The Blue Banner - 9.26.17 - Volume 67 Issue 4 - Fall 2017

THE BLUE BAnNER The studenT voice of UNC Asheville since 1982 | thebluebanner.net

Issue 4, Volume 67 TUESDAY, Sept. 26 Photo by Sarah Forshey THEBLUEBANNER.NET TWITTER: @THEBLUEBANNER INSTAGRAM: @UNCABLUEBANNER ONE FREE COPY

Bulldogs celebrate homecoming

THE BLUE BAnNER EDITOR-IN-CHIEF ERIKA WILLIAMS EWILLIA6@UNCA.EDU

Managing EDITOR LARISA KARR LAKARR@UNCA.EDU

Managing Editor EMILY HENDERSON EHENDER1@UNCA.EDU

Managing Editor CHARLIE HEARD CHEARD@UNCA.EDU

News Editor MAGGIE HADDOCK MHADDOCK@UNCA.EDU

OPINION EDITOR CATHERINE PIGG CPIGG@UNCA.EDU

SPORTS EDITOR SAMANTHA SAVERY SSAVERY@UNCA.EDU

A&F EDITOR KARRIGAN MONK KMONK@UNCA.EDU

ASSISTANT A&F EDITOR SARAH SHADBURNE SSHADBURNE@UNCA.EDU

Layout & Design Editor BRYCE ALBERGHINI BALBERGH@UNCA.EDU

PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR

NICK HASELOFF

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COPY DESK CHIEF

REBECCA ANDREWS

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ADVERTISING MANAGER

KATIE RITCHIE

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MULTIMEDIA EDITOR

ELI CHOPLIN

Multimedia editor

JAMES HUGHES

ECHOPLIN@UNCA.EDU

JHUGHES3@UNCA.EDU

SOCIAL MEDIA EDITOR

KAREN LOPEZ

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DISTRIBUTION MANAGER

ELIZABETH WALKER

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Faculty Adviser

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The Blue Banner is UNC Asheville’s student newspaper. We publish each Tuesday except during summer sessions, finals week and holiday breaks. Our office is located in Karpen Hall 019.

The Blue Banner is a designated forum for free speech and welcomes letters to the editor, considering them on basis of interest, space and timeliness. Letters and articles should be emailed to the editor-in-chief or the appropriate section editor. Letters should include the writer’s name, year in school, and major or other relationship to UNCA. Include a phone number to aid in verification. All articles are subject to editing.

editorial The Blue Banner stands against Education Department’s withdrawal of Title IX protections Editorial Staff

uncathebluebanner@gmail.com

The Blue Banner stands against Education Department’s withdrawal of Title IX protections Betsy DeVos’ appointment as the Secretary of Education has been controversial from the start.

On Friday, the Education Department announced the formal rescind of Obama-era guidelines on campus sexual assault. Under these new guidelines, colleges and universities would require more “clear and convincing” evidence than the already established standards recommended under Obama administration’s Dear Colleague Letter. These new guidelines will further protect students accused of sexual assault, as DeVos has criticised the current standard of proof and university involvement regarding reports of sexual assault.

While we believe all students deserve a fair due process, these actions can possibly deter victims from obtaining appropriate legal action.

In addition, schools would no longer be forced to complete investigations in a set amount of days as they were in the Obama administration, opening the door for sexual assault cases to slip through the cracks or quietly go away, leaving vic-

tims with no closure or justice.

With this knowledge, victims of sexual assault may be even less likely to report the horrible crimes committed against them. One can not expect a person already traumatized to put the spotlight on themselves yet again, only to end up essentially neglected in order to maintain a university’s reputation.

While this issue remains complicated and nuanced, The Blue Banner does not stand behind DeVos on this issue and her idea that the accused deserve more protection than victims of sexual assault. Here at The Blue Banner, we prioritize the importance of protecting victims of discrimination and allowing them to live safely, especially in places that are meant to be institutions of learning and personal growth. The ability to learn in a safe environment is a right — not a privilege — and no one should live in fear they will be sexually assaulted or they may be forced to take a class with their assailant because said assailant was allowed to walk free. In a society where the Brock Turners of the world are allowed to walk free, we will continue to work towards protecting victims, not assailants.

NEWS

3 Section Editor: Maggie Haddock mhaddock@unca.edu

Photos by Aiden Stewart

Asheville bike police put students to the test by riding slow on a bike.

UNCA students pedal for bike safety Katie Devoe

News Staff Writer kdevoe@unca.edu

Traffic cones were scattered in a maze-like shape on the grass of the quad to make an obstacle course for bikes last Tuesday afternoon during the annual Bulldog Bike Bonanza.

Under the heat of the sun, people attempted to maneuver the course on mountain bikes with difficulty. Though the course was only a simulation, it helps to highlight the rough conditions people bike that directly impact their daily level.

