 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 10. avl.mx/8f8.

• HWA Management for Landowners — Online, 6:30 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 15. avl.mx/8f9.

• Protecting Your Hemlocks Field Experience — N.C. Arboretum, 9 a.m., Saturday, Oct. 17. avl.mx/8fa.

• Hemlock Treatment Demonstration — Montford Park, 10 a.m.-2 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 24. avl.mx/8fq.

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OCT. 7-13, 2020

19

FOOD

Comfort zone

Local cookbooks and chefs provide inspiration for cooler temps ahead

BY KAY WEST

produced by the Asheville Strong nonprofit earlier this year to benefit the N.C. Restaurant Workers Relief Fund.

A print edition of the cookbook will be available in November for holiday sales.

kswest55@comcast.net As days grow shorter and temperatures dip, Asheville home kitchens are starting to heat up with soups on the stove and plenty of comfort food items on the menu.

Elizabeth Sims, co-author of three popular cookbooks from locally based restaurant chain Tupelo Honey, says that while the internet is a quick way to figure out what to do with what’s in the fridge, in cold weather she’s more likely to consult her personal collection of cookbooks.

“I probably have about 75,” she says.

“I like to buy books by people I know, and when I travel, I like to bring home a cookbook to remind me of that time and place. I love community and Junior League cookbooks and the standards like Joy of Cooking and the original Silver Palate cookbook.”

She notes that community and church cookbooks, in particular, are treasure troves for fall and winter recipes. “I do a lot of casseroles in the winter with a lib-

Buckwheat pancakes From Asheville At Home; recipe by Dan Silo Yields 4-6 pancakes • 1 ½ cups buckwheat flour • 2 tablespoons maple sugar or brown sugar • ½ teaspoon salt • 1 teaspoon baking soda • 1 ½ cups whey, milk or buttermilk • 1 egg • 3 tablespoons melted butter In a large bowl, mix together the flour, sugar, salt and baking soda. In a small bowl, whisk together the whey and egg. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir to combine, before adding the melted butter.

Heat a griddle or skillet to medium-high. Spoon the batter onto the hot skillet or griddle, allowing it to cook until bubbles form on the top and hold their place.

Flip, cook 1-2 more minutes, and serve immediately. X

20

OCT. 7-13, 2020

SIMPLE SWEETS

Maia Surdam, co-owner of OWL Bakery who also holds a doctorate in U.S. history, says she learned to bake by baking. She took her first cooking and baking job at a bed-and-breakfast as an

Spicy chicken and vegetable soup From Southern From Scratch by Ashley English

BUCK UP: Dan Silo’s buckwheat pancake is one of Sawhorse restaurant’s most popular menu items, and a surefire cold weather warmup. Photo by Dan Silo. eral use of cheese, and there is always a pot of soup on the stove,” she says.

One of her go-to recipes from the original 2011 Tupelo Honey cookbook, Tupelo Honey Café: Spirited Recipes from Asheville’s New Southern Kitchen, which she put together with then-chef Brian Sonoskus, is all about the cheese: Sonoskus’s warm pimento cheese dip.

(Find the recipe at avl.mx/8ef.) “He had to make a lot of it for photos, and I think I ate my weight in that dip!” she says.

Ashley English is also a soup devotee. The author of numerous books about homesteading and food, including the Southern From Scratch cookbook, English says soup delivers comfort along with healthy dividends as temperatures cool and humidity levels drop. “We are 70% water by composition, so we definitely need to keep bringing in moisture to our bodies even when it’s absent in the atmosphere,” she says. “Soup takes care of that need deliciously.”

English’s spicy chicken and vegetable soup (see sidebar) is not only nourishing, but the hot sauce, she points out, helps clear the nasal congestion colder weather can bring. Because summer’s end saw Mason jars fly off shelves like paper goods did in March, cooks can substitute store-bought diced tomatoes for the home-canned ones in her recipe.

MOUNTAINX.COM

LUMBERJACK FARE

As a native of the Adirondack Mountains, chef Dan Silo, owner of Sawhorse restaurant, knows stick-toyour-ribs cuisine. “Fall and winter are the wheelhouse for Sawhorse,” he says with a laugh. “It is my favorite season to cook and to eat.”

One of the most popular items on the Sawhorse menu, buckwheat pancakes, is a recipe handed down generations on his mother’s side of the family. “My great-great-grandmother cooked in lumberjack camps,” he says.

“My great-grandmother, when she was about 13 or 14, learned to cook going to work with her mother.”

Silo’s pancake recipe is adapted from one handed down from his great-grandmother. “The flavor is kind of nutty from the buckwheat,” he says. “And texture-wise, it’s more like a crepe and used more as a vessel for a topping than a stack of pancakes.”

At Sawhorse, which recently reopened with some indoor dining and the parking lot transformed into a biergarten, the buckwheat pancake on the dinner menu is smothered with fingerling potatoes, cheese, duck confit and maple jus. The recipe for the pancake (see sidebar) was included in the Asheville At Home digital cookbook

• Serves six to eight • 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil • One large onion, diced • Two carrots, diced • One red bell pepper, diced • Two stalks celery, diced • 8 ounces button or cremini mushrooms, coarsely chopped • 8 cups chicken stock, homemade or boxed • 2 cups home-canned or storebought canned diced tomatoes • 2 teaspoons sea salt • Meat from one whole, cooked chicken, pulled from bone and roughly chopped • Fermented hot sauce • 1 ½ cups frozen or fresh corn • Sour cream, parsley, cilantro to serve (optional) Warm the olive oil in medium saucepan over medium-high heat.

Add onions, carrots, bell pepper, celery and mushrooms and sauté for about 20 minutes, until vegetables are softened and fragrant and beginning to brown around the edges. Add the stock, tomatoes, salt, chicken and hot sauce to taste (one tablespoon for a little zing, two to make it spicier, three to make it very spicy). Turn down heat and gently simmer for 45 minutes. Add corn and simmer 10 minutes longer. Taste and adjust for salt and spiciness. Remove pot from heat and serve with sour cream, parsley or cilantro, if desired, and more hot sauce for the adventurous. X

“intellectual break” after earning her Ph.D., then eventually met OWL founder Susannah Gebhart who brought her on as a baker.

