Mountain Xpress 07.22.20

OUR 26TH YEAR OF WEEKLY INDEPENDENT NEWS, ARTS & EVENTS FOR WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA VOL. 26 NO. 52 JULY 22-28, 2020

MOUNTAINX.COM

JULY 22-28, 2020

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Accounting Office Management Asheville Raven & Crone

C O NT E NT S

FEATURES OPINION

A special thank you to all our advertisers, who make Xpress possible.

7 LOCAL MONEY MATTERS A look inside Xpress’ books

Bottle Riot / formerly District Wine Bar Buncombe County Health and Human Services

NEWS

Baked Pie Company 12 A STEP TOWARD REPARATIONS Council grapples with systemic racism in pair of votes

Carolina Hemp Company

Franny’s Farm Geraldine’s Bakery Gotta Have It Antiques and Vendor’s Market Ingles Markets Inc. Ingles Markets Inc. Isis Restaurant and Music Hall Jack of the Wood Land of Sky Regional Council (LOSRC)

FEATURE

Dogwood Health Trust

14 ‘THE IGNORANCE OF SUCH MEN’ The role white supremacy played in compulsory education, 1906

18 DISTANT HELP Local domestic, sexual violence rise during pandemic

22 HOUSE RULES Restaurants institute operation standards to ensure safety of guests and staff

5 CARTOON: BRENT BROWN 7 COMMENTARY 10 NEWS

15 COVID CONVERSATIONS 16 COMMUNITY CALENDAR 18 WELLNESS 19 GREEN SCENE 22 FOOD 25 CAROLINA BEER GUY 26 ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT 27 SMART BETS 29 MOVIES

A&E

Organic Mechanic

4 CARTOON: MOLTON

28 CLUBLAND

Mostly Automotive Inc. Nature’s Vitamins and Herbs

COVER DESIGN Scott Southwick

14 ASHEVILLE ARCHIVES

Media Placement Services Musician’s Workshop

COVER PHOTO Zachariah Russell

12 BUNCOMBE BEAT

WELLNESS

Conservation Pros, LLC

Local farmers who depend on agritourism — such as farm tours and U-pick adventures — to help support their operations have been some of the hardest hit in the pandemic. But Mount Gilead Farm and other resilient small farms in WNC are looking for ways to bounce back.

4 LETTERS

FOOD

City of Asheville Sanitation

PAGE 19 GET YOUR GOAT

26 WITCHY WOMAN Valerie Smith-Jackson amplifies people of color and allies on ‘Enchanting Asheville’ podcast

30 FREEWILL ASTROLOGY 31 CLASSIFIEDS 31 NY TIMES CROSSWORD

Pisgah Brewing Co Pisgah Legal Services

Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited. Mountain Xpress is available free throughout Western North Carolina. Limit one copy per person. Additional copies may be purchased for $1 payable at the Xpress office in advance. No person may, without prior written permission of Xpress, take more than one copy of each issue.

Plant Restaurant Ravenscroft Reserve Initiative Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse Silverball Subs Smoky Park Supper Club Sovereign Kava Strada Italiano The Blackbird Restaurant The Fresh Market The Regeneration Station The Tombras Group /Atrium Health Town and Mountain Realty Urban Orchard West Village Market / Sunflower Diner Wicked Weed Brewing

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

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MOUNTAINX.COM

JULY 22-28, 2020

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OPINION

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

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My father died alone My father died Easter morning alone.

His name was Allen Hope, and he lived in an Asheville retirement community.

I could not be with him because he wasn’t allowed visitors because of the restrictions. I will never get over this.

I was in Ingles yesterday and saw several people without masks. The virus is not a hoax; it is real. The leader of our country lives in a world of denial and falsehoods. The president is one-handedly destroying the human race.

I hold every person who doesn’t wear a mask responsible for my father dying alone. My father was a Korean War veteran who fought for this country.

Shame on everyone who doesn’t wear a mask.

— Mindy Brennan Asheville

We can be superheroes defeating COVID-19 COVID-19 is a monster of mythological proportions. That notion brought me to a simple storyline that may be relevant and useful in conveying an animate image of the beast, and a simple, accessible weapon that children and adults can use to tame it — the mask. So, here’s the storyline: We all love superheroes. At times like these, we could use a few; we could use many. At times like these, we all wish we could be superheroes. Some would say that’s not possible. But, in fact, it is possible. We can all together be 4

JULY 22-28, 2020

MOUNTAINX.COM

superheroes — The Masked Marvels.

Our deadly enemy is COVID — the Invisible Dragon. COVID takes your breath away to feed its fire and fury.

The more of our breath it can get, the bigger and deadlier it becomes.

But when you wear a mask, COVID can’t take your breath away. And when enough of us are wearing masks, COVID — the Invisible Dragon won’t have enough of our breath to keep growing, and it will shrink down to a size we can manage. COVID the Dragon will be reduced to a dragonfly.

Toward this suggestion, I have ordered enough cotton masks for the kids and adults among my family and friends. I also ordered iron-on appliques of small fire-breathing dragons and even smaller dragonflies. One of each will go on either cheek of the masks. This will graphically portray the essential storyline.

So, join the millions who are already Masked Marvels. We can all together be superheroes and defeat COVID. Also, let’s try to find more avenues to access support for this essential lifesaving gesture. The more we wear masks, the more lives we save.

— Richard Sackett Asheville

‘COVID Police’ don’t really care about community Wow! The “COVID Police” are out in force, writing their letters proselytizing about wearing masks and social distancing. The whining and hand-wringing is just laughable. You are all touting

from the same script: Do it for the children, do it for the elderly, and more so, do it for the community. It’s the last one that I find the most hypocritical.

Let’s start with the stay-at-home order a few months ago. Did you stay at home, as per the order? No! You went out and loaded up on “essential items,” like home improvement materials and many bags of mulch and soil for your gardens. You weren’t staying home.

You were out getting “essentials.” I’m still trying to understand how gardening items are deemed essential. Mulch is certainly going to stop the COVID as you go out and get it. Your attitude of entitlement during this time was appalling.

This brings me to the next thing on my list. You all say “do it for the community.” What a bunch of pathetic hypocrites! Where are you when the community is suffering from low wages, unaffordable housing, exploding property taxes because of gentrification, out-of-control health care costs (even with insurance), etc. Obviously, as long as it doesn’t affect you, “Screw the community,” is what it sounds like to me.

Until COVID happened, you were all happy in the cocoons of your little world of perceived safety and entitled comfort. What about all the people of the community who serve you? Now, all of a sudden, you care about the community? What are you doing for those out of work because of the COVID? Where is the outrage about the businesses and livelihoods lost? Again, I ask, why is the “community” all of a sudden important?

That answer is simple. It’s because now you are threatened and scared.

Pathetic. You’re not in Kansas anymore, Dorothy; it’s every man for himself. It always has been. You couldn’t care less about the community, just your own little dream world.

— Mike Rapier Weaverville

Rethink ‘stigma’ of mental health problems [Regarding “Mental Health Advocates Focus on Trauma of Racism,” posted on the online Community Bulletin, July 14, Xpress]: “Stigma and stereotypes may prevent people from seeking help for fear of being considered ‘crazy.’”

You are missing one very important word: Promoting stigma and stereotypes may prevent people from seeking help for fear of being considered “crazy.”

— Harold A Maio Fort Myers, Fla.

O PINION

C AR T O O N B Y B R E N T B R O W N

MOUNTAINX.COM

JULY 22-28, 2020

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O PINION

Local money matters A look inside Xpress’ books

BY JEFF FOBES

lowest-paid is less than 2-to-1, a rarity in American workplaces. Everyone at Xpress makes at least $15.50 an hour, and compensation tops out at $27.50 an hour.

Last year, Xpress’ gross income was $1,860,000 and our expenses came to $1,815,300, leaving a profit of $44,700 (a much-needed cushion for what was to come in March 2020).

Where did that revenue come from?

Most of it — 84% — was generated by advertising in our weekly print newspaper. Our pocket (stand-alone) publications, which include the Eats & Drinks, Best of WNC, Field Guide to Asheville and GoLocal guides, kicked in another 11%, with other income sources making up the balance. While some online commenters have scoffed that we’ll “do anything to generate clicks,” the truth is that online advertising contributes only 2% of our annual revenue, and given the hyperlocal nature of our news, there is a limit to how much we can increase this revenue stream.

Where does the revenue go? Overall, reporting and editing account for just over a quarter of our expenses, while design, printing and distribution cost another quarter. Administration and overhead eat up about another 25%.

The final quarter pays for the costs associated with ad sales, fundraising and IT/web.

publisher@mountainx.com Follow the money. Throughout Mountain Xpress’ 25-year run, we’ve tried to follow this classic journalistic advice, tracing the money flows of local governments, organizations and political campaigns. We now turn the reporting lens on ourselves and open our books to show readers how Xpress works as a business.

Spoiler alert: It’s not working as well as it once did. As local advertisers cope with the ongoing impacts of COVID-19, we’re projecting a $700,000 year-over-year revenue decrease. In response, we’ve been developing new sources of revenue, improving efficiencies and cutting expenses. This is our 2020 midyear report.

Even in our best years, we’ve operated Mountain Xpress similarly to a not-for-profit organization, looking to break even while building a stronger community through journalism — rather than, like typical businesses, seeking a return on investment. Any profits go back into the company to fund our stories, maintain our newspaper racks and boxes, and host our website while keeping it accessible to all, with no paywall or intrusive online ads.

We’re proud that everyone at Xpress earns a living wage, though no one gets a big salary. The ratio of highest-to-

Xpress average weekly advertising revenue $40,000 $35,000

THE CHALLENGE OF 2020

but we fared better than most during that period, which in many ways is a testament to Asheville’s vibrant local businesses and their continued support of local journalism.

But this spring’s 55% advertising downturn was different: It was sud-

Compared to this time last year, Xpress’ print advertising revenue is down 55%.

Of course, downturns are not new to the newspaper industry. Between 2008 and 2018, American newspapers saw a 68% decline in advertising revenue.

That decline impacted Xpress, too,

CONTINUES ON PAGE 8

Xpress sources of income, 2019 Xpress stand-alone guides $195,852

Other income $56,609

Website advertising $43,769

Print-based advertising $1,563,556

Xpress 2020 expenses, Jan.-June Supplies, equipment & misc. $10,347 Insurance, banking, rent & bad debts $79,173 $193,278

$30,000

Finance & accounting $76,004

$25,000 $20,000

Reporting & editing

IT/web $32,264

$15,000 $10,000

Distribution & circulation $65,658

$5,000 $0

Printing & design

Ad sales & fundraising $122,367

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$125,610 MOUNTAINX.COM

JULY 22-28, 2020

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OPI N I ON

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

den, occurring over the course of just a few weeks, and could easily have spelled disaster had we not adjusted with equal speed. By April 1, we had trimmed operations and shrunk our staff, asking them to become even more efficient. We also reduced our weekly page count, thus lowering print costs.

As a result of all those cuts, we spent $210,000 less in the first half of this year than we did in the first half of 2019. But we are still behind the eight ball and projecting a $93,000 shortfall of revenue against expenses (factoring in grants received and the expected forgiveness of most of our Paycheck Protection Program loan). We’ll apply last year’s $45,000 surplus, which still leaves Xpress $48,000 short of breaking even in 2020.

We’re not throwing in the towel, though. Morale is high overall. But we are looking for help from you, dear reader. With all that has happened so far this year, it remains clear how

much communities need good local journalism — to inform, bear witness, hold local leadership accountable and keep a thoughtful, respectful conversation going.

The bottom line is this: If Xpress is to continue reporting, publishing and distributing in print and online, highlighting the news, arts and culture of this region, that future lies in part in the hands of our readers.

Anyone who values the contents of our weekly community paper owes gratitude to the 700-plus readers who have already supported Xpress by contributing $32,000 so far this year and a big thank-you to the advertisers who have stuck with us since March.

We hope you will pitch in to keep Xpress viable and vibrant.

If you love and value this publication, as we do, please visit SupportMountainX.com to become a monthly member or to make a onetime contribution. X

What have we done for you lately?

Throughout our 25th year (July 31, 2019, through July 31, 2020), some of the ways Xpress has worked to support our community include: • The 25th Best of WNC Reader’s Choice Awards came out in two massive August issues totaling 288 pages. A few weeks later, our 164-page stand-alone pocket guide hit the streets.

• On Aug. 15, Best of WNC winners and friends celebrated local business and community at a bash held in Highland Brewing Co.’s meadow.

• In partnership with Asheville Grown Business Alliance, we published and distributed the 2020 GoLocal Guide, a directory to over 500 independent local businesses.

• The fifth year of our community fundraising campaign, GiveLocal, generated $178,804 in total impact for local nonprofits.

• On Feb. 5, nine candidates for Asheville City Council faced off at a primary voter forum hosted by Xpress, answering questions submitted and inspired by Xpress readers. (avl.mx/7q3) • On Feb. 27, the N.C. Press Association awarded Xpress first place in Community Coverage and second place in General Excellence for the state’s largest community newspapers.

• We launched an upgraded weekly email newsletter and added specialty newsletters for the 2020 elections and tracking the coronavirus pandemic; over 12,000 readers have signed up for these new offerings.

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JULY 22-28, 2020

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• The Google News Initiative awarded Xpress funding for nine stories on the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on underrepresented or marginalized groups in our coverage area.

SELECTED STORIES FROM THE YEAR • A profile of Rebecca Ryan, a futurist and consultant who led the development of strategic plans for the Asheville Area Chamber of Commerce, Buncombe County Board of Commissioners and the Asheville-Buncombe Economic Development Coalition. (avl.mx/6s3) • A ride-along to Washington, D.C., with 93 local veterans and event volunteers participating in Blue Ridge Honor Flight, a nonprofit initiative that gives former service members an all-expenses-paid trip to visit monuments built in their honor. (avl.mx/6sb) • Three print voter guides (published Feb. 12, Feb. 19 and Feb. 26) to help local residents sort through the choices on primary ballots.

• An in-depth tour of the Buncombe County Detention Facility. (avl.mx/6s1) • A report on new research into the history and impact of urban renewal in Asheville, including a poignant illustration commissioned from artist Jade Young. (avl.mx/7q4) • An early glimpse of the challenges that faced local long-term care facilities as COVID-19 entered Western North Carolina. (avl.mx/7q5) X

MOUNTAINX.COM

JULY 22-28, 2020

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NEWS

ISOLATED

County jails use medical quarantine to protect people in custody

BY MOLLY HORAK mhorak@mountainx.com Tiffany Watson was handed a COVID19 test that looked “like a tube of lipstick.” She was told to swab the left side of her mouth seven times, then swab seven times on the right. Then, she was brought to a cell at the Buncombe County Detention Facility for two weeks of medical quarantine.

She sat in the cell, alone, for 14 days.

Meals were delivered through a hole in the door, she says. Every three days, she was allowed to take a shower.

On the 15th day, an officer came to Watson’s door, took her temperature and asked if she was experiencing any symptoms of COVID-19. She answered no, and just like that, her isolation was over.

“It’s honestly hard to think about it,” she reflects. “I sat there for 14 days and then was asked a few questions that didn’t take that long.”

Watson spent over three weeks at the Buncombe County Detention Facility before she was released on bail on June 8. A statewide mandate has prompted COVID-19 testing for all incarcerated individuals in state prisons, but local jails — Buncombe’s included — aren’t obligated to test everyone in custody. Instead, facilities have been directed to mitigate spread of the coronavirus through screening, isolation and social distancing.