Bike safety involves knowing safe and accessible bike paths on and around campus. Anna DaSilva, a senior applied math student, said she could easily bike to campus when she lived closer.

“As a previous cyclist on campus, I used to ride my bike to campus often when I lived really close to campus and I found it to be convenient, but now that I live in West Asheville there really isn’t a convenient and accessible quick way to get here,” DaSilva said. “Unfortunately, now

Second Gear is a consignment shop based in West Asheville specializing in second hand outdoor gear and accessories.

I have to drive. There is a bike route that takes 30 minutes. It takes too long, versus my 3 minute bike ride that I used to have. With a 20 pound backpack on it’s dangerous.”

Bike routes from West Asheville to North Asheville do not seem to be safe and fast for bikers. The unsafe biking conditions mean some people have to drive instead of bike, which is not a sustainable way

of transportation. Jenna Ventrella, a sophomore health and wellness student, said the negative attitude drivers have toward bikers can lower the number of bikers and their level of safety as well.

“I think people are very intolerant of bikers because they’re slow. If I were a biker, I would be scared to bike on some of the roads around here because they’re very narrow

and drivers are impatient. I don’t see too many bikers on campus. I see a few, but I figured it would be more popular,” Ventrella said.

Improving the bike route conditions around UNCA and the surrounding community could possibly increase the number of people who bike and promote sustainable energy. DaSilva’s voice carried a tone of worry when she talked about biking in West Asheville.

“Living in West Asheville, it is a little bit more cyclist friendly, but the roads even then the cyclist ride on don’t have designated bike lanes and people ride really fast,” DaSilva said.

Some roads in West Asheville lack bike lanes, but having bike lanes does not guarantee biker safety. Ventrella and DaSilva stayed underneath the SEC tent to avoid the heat and both talked about the ways biking conditions are troublesome in Asheville.

“So to do it everyday, to me, just

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NEWS UNCA aims to provide education to inmates

4

brooke randle

Contributor brandle@unca.edu

photo by holly goswick The usual homecoming dance was replaced with Highsmith After Dark, which lasted from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m.

Highsmith ushers in new tradition to replace annual homecoming dance Peyton Sheehan

News Staff Writer msheeha3@unca.edu

In the past, following the homecoming game, there was a homecoming dance. This year, Fred Tugas, the associate director of the Highsmith Student Union, and Christina Jaeger, the associate director of Highsmith Operations, decided to do things differently.

This year’s Homecoming and Family Weekend concluded on Sunday, with the Highsmith After Dark event located throughout the Highsmith Student Union.

“This event is actually replacing the Homecoming dance. We are hoping it will draw a larger crowd of students. We also hope it will be more appealing and engaging,” Jaeger said.

Tugas and Jaeger both said there

was a lot of time spent planning over the summer in finding vendors and finalizing various details.

“I don’t usually attend many events on campus, but once I heard that there was ThinkFast Trivia, I figured that I would go. It is my senior year after all,” Logan Ponder, a junior political science major said.

On their social media platforms, Highsmith Student Union released a promotional video to inform UNCA of what to get excited for.

The celebration spanned all three floors of Highsmith Student Union allowing students and family members to participate in all the different activities and socialize with others.

The first level of Highsmith Student Union featured a caricature artist, balloon animals, a midnight bingo game and ThinkFast Trivia with a $500 cash prize. During the

ThinkFast Trivia, there were about 15 teams with five team members in each group. Teams were asked a series of questions for the chance to earn points.

“The most stressful thing was coming up with the best bingo prize packages for the winner,” Tugas said.

There were four seperate games with four different prizes for midnight bingo. The first winner won a $25 dining voucher. The second a bookstore package, the third a $150 grocery store package, the final game winner won an Amazon Echo.

The second floor had psychic readings and a dry-eraseable photo board. Each student who made the photo board was able to email up to four or five pictures that they wanted.

For nine years, Scott Walters made his weekly drive to Avery-Mitchell Correctional Institution, a mid-security prison tucked away on the outskirts of the sleepy mountain town of Spruce Pine.

Barbed wire-topped fences and ominous-looking watch towers stood forebodingly as he made his way toward the prison each week. But behind the armed guards and the cold prison walls, Walters saw something different: a classroom.

“When you go into your class the first time, you’re pretty nervous,” Walters said. “After the first night, I was like, ‘This is the best thing ever.’”

Walters, professor of drama at UNC Asheville since 1998, now leads a group of motivated UNCA professors and administrators who intend to reinstate a program which would provide college-level courses to inmates across western North Carolina.

Walters said the program aims to supply inmates with skills and education which may produce a better chance of finding work after serving time.