“Susannah was my first and most important mentor and teacher,” she says. “In six years, I learned how to make all the things the bakery is known for.”

Surdam has stepped away from dayto-day operations of the business to devote more time to her new position as program director for the Partnership for Appalachian Girls Education in Marshall. But she still indulges her passion for home baking, sometimes turning to the collection of cookbooks she has acquired. One of her favorites is Classic German Baking by Luisa Weiss.

“One thing I learned from her book is a different type of strudel,” she says. “The apple turnovers and apple strudel at OWL are so delicious, but I don’t make that kind of dough at home. Luisa’s recipe is really simple to make, and you get these delicate, buttery layers.”

Easier than strudel is a simple baked apple, a notion Surdam was reminded of last fall when she went apple picking in a Hendersonville orchard. “As we begin to spend more time indoors in the fall and winter and the weather turns cold, home cooking will be really important again to get us through,” she says. “It doesn’t have to be complicated; the smell of a baked apple can bring us so much joy.” X

Baked apples Recipe from Maia Surdam Best varieties for whole, baked apples include Honeycrisp, Empire, Jonathan, Rome, Gala and Braeburn.

Or if shopping at a tailgate market, ask for recommendations.

• Four apples • ½ cup dark brown sugar • 2 teaspoons cinnamon • 1 teaspoon ginger • 1 teaspoon fresh sage, minced • pinch of salt • ½ cup chopped English and/or black walnuts, toasted • ¼ cup unsalted butter, softened • water Core apples from top almost to bottom and scoop out enough apple to leave a narrow well. Mix together brown sugar, soft butter, salt, cinnamon, ginger and sage. Add nuts. Stuff the filling into the apple well and mound on top. Place in a buttered glass baking or casserole dish, add water to cover the bottom of the dish, then top with foil. Bake for 20 minutes covered, then remove foil and continue baking until the apples are tender, around 45 minutes total. Serve warm.

Note: Feel free to adjust this recipe and use what you have available. Try other nuts and seeds, swap rosemary for the sage or consider adding oats or dried fruit to the mixture as well. X

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OCT. 7-13, 2020

21

FOOD

Meat to market

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Warren Wilson College Farm partners with ASAP Farmers Market to expand its sales outlets As autumn settles into Western North Carolina, people dedicated to eating seasonally revel in the arrival of kale, collard greens, head lettuce, winter squash and an abundance of apples at local tailgate markets. This fall, a new relationship between Warren Wilson College Farm and the ASAP Farmers Market also gives meat-loving shoppers a seasonal reason to rejoice.

The college has traditionally sold the pasture-raised pork, beef and lamb its teaching farm produces through spring and fall bulk meat sales, which have operated old-school for many years.

Customers select products on a printed form — beef and pork quarters, a lamb half, boxes of 10 1-pound packages of ground beef or breakfast sausage, for instance — mail it in with a check and pick orders up at the farm on a designated day.

Warren Wilson’s new presence at the ASAP Farmers Market at A-B Tech on Saturday mornings gives shoppers a more regularly accessible outlet for stocking up on its fresh meat offerings.

“We do almost all our beef processing and lamb processing in the fall, so this is really beef and lamb season for us,” says Blair Thompson, farm manager at Warren Wilson College. Pork, he adds, is more of a year-round product, but all the farm’s meat will be processed by late December and sold into spring.

ASAP Farmers Market Manager Kate Hanford connected with Warren Wilson while reaching out recently to area farms with the goal of increasing the market’s meat selection. Hickory

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HOG HEAVEN: All Warren Wilson College Farm animals are born and pasture-raised on the campus farm and cared for by students. Photo by Sienna Wire Nut Gap Farm Director Asher Wright, who had been farm manager at Warren Wilson until 2018, pointed Hanford to the college farm. “Their standards are very much in line with what we are committed to bring to the market,” she says. “It’s a great program, and we love that the students come to the market and work the booth.”

The Warren Wilson College Farm also recently added an online sales platform where customers can preor-

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der retail-sized, individually packaged items for pickup at the ASAP market.

“It has made it a lot more streamlined for us,” says Thompson. “Since we can’t have outside folks on campus right now, the new platform and having a physical presence at the market is a great way to keep and grow sales.”

Additionally, the farm now includes Benton-cured bacon in its product line.

“We will take our pork bellies to them in Townsend, Tenn., and they will custom cure our pork for us under their USDA label,” Thompson explains, referring to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Benton-cured country hams will also be available from Warren Wilson later this year or in early 2021.

While the college is proud of the meat it produces, “The bottom line for us is getting new farmers and new land managers trained up,” says Thompson.

“This is a way to support that mission.”

An order form for Warren Wilson’s traditional fall meat sale is available at avl.mx/8ey. Deadline is Friday, Nov. 6; pickup is Friday, Nov. 14. To order online for pickup at the ASAP Farmers Market, visit avl.mx/8ex.

— Kay West X

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OCT. 7-13, 2020

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ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

Cinematic fiction

Filmmaker Polly Schattel releases her debut novel

BY ALLI MARSHALL allimarshall@bellsouth.net Writer and filmmaker Polly Schattel had long been toying with the idea for a turn-of-the-last-century novel with themes of secret societies and hints of the occult. “These are the stories I like to write,” she says. “I grew up reading Michael Warthog and Stephen King, and fantasy and science fiction.”

She continues, “I was neck-deep in Edwardia and all the seances. … I had a feeling there were more stories from that era to tell.” So, in 2013, Schattel pitched then-Asheville-based musician Ben Lovett on a video incorporating such imagery. That haunting, Masonic Temple-set film for Lovett’s “Black Curtain” is, in a way, a precursor to Schattel’s literary print debut, The Occultists. She’ll read selections from her work at Malaprop’s on Friday, Oct. 30, as part of a horror and dark fiction event.