“Courts have said that people who are incarcerated have a right not to be confined in conditions where they are likely to contract a serious illness,” explains Ian Mance, a legal resource associate at the UNC Chapel Hill School of Government studying COVID-19 and the criminal justice system. “But crafting an order that makes that happen in the real world is difficult.”

EMPTY: The booking area for men entering the Buncombe County Detention Facility includes single-person holding cells. New inmates must quarantine for 14 days to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Photo by Virginia Daffron

MATTER OF STATE

When COVID-19 emerged as a serious threat, health experts warned that state-managed prisons and county-run jails would become hot spots for infection. An April 22 report by the American Civil Liberties Union predicted jails, which house approximately 737,900 Americans on any given day, would act as vectors for infection in their surrounding communities.

As of July 17, 11 correctional facilities in North Carolina were reporting current ongoing outbreaks of COVID-19, resulting in 65 cases, according to data released July 17 by the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services. Since March, NCDHHS has reported 1,966 total COVID-19 cases and 31 deaths in federal, state and county correctional facilities.

The N.C. Department of Public Safety announced in late June it would begin testing the roughly 31,200 individuals incarcerated through the state prison system for COVID-19, an undertaking that will cost the state roughly $3.3 million.

However, the mandate does not apply to county-run jails and detention centers, which are maintained by local sheriff’s departments.

County facilities are following guidance released by NCDHHS and the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, explains Capt. Glen Matayabas, who oversees the Haywood County Detention Center. Anyone entering a detention center is asked about their close contacts with COVID-19 patients and screened for fever and other symptoms. Some facilities may require a COVID-19 test.

The NCDHHS guidelines state that all newly arrived inmates must then be placed in quarantine until 14 days have passed since their arrival, ideally in single cells with solid walls and solid doors. Once transferred to the general population with other inmates, individuals are expected to maintain 6-foot social distancing when possible.

A LEGAL PERSPECTIVE

If the government is going to incarcerate someone, it must take reasonable care to keep that person safe, Mance says, regardless of whether the inmate is held in a state prison or county jail.

Unfortunately, it’s often hard to tell the difference between medical quarantine and the more punishing practice of solitary confinement.

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“Medical quarantine can be a reasonable step to keep people who have been exposed to infectious disease safe and to keep other people safe,” says Daniel Siegel, an attorney with the ACLU of North Carolina who studies solitary confinement. “At the same time, there is a world of difference between medical isolation and solitary confinement, which is inherently punitive.”

The dangers of solitary confinement aren’t a recent revelation, Siegel explains.

A growing body of research confirms that locking someone in a small cell for 22-24 hours a day with limited opportunity for human contact causes serious mental and physical harm. The practice can lead to extreme anxiety, depression, recurring mental illness, cardiovascular disease and heightened risk of suicide, he says.

The ACLU of North Carolina, N.C. NAACP and Disability Rights North Carolina sued Gov. Roy Cooper and NCDPS Secretary Erik Hooks in April to “ensure that no person incarcerated in North Carolina state prisons is subject to cruel and unusual punishment” as a result of COVID-19. In a preliminary injunction, Wake County Court Judge Vinston Rozier made clear that medical quarantine should not have the same features as solitary confinement, including isolation in a locked cell, restriction of phone calls and limits to recreational, religious, educational or vocational activities.

But from what Siegel has seen at the state level, medical quarantine often looks almost exactly like solitary confinement.

Correctional officers use the same cells, the same limitations on human contact, the same limitations on exercise. The practice also discourages those in custody from reporting COVID-19 symptoms or possible exposure for fear they’ll be locked in a small cell for 14 days, he adds.

The Division of Prisons is working to comply with the order, says John Bull, a NCDPS spokesperson. Due to the ongoing litigation, he did not comment on any changes to medical quarantine conditions but did note that all organized religious, educational and vocational activities have been temporarily suspended in all state prisons.

At the Buncombe County Detention Facility, which books and releases more than 1,000 people each month, detainees are only tested for COVID-19 if they show symptoms or have been exposed to a confirmed case, says Aaron Sarver, spokesperson for the Buncombe County Sheriff’s Office. With new people entering the facility each day, jail administrators are “constantly evaluating” the best practices to slow the spread of COVID-19.

“Unfortunately, this virus has shown an ability to stay asymptomatic in carriers, and in order to best protect the entire facility, the only way this could be accomplished was to initiate a 14-day quarantine,” Sarver says. “Although not ideal, this policy has prevented our facility from having any COVID-19 infections so far.”

While in quarantine, detainees are allowed books, video visitation, phone calls and access to the courts, as well as nursing and mental health services as needed, Sarver says. But Watson says her experience at the Buncombe jail didn’t completely match that policy.

Although Watson was allowed one book and took two phone calls during her medical quarantine, she says she wasn’t allowed to purchase anything from the facility’s commissary, nor was she offered mental health services. The whole time, she was worried about her health — she has a weakened immune system due to several medical complications and says her health worsened significantly while in custody.

The Madison County Detention Center conducted baseline COVID-19 testing for everyone in custody, including the population housed at the on-site Madison County Juvenile Detention Center, in

early June, says Michelle Quintero, the jail’s administrator. The facility now offers COVID-19 testing for anyone entering custody, but individuals must still complete the full 14-day quarantine regardless of test results.

WE’RE OPEN! Wed-Mon: 12-5pm

A BETTER WAY?

A number of courts have recently written about how difficult it is to fashion orders that adequately protect incarcerated people from COVID-19, Mance says.

It’s essentially a math problem, he argues: There are too many people in state and county facilities to appropriately distance everyone in custody.

Quintero agrees. The adult population at the Madison County Detention Center lives in four-person cells where it’s physically impossible to stay 6 feet apart, she says.

“If people weren’t being arrested every day, and we had the luxury of space, we would put fewer people in a cell in the housing unit,” she says. “But we don’t have that luxury.”

To get to the core of the problem, Siegel hopes to see a decrease in North Carolina’s incarcerated population.

“Really, regardless of what policy you adopt, if you have a crowded facility where it is physically impossible to social distance and you have a shortage of masks, then the other policies you adopt are only going to do so much good,” Siegel says.

“The bottom line is, if you can’t provide humane conditions of confinement, then you can’t keep human beings there.” X

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PLAYING IT SAFE

At the county level, local detention center administrators say they’re following the spirit of medical quarantine as a way to slow viral spread, not punish inmates.

“This is absolutely not punitive isolation,” emphasizes Jeremy Queen, division commander for detention at the Transylvania County Sheriff’s Office.

“Quarantine is simply being held in a different location away from the general population.”

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BUNCOMBE BEAT

Council grapples with systemic racism in pair of votes “The blood capital that we have banked to spend today to fight for significant changes comes predominantly not from our allies, but from Black men, women and children who died to get to this moment,” began Asheville City Council member Keith Young as he introduced a resolution supporting reparations for the city’s Black community on July 14. “Hundreds of years of Black blood spilled that basically fills the cup that we drink from today.

“I am a Black man with a Black family,” Young continued. “Anything that we do, in my mind, has to outlive the emotions of this present moment, because the future success of my own children and our current and future society depends on its sustained success.”

In what member Julie Mayfield called a “sobering” and “long-overdue” moment, Council unanimously adopted the resolution, which apologizes for city government’s participation in the enslavement of Black people and recognizes inequities in housing, education, urban development and health care.

Within the next year, Council will establish a new commission to make short-, medium- and long-term recommendations about what reparations will look like. The resolution prioritizes increasing minority homeownership and access to affordable housing, strategies to grow equity and neighborhood wealth, increasing minority business ownership and closing gaps in education and health care. However, it allocates no specific budgetary resources to fund reparations or support the commission’s work.

The first step to rectifying any societal problem is to acknowledge there is a problem in the first place, explained Sheneika Smith, Council’s only other Black member. She said the resolution was an important first step.

“Reparations is more than restitution for what happened during the trans-Atlantic slave trade,” Smith said. “It is a dark, evil sin of chattel slavery that is the

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ADDRESSING DISPARITIES: Asheville City Council members Sheneika Smith, left, and Keith Young, right, shared the impact reparations would have on their families and community as they introduced the resolution before a vote on July 14. Photo at left courtesy of Smith; second photo by Virginia Daffron root of all injustice and inequity at work in American life today.”

Asheville community members flooded the phone lines during the allotted hour of public comment on the resolution. Many who were unable to speak then shared their thoughts during an additional hour of open public comment held at the end of the meeting, after the measure had already passed.

Council’s move marked positive progress, said Rob Thomas, community liaison for the Asheville-based Racial Justice Coalition. But he emphasized that it needed to be followed by action, including real ways to generate wealth for Black residents through land and property.

A handful of callers (all of whom gave only their first names) disagreed with the resolution, claiming they should not be held responsible for actions that happened 200 years ago. “I find this wrong in so many ways,” said a man who identified himself as Keith. “I do not believe

MOUNTAINX.COM

in putting the sins of the father on the sins of the son.”

Still other callers, including Lauren Bacchus, repeated calls for immediately reducing the Asheville Police Department budget by at least 50% and using the funding to support the Black community, a common thread in Council meetings over the past month.

“If we abolish the practice of policing, we can divert funding to other systems that don’t have the same disturbing and discriminatory history,” she said.

APD INVESTIGATION TABLED

In a move that surprised many commenters, Council delayed approving a contract with risk-management firm Hillard Heintze to investigate APD’s response to late May and early June protests for racial justice that followed the police killing of Black Minneapolis resident George Floyd.

Council had asked City Attorney Brad Branham in June to select an outside firm to conduct a thorough investigation into APD’s use of tear gas and other crowd-control measures during the demonstrations, as well as the destruction of supplies at a medical station. At the time, members felt an outside investigation would be more objective than an internal review con-

ducted by the APD, explained Mayor Esther Manheimer.

But after listening to community concerns, Council voted 6-1 to table the contract until its Public Safety Committee could consider the proposal and recommend next steps. According to Council procedures, a motion to table discussion lasts 100 days — until Friday, Oct. 22 — at which point the motion will automatically expire.

Vijay Kapoor was the only Council member to vote against the motion. He expressed a desire for professional outside expertise to decide if APD’s actions were justified and said he would be concerned if the contract decision was not made by all members of Council.

In his presentation, Branham explained that the contract calls for the hiring of a four-member team of “law enforcement professionals and attorneys” with experience as “department chiefs, with criminal justice, civil rights and legal practitioners” to examine APD’s response to the protests that occurred May 30 through June 6. The investigation would take up four months and cost roughly $83,000.

Several callers noted that of the 53 employees listed on Hillard Heintze’s website, only 13 are female and seven appear to be people of color. Others criticized the city for considering a consulting firm with direct ties to law enforcement officers.

“The entire premise of this study seems to be problematic,” said Ben Spencer, a caller from South Asheville. “[Branham] specifically noted one of things they would be doing is looking at the practices and policies to see if they’re in line with modern policing standards. I don’t know where you’ve been for the last several years, but modern policing standards are, in fact, part of the problem.”

“This is what institutionalized white supremacy looks like in action, perpetuated by a neoliberal leadership group,” said caller Rachel Keener. “There’s harm inflicted on the [Black] community because people are being murdered.

And then we’re going to take money from that community and fund a study and give it back to a white institution.”

Branham’s initial presentation did not explain that the cost of the study would come directly from APD’s current budget allocation, not as an additional general fund expense. Branham also noted that two members of the four-person Hillard Heintze team would be people of color and one would be female.

— Molly Horak X

MOUNTAINX.COM

JULY 22-28, 2020

13

F E AT UR E S

ASHEVILLE ARCHIVES

by Thomas Calder | tcalder@mountainx.com

‘The ignorance of such men’ The role white supremacy played in compulsory education, 1906

However, racism also influenced opposition to the measure. “Some will at once argue, as a few have to me, that compulsory education will give negroes more cunning for crime,” wrote school board member Dr. Paul Paquin, in an Oct. 23, 1906, guest column for The Asheville Citizen.

Years earlier, Paquin had been an outspoken supporter of Asheville’s 1900 white supremacy campaign. (See, “Asheville Archives: ‘White Supremacy Made Permanent,’ 1900,” Feb. 6, 2018, Xpress) Yet by 1906, his views appear to have shifted with respect to education.

In the same piece, Paquin declared: “If it were possible for me today to set in motion at one sweep in every public school of America an improved system of teaching, and were I charged with the task, I would have a kindergarten department at every school house for white and black, and I would have the laws and rules and principles of human duty and conduct constitute the ABC’s of intellectual and moral evolution.”

LITERACY RACE: In 1906, illiteracy among white North Carolina children totaled 45,000. This, combined with a growing fear of an educated Black population, led local residents to push for compulsory education laws. Photo courtesy of the North Carolina Collection, Pack Memorial Library, Asheville

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2020 X AWARDS

Thank You FOR VOTING! RESULTS WILL BE PUBLISHED IN SEPTEMBER

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JULY 22-28, 2020

In a March 8, 1906 speech, Asheville city schools superintendent R.J. Tighe argued for compulsory education for all children up to 14 years of age. In his address, Tighe reported that North Carolina was home to 45,000 illiterate white children between the ages of 10 and 19. (Data on illiterate Black children was not provided.)

Combined, the Southern states totaled 262,590 illiterate youths.

In Asheville, Tighe continued, there were 5,100 school-age children (6-21 years). Of these, only 2,857 were enrolled in classes; daily attendance averaged 1,957.

“How can the south inject into its citizenship year after year such a mass of ignorance?” Tighe asked his audience.

“Gentlemen, what help is there for such benighted children but the strong arm of the law to protect their rights?”

City residents gradually got behind the proposal. And on Sept. 28, 1906, The Asheville Citizen reported that nearly 500 citizens signed a petition requesting the issue be included in the upcoming November election.

In the same day’s paper, an editorial suggested that without compulsory education laws, white dominance was in peril:

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“Statistics go to show that the negroes of Asheville have a better percentage for school attendance than the whites, and

if 1908 brings forth what is generally feared — the granting of the franchise to members of the African race who can read and write — one can readily foresee the result unless something is done to improve the educational conditions of the white race.”

That evening, the Board of Aldermen voted to include compulsory education on the November ballot.

Leading up to the election, race and racism continued to dominate conversations about compulsory education. On Oct. 26, 1906, The Asheville Citizen featured excerpts from Col. Robert Bingham’s address to the Central Labor Union.

“The Southern white man has a broad field but many problems confronting him,” Bingham declared, “and he must face the future and what it has in store for us by educating our children, all of our children.”

Later in his oration, Bingham proclaimed: “The man who does not give his child the best education possible is an enemy to his race and his nation, and it is our duty as citizens to protect the state against the ignorance of such men.” (For more on Bingham, see “Asheville Archives: Bingham Military School relocates to Asheville, 1891,” April 30, 2019, Xpress)

But despite his good intentions, Paquin’s ambivalence and paternalism toward African Americans is evident. In his article’s concluding paragraph, he states: “[I]f you educate the negro mind from babyhood into the lines of right living, morality, justice, you will make a citizen out of him of a very different type than the kind you fear now and complain of. Slavery made thousands of good negroes. The right sort of education for them, which I am not prepared to discuss, will do the same, and more.”