“We make it very difficult for anyone who has been an inmate to come out and return to any kind of life at all,” Walters said.

“We are trying to create at least a handful of people who are not going to bounce back into prison again.”

Education among state prison populations lags behind national standards. According to a 2014 RAND report, only 14 percent of state prison inmates had at

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NEWS

5

OLLI and UNCA presents lecture series on gender barriers in STEM Raymond Brewer-Posey

Opinion Staff Writer rbrewerp@unca.edu

Starting a career and even getting an education in STEM generally proves more difficult for women due to an implicit gender bias, said guest speakers at the “Women in STEM” lecture series at UNC Asheville.

STEM professions historically are male-dominated an little has changed..

“Even today, in an enlightened era, women still face many challenges which are not only discouraging to them, but also a great loss to America,” said Howard Jaslow, coordinator of the lecture series.

The obstacles for women begin in college and highlight the gender bias favoring male students, and later on, male coworkers.

A double-blind study presented at the lecture emphasized the gender bias existing at the college level among educators. In the study, college faculty members were asked to rate students on their readiness for graduate school. Results showed both male and female faculty rated male students as more qualified even though students of both genders showed the same competencies.

“It was clear that boys were encouraged to pursue graduate work,” said Joan C. Kaplan, retired biochemist. “We were meant to study Latin and French and go into the humanities in college.”

Women account for half of the total college-educated workforce, but make up only 29 percent of the STEM workforce, according to the National Girls Collaborative Project. Many factors may contribute to this discrepancy. However, this statistic provides evidence of a need to encourage and support women in STEM.

Marketing techniques emphasizing the cooperative nature of science are used to increase female participation in STEM at Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College, where female enrollment has increased from 39 to 75 students.

Appealing to qualities that are not usually associated with a career in technology helped increase female involvement, said Pamela Silvers, who headed this marketing effort at A-B Tech.

However, entering the field is not the last hurdle for women in the sciences.

“With the same level of education, women make significantly less than men in STEM fields,” said Katherine Greenberg, research ecologist at Bent Creek Experimental Forest.

This lecture was the first in the “Women in STEM” series hosted at UNCA in the Reuter Center running through Nov. 2. The series will explore gender issues within a wide range of STEM disciplines.

The Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, a campus-based community learning society, organized the series that will focus on the contributions of women in STEM and the continuing struggles women encounter in the sciences.

When considering only the highest degree holders in STEM, women earn 31.2 percent less than men with a median salary of $55,000, while men with the same qualifications earn $80,000, reports a study conducted by the National Science Foundation in 2013.

“Women seeking careers in the STEM fields need to be aware of the obstacles and biases to which women are subject and, of course, how to overcome them and to learn of those many women who have made significant contributions in these areas,” said Jaslow.

North Carolina’s refugee population declines under Trump Larisa Karr

Managing Editor lakarr@unca.edu

Chae Chan Ping sailed across the sea and prepared to return to his adopted homeland, or so he thought.

In 1882, the United States government passed the Chinese Exclusion Act, which prohibited Chinese laborers from entering the country for 10 years.

This prevented Chan Ping from living in the U.S. again, even after his case had gone to court.

Mark Gibney, professor of political science at UNC Asheville, teaches a class on immigration and refugee law, with Chae Chan Ping v. United States being the first case addressed in the class.

He said the way the U.S. treated Chan Ping epitomizes the country’s ethos toward immigrants and refugees since its inception.

“Refugees have never been popular,” Gibney said. “In the public mind at least, I think there’s a fear of refugees. I don’t know if it’s a fear that the conflict that they’re leaving will somehow find its way to the United States.”

According to the U.S. Department of State, the government admitted 50,479 refugees into the country last year. The highest percentage of individuals come from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which is the deadliest country in the world, Gibney said.

Iraq, Syria and Somalia also have relatively high percentages compared to others.

The demographic makeup of refugees in North Carolina parallels that of the country as a whole, with 28 percent coming from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, 13.19 percent from Syria and 10.15 percent from Somalia.

To be a refugee, Gibney said,

means one has to have a well-established fear of persecution on account of five reasons: race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group or political opinion. There are other categories of refugee status the U.S. does not recognize.

“The United States has not been willing to recognize economic or environmental refugees,” Gibney said. “They’re saying they’re not real refugees.”

Scott Phillips, director of the Raleigh office for the U.S. Com-

Mark Gibney, professor of political science at UNC Asheville.

mittee for Refugees and Immigrants, said the agency wished to resettle 375 out of North Carolina’s 3,300 refugees admitted this year.

“As of the beginning of September, we resettled 245 individuals,” Phillips said. “There’s 245 people that are no longer in a camp but we also think about the 130 people that were not resettled this year.”