The novel — parts fantasy, history and horror — was published in July, and Schattel already has her next three writing projects in the works. She’s not in a hurry to return to full-time filmmaking (though her illustrious career, under her pre-transition name Paul Schattel, includes selections such as Alison and Quiet River, and the online series “Live at Moog” for Paste magazine; as Polly Schattel, she directed the short film Here There Be Tygers).

“In film, you chase million-dollar budgets for years,” Schattel says. “I was always the bridesmaid.” Multiple projects of hers were optioned — i.e., entered into contractual agreements with major studios — but never completed. She dealt with Academy Award winners. She received a call from

DARK PURSUITS: When the film world proved unsatisfying, Polly Schattel turned to fiction to capture her horror and fantasy storylines. The format also allowed her to process ideas around power and otherness through the lens of her experience as a trans woman. Author photo courtesy of Schattel James Spader’s agent regarding a specific project. But ultimately she feels that filmmaking is “a desperate world.”

It can be argued that The Occultists presents a desperate world, too, though Schattel felt very much at home while creating its universe. The narrative follows small-town Georgia teen Max as he’s welcomed into a secret society. But when his mentors send him to a school for young people with metaphysical abilities, he uncovers nefarious plots and rival organizations that “silence” adversaries in bids for control.

“I hadn’t realized how many tropes I was using,” Schattel says, noting such motifs as the magical school. “Hopefully I was able to do something fresh.” In fact, the novel’s deep dive into spiritualism and early 1900s America is an engaging distraction from the worries of present day. At the same time, themes of wildfire, social and political strife, as well as complex race relations feel timely.

“Sadly, abuse of power is not something that’s new. [This is a] universal theme,” Schattel says, pointing to how

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J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth in his Lord of the Rings books drew parallels to World War I. The idea of extermination of the “other” is also explored throughout The Occultists, as Max and his friend Harriet hide from their enemies while seeking protection and mentorship from a community of fringe characters, including a theatrical magician and revolutionary conjurer. The action takes place across the American landscape, from the Midwestern plains to New York City, as well as in the aether — a Matrix-esque plane beyond linear time.

“Film teaches you story,” Schattel says of the shift from visual narrative to the written word. The Occultists was originally envisioned for the screen, “but I didn’t have the budget.”

However, literature was Schattel’s first love: She was an English major and says writing “was Plan A” before she was lured into the world of film.

Cinematic sensibility infuses The Occultists through vivid description and an array of unusual characters, such as the gruesome Moorelander, the sagelike Theodosius the Sorrowed and mentor/trickster Black Howard.

Though the novel’s female-identified characters are few, they, too, are drawn in bold strokes and with plenty of nuance. Harriet curses and steals, while Madame Z— wears men’s clothing and smokes hand-rolled cigarettes.

The character of Madame Z— is based on Russian occultist Helena Petrovna Blavatsky. “If you read about Madame Blavatsky, she’s a hoot. She’s a badass,” Schattel says. “She was kooky herself, but she’s way more interesting than those patriarchal white guys.”

The real-life secret societies Schattel draws on for her fiction were “very male-dominated, very white, very patriarchal,” she notes. And she’s quick to admit that she was once part of that worldview, even as a political liberal.

“The trans thing has helped me with a lot of this, too, because white men don’t even see this stuff. I can tell you, because I used to count myself among them.”

Schattel adds, “Only when you step outside of these patriarchal structures are you able to see their true sickness for what they really are. Being trans helped to open my eyes to how the ‘other’ is treated by people in power.”

The Occultist is available in bookstores.

Learn more at pollyschattel.com. X

Nashville to Asheville (and back) Warren Givens and Matt Walsh release new albums

For an accurate preview of what awaits in Asheville-based artist Warren Givens’ Rattle the Cages, look no further than its cover imagery. The split portraits of the Mississippi native, painted by local artist Melanie Norris, are a window into the duality of the 11-song, two-part collection, which was released on Aug. 7.

The first five songs are full-band rock ’n’ roll, which marks new territory for Givens. Following a single “median” track, the final five songs are acoustic iterations of the front five — an ode to his background in bluegrass. The songs are products of Givens’ past five years, in which he “did a lot of growing” — namely falling in love with his eventual wife and moving to Western North Carolina.

“I wanted to take a step in a new direction with the rock ’n’ roll versions of the tunes, but wanted to still display my roots and where this all comes from, because those tunes weren’t exactly written with full-band rock ’n’ roll in mind,” says Givens.

While the rock versions were all recorded pre-pandemic, the acoustic reworkings were born during the nationwide lockdown. Givens — who also regularly tours with the Steep Canyon Rangers and has recorded backing vocals for the likes of Miranda Lambert — tracked the vocal and guitar parts of each song using the voice memo feature on his iPhone, then sent the snippets to Black Mountain-based producer Seth Kauffman (Floating Action; Jim James), who overlaid drums and bass.

“We had always kind of had the idea to do acoustic versions of the tunes, so it seemed fitting to do that then since I wasn’t able to go into his studio or anything,” Givens says. “I don’t know of another record that’s ever been recorded straight to the voice memo app on an iPhone.”

The middle track falls into its own category, as it’s the only one on the album that features outside vocals.

Givens wrote them specifically for his younger sister, Ivy. “We flew her down from Brooklyn and got around a big dynamic mic, old-school bluegrass style

RAMBLIN’ MEN: Warren Givens, left, and Matt Walsh employed decidedly different approaches to craft their latest albums. Givens photo by West Givens. Walsh photo by Corey Goble like we used to do it back in the day, and just kept it really simple,” he says.

Givens moved to Asheville four years ago from Nashville, where he studied music business at Belmont University.

Rattle the Cages marks his first release since relocating, and he wanted the project to reflect the joy his new home has given him.