The Board of Aldermen failed to properly register the special election, postponing the vote on compulsory education until Dec. 6, 1906. Leading up to the new date, The Asheville Citizen ran multiple editorials reminding readers what was at stake, including the paper’s repeated claims of the potential 1908 disfranchisement of illiterate white voters. “It is well for us to realize this fact ere we make up our minds not to vote for compulsory education,” an editorial declared on Nov. 25.

On Dec. 6, 1906, citizens approved the law, requiring all children between the ages of 8 and 14 to attend school. In the following day’s paper, it was reported that 726 people had their cast ballots, representing nearly 60% of the city’s 1,273 total “qualified voters.” According to census records, Asheville’s population at the time stood around 16,000.

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

COVID CONVERSATIONS

Say it with flowers

Hands off

Teen spreads joy, awareness with free bouquets

Deaf educator teaches, learns remotely during pandemic

FLOWER POWER: Mary Wells Letson, 16, has been distributing free bouquets from a stand in North Asheville since June 1. Photo courtesy of Letson On a rainy evening in July, Mary Wells Letson set out a fresh batch of winsome mixed bouquets on a wooden stand in front of her family’s North Asheville home. A sign announced “Free Flowers.”

In less than five minutes, three motorists on Kimberly Avenue had pulled over to claim their bunch and chat with Letson, 16.

That’s been the pattern since the Asheville School rising junior began her flower project on June 1. She refills the table four or five times a week. “They go very quickly,” Letson says.

“Here is a piece of our garden for you,” reads a flyer attached to each bouquet.

“There are a lot of negative vibes and sad news right now, so here are a few flowers to light up your day.”

Letson’s flyer goes on to suggest that recipients consider spreading the positive energy they gain from the gift to others.

She lists a few organizations she believes are making a difference right now, including Homeward Bound of WNC, Working Wheels, Helpmate and the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Among the 15 or so messages of thanks Letson has received is one from a woman who lost her husband to COVID-19. A

Why I support Xpress:

friend had brought the flowers to her.

“It’s been really cool to see how this project has gone out into the community and spread good energy and helped people connect and show appreciation for each other,” Letson explains.

In addition to collecting flowers, cleaning glass jars and arranging bouquets — which takes about six hours a week — Letson also volunteers Monday through Friday at the Hillcrest Apartments neighborhood, where she works with third- and fourth-graders on reading and math skills. She’s been helping with the Youthful HAND program run by Elinor Earle (see “Elinor Earle Fights for Asheville’s Children,” March 13, Xpress, avl.mx/7m9) since October.

“There’s something very beautiful about giving an arrangement to somebody and them maybe donating to an organization or looking an organization up and then bringing jelly jars back and filling them up and receiving little notes or talking to people as they come by,” Letson reflects. “The sense of community connection has been really important and beautiful.”

— Virginia Daffron X

“Local news is so important for the community. I want to make sure it keeps happening for me, my neighbors, my students, and all.”

– Sandra Pyeatt Join Sandra and become a member at SupportMountainX.com

Some things haven’t changed for Desiree Delbert since the start of COVID-19. A heavy reliance on video chat may have been a novelty for many people starting to work at home because of the pandemic, but for Delbert, who was born deaf, visual technology has long been a way of staying connected.

Losing the option to communicate in person, however, did pose a new difficulty to Delbert’s work as an American Sign Language teacher at Asheville’s Franklin School of Innovation. Normally, she runs her classroom with lots of student-to-student conversation and feedback — an experience that proved hard to replicate online.

“We lost the interaction part, where students can use their developed ASL skills to converse with each other,” Delbert explains. “I had to create signing videos that required quite a bit of bandwidth, which could slow down students’ internet speeds.”

The teacher’s own learning has also been challenged. Delbert is earning a master’s degree in sign language education from Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C., the nation’s only university for the deaf and hard of hearing. While fall and spring classes normally meet online, the program’s on-campus summer semester also went virtual due to COVID-19.

“It was a devastating blow to our 2020 MASLED cohort because that’s the best part of the entire program — meeting our classmates, professors, being on campus in actual classes and exploring what D.C. has to offer for five weeks,” Delbert says. “All I can say is we are making the best out of this, staying positive and united with a common goal.”

For her and others in the deaf community, Delbert adds, the widespread use of face masks has layered more anxiety on top of an already stressful situation. Hidden mouths prevent her

HOME SCHOOL: Desiree Delbert, an American Sign Language teacher at the Franklin School of Innovation, had to adjust as a student when her own courses with Gallaudet University moved online. Photo courtesy of Delbert from lip reading and seeing facial expressions, key cues for understanding those who don’t use ASL. “When people attempt to speak to me, I would gesture that I cannot hear and to pull down their masks to communicate with me,” she says of her recent experiences in stores and other public places. “Half of those people would kindly comply, but the other half would give me looks and continue speaking with the masks on, which oftentimes leads to frustrations and miscommunication for both of us.”

Stay informed on

Local Matters

— Daniel Walton X

Sign up for Xpress’ free weekly e-newsletter at mountainx.com/newsletters Fresh to your inbox every Wednesday morning!

MOUNTAINX.COM

JULY 22-28, 2020

15

COMMUNITY CALENDAR JULY 22-30, 2020

CALENDAR GUIDELINES For a full list of community calendar guidelines, please visit mountainx.com/calendar. For questions about free listings, call 828-251-1333, ext.

137. For questions about paid calendar listings, please call 828-251-1333, ext. 320.

Online Event= q LITERARY

Brewing, 2A Huntsman Place

Haywood Library: Book Chat Open conversation with staff.

WE (7/22), 6pm, Free, avl.mx/7kq q

Reader Meet Writer Lara Prescott, author of The Secrets We Kept.

TH (7/30), 7pm, Registration required, Free, avl.mx/7pw q

Asheville Divine Sisterhood: Books & Coffee Freedom is a Constant Struggle by Angela Davis.

WE (7/22), 7pm, avl.mx/7ir

Great Jackson County Read 2020: Time Traveler Adult reading program meeting.

FR (7/31), 10am, Jackson County Public Library, 310 Keener St, Sylva

q

Race Matters: Book Club & Conversation Series Part 2 How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X Kendi. Register: 828-743-0215.

TH (7/23), 4pm, avl.mx/7eh q

Reader Meet Writer Jill McCorkle, author of Hieroglyphics.

TH (7/23), 7pm, Registration required, Free, avl.mx/7nn q The Moth StorySLAM Five-minute storytelling competition.

TH (7/23), 7:15pm, $10, avl.mx/7o2 q Haywood Library: Next Chapter Book Club For individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

MO (7/27), 1pm, Registration required, avl.mx/7py

ART Someday I'll Take Art: Demystifying the Art of Painting Studio basics class.

WE (7/22), 12pm, Free, Tryon Painters & Sculptors, 78 N Trade St, Tryon Discussion Bound Book Club Marilyn Chase presents Everything She Touched: The Life of Ruth Asawa.

WE (7/22), 1pm, Registration required, Free, avl.mx/7nj q Pack Library: Craftivism 101 Embroidery and cross stitch workshop.

WE (7/22), 6pm, Free, avl.mx/7ll q

Slow Art Friday: Every Picture Tells a Story Discussion led by master docent Sarah Reincke.

Register: 828-253-3227.

FR (7/31), 12pm, Free, avl.mx/7d0 q

MUSIC A CAPELLA SINGING (PD.) WANNA SING? ashevillebarbershop.com Arabic & Appalachian Folk Music Fusion Concert Hosted by Tryon Fine Arts Center.

FR (7/24), 7:30pm, Free, avl.mx/7pk q Tesla Quartet Presented by the Chamber Music Society of the Carolinas.

SA (7/25), 7:30pm, avl.mx/7h8 q A Woman's Voice: Great Women Composers Classical piano concert presented by AmiciMusic.

SA (7/25), 8pm, Free, avl.mx/7p4 q Music by the Lake: Tom Fisch Outdoor folk show.

SU (7/26), 5pm, Free, Blue Ridge Community College, 180 West Campus Dr, Flat Rock Academy for the Arts: Summer Concert Series Featuring faculty performers. Learn more on page 31.

SU (7/26), 6pm, Free, avl.mx/7dn q Bach to Beethoven: Great Piano Solos Classical concert presented

by AmiciMusic.

SU (7/26), 7:30pm, avl.mx/7p4 q Concerts on the Creek: Tuxedo Junction Outdoor classic hits show.

FR (7/31), 7pm, Bridge Park, 76 Railroad Ave, Sylva

CIVICS & ACTIVISM Just Economics of WNC: City Budget Workshop 2 Discussion on Asheville Police Department’s budget.

TH (7/23), 5:30pm, Registration required, Free, avl.mx/7of q Buncombe County Democratic Party General meeting.

TH (7/23), 6:30pm, Registration required, avl.mx/7ps q BPR Community Forum: Policing in Asheville Led by local leaders in activism and law enforcement.

TH (7/23), 7pm, avl.mx/7p1 q

Social Justice Friday Community building discussion with the Institute of Parity Achievement.

FR (7/24), 6:15pm, YWCA of Asheville, 185 S French Broad Ave Buncombe County TDA Meeting WE (7/29), 9am, avl.mx/7ox q

BUSINESS & TECHNOLOGY Reopening: Where Are We? Health, Schools & Business Program presented by Leadership Asheville.

WE (7/22), 9am, Registration required, avl.mx/761 q

Deep Dining: How to Eat from Your Garden, Yard & Wild Spaces Workshop with recipes and tastings.

TU (7/28), 6pm, $10, Living Web Farms, 176 Kimzey Rd, Mills River

OnTrack WNC: Debt Payment During Uncertain Times TH (7/23), 5:30pm, Registration required, Free, avl.mx/7o1 q Colonial to Civil War Records in the NC Archives Webinar by Old Buncombe County Genealogical Society.

SA (7/25), 2pm, Registration required, Free, avl.mx/7p2 q

Soul Fire Farm: Ask a Sista Farmer Q&A on gardening, livestock, agroforestry, plant medicine and food preservation.

FR (7/31), 4pm, Free, avl.mx/7gl q

WEEKLY MARKETS Tuesdays

Western Women's Business Center: Business Planning Part 1 How to determine target markets.

TU (7/28), 1pm, Registration required, Free, avl.mx/7m2 q

Let's Explore Africa Quiz Competition From the Shores to the Pyramids segment. For teens and adults.

FR (7/31), 5pm, Free, The Collider, 1 Haywood St

• Jackson County Farmers Market. 3:30-6:30pm, Innovation Station, 40 Depot St, Dillsboro

Incredible Towns Business Network General meeting.

WE (7/29), 11am, Registration required, Free, avl.mx/7g8 q

ECO & OUTDOOR

Haywood Library: Book Chat Open conversation with staff.

WE (7/29), 6pm, Free, avl.mx/7kq q

Lifting Our Voices Workshop How to make stickball sticks plus a beadwork demonstration.

SA (7/25), 10am, Museum of the Cherokee Indian, 589 Tsali Blvd, Cherokee

Outdoor Movie Night: Superbad FR (7/24), 8:30pm, Free, Hi-Wire Brewing, 2A Huntsman Place Asheville School of Film: Plot Writing Workshop by filmmaker Richard L Bergh.

SA (7/25), 10am, Registration required, Free, avl.mx/7oo q

Financial & Legal Strategies in the New Normal Presentation by Attorneys Derek Allen and Jamie Kilbourne.

TH (7/30), 10am, Registration required, Free, avl.mx/7nz q

Movies in the Parking Lot: Space Jam Registration and directions: avl.mx/7q6.

TH (7/30), 7:30pm, Free, UNC Asheville

Western Women's Business Center: Business Planning Part 2 Talk on operations, staffing and finance.

TH (7/30), 1pm,

MOUNTAINX.COM

Spanish Conversation Group For adults.

TH (7/23), 5pm, Free, avl.mx/7c6 q

• RAD Farmers Market.

3-6pm, Pleb Urban Winery, 289 Lyman St

Art in the Park Local artist exhibitions and vendors.

SA (7/25), 10am, Free, Pack Square Park

JULY 22-28, 2020

Fall Organic Gardening Series How to prepare your garden for winter.

MO (7/27), 6pm, $25, avl.mx/76h q

Women for Women Giving Circle Advocacy and education meeting.

TU (7/28), 12pm, Registration required, Free, avl.mx/7oz q

BYO Book Club for Adults Open discussion. Register: kathleen.olsen@haywoodcountync.gov.

TU (7/28), 2pm, avl.mx/7q1

16

Local Cloth: How to Teach Online Tips for planning remote workshops.

WE (7/22), 6pm, $15, avl.mx/7oa q

Asheville City Schools Classified Job Fair Custodians, nutrition staff, maintenance staff and bus drivers.

TU (7/28), 11am, 85 Mountain St

How to Maximize Your PPP Loan Forgiveness Talk by Mike Ames of Mountain BizWorks.

WE (7/29), 3pm, Registration required, Free, avl.mx/7md q

Local Cloth Studio Tour & Silk Talk Led by weaver and silk maker Cassie Dickson.

SA (7/25), 2pm, $5, avl.mx/7ou q

Farm Beginnings Info Session Q&A on Organic Growers School's farmer training program.

WE (7/22), 7:30pm, Free, 8 Hawk Hill Rd

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

Brevard’s 4th Friday Gallery Walk Open exhibits and live music.

FR (7/24), 5pm, Free, Downtown Brevard

Rise Up & Read Together Book Club Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi.

WE (7/29), 7pm, Hi-Wire

• Black Mountain Tailgate Market. 9am-12pm, 130 Montreat Rd, Black Mountain

Canton: A Legacy of Overcoming Epidemics Program by Canton Area Historical Museum.

TU (7/28), 10am, Free, avl.mx/7pz q

Malaprop’s Science Fiction Book Club The Fifth Season by N. K. Jemisin.

MO (7/27), 7pm, avl.mx/7on q

q

FARM & GARDEN

Hatch AVL Pitch Party Open mic for entrepreneurs.

TH (7/23), 5pm, avl.mx/7kz q

Diamond as Big as the Ritz Radio drama performance.

WE (7/22), 8pm, The Paper Mill Lounge, 553 W Main St, Sylva

THEATER & FILM

CLASSES, MEETINGS & EVENTS

• ASAP Farmers Market at A-B Tech. 9am-12pm, 340 Victoria Rd

• West Asheville Tailgate Market. 3:30-6:30pm, 718 Haywood Rd

q

Wild Goose Reading Group So You Want to Talk About Race part 2.

MO (7/27), 6pm, Registration required, avl.mx/7ev

Business in Bare Feet Q&A on mentorship and entrepreneurship.

FR (7/31), 9am, Free, avl.mx/7gq q

Acre Garden, 158 Chambers Farm Ln, Canton

History Cafe Webinar Solo percussive dance traditions of Southern Appalachia.

MO (7/27), 10:30am, $10, avl.mx/7hn q

Slow Art Friday: Black Mountain College Collection Discussion led by touring docent Michelle Dorf at Asheville Art Museum.

Register: 828-253-3227.

FR (7/24), 12pm, Free, avl.mx/7cy q

q

Registration required, Free, avl.mx/7m2 q

Lunch & Learn: Chestnut Mountain Presentation by Hanni Muerdter of Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy.

WE (7/22), 12pm, Registration required, Free, avl.mx/7pn q Pop-up 5k in the Park WE (7/22), 6pm, $10, Fletcher Park, 300 Old Cane Creek Rd, Fletcher Plastic Free July Trivia Hosted by Asheville Greenworks.

TH (7/23), 6pm, Registration required, avl.mx/7px q

Get to Know Your Watershed Ecofarm tour by Haywood Waterways Association.