The USCRI helps to introduce new arrivals to the U.S. with fully-furnished housing, educational

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A&F

6 Section Editor: Karrigan Monk kmonk@unca.edu

Lydia Loveless rocks the orange peel Amber moser

A&F Staff Writer amoser@unca.edu

Red and violet lights illuminate a smoking stage, the people in the crowded Orange Peel cheer as the first note echoes from a guitar, signaling the beginning of the show.

The note comes from a pale woman standing center stage, and the leather guitar strap across her torso reads ‘Loveless.’

Lydia Loveless is only the opener for popular rock band Drive By Truckers, but the crowd shows no disappointment with this opening act.

As Loveless coos her first soft note, a momentary hush seems to befall the crowd. However, once the beat picks up and the band joins in, the screaming begins and even those in the very back do their best to sing along.

“I never want people to think I’m boring, and I never want people to be uninspired by what I do,” Loveless said. “I want to amp people up emotionally.”

Born Lydia Ankrom, Loveless is a 27-year-old musical icon who was once known for her part in her family band, Carson Drew. However, when Carson Drew broke up in 2007, Loveless launched straight into her own solo career as Lydia Loveless and never looked back.

Loveless released her first solo album in 2010. Since then, critics have categorized her music into a number of different genres, ranging from rock to honky-tonk.

“I think it’s easiest to call it rock ’n’ roll with some roots influence,” Loveless said about her musical style. “I just hate the term alt-country so much at this point that I don’t use it anymore.”

While Loveless seems to associate her music more with rock, others like new media student Ellen Smykowski disagree.

“She reminds me of a ‘90s or early 2000s Reba,” Smykowski said.

“It’s not really my style, but I can dig it.”

Despite the debate, Loveless does not particularly care what genre people consider her

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Photo by Karrigan Monk

A&F

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UNC Asheville sculpture student plays with ideas of love Sarah Shadburne

A&F Assistant Editor sshadbur@unca.edu

Student Spotlight

Shanna Glawson works on her senior sculpture exhibit

Photos by Tim Hayes

In a small studio tucked away in a remote corner of Carmichael Hall, three-dimensional hearts of all sizes decorate the walls.

Every kind of heart is present: pierced hearts, hearts with mirrors inside them, twisted wire hearts, tiny heart-shaped honeycombs creating even larger heart displays, anatomical hearts and even a heart wearing panties. Shanna Glawson, a senior sculpture student from Forest City, investigates love.

“I’m actually going through a divorce,” Glawson said. “So this process has been about exploring some of that, as well as the physical and emotional side and exploring more of my own self -love.”

Glawson’s senior thesis art project called “Eros, Agape and Other Heart Conditions,” explores love and the shape of the heart.

Glawson sculpts anatomical as well as symbolic depictions of the heart, occasionally blending the two.

“I actually was born with a heart condition called Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome,” Glawson said. “That led me to have heart surgery when I was 21-years-old and since then I’ve kind of latched onto this heart shape.”

Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome is a rare condition in which the heart has an extra electrical pathway, causing a rapid heartbeat.

According to the Mayo Clinic, the condition is only

discovered by chance during a heart exam and is usually not life threatening.

“The symbol of the heart shape is pretty prominent in all religions,” Glawson said.

“It’s a vessel for your soul, it’s the place where you and God meet — inside your heart.”

Glawson takes particular interest in the iconography of the heart shape. Many of her sculptures call to mind famous religious depictions, such as the burning heart of St. Augustine and Sufi depictions of winged hearts with singular eyes.

“With my sculptures I’m trying to figure out how I can manipulate this form and do different variations to the same shape in order to get different feelings and references of love,” Glawson said. “I’ve explored into what the Greeks define as ‘Eros,’ which is our humanistic, sexual eroticness of the heart, as well as ‘Agape,’ which is more of a divine, spiritual love.”

Glawson finds herself leaning more toward the spiritual side of love these days. When she mentally examines past relationships, she said she notes feelings of insecurity she mistook for love. Through these ponderings, her spiritual love becomes more of a process of discovering and experiencing self-love.

“Even through all these really crappy relationships, exploring the romantic side is kind of fun,” Glawson said. “I’ve always been able to keep the hope intact. I

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8

The French Corner

Le Québécois nick lanier

A&F

The German Corner

Das Deutsche Eck Patrick McGrady

Contributing Writer nlanier@unca.edu

Contributing Writer pmcgrady@unca.edu

Le québécois n’est pas une langue provenant d’une autre planète comme certaines personnes peuvent le penser. Sa distinction de part son origine historique et son évolution due à sa position géographique ainsi qu’aux néologismes rendent cette langue extraordinairement unique. En effet, la prononciation des sons est très spécifique et se rattache à l’identité culturelle et historique de cette nation. Pour les non québécois, cette variation est, parfois, même difficile à comprendre. Le saviez-vous que quand les films québécois passent aux cinémas en France, la plupart du temps il y a des sous-titres ?