“Moving here, I just wanted to get North Carolina people involved and make it superfun,” he says. “There was a lot about the Nashville scene that was superrigid that I wanted to let go of and just have some fun making music again.” warrengivens.com

WORKING UNDER PRESSURE

While the quarantine period directly influenced Givens’ recording process, the shutdown forced part-time Burnsville resident Matt Walsh to sit on his LP Burnt Out Soul for six months longer than intended.

In late November 2018, Walsh had just released his album The Midnight Strain when he got a call from a connection at famed Columbia Records Studio A in Nashville with an offer to record in two weeks.

“I didn’t have any songs ready, but I just said yes because I wasn’t going to pass up that kind of opportunity,” Walsh says. “So in the middle of trying to promote a brand-new album that was only 2 weeks old, I had to come up with a whole other album on the spot.”

He wrote eight songs that week, throwing together a solo demo of just his vocals and a telecaster. After a single day of practice with Greensborobased drummer Chuck Cotton in High Point — where Walsh spends his Thursdays-Sundays working on the livestream variety show “The Friday Nite Gamble” — the pair hit the road and arrived in Music City with just enough time to grab a bite to eat before what amounted to a 14-hour recording session. Walsh’s musical associates

Mike Salley (pedal steel guitar) and Jerry Sherron (piano/organ) also play on the album, as does Benjamin Fox (mandolin), a friend of the record’s producer, Michael Fohn. “[The tight turnaround] put a lot of pressure on me, but it was good because it made me have to step up to a higher level,” Walsh says. “That’s what it’s all about for me. If I am not challenging myself, if I’m in my comfort zone, then what’s the point?”

The grind paid off, as evidenced by the beautiful production quality for which the legendary studio is known.

Walsh says the new album is “by far” his best, sonically speaking, thanks in large part to an old 1970s API console that had previously been used as a live recording unit for, among other projects, The Band’s The Last Waltz and Peter Frampton’s Frampton Comes Alive.

After tracking Burnt Out Soul, Walsh spent six months promoting The Midnight Strain before turning his attention back to the other album. But by the time he and Fohn had the project where they wanted it, the pandemic was erupting. Unable to tour in support of his new record, Walsh waited a few months to see if live music would return to its pre-COVID status, and when it didn’t, he decided on a Sept. 25 release date to put the new tunes out in the world. “It’s been a huge test of patience,” Walsh says with a laugh.

Though known for his blues-inspired guitar, Walsh says Burnt Out Soul allowed him to work on shaping other elements of each track. “It’s a lot different from my other albums in that I really let the guitar take a back seat as far as the instrumentation,” he says. “It’s definitely not a guitar album. There are only eight songs, so I had to make sure they were all stellar songs that each had their own atmosphere.” mattwalshmusic.net

— Jarrett Van Meter X

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OCT. 7-13, 2020

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CLUBLAND OKLAWAHA BREWING CO. It Takes All Kinds Open Mic Night, 7pm

Online Event= q WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 7 THE GREY EAGLE Western Wildfire Relief Benefit w/ Steelin’ Time, 5pm HIGHLAND BREWING CO. Woody Wood (folk, blues), 6pm OKLAWAHA BREWING CO. French Broad Valley Mountain Music Jam, 6pm SMOKY MOUNTAIN EVENT CENTER Asheville Music Hall: Drive-in Show w/ Yonder Mountain String Band, 6pm SIP'SUM TEAHOUSE Catamount Open Jazz Jam, 7pm TRISKELION BREWERY InterActive TriskaTrivia, 7pm

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 13

TWIN LEAF BREWERY Open Mic w/ Thomas Yon, 7pm

OKLAWAHA BREWING CO. Team Trivia Tuesday, 6pm

185 KING STREET Team Trivia & Games, 7pm

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 14

CATAWBA BREWING SOUTH SLOPE Disney Villains Trivia Night, 8pm SOVEREIGN KAVA q Poetry Open Mic, 8:30pm, avl.mx/76w THE PAPER MILL LOUNGE Karaoke X, 9pm THE SOCIAL Karaoke w/ Lyric, 10pm

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 8 LAZY HIKER BREWING SYLVA Open Jam, 5pm OKLAWAHA BREWING CO. Josh Dunkin (solo acoustic), 6pm

We’re Open Thur-Fri 5-9 Sat-Sun 11:30-9 828-350-0315 SMOKYPARK.COM

WELL ROOTED: When he’s not touring with Asheville-based rock band Hustle Souls, multi-instrumentalist Billy Litz goes solo as Kid Billy. Influenced by American roots, blues and ragtime, the singer-songwriter loops trumpet and piano with guitar and harmonica for a rich, retro sound. He will play an outdoor show at Riverside Rhapsody Beer Co. in Hendersonville Saturday, Oct. 10, 5 p.m.

Photo courtesy of Riverside Rhapsody ISIS MUSIC HALL Lawn Concert w/ Random Animals (indie, soul), 6:30pm ISIS MUSIC HALL q An Evening w/ Sarah Burton (Americana, folk), 7pm, avl.mx/8gb TRISKELION BREWERY Jason's Technicolor Cabaret: Music & Comedy, 7pm

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BURNTSHIRT VINEYARDS Laura & Tim (rock, soul), 2pm

RABBIT RABBIT Silent Cinema: Scream, 6:30pm 185 KING STREET Team Trivia & Games, 7pm ISIS MUSIC HALL q Steve James (blues, folk), 7pm, avl.mx/8gd TWIN LEAF BREWERY Open Mic w/ Thomas Yon, 7pm

RABBIT RABBIT Silent Cinema: Shaun of the Dead, 8pm

BATTERY PARK BOOK EXCHANGE Dinah's Daydream (jazz), 6pm

RIVERSIDE RHAPSODY BEER CO. Drinkin’ & Thinkin’ Trivia, 5pm

BEN’S TUNE UP Comedy Open Mic w/ Baby George, 9pm

OLIVE OR TWIST Eric Congdon (solo acoustic), 6pm

TRISKELION BREWERY JC & the Boomerang Band (Irish trad, folk), 6pm

THE PAPER MILL LOUNGE Karaoke X, 9pm

185 KING STREET Open Electric Jam, 6pm

THE SOCIAL Karaoke w/ Lyric, 10pm

ONE STOP AT ASHEVILLE MUSIC HALL Gunslinging Parrots (Phish tribute), 8pm

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 9 ONE STOP AT ASHEVILLE MUSIC HALL Free Dead Friday (Grateful Dead tribute), 5:30pm