SA (7/25), 4pm, $5, Ten

Wednesdays

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

• Locally Grown on the Green. 3-6pm, 35 Hwy 64, Cashiers

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

8:30am-12:30pm,10 S Main St, Burnsville

• Haywood’s Historic Farmers Market. 9am-12pm, 250 Pigeon St, Waynesville

FOOD & BEER Haywood Library: Soupedup Ramen Noodles Cooking class for teens and adults.

FR (7/24), 10am, Free, avl.mx/7m5 q Food Connection Free curbside meals.

SA (7/25), 11am, 204 Whitson Ave, Swannanoa

FESTIVALS & FAIRS Fringe Digital Summer Vol. 2 Music, dance and spoken word.

WE (7/22), 7:30pm, Free, avl.mx/7o5 q Pop-up Market on the Lawn Featuring local vendors and farmers.

SA (7/25), 8am, 60 Monticello Rd, Weaverville Junk-O-Rama Vintage Market Clothing, records and books.

SA (7/25), 10am, Fleetwood's, 496 Haywood Rd Uncommon Market Vintage collectibles and antiques.

SU (7/26), 10am, Foundation Studios, 27 Foundy St Open Street Weekend Weekend-long closure of Main Street for an enhanced pedestrian environment.

FR (7/31), 6pm, Downtown Hendersonville

KIDS Miss Malaprop's Storytime Ages 3-9.

WE (7/22), 10am, Free, avl.mx/73b q Haywood Library Storytime Ages 2-6.

TH (7/23), 10am, Free, avl.mx/7m4 q Asheville Museum of Science: Ask a Scientist Talk with marine biologist Carlee Jackson about sharks and sea turtles.

FR (7/24), 10:30am, Free, avl.mx/7q7 q Imagine Space Learn about the Mars rover and how to make a balloon-powered lander.

WE (7/29), 10am, Free, avl.mx/7q0 q

SPIRITUALITY Getting Ahead in a JustGettin'-By World Community problem solving workshop.

TH (7/23), 5:45pm, Foster

Church, 375 Hendersonville Rd Jewish Power Hour w/ Rabbi Susskind TH (7/23), 6pm, chabadasheville.org q

WELLNESS Alzheimer’s Association Workshop Effective communication strategies.

WE (7/22), 10am, Registration required, Free, avl.mx/7ef q Tranzmission: Nonbinary Support Meeting Questions: info@ tranzmission.org.

TH (7/23), 6:30pm, avl.mx/7ok q Tranzmission: Trans, Nonbinary & Queer Recovery Support Questions: info@ tranzmission.org.

SA (7/25), 2pm, avl.mx/7kc q

Steady Collective Syringe Access Outreach Free educational material, naloxone, syringes and supplies.

TU (7/28), 2pm, Firestorm Books, 610 Haywood Rd COVID-19 Community Testing TH (7/30), 10:30am-1:30pm, Buncombe County Sports Park, 58 Apac Circle Intro to Medicare: Understanding the Puzzle How to avoid penalties and save money.

TH (7/30), 2pm, Registration required, Free, coabc.org q

VOLUNTEERING NC Arboretum Volunteer info session.

WE (7/22), 10am, Registration required, avl.mx/7m6 q Booth Fairy Project Litter pickup.

WE (7/22), 6:30pm, Greenlife, 70 Merrimon Ave American Red Cross Blood Drive Free COVID-19 antibody tests for donors.

FR (7/24), 11am-4pm, Asheville Outlets, 800 Brevard Rd Haywood Road Cleanup Day Register: avl.mx/7jj.

SA (7/25), 9am, Haywood Rd Blood Connection Blood Drive Signup: avl.mx/7oy.

MO (7/27), 2pm-7pm, Hillman Beer, 25 Sweeten Creek Rd American Red Cross Blood Drive Appointments: redcrossblood.org.

WE (7/29), 11am-4pm, Biltmore Park Town Square

OF F I C I A L L Y OP E N

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We are a locally owned Sub Shop located at 347 New Leicester Hwy. We craft our subs using fresh produce from the WNC Farmers Market, bread from Annie’s Bakery, and sliced to order Thumann’s Meats and Cheeses. With rotating specials and a customizable menu there are options for all sandwich enthusiasts.

Draft and canned beer from our favorite breweries are always revolving as well. We offer takeout, easy online ordering, curbside, outdoor and indoor dining, and delivery through TakeoutCentral.

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We are practicing social distancing and using protective meaCHILL THE sures to keep our customers and crew safe.

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• Call in your to-go order ahead of time at 828.505.8118 • Call 828.216.2331 for bulk shipments mailed to you • Kickback AVL delivers to your home!

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268 BILTMORE AVE, AVL ASHEVILLEKAVA.COM

Baked Pie Company Baked Pie Company is now open at BOTH locations! We have tested our staff that have traveled recently and are taking every precaution to keep you and our team well! We are only serving curbside and takeout and have outdoor dining at both shops. We hope you come see us for some delicious pies and other goodies. WE HAVE MISSED YOU ALL!!!

Our NEW hours are Tuesday-Saturday 11AM-6PM. We are offering whole pies or slices served with a smile.

Arden: 4 Long Shoals Road 828-333-4366 Woodfin: 50 N. Merrimon Avenue (Reynolds Mountain) 828-210-9544

Carolina Hemp Company Carolina Hemp Company is open! Established in 2014, we are proud to be Asheville’s Hometown Hemp company. We are dedicated to providing our community with the highest quality hemp goods available. Our education-centered general store offers everything from our Carolina Hemp Naturals Whole Spectrum Hemp Extract, Carolina Hemp Flower, edibles, topicals, concentrates, hemp based foods, clothing, and accessories. Our passion is driven by the opportunity to bring real growth, sustainable products and viable, proven alternatives to pharmaceuticals into our communities. From local events to community outreach, we’ve made it our mission to support and drive sustainability, regenerative practices, and furthering hemp and cannabinoid research for all.

Drop by our 290 Haywood Rd retail location to learn more from our Hemp Advocates about how Whole-Spectrum Hemp Extract can help you! Open in-store and curbside pickup. Store Hours: Mon-Fri 11am-6pm. Saturday: 12pm-6pm carolinahempcompany.com 290 Haywood RD, Asheville 828-438-4367

MOUNTAINX.COM

JULY 22-28, 2020

17

WELLNESS

DISTANT HELP

Local domestic, sexual violence rise during pandemic

BY MOLLY HORAK mhorak@mountainx.com At night, Angelica Wind lies awake worrying. As the executive director of Our VOICE, an Asheville-based nonprofit that supports survivors of sexual violence and human trafficking, she fears that her organization’s already limited resources will run out. That she won’t be able to help someone in a moment of crisis.

Wind recognizes that for many, Gov. Roy Cooper’s stay-at-home order was a protective measure to keep the community safe from COVID-19. But for others, home isn’t safe: If someone is trapped in close quarters with an abuser, social distancing becomes incredibly dangerous.

“COVID-19 has a way of exacerbating sexual violence and human trafficking, as well as domestic violence and child abuse,” Wind explains. The inability to seek safe shelter, housing insecurity, lack of access to food and high rates of unemployment, she says, can all contribute to increased violence.

With no end to the pandemic in sight, local organizations are preparing for a rise in violence despite their limited resources.

Because at the end of the day, Wind says, “It’s all about survivors.”

A LOOMING NEED

Asheville-based Helpmate, which provides services to combat domestic violence, has seen a 25% spike in calls to its emergency hotline during the COVID-19 pandemic compared to last year, says Executive Director April Burgess-Johnson. Over all of 2019, the nonprofit sheltered 225 people; this year, it’s sheltered 108 from April through June alone.

When stress is high in a family, those already disposed to use control and violence are more likely to use these tactics, explains Burgess-Johnson.

“That, combined with the overall stress of the pandemic and the fact that batterers and victims are in close proximity to one another, trapped in a house together, means that need will continue to swell,” she adds.

Sexual violence and human trafficking are among the country’s most underreported crimes due to social stigma and the fear of being blamed for one’s own victimization, notes Wind. Our VOICE is now receiving a “dramatic difference in calls” from what the nonprofit saw at the pandemic’s onset in March, she says, although overall numbers remain slightly lower than last year’s count.

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JULY 22-28, 2020

TESTING, TESTING: The pandemic has prompted organizations including Our VOICE to provide case management, legal and medical advocacy virtually. Clockwise from left, Our VOICE program director Amparo Penny, volunteer coordinator Quinn Nevel and court/legal advocacy coordinator Cynthia Clark go through a trial run of a software that allows survivors to connect with volunteers. Photo courtesy of Angelica Wind Asheville’s Mountain Child Advocacy Center, which focuses on child abuse and neglect, is also reporting lower numbers overall, says Executive Director Geoff Sidoli. Child sexual abuse is less likely to be reported until years after the fact, Sidoli says, though he suspects the rise in domestic violence driven by COVID-19 is impacting children both directly and indirectly now. The seriousness of physical abuse cases received has also escalated.

“It’s tough to hide if your 2-year-old has a broken femur. They’re going to scream until you get them help,” Sidoli says.

RUNNING LOW

Under normal circumstances, Helpmate can house 20 individuals at its permanent shelter — but that count relies on occupants sharing rooms and bathrooms, Burgess-Johnson says. Instead, the nonprofit has partnered with a local hotel to provide secure shelter with maximum social distancing.

To help pay for the auxiliary shelter, Helpmate received $15,000 from Buncombe County and a $20,000 contribution from Dogwood Health Trust.

An application for aid from the Federal Emergency Management Agency is pending. But the uncertainty leaves BurgessJohnson concerned.

“The scary reality is that we’re running out of money before the pandemic is ending,” she says.

MOUNTAINX.COM

Our VOICE has cut its housing capacity in half to accommodate social distancing guidelines. The organization has also experienced cuts in funding, including one grant reduced by 21% and another by 35%.

“The reality is that there are a lot of survivors who are making that difficult decision to stay in a difficult situation because they’re seeing across the community that there needs to be more resourcing of these crucial services,” Wind says.

ADAPTING TO A VIRTUAL WORLD

Like everyone else adjusting to remote work and virtual services during COVID19, anti-violence support groups are facing new challenges. One wrinkle, Wind says, is the importance of reading body language when working with survivors, which has proven more difficult to do from a distance.

Our VOICE volunteer advocates are now using video calls to provide support to survivors who go to Mission Hospital for medical examinations, as well as telehealth services for counseling sessions. Helpmate is also using telehealth services and video calls to assist survivors, as well as confidential virtual intake sessions to individuals seeking walk-in assistance at Buncombe County’s Family Justice Center.

Typically, September is MCAC’s busiest month because kids return to school and begin to report abuse that occurred over the summer, Sidoli says. With the uncertainty around the return to in-person classrooms,

MCAC anticipates new needs will emerge from remote education. In response, both MCAC and Helpmate are working to develop a series of remote learning modules for area schools to ensure students can still learn how to set healthy boundaries and resolve conflicts without violence.

MCAC has also shifted to virtual mental health services for roughly 170 children, Sidoli notes — an obstacle when more than half of child abuse cases occur in children ages birth to 8. “Doing video therapy with a 4-year-old is challenging at best,” he says with a laugh.

Using a computer to look up resources may not be an option for many who need help — especially if a batterer is monitoring internet activity. To help bridge that gap, the three organizations have partnered with the YMCA of Western North Carolina to share printed flyers with resources at food distribution centers.

But as the world increasingly moves online, Burgess-Johnson emphasizes the need to be aware that violence is still occurring and that help is available.

“This is a time when we’re asked to physically distance from one another,” Burgess-Johnson says. “But please do your best not to socially distance from your neighbors who may be isolated and at a greater risk now if there is violence going on in their relationship.” X

Here to help Are you or someone you know in an unsafe environment? The following resources are available: Helpmate 24-hour hotline: 828-254-0516 https://helpmateonline.org/ Our VOICE 24-hour crisis line: 828-255-7576 or text “VOICE” or “VOZ” to 85511 https://www.ourvoicenc.org/ Mountain Child Advocacy Center Office line: 828-213-9824 http://www.mtncac.org/home.html Buncombe County Family Justice Center 828-250-6900 https://www.buncombecounty.org/ law-safety/family-justice-center/ X

GREEN SCENE

WIDE OPEN SPACES

Farms innovate fresh models for COVID-19 agritourism

BY GINA SMITH ginasmithnews@gmail.com Picking baskets of blueberries, gathering armfuls of sunflowers and getting personal with sociable goats are all normal summertime activities in Western North Carolina. Many of the area’s small farms depend on welcoming the public for tours, dinners, U-pick adventures, workshops and overnight stays as a fundamental income stream. This year, however, the coronavirus pandemic has drastically altered WNC’s agritourism landscape.

“Agritourism is one of the top five revenue sources for small farms that participate in the Carolinas’ local food systems,” says Roland McReynolds, executive director of the Carolina Farm Stewardship Association. “This has been a trend for at least 15 years and has accelerated in the last five to 10 years.”

But a report released in late June by the CFSA shows that COVID-19 has upended this increasingly popular strategy.

The pandemic decreased overall weekly sales for three-quarters of small and midscale farms surveyed in North and South Carolina. Growers reliant on agritourism were some of the hardest hit, with 77% reporting diminished income. Among the 38 farms that rated agritourism as a “very important” market channel and said they’d seen a downturn, 82% saw total farm revenue fall by more than $1,000 per week.

And the future, according to the report, does not look particularly rosy: “Given the potential for stay-at-home orders to be reimposed if infection rates spike again at any point before a vaccine is widely available, there is ample cause for concern that small farms will not see sales through this market channel return to pre-pandemic levels for some time.”

Nevertheless, WNC’s resilient small farms are looking for ways to bounce back. Data from the Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project’s Local Food Research Center shows that 21% of the organization’s 800 WNC Appalachian Grown farms depend on agritourism for income, and all of them are charting new courses right now, says Molly Nicholie, ASAP’s Local Food Campaign program director. “There is no current standard across farms, as each is determining their comfort level with offering agritourism activities during the pandemic, and of course, that depends on their operation, customer base and activities.”

Nicholie points out that the unpredictable COVID-19 situation prompted

DINING OUT: Socially distanced picnics are a new agritourism offering at Mount Gilead Farm in Leicester. Photo courtesy of Mount Gilead Farm ASAP to cancel its annual Farm Tour, which typically draws about 1,500 locals and tourists each June to farms across the region. “Many farms are trying to figure out how to adapt or shift gears, with many looking for alternative markets rather than risking opening up their farms to large groups,” she explains.

HAVE MASK, WILL TRAVEL

Before COVID-19, the top agritourism trend worldwide was on-farm lodging.

Although that industry bottomed out with spring stay-at-home restrictions, visitor interest remains strong, says Annie Baggett, agritourism marketing specialist for the N.C. Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.

“Farms that are offering farm stays and lodging are seeing that business come back since that experience is perceived as safer than typical hotels,” she says.

Mount Gilead Farm in Leicester had hoped to launch its French Broad Creamery goat cheese business this year, but plans were paused when COVID-19 delayed licensing for the recently constructed cheese room. Owners Kathleen and Robert Russell, who run the business with son Zachariah, bought the 48-acre property in 2017 and are still putting in infrastructure. However, they’ve already developed multiple revenue streams, including a meat chicken

operation, farm tours and three lodging units they offer through Airbnb — two private suites in a renovated outbuilding and a camper with a deck.