Cela pose des problématiques idéologiques, linguistiques et politiques concernant le langage: est-ce que c’est simplement une variation du français, où est-ce que c’est entièrement différent au niveau linguistique?

Le québécois n’est pas seulement un dialecte dérivé du français, mais c’est aussi le français qui ressemble à celui de la cour du roi du 17ème siècle (il y a une grande histoire autour de ça). Ainsi des nuances peuvent se faire ressentir telles que l’usage de « y » au lieu du « lui », etc. Mais est-ce que cette forme de langage n’est plus assez liée au français « standard » pour être considérée “du français”? Il y en a qui disent oui et d’autres qui disent non. Personnellement, ça m’est égale, cette question. Mais ce dialecte est grave intéressant à étudier comme sujet, peu importe ce qu’on en pense.

Wenn man “The German Corner” übersetzt stößt man auf den Fachausdruck “Das Deutsche Eck”. Das Deutsche Eck ist eigentlich eine wahre Sehenswürdigkeit in Deutschland.

Es befindet sich in der Stadt Koblenz und ist eine aufgeschüttete Landzunge an der Mündung der Mosel und dem Rhein. Diese Landzunge ist ein öffentlicher Platz mit einem Denkmal vom ersten deutschen Kaiser Wilhelm I. Koblenz veranstaltet mehrere events auf diesem platz und ist ein populärer Aussichtspunkt für Feuerwerke und andere Präsentationen. Das Deutsche Eck ist das Wahrzeichen Koblenz und ein bedeutender Anziehungspunkt für Touristen. Wenn Österreicher vom Deutschen Eck sprechen meinen sie meistens das südöstlichste Eck Deutschlands.

Eine Zugstrecke geht von Salzburg bis nach Innsbruck über ein kleines Eck von Deutschland und daher der Name “Deutsches Eck”.

If you would like to submit an informational collumn in a language not represented in The Blue Banner, email kmonk@unca.edu

A&F

9

photos by dusty albinger

Coffee Expo creates strong brew of community Emma shock

A&F Staff Writer eshock@unca.edu

As the leaves begin to change and fall, the aroma of freshly roasted coffee will soon drift along Ralph and Depot streets in Asheville’s River Arts District.

Stu Helm, Asheville food writer and host of the radio show “The Food Fan,” and Angie Rainey, owner of the online coffee subscription service Coffee Crate, created the Asheville Coffee Expo last year to provide a place for people to experience the coffee scene in Asheville and western North Carolina.

Helm and Rainey will present the second annual festival from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Sept. 30. It allows attendees to taste a variety of roasts, meet the roasters, and learn more about coffee roasting.

“I noticed, because I go to a lot of food festivals, that there was no coffee festival. I decided to see if I could start one,” Helm said.

The second annual Asheville Coffee Expo is Saturday, Sept.

30, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Both Helm and Rainey develop and maintain connections in the community with local roasters and

bakers through their personal and professional lives, making them a strong team to put the festival together.

“We had limited experience and we didn’t really know what to expect the first year when we applied for our application with the city,” Helm said. “We estimated that maybe 400 people might show up to our festival and afterward we took a poll of people who had been there and we all agreed that probably about 2,000 people cycled through the event during the entire four hours.”

After last year’s success, Helm said this year’s expo will feature more vendors, extend from Ralph Street in the River Arts District to Depot Street and host an after-party at Burial Beer Company PennyCup Coffee Company will host again, providing its roasting machine and other equipment for the event.

Jonathon Flaum, founder of Farm to Home Milk, will also help

the festival by providing milk so vendors do not have to bring and refrigerate their own.

“We serve a lot of coffee shops and see them as partners. We’re close, so we support and honor these shops,” Flaum said.

Flaum said he will also make some new changes for this year’s event. He will supply goat’s milk in addition to cow’s milk for a goat’s milk latte art contest.

The expo features three competitions for baristas to participate in to win prize packages including latte art, cappuccino and freestyle contests and a ballot to vote for the best cup of coffee, Helm said.

A panel of three judges determines the winners of the barista competitions, while the public decides which vendor will receive the “Best House Cup” trophy.

Black Mountain’s Dynamite Roasting Company currently holds

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A&F

10

Tina White and her wife, Mary, show off their home, also a meeting place for the Blue Ridge Pride

Photo by Katie Walker

The Blue Ridge Pride Center plans for the future Katie Walker

A&F Staff Writer kwalker@unca.edu

Labeled as one of the most accepting areas in the region, Asheville creates an illusion of a near-perfect city for the LGBTQ+ community. While Asheville may be more accepting, many things keep the LGBTQ+ community from feeling fully accepted within the city.