THE GREY EAGLE Patio Show w/ Lighted Stairs & Tongues of Fire (alternative), 6pm ISIS MUSIC HALL Lawn Concert w/ LSD (jazz, jam), 6:30pm FROG LEVEL BREWERY Western Carolina Writers (music in the round), 6:30pm GUIDON BREWING Chris Wayne (oldies), 7pm

OCT. 7-13, 2020

HI-WIRE BREWING BIG TOP Oktoberfest w/ Mountain Top Polka Band, 12pm

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 11

THE GREY EAGLE Travis Book Happy Hour w/ Mike Guggino & Barrett Smith of Steep Canyon Rangers, 6pm

SOUTHERN APPALACHIAN BREWERY Carolinabound (country, folk), 4pm

SMOKY MOUNTAIN EVENT CENTER Asheville Music Hall: Drivein Concert w/ Papadosio (rock, electronic), 6pm

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SATURDAY, OCTOBER 10

THE SOCIAL Karaoke Show w/ Billy Masters, 10pm

SWEETEN CREEK BREWING Mr Jimmy (blues), 6pm

RIVERSIDE RHAPSODY BEER COMPANY Kid Billy (solo multi-instrumentalist), 5pm

MAD CO. BREW HOUSE Chris Jamison (solo acoustic), 6pm

fe r i n g f o w o N d i n i ng r o o d t ou o ut e k a t d an

BEN’S TUNE UP DJ Kilby Spinning Vinyl, 10pm

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

SMOKY MOUNTAIN EVENT CENTER Asheville Music Hall: Drive-in Concert w/ Whitey Morgan & the 78’s (country, rock), 6pm ISIS MUSIC HALL Lawn Concert w/ Strung Like a Horse (Americana), 6:30pm LAZY HIKER BREWING SYLVA Will James (folk, bluegrass), 7pm GUIDON BREWING Just Rick (solo acoustic), 7pm SOUTHERN APPALACHIAN BREWERY Laura & Tim (rock, soul), 7pm THE GREY EAGLE Patio Show w/ Southron Ranco (post punk), 7pm WILD WING CAFE Karaoke Night, 9:30pm

ISIS MUSIC HALL Lawn Concert w/ Hot Club of Asheville (jazz), 6:30pm ISIS MUSIC HALL q An Evening w/ Buffalo Rose (Americana, bluegrass), 7pm, avl.mx/8gc ICONIC KITCHEN & DRINKS UniHorn (funk), 7pm THE GREY EAGLE Main Mary Fahl, 6pm Patio Leisureville, 7pm

MONDAY, OCTOBER 12

TRISKELION BREWERY InterActive TriskaTrivia, 7pm SOVEREIGN KAVA q Poetry Open Mic, 8:30pm, avl.mx/76w

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 15 LAZY HIKER BREWING SYLVA Open Jam, 5pm SOUTHERN APPALACHIAN BREWERY Hope Griffin Duo (folk, rock), 6pm ISIS MUSIC HALL Lawn Concert w/ Matt Fassas Trip (Americana, folk), 6:30pm

ARCHETYPE BREWING Old Time Jam w/ Banjo Mitch McConnell, 6pm

TRISKELION BREWERY Jason’s Technicolor Cabaret: Music & Comedy, 7pm

HIGHLAND BREWING CO. Totally Rad Trivia w/ Mitch Fortune, 6:30pm

ONE STOP AT ASHEVILLE MUSIC HALL Gunslinging Parrots (Phish tribute), 8pm

RABBIT RABBIT Silent Cinema: Beetlejuice, 6:30pm

BEN’S TUNE UP Comedy Open Mic w/ Baby George, 9pm

MOUNTAINX.COM

OCT. 7-13, 2020

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MOVIE REVIEWS THIS WEEK’S CONTRIBUTORS

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

BRUCE STEELE bcsteele@gmail.com

= MAX RATING

H PICK OF THE WEEK H

and makes a compelling argument that it’s better to work through impending pain and celebrate our loved ones’ lives together while we still can. Thanks to this dynamic duo, having those difficult conversations feels a lot more important — and loss feels a bit less scary.

Available to stream via Netflix REVIEWED BY EDWIN ARNAUDIN EARNAUDIN@MOUNTAINX.COM

Dosed HHHH

Dick Johnson Is Dead HHHHS

DIRECTOR: Kirsten Johnson PLAYERS: Dick Johnson, Kirsten Johnson, Ana Hoffman DOCUMENTARY RATED PG-13 Most people avoid discussing a parent’s declining health and approaching demise as long as possible. But rather than play that pointless and often ultimately unrewarding game, Kirsten Johnson made a borderline brilliant movie about facing mortality head-on.

Her documentary Dick Johnson Is Dead is a creative and soulful attempt to make peace with the inevitability that her octogenarian father won’t be around a whole lot longer. Spurred by reports that memory issues are tarnishing his work as a psychiatrist, Kirsten begins the process of moving Dick from his Seattle home to her one-bedroom New York City apartment — and also the cinematic project that finds both Johnsons, family and friends confronting their fears via an alluring mix of fact and fiction.

Much of the film finds Dick — a thoroughly pleasant fellow with a laugh that could bring joy to Oscar the Grouch — in front of the camera and Kirsten behind it, candidly reminiscing about happy and sad times, including milestones with his late wife and concerns surrounding his age and wellness.

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While Dick Johnson Is Dead would be a very good and thought-provoking film if it stuck to these blunt and loving father-daughter discussions, it becomes something more with the introduction of fantasy sequences that imagine Dick’s passing due to various accidents.