In 2019, says Zachariah, the farm’s biggest financial success was a unique springtime tour that allowed visitors to

bottle-feed baby goats. “It ended up exploding last year like we would not have imagined,” he says. “It’s been taking a while for the farm to get up and running, but that experience part really brought in a lot of money fast.”

This spring, Mount Gilead was only able to offer one or two baby goat tours in March, before the pandemic hit. The farm weathered the sudden income loss in the short term by slowing down on projects and consolidating resources but still missed revenue from what had been its busiest time of year.

Since Buncombe County eased restrictions on gatherings and tourism in Phase 2 of its reopening plan, the Russells have seen their agritourism business gradually rebound. They’ve cautiously started renting their Airbnb units and opening the property to private, masked tours.

“Airbnb is saying that people don’t want to stay in the city — they want to go out into rural environments and stay in unique places,” says Zachariah.

He stresses that Mount Gilead keeps a strong focus on safety by scheduling days between guest stays, committing to thorough disinfection and ensuring that guests have plenty of space to spread out and maintain separation from other parties.

CONTINUES ON PAGE 20

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19

GR E E N

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The preservation of the forest on 11 Collier Avenue will not only serve the immediate neighborhood, but also the entire city.

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JULY 22-28, 2020

A new offering at the farm invites guests to rent a table and bring a picnic lunch. Another recently added feature is a self-service, no-contact farm store, where visitors can buy Kathleen’s homemade jams, goat milk caramel and other products on the honor system.

Business has been slowly but steadily picking up, says Zachariah. “I think people just feel more comfortable being out in open spaces and open air,” he says. “We’re thankful for it.”

PICKING UP BUSINESS

For some farmers, however, the requirements for continuing agritourism during the pandemic have forced major business changes. Baggett, who provides resources, networking and educational opportunities to agritourism farms and oversees the Visit NC Farms app, says, “Adjusting business plans is happening, yet at a cost with additional labor and new health and safety protocols.”

Anita Saulmon and Larry McDermott, owners of Hardscrabble Hollow Farm in Rutherfordton, say their experience this spring was true to their business’s name. The nearly

MOUNTAINX.COM

MILKING THE MOMENT: COVID-19 restrictions prevented Mount Gilead Farm from offering its popular baby goat tours, which were a major source of income in 2019. Photo courtesy of Mount Gilead Farm 40-acre farm hosts 400 organically grown blueberry bushes, which the two have offered for U-pick harvest since 2011.

This year, they realized that the sanitizing and oversight necessary to safely accommodate visitors would require them to take on employees, an unmanageable expense. “Our pick-your-own operation has been a daily, dawn-todusk, honor-system operation since we first opened it, so to have to hire staff and maintain the same hours of operation, it just would not have made sense,” Saulmon explains.

Beyond the sadness of not seeing families with excited children roaming the farm with berry buckets, other considerations came with the call to cancel U-pick: how to harvest and what to do with the hundreds of pounds of berries bursting from the bushes. “It couldn’t be a year where we had a frost and lost 75% of our blueberries,” Saulmon says with a chuckle. “No, it had to be a bumpercrop year.”

Saulmon and McDermott quickly turned their attention to the struggling local food industry, offering select nearby business owners a potentially sweet deal. “We gave a very attractive price on the berries, but the tough part was that they were going to have to pick them themselves,” Saulmon says.

To her surprise, numerous businesses, including bakeries, breweries, a smoothie bar, a winery and Looking Glass Creamery in nearby Columbus, jumped at the opportunity. “Really, it’s been hugely successful,” Saulmon says. “They’re happy with how they’ve been able to use the berries, and we’re thrilled to get the berries picked.”

Additionally, Saulmon and McDermott created a brand-new income source selling berries at the Rutherford County Farmers Market through the

support of 50-50 picking deals with friends. “They pick as long as they can stand it, and they get to take half their berries home and they leave the other half with us,” says Saulmon. “This year, we really for the first time did the market as soon as berries came into season, and we’ve been there every Saturday.”

GREAT OUTDOORS

Pick-your-own fruit operations are a potential bright spot in a murky agritourism forecast, according to the CFSA survey. “Allowing U-pick customers with social distancing and sanitation measures in place generally seemed to be viewed as akin to the essential occupation of working agricultural fields by health authorities,” the report reads.

The Hunsader family has been farming in various locations since the late 1800s, and their 411-acre Hendersonville tomato, hay and fruit operation, Jeter Mountain Farm, has hosted weddings and events since 2012. After experimenting in past years with pop-up Christmas tree, peach and blueberry U-pick events, the farm launched its first full-blown pick-your-own business this summer.

Jeter Mountain opened in mid-July for U-pick blueberries, blackberries and peaches, and guests will be able to pick 23 varieties of apples and pumpkins in the fall. A farm store features fresh juice and baked goods, while visitors can observe many of the food- and beverage-making activities from behind protective glass walls.

All of this will come online with a grand opening scheduled for Saturday, Aug. 15, but getting to that point is requiring careful thought — and extra money. “What is happening now is that all of our plans for the fall and

helping potential clients feel comfortable choosing the location.

Although Jeter Mountain is back to hosting a limited number of events, the business hangs on the COVID-19 situation not taking a turn for the worse.

“If we were restricted in a lockdown situation again, that would be very, very difficult for us,” says Hunsader. “If we had to actually shut completely down again, that would be very, very bad.”

VIDEO STAR: Sebastiaan Zijp took his cooking classes for The Farmer’s Hands online with a new YouTube channel after COVID-19 closed off in-person options. Photo by Sarah Jones Decker the grand opening are having to be looked at through a very different lens,” explains farm events coordinator Jocelyn Hunsader.

That coronavirus lens involves considering how many guests can safely be seated on the wagons that transport them to the orchards and figuring out how to limit capacity within enclosed spaces. It also means springing for a more expensive, touch-free point-ofsale system, and it may require hiring extra staff.

“Some of that impact we have yet to feel,” Hunsader says. “As a business, of course we want to be open, but at the same time, we’re taking this very seriously.”

The other major component of Jeter Mountain Farm’s business model — its wedding and event service — is dealing with a different set of concerns.

“Under Phase 1 [of the state’s reopening plan], we were completely closed,” says Hunsader. “So there were about two months of weddings that we’ve had to reschedule. I mean, that was crazy! You expect to have a revenue stream that just suddenly isn’t there for two months.”

Wedding ceremonies in North Carolina are now exempt from restrictions; receptions are not, which is challenging because the farm specializes in hosting both. But the wedding venue’s largely outdoor setup, Hunsader explains, has gone a long way toward

THE VIRTUAL EXPERIENCE

Hunsader credits the Henderson County Tourism Development Authority with helping businesses like hers find innovative ways to interact with customers. For example, Jeter Mountain released behind-the-scenes “Farm Facts” videos on its Facebook page after a big on-farm celebration in March had to be abruptly canceled.

Ariel and Sebastiaan Zijp of The Farmer’s Hands also hope to bank on a virtual approach. Since the Zijps established their 2-acre Mars Hill homestead about five years ago, its income has come almost entirely from dining experiences and cooking classes led in vegetable gardens and a cozy farmhouse by Sebastiaan, a former professional chef.

In mid-March, the business completely shut down.

“We’ll probably be closed for the foreseeable future, just because our space is very small, very intimate, and there’s just no way we can be anywhere near 6 feet apart with what we’re doing,” Sebastiaan explains. The couple and their toddler son, Oliver, have hung on so far by trimming expenses, tapping their savings and living off the income from Ariel’s off-farm job.

But on July 10, they embarked on a new chapter when they officially debuted “The Farmer’s Hands” YouTube channel. “We offer everything that we offered [on the farm] as far as learning about farming, gardening, flowers, herbs, plants, vegetables, all that kind of stuff, as well as all the cooking classes and experiences that I was teaching before,” says Sebastiaan.

The jury’s still out on how financially rewarding the virtual offering will be, but Sebastiaan is optimistic. “People who’ve come out here have always been really excited about what we’re doing,” he says. “We’re hoping we can translate that same energy, that same love for what we do, into an online platform.”

As for when he might relaunch his on-farm experiences, Sebastiaan has no answers. “We’ll see what the next year brings,” he says. “But who knows what this fall’s going to bring with COVID-19?” X

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21

FOOD

HOUSE RULES

Restaurants institute operation standards to ensure safety of guests and staff

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JULY 22-28, 2020

“When I was in the Army, I got a crash course on live management processes and just-in-time forecasting,” says Anthony Coggiola, who with his wife, Sherrye Coggiola, owns The Cantina at Historic Biltmore Village. Little did he know how relevant that training would be as the couple faced the challenge of running a restaurant in the time of COVID-19.

The task is daunting and multifaceted: paying rent and bills; navigating loans and grants; remaining relevant; figuring out when and how to offer service; instilling confidence in diners that you are operating with their well-being in mind; and, just as imperative, keeping staff safe and healthy as they work.

Anthony says there are many resources available to the local food service industry. “In Asheville, AIR [Asheville Independent Restaurant Association] has been invaluable. NCRLA [North Carolina Restaurant & Lodging Association] has been incredible. No one in this business should feel like they are alone in this; they are not.”

The Coggiolas decided to close entirely in mid-March rather than pivoting to takeout. “We have a big restaurant [260 seats], and we never really did takeout very well, so we opted to cease operations and use the opportunity to better our systems and evaluate our processes,” Anthony says.

GETTING IT RIGHT

Jeff Miller, owner of Luella’s Bar-BQue, shifted immediately to takeout for both his original location on Merrimon Avenue and his second in Biltmore Park Town Square, though within a week he temporarily halted takeout from the South Asheville store. “There was so much change so rapidly, we felt the best thing to do was put all our attention on one store and get that right,” he says.

“We wanted to serve the community as long as we felt it was safe to do that, for customers and our team. We feel confident we are doing that.”

Like the Coggiolas, Miller also turned to AIR for guidance, and all staff members are taking part in the Count on Me NC state program, created through the NCRLA and the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services. The site

MOUNTAINX.COM

OPEN HOUSE: After a dress rehearsal to practice new protocols and procedures designed to keep guests and staff safe and healthy, The Cantina at Historic Biltmore Village has reopened for distanced outdoor and indoor dining Thursday through Sunday. Photo courtesy of The Cantina provides guides and free online training courses tailored specifically for owners and operators, front-of-house and back-of-house staff. Other aids include detailed guidelines for restaurants covering topics from face masks and distancing to water and ventilation systems, with links to additional resources, signage templates and, critically, an employee symptom screening checklist.

That list provides several health- and exposure-related questions and is now as key to in-house operations as menus are to guests. “When staff report to work, they mask before they enter the building,” says Rich Cundiff, who with wife Lauren Cundiff owns Rocky’s Hot Chicken Shack. “They read the checklist, circle the answers to the questions and sign it. We take their temperature, make sure they have their PPE on properly and send them to work.”

Even before the executive order was issued, the Cundiffs closed both Rocky’s locations to all but takeout, which accounted for about 20% of their business pre-COVID and is now 100%.

“Our systems have evolved as we have gotten more data, and we feel confident we have a very tight system at this point,” says Rich.

But it’s not foolproof, as he discovered when an employee did not truthfully answer the required questionnaire.

“They said they had not been exposed when, in fact, they had been exposed at their other job,” Rich explains. “When we found out, we immediately worked with the Health Department to do contact tracing, got everyone with any potential contact tested and kept them home from work until the tests came back. We were relieved they all came back negative, and we intend to keep it that way.”

CLOSE QUARTERS

All three restaurateurs note that social distancing is more problematic in kitchens than in front of the house, but they have adapted. “It’s close to impossible to maintain 6 feet of distance on a production line in a kitchen,” Miller acknowledges. “In our Merrimon location, the line is more of a square, with a walk-in cooler on one side and bathrooms on another. We can’t change it, and it is what it is. Face masks are required at all times, and we ask people to spread out as much as they can.”

Cundiff adds, “We have done a lot of experimenting with what works in the kitchen because communicating is so critical. Each employee has found what they prefer — a mask or face shield — but either way, they have to have something completely covering their mouth and nose. We are able to distance some kitchen positions at about 6 feet, but not always. We work with what we have, and it’s working.”

In the 12 weeks Cantina was completely closed to customers, Coggiola says, they took the kitchen down to the walls, did a deep clean, replaced the floor, took all the equipment outside, where it was cleaned and sterilized,

then reinstalled it. “We weren’t making any money, but we didn’t waste any time either,” he says with a laugh.

While all three restaurateurs are adhering to and grateful for uniform health and safety guidelines and mandates — particularly as it involves mask-wearing by guests — every restaurant is following its own instincts and tapping creative solutions for customer-facing operations.

Miller resumed business hours at the Luella’s Biltmore Park location July 7 with a new system in place. “We are still not opening either dining room, but that neighborhood wants to sit down to eat, so we moved our dining room to a covered breezeway. Customers go to a station outside the restaurant, order, pay and then take a seat at an assigned table, where we bring them their food.

We call it Order-Pay-Dine,” he explains.

“At Merrimon, some customers pick up their takeout and sit at the spaced tables on our patio. We’re expanding that into our parking lot and will add Order-PayDine there, too.”

With the money Rocky’s was awarded from the Buncombe County Tourism Jobs Development Fund, Cundiff is adding free-standing shacks to both of his locations. “The idea came to us as

a group when we were looking at the buildings and thinking, ‘As long as we are sticking to takeout, what can we do to make it better?’ We’re using the money to build little shacks where we can bring the order out, and then take to your car. We’ll keep a small fridge in each shack for extra dip and other things that need to be cold.”

The Coggiolas decided to reopen Cantina for distanced outdoor and dinein service at 50% capacity on June 4, but first, they held a dress rehearsal using staff and their families to test out the new systems and policies they created for customers, which include required reservations and limited seating times.

“We had some of them make reservations so we could test that; some were walk-up,” says Anthony. “We tested signage, distancing, tape on the floor and the new flow for everyone — customers, service staff and kitchen. We brought everyone back the next day to talk it through, what went right, what went wrong and how to improve. Another thing I have never forgotten from my military days is, ‘If you fail to plan, plan to fail.’ Restaurant people are resilient, determined and creative. I believe we can do this.” X

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23

F OOD

Feeding justice

The BLOCK Off Biltmore has closed, but its free CommUNITY Meals initiative continues

UNITED THEY STAND: Pictured from left, Cam MacQueen, Jeremy Salig and Katie McGrath distribute free meals and face masks and register voters at The BLOCK Off Biltmore 5-7 p.m. Tuesdays. Photo courtesy The BLOCK Off Biltmore Cam MacQueen’s longtime commitment to social justice activism led her to open The BLOCK Off Biltmore in November 2015, pledging to provide Asheville with “a unique, multicultural, progressive, vegan gathering spot for activists, artists, educators, community organizers and others to come together to socialize, to dream and to dare to create positive social change in Western North Carolina and beyond.” Over the years, The BLOCK hosted multitudes of meetings, events, meals, celebrations and calls to action and served as a launch pad for marches and movements right up until July 12, when MacQueen announced she had come to the wrenching decision to close the space.

The month before, she partnered with neighbor Benne on Eagle and the acclaimed restaurant’s executive chef, Ashleigh Shanti, to co-host a free, outdoor celebration of Juneteenth in Asheville’s historically Black neighborhood, The Block. The event, which featured live music, an open mic and vegan meals, raised over $2,000 for the newly formed Southern Restaurants for Racial Justice and Color of Change. “I was on cloud nine after that,” MacQueen says.