“I think, and I am aware that I am guilty of this too, that many people think, ‘Oh I'm in Asheville where it's so liberal and everyone is supportive and it's great,’” said Kfir Wiener, a sophomore math student at UNC Asheville. “While it's good, it's not perfect and some people forget that.”

Wiener said small things can push the community further away from the rest of Asheville. Programs being gendered or gender-neutral bathrooms being located in hardto-find places make it difficult for everyone to feel included.

Tina White, executive director of the Blue Ridge Pride Center, said she sees two specific things af-

fecting the western North Carolina LGBTQ+ community.

“The first thing I notice is that the WNC LGBTQ+ community is too silent. We don't work together,” White said. “The second is that we know so little about the western North Carolina LGBTQ+ community other than there are about 40 thousand, 6 thousand trans people.”

The Blue Ridge Pride Center works to advocate for the LGBTQ+ community in WNC. White joined the organization this year after moving to Asheville from the North.

White and her wife both wanted to leave their corporate lives and give back to the community that had treated her so well.

“I am a transwoman. I transitioned, I guess, four years ago now.

My wife and I have been together for 20 years now, she stayed with me. I was very lucky,” White said.

“My company kept me and treated me well, my family treated me well and that’s where I felt like if I wasn't willing to pay forward then shame on me. So that's when I started to do that and I ended up down

here.”

Michael-David Carpenter, president of The Blue Ridge Pride Center, said he was drawn to the organization to be part of planning solutions for the community because he saw the issues faced by those who identify as LGBTQ+.

“Being of the LGBTQ+ community, I wanted to be able to use any opportunity that I was fortunate enough to possess and use it for a greater good,” Carpenter said.

Previously, The Blue Ridge Pride Center put most of their efforts into planning Asheville Pride. White said she plans to expand the efforts of the organization to create a more inclusive environment for the LGBTQ+ community in Asheville.

“That’s our focus this year, is to shift our mission from just the festival to more involvement with the community and social advocation, but do it in partnership with all of the other organizations because there is a lot there to leverage,” White said.

White made progress with the expansion by talking to the surround-

ing universities about a potential LGBTQ+ film project. The project would look at the WNC LGBTQ+ community and focus on questions people may have and issues that are not well known.

Plans to fully put this into action will begin in November and continue into 2018. Called the Blue Ridge Alphabet Fund, this program will provide funding for student research projects relating to the WNC LGBTQ+ community.

“We need to know more about our community and educate more people about our community,” White said. “We are going to take some of the Pride proceeds to start the Alphabet Fund. We want to start providing small research grants or project grants to students, whether is it for film study or a research project.”

The Blue Ridge Pride Center wants to create a database available to the public which will showcase different places in the area that are welcoming of the LGBTQ+ com-

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Opinion

11 Section Editor: Catherine Pigg cpigg@unca.edu

The cruelty free conflict: Different vegan perspectives Catherine Pigg

Opinion Editor cpigg@unca.edu

The divide between

vegans Photo by Catherine Pigg

The basic understanding among vegans leans toward making a conscious effort to not funding the exploitation of animals. This effort means the exclusion of meat, dairy and eggs from their diet as well as abstaining from purchasing products made from and tested on animals.

This seems simple when viewing the community from the outside, but within the community disagreements start over exactly where the line should be drawn when attempting to live a cruelty-free lifestyle.

Honey, modern medicine and vaccinations play a huge role in these debates among community members. The most radical vegans are against these practices because they include the exploitation or abuse of animals, or simply because they believe there to be health risks in consuming pharmaceutical drugs. Examples of radical vegans include YouTubers Ellen Fisher and Kristina Carillo-Bucaram.

Fisher posts videos about her life as a vegan mother who believes in a whole foods and a plant-based lifestyle. Her YouTube channel has a following of over 30,000 subscribers and each of her videos typically have over 100,000 views. Her children are shown to be happy and healthy, but Fisher faces criticism on her choice to not vaccinate her children. Her choice not to vaccinate comes from reading Tim O’Shea’s book Vaccination Is Not Immunization and from reading VaxTruth.org. She recommends people do their own research on the subject instead of just taking a pediatrician’s opinion as truth.

Makennah Bristow, a junior physics student minoring in math and astronomy, became vegan three years ago but she still consumes honey, takes medicine and gets vaccinated.

“On the topic of medicine and vaccination, I choose to use medicine and get vaccinations because that is what’s best for myself and for everyone around me.

While I know that medicine is tested on animals, there really are not many other options,” Bristow said. “Medicine and vaccinations are essential for keeping us alive and healthy. In particular, it is dangerous for people to not get vaccinated. Refusing vaccination risks the health of everyone you come in contact with. Get vaccinated! You’re saving yourself and everyone around you.”