Through the magic of stunt doubles, special effects and Kirsten’s witty filmmaking, her father is “killed” multiple times — darkly comic moments of such suddenness that they lend an air of tension to every seemingly safe thing that Dick does.

Good daughter that she is, however, Kirsten also sends Dick to heaven, where, reunited with a facsimile of his wife, he revels in colorful sequences of dancing and music, depicted in gloriously shot slow-mo that makes the most of his gleeful, expression-rich face.

Tonally in the middle among these absurd yet plausible deaths and the endless-party afterlife is perhaps the film’s most unsettling stretch: a hyperbolized re-creation of Dick being briefly left alone during a Halloween stop at one of Kirsten’s friend’s houses, which stunningly conveys his greatest phobia and feels as if it could have been lifted from a Charlie Kaufman movie.

Steadied by the presence of her magnetic leading man, Kirsten masterfully weaves all of these components together

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DIRECTOR: Tyler Chandler PLAYERS: Adrianne, Tyler Chandler, Nicholas Meyers DOCUMENTARY NOT RATED Few movies showcase filmmaking’s capacity as a force for good as well as Dosed.

The powerful debut documentary by Tyler Chandler finds the director seeking to help his longtime friend Adrianne kick addiction through psychedelics after traditional rehab, therapy and medications have failed to make a lasting change.

On-camera confessionals recounting her multiple relapses, suicidal thoughts and fears of winding up on Vancouver’s streets convincingly amplify the make-orbreak nature of Adrianne getting clean.

And once psilocybin mushrooms and the potent African herb iboga are introduced as possible solutions, Chandler wisely loops in various experts to speak on the benefits and dangers of these illegal drugs.

(And yes, Fantastic Fungi fanatics: Paul Stamets does indeed make an appearance.)

Encouraging as these efforts are, the filmmaking is far from exceptional and occasionally borders on clunky. But the storytelling is so strong that it compensates for these technical shortcomings.

Chandler’s warts-and-all approach makes it practically impossible to root against Adrianne’s wellness — even as she struggles to accept the aid given to her at nearly every turn — and presents addiction in a sympathetic yet honest manner that doesn’t shy away from its complexities.

Though it’s somewhat strange that the seemingly vanity-free Adrianne would allow her journey to be filmed, the sense of support and accountability from Chandler, her parents, psychedelic professionals and the filmmaking process are evident, as well as the unspoken

Kevin Evans

James Rosario

sense that her saga could prove beneficial to others.

Whether or not the endeavor is a success is something that viewers must discover on their own, but regardless of Adrianne’s outcome, Dosed triumphs by raising numerous provocative questions that should get even the most stubborn Big Pharma proponents thinking about the viability of mainstream treatment methods.

REVIEWED BY EDWIN ARNAUDIN EARNAUDIN@MOUNTAINX.COM

Major Arcana HHH DIRECTOR: Josh Melrod PLAYERS: Ujon Tokarski, Lane Bradbury, Tara Summers DRAMA NOT RATED One of the best things about indie narrative films is that they tend to mirror life in raw and uncanny ways. But in Major Arcana, these qualities are so pronounced that viewers who seek films primarily for escapism and entertainment could find themselves emotionally overwhelmed.

From the outset, the drama by Josh Melrod (a veteran editor, making his writing/directing debut) features an unmistakably palpable sense of sorrow that slivers through each mostly dialogue-free frame.

Enhancing this tone is a rustic, squalid vibe and a main character, Dink (Ujon Tokarski), who seems especially resigned and quietly tortured.

Back in his small Vermont hometown after a sudden, unannounced four-year absence, Dink endures the scorn of those still upset by his surprise departure, namely his family and his ex, Sierra (Tara Summers). Having received his own surprise in the form of 53 acres and 15 grand, willed to him by his recently-deceased father, he puts his carpentry skills to work and begins building a cabin on his new land.

When not hammering nails, Dink pounds away at his inherited alcoholic demons, most of which come courtesy of his mother, Jean (Lane Bradbury), who seems to genuinely loathe herself, her son and her dead spouse. The few times when Tokarski and Bradbury share a space, we witness their characters’ strong disdain for one another. And in these moments, it’s abundantly clear why Dink ran away — and why he now feels a deep need for genuine change — though these

intense exchanges also provide a good deal of welcome dark comic relief. Here and elsewhere, the actors seem so honest and believable that it almost made my very aura sweat and cry.

Major Arcana begins a bit slow and dark but piques one’s interest more as time progresses. Although this film did not leave me feeling warm or overjoyed, I would watch it again for the realism alone.

REVIEWED BY KEVIN EVANS K.A.E.0082@GMAIL.COM

Oliver Sacks: His Own Life HHHH DIRECTOR: Ric Burns PLAYERS: Oliver Sacks, Temple Grandin, Atul Gawande DOCUMENTARY NOT RATED I remember seeing and enjoying Penny Marshall’s Awakenings — based on the 1973 book of the same name by neurologist

AVAILABLE VIA FINEARTSTHEATRE.COM (FA) GRAILMOVIEHOUSE.COM (GM)

Dr. Oliver Sacks — when it debuted on home video in 1991, but I never gave much thought to its real-life figures. Seeing it again circa 2005, I once more connected with the film, but, as before, didn’t consider the dramatized events, doctors or patients beyond the closing credits. Now, some years later, the opportunity to correct my earlier mistakes has fallen into my lap in the form of veteran documentarian Ric Burns’ wonderful Oliver Sacks: His Own Life.

Sacks is quite a character, and certainly not your typical neurologist. Burns allows the chronically underappreciated doctor to tell the story of his often turbulent life largely in his own words, which are eloquent and evocative. They’re also full of wholehearted bravado, and yet often brimming with quiet, reserved contemplations. Touching on his upbringing in England, outing as a gay man, migration to California, amphetamine addiction and eventual arrival in New York City, His Own Life chronicles an unlikely saga for such a brilliant mind — albeit a story that’s both a product of its time and one that bucks the system at every turn.