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JULY 22-28, 2020

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In early June, MacQueen also combined her passions for social justice and food justice to create CommUNITY Meals, an initiative that offered free, twice-weekly, nutrient-dense dinners made with produce donated by the North Asheville Tailgate Market and West Village Market, shiitake mushrooms from 12 Bones Smokehouse and vegan products from Smiling Hara Tempeh, Diosas Cheeze and Fermenti.

Eden-Out Organic Meals and Benne volunteered the use of their kitchens, and local chefs Katie McGrath and Jeremy Salig jumped in to cook. From The BLOCK’s front door, the three have given away over 700 plant-based meals, distributed free face masks and handed out voter registration forms and absentee ballot request forms in English and Spanish.

Although The BLOCK is closed for business, MacQueen intends to keep CommUNITY Meals going, offering service 5-7 p.m. Tuesdays at 39 S. Market St. She advises people to check for updates on The BLOCK ’s social media platforms.

— Kay West X

CAROLINA BEER GUY

by Tony Kiss | avlbeerguy@gmail.com

Safety dance

Local breweries enact strict protocols to protect employees from COVID-19 Anyone who’s visited a local taproom over the past few months has seen big changes as business owners attempt to slow the spread of COVID-19 while operating at a reduced capacity. Some breweries are offering service exclusively outside, masks are required for anyone going indoors, and, for various reasons, several businesses have yet to resume regular operations even after Gov. Roy Cooper’s Phase 2 reopening plan made doing so legal.

For brewery employees, however, there is another set of procedures in place, often less visible, to help keep everyone well. The process differs from brewery to brewery, and from bartenders to brewers to packaging crews. But in each sector, if a worker reports feeling ill or shows sign of fever, a system quickly snaps into place to protect both the employee and the brewery.

Such actions were taken twice in July

by Wicked Weed Brewing Co. First, an employee was found to have the virus at the company’s Funkatorium location. The unnamed employee received medical attention, and the taproom, the adjoining Cultura restaurant and the Barrel House event space were immediately closed for a complete deep cleaning conducted by Biopure Asheville.

No other employees or guests were exposed to the virus, according to a statement posted on the brewery’s Facebook page. The Funkatorium reopened on July 13 with with expanded outdoor seating — eschewing indoor service for the time being.

Days later, another employee tested positive for the virus, this time at the brewery’s flagship location on Biltmore Avenue, according to director of pubs Jared Edwards. It, too, was closed for cleaning and, after its July 20 reopening, only offers outdoor seating.

Edwards says the two cases are unrelated — a conclusion reached through contact tracing. Both employees are recovering.

According to co-founder Ryan Guthy, Wicked Weed has a company committee to discuss policy and procedures related to the coronavirus, and there is also input from parent company Anheuser-Busch InBev. All employees must wear a mask on the job and get daily temperature checks. “I really think our team has done a great job in thinking ahead,” he says.

West Asheville Patio & Kitchen Open.

No indoor dining Mon.-Thur.: 2-8pm, Fri. 2-9pm Sat. Noon-9pm, Sun. Noon-8pm

south slope New Outdoor Seating Fri-Sun. 2-9pm Masks & Social Distancing Required SCREEN TIME: Russ Brown, general manager of Wicked Weed Brewing’s brewpub, checks his temperature before starting work. Such procedures are now standard in Asheville-area breweries, whose owners remain vigilant in monitoring employees’ health during the COVID-19 pandemic. Photo by Julia Lindholm The Funkatorium employee’s test result was the first known case of COVID-19 in an Asheville-area brewery. But there have been at least two other brewery cases statewide, says Richard Greene, executive director of the N.C. Craft Brewers Guild, which represents breweries across the state and provides industry-specific guidance and direction on the pandemic via its website. Greene would not identify the other breweries where coronavirus was found or say where they are located in North Carolina.

Local brewery owners mostly agree that future cases are possible — if not certain. That likelihood reinforces the importance of having safety protocols in place before the illness is detected.

“I commend Wicked Weed for announcing that they had employees who tested positive,” says Paul Casey, owner of French Broad River Brewery.

His crew gets a daily temperature check.

Front-of-house employees must wear masks at work, and while those in the back of the brewery are not required to wear a mask, he says many do.

Casey believes that it is inevitable that more cases of COVID-19 will be reported on the brewing scene as the pandemic continues to rage. “We will be as responsible as we can for our employees and our patrons,” he says. “This is

something that we will have to deal with for a while.”

Catawba Brewing Co. has thorough procedures to watch for the virus, according to co-owner Billy Pyatt. He says a medical professional, who’s also a family member, is serving as the brewery’s medical consultant and assisted in creating their safety plan. Brewery employees get daily checks of temperatures and blood oxygen levels, and all employees must wear masks at work.

While the illness has not been reported at Catawba’s Asheville, Charlotte or Morganton locations, it did strike the company’s sister operation, Palmetto Brewing Co. in Charleston, S.C., where Pyatt says the head brewer showed COVID-19 symptoms and tested positive for the virus. All other employees were tested — results were negative across the board — and the brewery closed for a comprehensive cleaning.

At UpCountry Brewing Co., owner John Cochran reports that all employees get a daily temperature check before starting work and must wear a mask while on the job. Even with these precautions, he’s prepared for what would need to be done should one of his crew members test positive.

“I think about it every day,” he says. “You have no choice. You close and clean.” X

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JULY 22-28, 2020

25

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

WITCHY WOMAN

Valerie Smith-Jackson amplifies people of color and allies on ‘Enchanting Asheville’ podcast

BY EDWIN ARNAUDIN

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earnaudin@mountainx.com “I speak for the underdogs. I speak for the LGBTQ community. I speak for the BIPOC,” says Valerie SmithJackson, using the acronym for Black, Indigenous and people of color. “I speak for those who are suffering through drugs and alcohol, those who feel disenchanted with life and want to commit suicide — I fight for them all.”

Wielding this powerful dedication to underserved populations, the Asheville-based activist, motivational speaker and priestess is primed to inspire genuine, lasting change through her new podcast, Enchanting Asheville. The series debuted July 21 with guest Amy Cantrell, co-director of nonprofit community aid group BeLoved Asheville. New 30-minute episodes will be added each week on all major podcast services, featuring discussions of the lives of local people of color and those who love them.

A transplant from the South Carolina Lowcountry, Smith-Jackson is the descendant of a grandmother who had 22 children, which she says led to her being “born like a priestess with an overindulgent expression of kundalini [i.e., divine feminine] power.” As such, her nature is highly sensual and sexual, and she celebrates her femininity at all times. In seeking to put a name to her free expres-

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THE SUMMONS

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UNIQUELY SPIRITUAL: Valerie Smith-Jackson, aka Priestess Supervixen, is the host of Enchanting Asheville, a new weekly podcast featuring discussions of the lives of local people of color and those who love them. Photo by Carr Elliott/Captivating the Mind Photography

Mon. - Sun. Lunch: 11:30am–2:30pm Mon. - Sun. Dinner: 5:00–8:00pm Sat. + Sun. Brunch: 9:00am–2:30pm sion of these qualities, the closest she came to an accurate moniker was “Supervixen.” Then one day, she fortuitously came across “Supervixen” by the rock band Garbage, embraced it as

her theme song and officially became Priestess Supervixen.

“I use the word ‘Supervixen’ now, not only to express my sensuality and my love for my femininity, but also as a

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SMART BETS priestess,” Smith-Jackson says. “How I present my information is both sensual and engaging, so I use my warm voice with my spirituality, backed by my sensual power. And I use it to enchant love, understanding, encouragement, freedom and peace to people.”

In spreading that enchantment, Smith-Jackson had long wanted to explore podcasting and other social media endeavors but is admittedly not as fluent with technology as she’d like. “I put [it] out in the universe, as a witchy woman would do,” she recalls.

“I said, ‘I need someone that knows how to do podcasting and different things like that. Bring them to me because I don’t know what to do.’ And you forget that your power is in asking — it’s in your voice.”

Before long, she was giving an online talk when Asheville-based producer Ben Stockdale reached out and asked if she’d ever thought of doing a podcast. The synchronicity of creative forces in the universe made Smith-Jackson instantly crack up, and she quickly accepted his offer. Since this summoning, she says the two have become “quite a pair,” noting Stockdale’s “more conservative” mindset but also someone with his own spirituality. She says he honors her as a person of color and, inspired by Black Lives Matter initiatives, wanted to do something for the community but didn’t know how until he and Smith-Jackson crossed digital paths.

“Everyone has a piece in this movement, and not all of us are going to agree on the right tactic to attack racism, disenfranchisement and poverty,” she says. “We may not know one way that we can all do it, but we all do it in our own way. Before we know it, we’ve already taken care of a lot and we’re now laughing on other side in the sun.

We can do this. Everyone just be true to who they really are. Do their work — their own unique spiritual work — on their negative aspects of themselves, and let’s come to the table.”

SHOWTIME In addition to Cantrell and Michael Hayes, executive director of Umoja Health, Wellness and Justice Collective, Smith-Jackson plans to speak with local business leaders, faith leaders, activists and artists on future Enchanting Asheville episodes. Politicians are also in the mix, with Asheville City Council member Keith Young and City Manager Debra Campbell high on her wish list.

She’s additionally on the lookout for community members with recent engaging stories to tell regarding race

relations — and found one via Facebook involving a woman of color who had a negative experience with a sales rep at a downtown Asheville boutique and vowed to never shop there again. The store owner then reached out to the customer, saying the experience was not indicative of the business’s values and asked her to have a discussion about what had occurred.

Sensing an opportunity for Enchanting Asheville, Smith-Jackson waited a few days, messaged both parties and learned that the dialogue had gone extremely well and resulted in the shopper being gifted the item that prompted the troubling encounter and being recruited to help the business owner and her staff to develop racial equity practices in sales. SmithJackson then invited both women to come on her show to reflect on the turn of events; they agreed, and the conversation resulted in what the host calls “a very powerful podcast.”

“I’m going to keep after everybody that’s doing their best to have a beautiful impact on our community in their own unique ways,” Smith-Jackson says. “That way, eventually, when people want to think about coming to Asheville to live, to do shows, to do anything, I’m going to be a podcast they’re going to be wanting to listen to. How are people getting along here?

How are things working out for the community here?”

True to the podcast’s name, each episode concludes with an enchantment based on the discussion that’s just occurred. During that final stretch, Smith-Jackson amplifies “the positive experience or intentions in the universe of what we need as a community, as people of color and all those who want peace and harmony here.” She describes the enchantment as “scooping up some of the darkness and transforming it into light and pushing it out into the universe,” one of many qualities that she hopes will help set Enchanting Asheville apart from other local podcasts.

“I’m not of any religion and I’m not of any one political affiliation. I’m a witch.

I wouldn’t be considered the most popular, well-loved person, but I’m going to do my share to have an impact with a whole legion of us who’ve been sitting in the shadows doing spiritual work forever,” Smith-Jackson says. “I’m calling forth Christian prayer warriors.

I’m calling forth all the spiritualists and healers. I’m calling forth all the spiritual entities in this land, ancestral and natural, for the change of Asheville for the people and the whole damn world.

It is now. This is the perfect time. I’m just a dot in this movement.” X

by Edwin Arnaudin | Send your arts news to ae@mountainx.com

Academy for the Arts’ Summer Concert Series Due to COVID-19 restrictions, the Academy for the Arts’ annual Summer Concert Series has transitioned to a virtual event. Following a strong slate of performances each Sunday throughout July, the final installment takes place July 26 at 6 p.m., featuring the talents of AFTA faculty members Tate Addis (piano), Frances Duff (cello), Abi Enockson (viola), Clark Sorrells (piano/ voice), Karen Sorrells (piano), Kate Steinbeck (flute), Hannah Tyler (violin) and Simone Vigilante (voice). They’ll perform work by African American composer Adolphus Hailstork alongside music for piano quartet, voice and four-hand piano. The program also includes work by Haydn, Dvořák, Mendelssohn and more. Free, but donations to the AFTA Scholarship Fund, which gives opportunities for arts education to students in financial need, are welcome. academyforthearts. org. Photo of Steinbeck by John Warner

Anything That Floats Each year, creative locals join forces, construct a water-ready craft of various components and take to the French Broad River for RiverLink’s Anything That Floats parade. However, due to safety concerns surrounding COVID-19, the 2020 edition is pivoting to semivirtual status. Adhering to the theme “French Broad in Wonderland,” participants are invited to dress up and deck out their boats and tubes in Through the Looking Glass fashion, take to any section of the river, snap a photo and share it on social media with the hashtag #AnythingThatFloats2020, or email it to info@riverlink.org by Friday, July 31. Prizes will be awarded for Most Creative, Most Environmentally Friendly and Best Costume, and winners will be announced on Wednesday, Aug. 5. Registration costs start at $25 and include entry to the event, a 5-liter dry bag filled with goodies and a raffle ticket for prizes donated by local businesses. riverlink.org. Photo courtesy of RiverLink MOUNTAINX.COM

JULY 22-28, 2020

27

CLUBLAND

Online Event= q WEDNESDAY, JULY 22 OKLAWAHA BREWING CO. French Broad Valley Mountain Music Jam, 6pm

WE’RE BACK!

DINNER AND A CONCERT ON THE LAWN

CONCERTS BEGIN AT 6:30PM T HU 7/ 23

THE DARREN NICHOLSON BAND BLUEGRASS

THE JOINT NEXT DOOR Laura Thurston (solo acoustic), 6pm TWIN LEAF BREWERY Open Mic w/ Thomas Yon, 7pm 185 KING STREET Team Trivia & Games, 7pm ISIS MUSIC HALL q Rebecca Haviland & Whiskey Heart (roots rock), 7pm, avl.mx/7mq

ONE STOP AT ASHEVILLE MUSIC HALL The Lasso Twins (psychedelic rock), 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, JULY 23 LAZY HIKER BREWING Open Jam, 5pm

ISIS MUSIC HALL Lawn Concert w/ The Darren Nicholson Band (bluegrass), 6:30pm

ONE WORLD BREWING WEST Bull the Barker (psychedelic, soul), 6:30pm

ORANGE PEEL q Jeff Santiago & Los Gatos, 7pm, avl.mx/7mv

OKLAWAHA BREWING CO. Mr Jimmy (blues), 7pm

ORANGE PEEL q Bless Your Heart & Lo Wolf (country), 7pm, avl.mx/7mt

THE GREY EAGLE Patio Show w/ Drunken Prayer (alternative, country), 7pm

OKLAWAHA BREWING CO. Ben Phantom (jazz, pop, rap), 8pm

CATAWBA BREWING SOUTH SLOPE Bull the Barker (psychedelic, soul), 8:30pm

GREEN RIVER BREW PUB Andrew Thelston Band (rock), 8pm

ASHEVILLE MUSIC HALL DownTown Abby & The Echoes (soul, funk), 9pm

ONE STOP AT ASHEVILLE MUSIC HALL Gunslinging Parrots (Phish tribute), 8pm BALSAM FALLS BREWING CO. Open Mic Night, 8pm BEN’S TUNE UP Comedy Open Mic w/ Baby George, 9pm

FRIDAY, JULY 24 ONE STOP AT ASHEVILLE MUSIC HALL Free Dead Friday (Grateful Dead tribute), 5:30pm WHITESIDE BREWING CO. Doug Ramsay (jazz, soul), 5:30pm

F RI 7/ 24

COUNTRY POUR

CLASSIC COUNTRY, HONKY-TONK, OUTLAW COUNTRY

Thank You FOR VOTING! BEST OF WNC

SAT 7/ 25

LOVE BUBBLE OLDIES

SUN 7/ 26

UP JUMPED THREE MODERN JAZZ

T HU 7/ 30

ALIEN MUSIC CLUB JAZZ QUARTET

Results will be published in September

mountainx.com/bestofwnc

THE HIDEAWAY Datrian Johnson (Americana, soul), 6pm APPALACHIAN RIDGE ARTISAN CIDERY 3 Shades of Gray (pop, jazz), 6pm MAD CO. BREWING Jesse Harman (solo acoustic), 6pm HICKORY NUT GORGE BREWERY Music by the River w/ Riyen Roots, 6pm ISIS MUSIC HALL Lawn Concert w/ Country Pour (honky tonk), 6:30pm

185 KING STREET The Get Right Band (psychedelic, indie), 8pm TRISKELION BREWERY Mojomatic (funk, blues), 8pm ASHEVILLE MUSIC HALL Songs From The Road Band (bluegrass), 10pm BEN’S TUNE UP DJ Kilby Spinning Vinyl, 10pm AUX BAR DJ Databoy & DJ Woodside, 11pm

SATURDAY, JULY 25 BATTERY PARK BOOK EXCHANGE Dinah's Daydream (Gypsy jazz), 6pm ONE WORLD BREWING WEST The New Rustics (Americana, rock), 6pm ISIS MUSIC HALL Lawn Concert w/ Love Bubble (oldies), 6:30pm

JAZZ

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TALL TALES

FOLK, JAZZ, WORLD MUSIC

F RI 8 / 7

CHRIS ROSSER WITH CHUCK BRODSKY

Watch Spike Lee’s latest feature now on Netflix, then tune in as the Asheville Movie Guys, Bruce C. Steele and Edwin Arnaudin of AshevilleMovies. com, discuss the film and take your questions via livestream comments and email.