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention reported flu vaccinations reduce the risk of illness between 40 to 60 percent.

The World Health Organization states vaccinations provide a safer chance of gaining immunity to an infection rather than getting it through natural infection, which may lead to cognitive impairments depending on the infection.

Youtuber Carillo-Bucaram mostly posts recipe videos to live a raw vegan lifestyle, meaning she does not consume any cooked foods. Her channel contains a following of over 900,000 subscribers. She has also posted about her choice to not consume modern medicine and faced backlash when she posted a video stating a raw vegan ice cream recipe could cure depression. Her critics’ backlash on the vegan ice cream video followed the sentiments of not using depression as a synonym for sadness and how

A&F

12 Athens, Georgiabased band of Montreal took the stage at The Grey Eagle Sept. 16. The performance was a typical of Montreal show: confetti, dragons, drag and a light show.

of Montreal brings colorful theatrics to The Grey Eagle Larisa Karr “There’s something artistic, Kevin Barnes lifts the ends of his scarlet chiffon caftan high aesthetically above his head as giant grim pleasing and reapers, girls with whips and cauliflower aliens with beady, theatrical neon eyes swoop across the stage, twirling amongst each about their other in a deliberately uncoordi- performances” nated dance.

Managing Editor lakarr@unca.edu

Confetti fills the air out of the mouth of what appears to be a velvet dragon and rains upon the audience, enchanted with the visual and aural feast that pours forward from The Grey Eagle’s intimate and dimly lit stage on the evening of Sept. 16.

It was, in short, a typical of Montreal show.

The night started on a predictable but also unpredictable note, in the sense that there were bad opening acts precluding the dynamic headliners. Australian comedian with a lethargic sense of humor and the rather unmelodic duo of Showtime Goma and Nancy Feast graced the stage with discordant harmonies beforehand.

After the crowd unleashed their disdain at the comedian and imbibed more alcohol, it was time to party.

“There’s something artistic, aesthetically pleasing and theatrical about their performances,” said Catherine Noel Thrasher, a 27-year-old musician from Greenville, South Carolina.

Barnes, the notoriously enigmatic lead singer, assumed a variety of personas throughout the band’s set, including a middle-aged housewife in a peach-colored blazer and periwinkle pants and, bedecked in a cerulean silk robe, Marie Antoinette. He switched seamlessly from guitar to tambourine to simply being the ringleader of

12

—Catherine noel Thrasher

his own show.

“I think Kevin Barnes might be a one-man show but he definitely relies on the influence of others to change the chemistry that exists within the environment and still keep that addictive personality or quality type that appeals to his original audience,” said Gilbert Bentley Jr., a 27-year-old barista from Toledo, Ohio.

Originally from Athens, Georgia, Barnes has fronted the band since 1996 and has overseen its creative evolution from a twee, jangle-pop outfit in the early 2000s to the bombastic, glam funk collective for which they are now known.

Their latest full-length album Innocence Reaches combines dark electro pop with psychedelic elements and features some of the band’s most catchy anthems to date, including “let’s relate” and “it’s different for girls.”

Both of these songs deal with the subject of gender, which is something that Barnes, who oftentimes performs as his transgender alter-ego Georgie Fruit, is passionate about. He said he “totally supports anybody that feels trapped in the wrong body, or feels like it’s more complex than just being a man or woman.”

Written and recorded primarily in Paris, Barnes escaped to the City of Light to cre-

of Montreal Photos by Alex Cox

Opinion

14

Southern pride should not be manifested in Confederate symbols amalie davidsen

Contributor adavidse@unca.edu

What does Confederacy mean?

A few weeks ago I went to Manchester, Kentucky. I clearly remember driving through Maggie Valley, observing the beauty of the trees surrounding the road passing by while I was focused on driving in the thick fog.

Before I reached Tennessee, I had already given up on getting directions from the paper I had printed from Google Maps, and was just praying my iPhone GPS would not let me down. When I passed the “Welcome to Kentucky” sign, I felt relief.

Living in the South for three years made me aware of Southern pride, which is very characteristic of this part of America, even in Asheville.

Sights of Confederate flags are fairly normal. They appear once in a while in different forms — attached to cars, worn as clothing, hung as flags. Even my downstairs neighbors have one hanging visibly on their wall. I am not entirely sure why, but my heart always falls to the ground when I see it. There is something about its past of symbolizing oppression and superior power which scares me.

I have talked to a few people who take huge pride in the Confederacy and are not afraid of showing it. When I ask them why, they tell me it is solely a symbol of the “Great South,” as well as the patriotic importance of making America great again.