Sacks, who was portrayed by Robin Williams in Awakenings, is now considered a pioneer but was largely dismissed for

much of his career. His approach to neuroscience — getting to know his patients by talking with them about their symptoms and observing their behaviors instead of simply diagnosing them and moving on — was unpopular in the rapidly evolving field.

When he began detailing case studies in books like Awakenings, his peers shunned his findings as pseudoscience lacking in quantitative data.

Sacks is now vindicated, and His Own Life allows this mighty and immensely generous man to reflect on how his troubled life helped shape him into the person he became both personally and professionally. While Burns may not break new ground in the documentary form, the story at hand is so powerful that he doesn’t have to innovate. Simply allowing Sacks to read occasional selections from his autobiography — and, in essence, narrate his own story — proves surprisingly effective.

Filmed shortly before Sacks died of cancer in 2015, these scenes allow him to write his own personalized epitaph, using the beautiful prose for which he’s known. By doing so in his own vivid and expressive voice, it ensures that we, and those he helped, will not soon forget him.

REVIEWED BY JAMES ROSARIO JAMESROSARIO1977@GMAIL.COM

Beyond the Visible: Hilma af Klint (NR) HHHS (FA) Chuck Berry: The Original King of Rock ‘n’ Roll (NR) HHHHS (GM) Creem: America’s Only Rock ‘n’ Roll Magazine (NR) HHHH (GM) Critical Thinking (NR) HHHH (GM) Desert One (NR) HHHH (FA, GM) The Disrupted (NR) HHHHH (FA) Dosed (NR) HHHH (FA, GM) Driven to Abstraction (PG) HHS(FA) Epicentro (NR) HHHH (GM) F11 and Be There (NR) HHHH (FA) Fantastic Fungi (NR) HHHH (FA) Flannery (NR) HHHH (FA) God of the Piano (NR) HHHH (GM) The Ground Between Us (NR) HHH (FA) Helmut Newton: The Bad and the Beautiful (NR) HHH (FA) Herb Alpert Is... (NR) HHS (FA) I Used to Go Here (NR) HHHHS (GM) Jimmy Carter: Rock & Roll President (NR) HHHHH (FA, GM) John Lewis: Good Trouble (PG) HHHH (FA) The Keeper (NR) HHS (FA) Made in Bangladesh (NR) HS(GM) Major Arcana (NR) HHHS (FA) Meeting the Beatles in India (NR) HHS (FA) The Mole Agent (NR) HHHH (GM) Mr. Soul! (NR) HHHHS (GM) My Dog Stupid (NR) HHHH (FA) Nomad: In the Footsteps of Bruce Chatwin (NR) HHHH (GM) Oliver Sacks: His Own Life (NR) HHHH (GM) Out Stealing Horses (NR) HHHHS (FA) Proud (NR) HHH (FA) RBG (NR) HHHH (FA, GM) Represent (NR) HHH (GM) River City Drumbeat (NR) HHHHS (GM) The Tobacconist (NR) HHHS (FA) Vinyl Nation (NR) HHHS (GM) We Are Many (NR) HH (FA) You Never Had It: An Evening with Bukowski (NR) HHHS (FA) MOUNTAINX.COM

OCT. 7-13, 2020

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FREEWILL ASTROLOGY ARIES (March 21-April 19): “A person’s best ally is someone who takes care of herself,” says actress Susan Clark. I heartily agree. The people with whom you can cultivate the most resilient bonds and most interesting synergy are those who have a high degree of self-sufficiency — those who take rigorous responsibility for themselves and treat themselves with tender compassion. In the coming weeks, Aries, I think it’s especially important for you to emphasize relationships with allies who fit that description.

Bonus! Their exemplary self-care will influence you to vigorously attend to your own self-care.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Libran author Ursula K. Le Guin said that we don’t just naturally know how to create our destinies. It takes research and hard work. “All of us have to learn how to invent our lives, make them up, imagine them,” she wrote.

“We need to be taught these skills; we need guides to show us how. If we don’t, our lives get made up for us by other people.” I bring this to your attention, Libra, because the coming weeks will be an excellent time to upgrade and refine your mastery of these essential powers. What can you do to enhance your capacity to invent your life? Which teachers and information sources might be helpful?

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): According to my reading of the astrological potentials, the coming weeks will be an excellent time for you to take a vacation in reverse. What’s that? It’s when you devote yourself to renewing and reinvigorating your relationship with the work you love. You intensify your excitement for the vocation or job or long-term quest that teaches you important life lessons. You apply yourself with sublime enthusiasm to honing the discipline you need to fulfill the assignments you came to earth to accomplish.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): In 1984, hip-hop group Run-DMC was the first to achieve a gold record in their genre, meaning they sold more than 500,000 albums. Their next album sold over a million. They were pioneers. In 1986, legendary producer Rick Rubin encouraged them to do a remake of “Walk This Way,” a song by the hard rock band Aerosmith. The members of Run-DMC didn’t want to do it; they felt the tune was in a genre too unlike their own. But Rubin eventually convinced them, and the cross-pollination was phenomenally successful. The Run-DMC-meets-Aerosmith collaboration launched a new genre that sold very well. The song was later voted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. In this spirit, and in accordance with current cosmic rhythms, I urge you to try a bold hybrid or two yourself, Scorpio: blends of elements or influences that may seem a bit improbable.

They could ultimately yield big dividends.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): “If you are not having fun you are doing something wrong,” said comedian Groucho Marx. He was exaggerating so as to drive home his humorous point, but his idea contains some truth — and will be especially applicable to you in the immediate future. According to my analysis of the astrological omens, you have a temporary exemption from feeling frantically dour and unpleasantly dutiful. As crazy as the world is right now, you have a cosmic mandate to enjoy more playtime and amusement than usual. The rest of us are depending on you to provide us with doses of casual cheer.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): “Leave the door open for the unknown, the door into the dark,” writes Cancerian author Rebecca Solnit, adding, “That’s where the most important things come from.” I think this is good advice for you in the coming weeks.