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WILD WING CAFE Karaoke Night, 9:30pm THE SOCIAL Karaoke Show w/ Billy Masters, 10pm ONE STOP AT ASHEVILLE MUSIC HALL Electrochemical & Soul Candy (psychedelic, dance), 10pm BEN’S TUNE UP Big Blue (hip-hop, rock, funk), 10pm

SUNDAY, JULY 26 ONE STOP AT ASHEVILLE MUSIC HALL Shakedown Sunday: Ethan Heller Trio (psychedelic, funk), 4pm RIVERSIDE RHAPSODY BEER COMPANY Drinkin’ & Thinkin’ Trivia, 5pm HI-WIRE BREWING BIG TOP Happy Birthday Hi-Wire w/ Jamar Woods Acoustic Band, 5pm 185 KING STREET Open Electric Jam w/ Jimmy Jams, 6pm ISIS MUSIC HALL Lawn Concert w/ Up Jumped Three (jazz, avant-garde), 6:30pm MOUNTAIN SPIRIT q Lara Herscovitch (folk), 7pm, avl.mx/7p9 THE GREY EAGLE Patio Show w/ Jane Kramer & Matt Smith (Americana), 7pm

MONDAY, JULY 27 ARCHETYPE BREWING Old Time Jam w/ Banjo Mitch McConnell, 6pm CATAWBA BREWING SOUTH SLOPE Musicians in the Round (open jam), 6pm

TUESDAY, JULY 28 OKLAWAHA BREWING CO. Team Trivia Tuesday, 6pm

ONE STOP AT ASHEVILLE MUSIC HALL Early Tuesday Jam w/ Trilateral Omission (rock), 8pm

WEDNESDAY, JULY 29 OKLAWAHA BREWING CO. French Broad Valley Mountain Music Jam, 6pm THE JOINT NEXT DOOR Laura Thurston (solo acoustic), 6pm TWIN LEAF BREWERY Open Mic w/ Thomas Yon, 7pm 185 KING STREET Team Trivia & Games, 7pm MOUNTAIN SPIRIT q David Jacobs-Strain (solo acoustic), 7pm, avl.mx/7pb ONE STOP AT ASHEVILLE MUSIC HALL The Lasso Twins (psychedelic rock), 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, JULY 30 LAZY HIKER BREWING Open Jam, 5pm ISIS MUSIC HALL Lawn Concert w/ Alien Music Club Jazz Quartet, 6:30pm TRISKELION BREWERY Irish Session (traditional Celtic music), 6:30pm THE GREY EAGLE Patio Show w/ Analog Moon (rock, synth), 7pm YMI CULTURAL CENTER The Comedy Show w/ Rob Haze, 8pm BALSAM FALLS BREWING CO. Open Mic Night, 8pm ONE STOP AT ASHEVILLE MUSIC HALL Gunslinging Parrots (Phish tribute), 8pm BEN’S TUNE UP Comedy Open Mic w/ Baby George, 9pm

MOVIE REVIEWS THIS WEEK’S CONTRIBUTORS

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

BRUCE STEELE bcsteele@gmail.com

Josh McCormack

= MAX RATING

freaky imagery — demonic hairless bats, anyone? — and disturbing body horror.

Garai lenses Tomaz’s downward spiral with a welcome steady hand, and while her script wallows in excessive exposition at critical final act junctures, the parallels drawn between Tomaz’s isolated times with appealing women — which prove to be far more connected than he realizes — are clever, and the answers still leave viewers with plenty of mysteries to solve on their own.

Once the truths are laid bare, Amulet further reveals that it too is far more than it initially appeared. Rather than merely a creepy, low-budget horror flick, Garai’s film winds up being a poignant, metaphor-rich exploration of sins and penance, and the role of an unusual sisterhood in punishing evil men.

tic as our two leads, Valeria and Simon.

Alongside them is a convincing cast of unknowns, most of whom seem to be skilled graffiti artists in their own right.

Christian Tappen (Netflix’s “Narcos”) also shines as the only veteran actor in the film, and his performance as Valeria’s concerned father proves to be one of its strongest elements.

Restrepo also demonstrates a confident directorial vision without being showy.

With the camera always mobile, Days of the Whale leans more toward a cinéma vérité aesthetic for the majority of its run time — an approach I greatly appreciate.

However, Restrepo makes the mistake of interrupting her film’s naturalistic flow with symbolic images of whales comically washed up in the middle of downtown traffic. This artistic choice repeatedly falls flat and feels out of place with the rest of the picture.

There are some other problems as well, including strange musical choices in what should be more meditative dramatic sequences and an ending that seems incredibly anticlimactic, especially with the tense buildup that precedes it. However, these types of missteps are common issues with first-time directors and are greatly overshadowed by the stronger aspects of Restrepo’s filmmaking.

Days of the Whale may not stick with viewers the way its filmmaker desires, but its raw depiction of graffiti artists in Medellín and the strong naturalistic performers that populate the movie’s world make it worth seeking out.

REVIEWED BY EDWIN ARNAUDIN EARNAUDIN@MOUNTAINX.COM

REVIEWED BY JOSH MCCORMACK JMCCORMA@UNCA.EDU

Days of the Whale

Helmut Newton: The Bad and the Beautiful

Amulet HHHH DIRECTOR: Romola Garai PLAYERS: Imelda Staunton, Carla Juri, Alec Secareanu, Angeliki Papoulia HORROR RATED R Actor Romola Garai (Atonement; BBC’s “The Hour”) makes an impressive feature filmmaking debut with Amulet, an ambitious slice of slow-burn horror.

Set in modern-day London, the film offers viewers the exciting challenge of piecing together the dreams and reality of Tomaz (Alec Secareanu, God’s Own Country), a refugee of ambiguous Eastern European descent. Conveniently revealed in chronological order, the visions from his military past occur in gorgeously shot, thick woods, and the crisp visuals contrast nicely with his grimy English homelessness and all that follows.

Still haunted by his history and the role that war-fleeing fellow townsperson Miriam (Angeliki Papoulia, The Lobster) played in it, Tomaz is recruited by a nun (Imelda Staunton, Dolores Umbridge from the Harry Potter films) to live with 30-something Magda (Carla Juri, Blade Runner 2049) in exchange for home repairs.

That Tomaz doesn’t consider Magda’s sick mother wailing and knocking around in the blacked-out attic to be a deal-breaker all but justifies the supernatural troubles heading his way, but Garai takes her time building suspense, dropping just enough hints through facial expressions and closeups on objects that typically don’t receive such attention to suggest that things are not well.

The subsequent action can feel plodding and frustrating in the moment, mostly due to the limited cast size and sparse dialogue, but is elevated by an increasing amount of

HHHS

DIRECTOR: Catalina Arroyave Restrepo PLAYERS: Valeria Castaño Fajardo, Carlos Fonnegra, Julian Giraldo FOREIGN FILM/DRAMA NOT RATED With Days of the Whale, writer/director Catalina Arroyave Restrepo steps right out of the gate with a strong debut feature. Her story of two Colombian graffiti artists falling in love against the backdrop of gang violence and domestic disputes has its share of flaws but nevertheless remains engaging thanks to the ingenuity of Restrepo’s low-budget filmmaking.

Newcomers Valeria Castaño Fajardo and David Escallion Orrego are fantas-

HHH

DIRECTOR: Gero von Boehm PLAYERS: Charlotte Rampling, Catherine Deneuve, Isabella Rossellini DOCUMENTARY NOT RATED If you were to judge Helmut Newton: The Bad and the Beautiful by its trailer alone, you would go into the theater — or, for now, your living room — expecting a shock-driven exposé of a photographer who exploited women for personal gain.

Instead, what you’ll find is a sympathetic, rather adorable portrait of an artist. Newton, molded in the crucible of

Chris Maiorana

Melissa Myers

German Expressionism, was a man whose art indulged strange delights and surely helped sell many magazines. Yet, the documentary is not about politics in the age of #MeToo, but rather about respect for photography itself — and it holds that line well.

Thanks to its lively editing, fun soundtrack and quality cinematography, Helmut Newton is not totally without a dose of gender-based self-reflection, and there’s a little bit of clumsy feminist psychoanalysis as well, for those interested in debating those points.

This documentary reminds you that it’s not only male gaze that determines what sort of bodies are used in advertisements or art gallery fare. There are also editors, marketers, agents, gallery managers and production people — and not all of them are men.

In doing the work of bringing all of these various stakeholders together for their opinions and observations, German director Gero von Boehm captures the real

AVAILABLE VIA FINEARTSTHEATRE.COM (FA) GRAILMOVIEHOUSE.COM (GM) Ai Weiwei: Yours Truly (NR) HHHS (GM) Alice (NR) HHH (FA) All I Can Say (NR) HHHHS (GM) Amulet (R) HHHH (Pick of the Week) (GM) Beyond the Visible: Hilma af Klint (NR) HHHS (FA) The Booksellers (NR) HHHS(FA) Days of the Whale (NR) HHHS(GM) Ella Fitzgerald: Just One of Those Things (NR) HHHS(GM) Fantastic Fungi (NR) HHHH (FA) Flannery (NR) HHHH (FA) Fourteen (NR) HHHH (FA) Helmut Newton: The Bad and the Beautiful (NR) HHH (FA) The Hottest August (NR) H (FA) House of Hummingbird (NR) HHHH (FA) John Lewis: Good Trouble (PG) HHHH (FA, GM) The Last Tree (NR) HHHH (GM) Lucky Grandma (NR) HHHH (FA) My Darling Vivian (NR) HHHH (GM) Papicha (NR) HHH (FA) Proud (NR) HHH (FA) Shirley (R) HHHHS (FA) Someone, Somewhere (NR) HHHH (FA) The Surrogate (NR) HHHHS (FA) The Times of Bill Cunningham (NR) HHHHS (FA) The Tobacconist (NR) HHHS (FA) Vincent Van Gogh: A New Way of Seeing (NR) HHHS (FA) Vitalina Varela (NR) HHHHS (FA) We Are Little Zombies (NR) HHHH (GM)

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FREEWILL ASTROLOGY

MOVIE RE V IEW S story behind not only Newton himself but also of the fashion industry, such as it was.

Actress Charlotte Rampling, one of the more sympathetic interview subjects, seems to be most on the money when she says, “Who cares about the man himself?

We’re looking at his art.” To its utmost credit, the documentary accomplishes this feat accordingly, and the man’s art lies at its center.

Meanwhile, viewers are treated to hot shots and behind-the-scenes coverage of photo shoots in session, and the many painful contortions to which some models — both men and women — are driven to get the perfect shot.

Proving to be the most endearing segments of the film, Newton’s own recollections of his boyhood as a Jew in Nazi Germany and his early career nicely round out this portrait — and, like his own works of art, are worth seeing for yourself.

outside of Curie’s incredible true story, Radioactive offers little of note on a cinematic level and leaves the door open for another filmmaker to do justice to her accomplishments.

Read the full review at mountainx.com/movies/reviews Available to stream starting July 24 via Amazon Prime Video

REVIEWED BY CHRIS MAIORANA STANORDAN@GMAIL.COM

This 2015 documentary is the latest in the Exhibition on Screen series the Fine Arts Theatre has been hosting, and it’s a worthy companion to the theater’s 2017 animated hit, Loving Vincent. Bringing Van Gogh’s artwork to life, Loving drilled down on his last years in Arles, France, and toyed with the theory that he was murdered.

The documentary provides a wider view of the artist’s life and influences, a compact and engaging tutorial in the origin of Van Gogh’s unique vision and how to fit his art in the context of his daily struggles. And there’s no murder to solve.

Unless you’re an art historian, A New Way of Seeing is guaranteed to tell you things you didn’t know about Van Gogh and his family. It’s based on a comprehensive new presentation of the permanent collection of the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam and includes the usual stories — poverty, mental instability, the ear cutting. But none get more attention in the film’s largely chronological recounting of Van Gogh’s rocky life than the lesser episodes that were equally if not more important to his art. The museum also holds a treasure trove of Van Gogh’s letters, many of them illustrated with drawings. Excerpts are performed to help humanize the man, and silent reenactments by actor Jamie de Courcey, a ringer for Van Gogh, are well staged.

Among the many Exhibition on Screen documentaries presented so far by the Fine Arts, Vincent Van Gogh is among the broadest, covering the artist’s entire life and oeuvre. But given the wider culture’s tendency to turn Van Gogh into a series of stormy dramas, A New Way’s sober, steady approach is appreciated.

Few artists left a legacy as potent and vibrant as Van Gogh, a point the film makes colorfully clear.

Radioactive HHS DIRECTOR: Marjane Satrapi PLAYERS: Rosamund Pike, Sam Riley, Simon Russell Beale BIOPIC/DRAMA PG-13 For decades, a basic textbook history understanding of Marie Curie has instructed students on the scientist’s breakthrough contributions to chemistry and physics. Next to her name on your study guide for early 20th-century scientific luminaries, you may have written “discovered polonium and radium, first woman to win the Nobel Prize, improved X-ray technology in World War I.” Marjane Satrapi’s Curie biopic, Radioactive, disappointingly offers little more beyond this knowledge already in the zeitgeist.

Though Curie is a worthy subject, this cinematic exploration is a flimsy attempt to join the women-in-STEM biographical drama movement kick-started by Hidden Figures, and doesn’t move the conversation forward in any new way. Satrapi (Persepolis) and screenwriter Jack Thorne (adapting Lauren Redniss’ biography-in-collage) present the same elementary school information on Curie in a comparably tired, period piece package.