What exactly does it mean? How and why should you do what she advises? My first suggestion is to reframe your conception of the unknown and the dark. Imagine them as the source of everything new; as the place from which the future comes; as the origin of creative changes. Then instruct your imagination to be adventurous as it explores brewing possibilities in the dark and the unknown.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): “If something comes to life in others because of you, then you have made an approach to immortality,” wrote author Norman Cousins. Whether or not you believe the “immortality” part of his formulation, I’m sure you understand how fabulous it is when you help activate beauty and vitality in someone. You may even feel that inspiring people to unleash their dormant potential is one of the most noble pleasures possible. I bring these thoughts to your attention, Leo, because I suspect that you now have exceptional power to perform services like these for your allies, friends and loved ones. I dare you to make it one of your top priorities.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): “The messiah will come when we don’t need him any more,” said author Franz Kafka. In that spirit and in alignment with current astrological omens, I will tell you that the precise help you wish you could attract into your life will show up as soon as you make initial efforts to provide that help to yourself. Here are some additional nuances: The gift or blessing you think you need most will be offered to you by fate once you begin giving that gift or blessing to yourself.

A rescuer will arrive not too long after you take steps to rescue yourself. You’ll finally figure out how to make practical use of a key lesson as you’re teaching that lesson to someone you care for.

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OCT. 7-13, 2020

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): You Sagittarians periodically go through phases when you specialize in stirring up fresh intuitions. I mean, you’re always one of the zodiac’s Intuition Champions, but during these special times, your flow becomes an overflow. You have a knack for seeking and finding visions of the interesting future; you get excited by possibilities that are on the frontiers of your confidence. From what I can tell, your life in recent weeks has been bringing you these delights — and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.

Take maximum advantage. Aggressively gather in the gifts being offered by your inner teacher.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Calling on my expert knowledge of healing language and imaginative psychology, I have formulated a mantra for you to use in the next six weeks. I suggest you say it five times after you wake up, and again at mid-day, and before dinner, and before sleep. It should help keep you intimately aligned with the dynamic groove that the cosmos will be conspiring to provide for you. For best results, picture yourself as glowing inside with the qualities named in the mantra. Here it is: StrongBrightFree ClearBoldBrisk DeepNimbleKind AdroitSteadyWarm.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): The Grammy Museum in Los Angeles features displays that extol the musicians who’ve won Grammy Awards over the years. A few years ago, a distinctly unfamous musician named Paz Dylan made professional-looking fake posters touting his own magnificent accomplishments and managed to sneakily hang them on the museum walls. They remained there for a month before anyone noticed. I’m going to encourage you to engage in similar gamesmanship in the coming weeks, Aquarius. It’ll be a favorable time to use ingenuity and unconventional approaches to boost your confidence and enhance your reputation.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): “Relationships never stop being a work in progress,” writes author Nora Roberts. That’s bad news and good news. It’s bad news because even for the most loving bond, you must tirelessly persist in the challenging task of reinventing the ways the two of you fit together.

It’s good news because few activities can make you more emotionally intelligent and soulfully wise than continually reinventing the ways the two of you fit together. I bring these thoughts to your attention because the coming weeks will be a fertile time for such daunting and rewarding work.

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edited by Will Shortz

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13 Not retired 14 “I can’t ___” 15 Brazil’s Amazonas, e.g.

16 *Something reminisced about in the movie “Grease” 18 Stale 19 Annual June celebration 20 ___ Awards (annual prizes for science fiction and fantasy) 22 Globes 25 Middle-distance golf club 27 Space force, informally 29 “Safe!” or “You’re out!”

30 Nowadays many of them are targeted 32 Egyptian sun god 34 Open-___ sandals 36 PC core 38 Made a getaway 39 ___ Ribeiro, host of “America’s Funniest Home Videos” 41 Units of laughter?

42 Many wedding guests 43 Christian who said “Happiness is the secret to all beauty” 44 Charm, in a way

No. 0902 46 Start of four U.S. state names 48 “Roger that” 50 Kitchen gadget for making mashed potatoes 51 Chamomile tea and yogurt, for sunburn 54 “The ___ the limit” 55 It might have an apple on it 57 Chomper 59 Winner of the most Women’s World Cups 60 Popular expression … or what the opposite of the answer to each starred clue is?

65 “___ the season …”

66 “Quiet!”

67 Submarine 68 Some pepperoni orders, informally 69 Like 70 Fructose and glucose

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2 Place that may have lots of monitors, for short

puzzle by Margaret Seikel 3 Convenience store convenience, in brief 4 Animated sitcom family name 5 “Do I ___!”

6 Font flourish 7 Egg: Prefix 8 Flat broke 9 Kind of management 10 *Some hamburger meat 11 Sort who’s hard to tolerate 12 Part of a McDonald’s meal 14 *Sales spiel in 60 seconds or less, say 17 Bank backer, for short 21 Bit of drag show wear 22 Netflix show starring Jason Bateman and Laura Linney 23 Losing Brexit option 24 *Alpine crossing over the Austrian/ Italian border 26 Entrepreneur Musk 28 ___ school

31 Absent-minded 33 Suffragist and longtime leader in the National Woman’s Party 35 Action figure?

37 ___ manual 40 Word with pyramid or court 45 See 47-Down 47 With 45-Down, epitome of limpness 49 Michelle of “Star Trek: Discovery”

52 Shade of brown 53 Former frosh 55 Difficult skating jump with a backward takeoff 56 Home of 60% of the world’s people 58 10 benjamins 61 Org. that has to deal with a lot of baggage 62 Turkish title 63 Elton John, e.g.

64 Some wiring experts: Abbr.

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS NY TIMES PUZZLE

O T I S R O M P C O M E K U N R A N D A V E M O T T W O R A H U G I O N I S T I C L O S E A N O N M E N D

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