Rosamund Pike (Gone Girl) delivers a fine performance as Curie, but the repetitive script may make viewers resentful of Curie’s tireless work ethic and driving ambition while simultaneously weaving in a trite love story about her marriage to colleague Pierre Curie (Sam Riley, Maleficent).

On a basic level, it’s commendable of filmmakers like Satrapi to continue to lift up the advancements of women in male-dominated fields. Unfortunately, 30

JULY 22-28, 2020

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

Vincent Van Gogh: A New Way of Seeing HHHS

DIRECTOR: David Bickerstaff PLAYERS: Jamie de Courcey DOCUMENTARY NOT RATED

REVIEWED BY BRUCE STEELE BCSTEELE@GMAIL.COM

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ARIES (March 21-April 19): “The creation of the world did not take place once and for all time but takes place every day.” Aries playwright Samuel Beckett made that observation, and now I’m passing it on to you as you glide into an extra-creative phase of your astrological cycle. I hope you will regard Beckett’s idea as an open-ended encouragement to improvise and experiment. May it rouse you to brainstorm about novel possibilities.

May it inspire you to explore fresh trends you could launch. May it mobilize you to imagine the new worlds you might Big Bang into existence.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Author Diane Ackerman tells us, “So often loneliness comes from being out of touch with parts of oneself.” That’s the kind of loneliness I worry you may be susceptible to right now, Taurus. You’re a bit out of touch with aspects of your psyche that are crucial for you to include in your total sense of self. You’ve been neglecting to nurture certain soulful qualities that keep you healthy and wise. Please note: It won’t be useful to try to find those parts of you in other people; you will have to locate them in your own depths. Here’s the good news: The coming weeks will be an excellent time to do just that.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): “Someone ought to do it, but why should I?” Author and activist Annie Besant identified that sentence as the motto of people who are moral cowards: those who know about an injustice but do nothing to address it. Very few of us have completely avoided that behavior.

Most of us, including me, have now and then chosen to serve our need for comfort instead of standing up against corruption or unfairness. But I think it’s more important than usual that you Geminis don’t engage in such moral cowardice now. More depends on your integrity and bravery than you realize.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Born in 1936, Cancerian author and activist June Jordan was a black feminist bisexual born to Jamaican immigrant parents. When she was growing up, her father beat her, and her mother committed suicide. Later, she raised her child alone as a single mother. Despite the challenges she faced, she published 28 books, won numerous awards and wielded significant influence. How did she do it? She was a highly evolved Cancerian in the sense that she put a priority on treating herself well. “I must undertake to love myself and to respect myself as though my very life depends upon self-love and self-respect,” she testified. I’d like to make that your keynote for the rest of 2020. Your task is to achieve June Jordan-levels of self-care.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): “How can I communicate to wild bunnies that I am their ally?” asked a Twitter blogger named Ghost Girl. That question is a good place to start my oracle for you. In the coming weeks, I think you’ll be wise to meditate on how to enhance your relationship with all kinds of wild things: animals, people, weather, landscapes and your own exotic thoughts and fantasies. In my opinion, you will upgrade your intelligence and well-being by increasing your access to influences that don’t necessarily play by conventional rules and that draw their energy from primal sources.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): It’s never too late to have a rebellious adolescence — hopefully bigger and better and smarter than any you’ve had before. And according to my analysis, now would be a favorable time to get started. Is there any stuffy authority you’d be wise to flout? Any dumb and oppressive conventions you would benefit from breaking? Any stale old traditions you’re primed to ignore so you can create some lively new traditions? In my estimation, you will generate good fortune for yourself if you try some benevolent mischief and creative experiments.

BY ROB BREZSNY

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Your word of power for the coming weeks is ubuntu, a Zulu term meaning “I am because we are” or “the belief in a universal bond of sharing that connects all humanity.” Nobel Prize-winning theologian Archbishop Desmond Tutu writes, “A person with ubuntu is open and available to others, affirming of others, does not feel threatened that others are able and good, for he or she has a proper self-assurance that comes from knowing that he or she belongs in a greater whole and is diminished when others are humiliated or diminished.” I hope that between now and August 25, Libra, you will put ubuntu at the center of everything you do. Make it an intensely practical practice.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): “The size of your dreams must always exceed your current capacity to achieve them,” says Scorpio-born Liberian politician Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. “If your dreams do not scare you, they are not big enough.” I trust you’ve arrived at this realization on your own in the past few weeks. And I hope you have audaciously expanded and supercharged your dreams so that they do indeed surpass your current ability to accomplish them. If you have not yet done this daring work, please attend to it now. If you have done it, move on to the next step: making definite plans to acquire the power and resources necessary to achieve your new, improved dreams.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): “The soul should always stand ajar,” wrote Sagittarian poet Emily Dickinson, “That if the heaven inquire, / He will not be obliged to wait, / Or shy of troubling her.” I’m confident that this will be a fertile meditation for you in the coming weeks. So what does it mean?

By “heaven,” I assume Dickinson meant marvelous interventions, sacred revelations and lucky accidents — and maybe also soulful invitations, out-of-the-blue opportunities and supernatural breakthroughs.

What do you think, Sagittarius? What can you do to make your soul ajar for phenomena like those?

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): “Everything is complicated,” wrote poet Wallace Stevens. “If that were not so, life and poetry and everything else would be a bore.” I agree! And therefore, I conclude, you should shed any resentment you might feel for the fact that our world is a crazy tangle of mystifying and interesting stories. Drop any wish that life will stop being so fascinatingly messy and confusingly intriguing. Instead, why not celebrate the deep riddles? And revel in the intriguing complexity? And give holy thanks for the paradoxical beauty? Everything I just said should prepare you well for the next four weeks.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): You’ll be extra sensitive to stimuli in the coming weeks. Every little event will touch you more intensely than usual. Every perception will flow into you with an unusually strong potential to move you and influence you. That’s why I think you should be vigilantly self-protective. Erect a psychic shield around yourself. Make sure your boundaries are firm and clear. Affirm your unshakable commitment to deflecting vibes that aren’t of use to you and welcoming vibes that will enhance your well-being.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Actress Gwyneth Paltrow founded Goop, a company that markets exotic, expensive health treatments. She claims that far-infrared gemstone therapy and crystal-based sound-healing baths will dissolve your negativity.

Allowing bees to sting your scars will supposedly cause the scars to fade. Drinking “sex juice,” a blend of watermelon and alkaline water, will enhance your libido. The “collagen martini,” which is a mix of vodka, vermouth, olive juice and collagen peptides, will smooth your skin’s wrinkles. I’m favorably disposed to you taking strong actions to improve your well-being in the coming weeks, Pisces, but I recommend that you try cheaper, more reliable modalities than those Paltrow recommends. Like what? Ample sleep and good food, for starters, along with fun exercise, time in nature, enjoyable meditation sessions and tender expressions of love.

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EMPLOYMENT GENERAL ENGINEERING: BORGWARNER TURBO SYSTEMS LLC seeks a Senior Engineer II in Arden, NC, responsible for performing controls engineering function for manufacturing areas by recommending and/or implementing hardware/programming solutions; among other duties.

Bachelor’s degree Controls, Electrical, or Mechatronic Engineering or Computer Science and three years of experience in the job offered or related.

To apply, please send resumes to: Ms. Lesa Records, Resume Processing/JO#11309901, BorgWarner, 1849 Brevard Road, Arden, NC 28704.

FIRST LIGHT WILDERNESS FIELD INSTRUCTOR NVW is currently seeking applicants for Full Time Wilderness Instructors at our Clayton, GA location, ensuring a safe and therapeutic milieu in a wilderness context for our groups of 13-18 year old struggling teens. Wilderness Instructors are responsible for groups of up to nine students on backpacking outdoor expeditions and will work several days straight in the Northern

Georgia wilderness (typically an 8-day on/6-day off schedule). newvisionwilderness.applicantpro.com/jobs/1351275.html FULL-TIME GRANTS AND FOUNDATION ACCOUNTANT A-B Tech is currently taking applications for a Full-Time position Grants and Foundation Accountant. For more details and to apply: https://abtcc.peopleadmin.com/postings/5431 HIMALAYAS IMPORT IS HIRING FULL/PART TIME HELP Retail experience preferred.

Call or email (828) 225 0506 or himalayasimportasheville@ gmail.com RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT MANAGER Help build an equitable community that elevates student success, supports families, and engages communities by joining our fundraising team. Learn more and apply: unitedwayabc.org/ employment-opportunities TROLLEY TOUR GUIDES If you are a "people person," love Asheville, have a valid Commercial Driver's License (CDL) and clean driving record you could be a great Tour Guide. Full-time and seasonal part-time positions available.

Training provided. Contact us today! 828 251-8687. Info@ GrayLineAsheville.com www.

GrayLineAsheville.com

ADMINISTRATIVE/ OFFICE BOOKKEEPER/ DEVELOPMENT ASSOCIATE Different Strokes Performing Arts Collective, a non-profit theatre company in Asheville, seeks a qualified, part-time Bookkeeper / Development Associate.

Complete information available at www.differentstrokespac. org/opportunities.

ORGANIC GROWERS SCHOOL SEEKS PROGRAM & MARKETING ASSOCIATE Local non-profit with staff opening. The mission of OGS is to inspire, educate, and support people to live, farm, and garden organically. https://organicgrowersschool.org/about/jobs/ PISGAH LEGAL SERVICES SENIOR ACCOUNTANT Pisgah Legal Services, a civil legal assistance non-profit, seeks a Senior Accountant in our Asheville office. Non-profit experience preferred. Salary $47,058 $77,748. Full job description and application instructions: https://www.pisgahlegal.org/ senioraccountant/

SALES/ MARKETING A GROWING OPPORTUNITY - FULL TIME A well established Asheville based distribution company is looking for someone

BUYING OLD PAPER MONEY 10 yrs WNC/ETN notes, bonds, maps, currency etc.

Member SPMC, NCNA, SCNA, TNS

msg/ txt 865-207-8994 or email papermoneybuy@gmail.com

to join our amazing crew! We are seeking people who want to be recognized for working hard and treated with respect. A happy, dedicated, energetic person that embraces what makes Asheville unique. Our employees have positive attitudes, are hard-working, dedicated, detail oriented, responsible and everyone contributes to the fun atmosphere of our unique warehouse. MUST live in Asheville, out of town applications will not be reviewed. DUTIES INCLUDE: • Answering phone with multiple incoming lines • Taking orders to ship by phone and email and / or taking messages • Responding to customer emails and taking action to resolve any issues in a timely manner • Outbound efforts from our targeted lists to existing customers • Full training specific to our industry will be provided SKILLS REQUIRED: • Solid computer experience is required • Prior office experience • Customer service experience • Sales experience • CRM database experience • Excellent communication skills • A calm demeanor in a fast-paced environment with the ability to multitask and remain organized We offer some very unique benefits that set us apart, • Starting wage of $13.00 per hour with annual reviews and raises • A $2.00 per hour increase added as soon as you are able to complete sales training, typically about 6 months • A solid profit-sharing program starting at 6 months, then increases annually until year 5 • A 401K program with a 4% for 5% company match available after 1 year • 50% Paid health care on our Blue Cross company plan after 6 months • We prefer to promote from within and we have low employee turnover • Excellent paid vacation beginning at 1 year and increasing most years up to year 10 • Paid 30 minute lunch breaks • We are a fair wage certified company by Just Economics and we believe employees deserve fair living wages Tell us a little about yourself, hobbies interests etc. References from former employers and letters of recommendation are good to see as well. Hours are Monday - Friday 10:00am to 6:00pm and could vary slightly depending on our labor needs. Email your cover letter, resume, references and letters of recommendation to hiringavl@yahoo.com. No phone calls please, all applications will be fully reviewed.

RESTAURANT/ FOOD DISHWASHERS - FULL TIME AND PART TIME Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. play an important role in the success of our Food & Beverage teams. Reporting to the Back of House Supervisor(s) OR Banquet Chef, Dishwashers for the Taproom & Restaurant OR for the Big Room thoroughly clean and inspect dishes, silverware, glasses and kitchen equipment. To apply: Please visit our website : https:// sierranevada.com/careers/ recruiting@sierranevada.com https://sierranevada.com/ careers/ EXPERIENCED CHEF New restaurant/brewery in Columbus, NC is ready to open. For the right candidate, an opportunity to build a casual restaurant

business in a unique setting. If you are ambitious and looking for a challenge, send resume to chris@ironkeybrewing.com.

TEACHING/ EDUCATION YOUTH LITERACY PROGRAM DIRECTOR--- HALF TIME Youth Literacy Director. Literacy Council of Buncombe County.

50% position to train and support volunteer tutors to work with K-8 grade students who need support to read and write at grade level. Experience as classroom teacher or tutor.

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RETAIL LOWE'S OF WNC - HIRING NOW! Lowe's Home Improvement - Now Hiring! Full Time & Part Time Days & Night Shifts Entry level - Management Level role available Great Benefits Apply at jobs.lowes.com

SERVICES CAREGIVERS COMPANION • CAREGIVER • LIVE-IN Alzheimer's experienced. • Heart failure and bed sore care. • Hospice reference letter. • Nonsmoker, with cat, seeks live-in position. • References. • Arnold, (828) 273-2922.

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edited by Will Shortz

ACROSS

1 1975 thriller film with three sequels 5 Word after Peace or press 10 “___ arigato, Mr. Roboto” 14 Lure 15 Kind of acid 16 Don Juan’s mother 17 Going-out-ofbusiness event 18 Muscat resident 19 1960s band with a car-related name, with “the” 20 Winter whiteness 23 Longtime music director of La Scala and the New York Philharmonic 24 & 27 Slippery hazard 31 Tellers of tales 32 With 37-Across, metaphor for comfort 35 Already 36 Photo ___ 37 See 32-Across 40 Navy noncom 41 Impressionist 43 Talked at length 44 Shell 45 Terse refusal 47 Spooks 49 Their crooning may cause swooning 53 1989 Best Picture nominee … with a hint to 20-, 24-/27- and 32-/37-Across 57 Like certain transportation pricing 58 Emmy- and Tonywinning Arthur 59 Sharp 61 Streaming component 62 Word often misused in place of “lie” 63 Big name in timekeeping 64 Moves along 65 Trauma ctrs.

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DOWN 1 Law school graduates, in brief 2 Spirited horse 3 Where stucco is stuck 4 Common clothing item … or what you might become when wearing it 5 Does the dishes?

6 Ancient Mexican 7 Rodeo rope 8 Attach, as a boutonniere 9 Any movie with ETs 10 Give distinction to 11 Able to see right through 12 Copy cats?

13 Abbr. in a birth announcement 21 “That’s wrong!”

22 Hoity-toity types 24 Memorial ___ Kettering (N.Y.C. hospital) 25 Big body in Africa 26 Alleviated 28 Sustain, as expenses 29 Thicket

30 Some “Star Wars” merchandise 32 Word after sports, training or push-up 33 Section of geological history 34 Brit. award 38 Made available, with “up” 39 Expressionist James 42 Company that’s RAD on the New York Stock Exchange 44 Flips out 46 Section of a string section

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48 Brushes (away) 50 Righteous 51 “What concerns me is …”

52 Launch times 53 Only digit in the ZIP code for Newton Falls, Ohio 54 Prefix with China 55 Drug ___ 56 Part of a process 57 Sound of a lightning bolt 60 Part of many an office phone no.

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS NY TIMES PUZZLE A T A S T E

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