Then I get confused. If one supports America as a nation, then why pick the Confederate flag, a symbol of the goal to become separate from the USA, to represent patriotic America? How can it be a positive representation of the South if it symbolizes leaving America? I would argue against that hypothesis, but again, I did not grow up in the South.

There are many other representations of the South one can take pride in. I do believe the traditional ties to the Confederacy have to be cut, because its past carries a history of brutality and murders of innocent individuals.

I have always been very quick to judge people who take pride in the Confederacy, and prior to my journey to Kentucky, I was very much afraid of people who do so. I am not sure; I believe it is because I felt like I could not identify with “proud white South-

erners” and their intimidating appearance, even though we share the same skin color and speak the same language.

After a long day exploring the rural parts of Kentucky with a consistent lack of mobile signal, I decided to find my way back to North Carolina. I had been driving for 20 minutes before pulling up to a Huddle House.

My iPhone was nearly dead and I needed WiFi in order to generate a route.

I felt like I had stepped back 50 years in time when I entered the restaurant.

A young black woman welcomed me, “How you doing, hun?” in a strong Southern accent. I placed myself at the bar, ordered coffee and plugged my phone into a lonely outlet. I took a look around. The setup was like all other Huddle Houses.

I took a glimpse at the other guests who were all white, elderly couples who had one or two pounds extra on the side. The cook entered the open kitchen; a black man, he wore a T-shirt reading, “You cannot trust skinny cooks.”

He threw a couple of chicken tenders into the fryer while wiping sweat from his forehead with a small towel.

Shortly after, a majestic Harley Davidson bike pulled up. The bike had two Confederate flags attached to the back and Confederate flag stickers all around it.

A white man and woman got off the bike and entered the restaurant, both wearing American flag headbands. They happeared very patriotic. They sat down and shortly after, the waitress took their order.

Before they even entered, I had already made a generalized and stereotypical assumption of who they were. Honestly, I was curious of how the chemistry and conversation with the black waitress and cook would develop.

No racial tensions, which I somewhat had expected, were evident. Instead, the cook was joking with the man while personally taking his order. I do not know why I had assumed so, but I clearly had an idea the couple would be first class bigots toward anybody who is not white, Christian and American.

My fear toward the couple eased, and since no one else in the restaurant knew how to get to North Carolina, I approached the table where the couple was finishing up their bites.

At first, the man looked at me suspiciously

CONTINUED on page 20

Homecoming

Students gather for a variety of events on campus to celebrate homecoming.

2017

Photos by Stephanie Tousey

SPORTS

16 Section Editor: Samantha Savery ssavery@unca.edu

Former swimmer finds freedom Kathryn Gambill

Sports Staff Writer agambill@unca.edu

Alexandra van Dorsten used to dream about swimming.

“We don’t have enough people for this relay! You have to jump in and save the day!”

She wakes up. She did not get to swim the relay.

“I had so many dreams about swimming after I left,” van Dorsten said. “I had so many dreams that I was back on the team.”

Van Dorsten, a 22-year-old UNC Asheville graduate, swam competitively for almost 10 years. She started swimming in the 7th grade, and did not plan to swim in college until she fell in love with UNCA’s team.

“It’s really cool to have a group of people that you just automatically have to be friends with coming into college,” van Dorsten said.

“Coach Elizabeth was kind of like my mom when I first got here and it was nice to have that support and the routine, too. Because otherwise I would’ve been really lost.”

UNCA Head Swim Coach Elizabeth Lykins started the swim program from scratch in 2012. She said she recruited van Dorsten to swim on the team.

“I rely a lot on my current team to give feedback,” Lykins said. “When they visit, they stay the night, they stay overnight, they go to meals, they hang out, they socialize, they go to the cafeteria. They do all those things with the team. And, just kind

of like making friends, you decide if that’s going to be a good fit for you or not.”

The recruiting process included inviting potential swimmers to visit the campus, meet the team and decide if they would be a good fit for the program. Lykins said recruiting an athlete feels kind of like conducting a job interview.

Van Dorsten said she planned on attending UNC Chapel Hill until she changed her mind last minute and decided she wanted to swim.

She was the latest commit the UNCA team has ever had.

“Alexandra’s a very smart young lady,” Lykins said. “I knew she would do well at the academic level here, which is also a very important part of our recruiting process. We

photo by adrian etheridge

want to ensure that we’re getting people who can also be academically successful. We don’t want to bring in swimmers just because they’re great swimmers if there’s no way they can be successful at our university.”

Janet R. Cone, the athletics director at UNCA since 2004, said being a student athlete means more than being a champion in athletics.

“The things that are important to you, you’ll find time to do them,” Cone said. “So student athletes know because of what we value in athletics, that academics is first.

You’ve gotta prioritize your academics first or you don’t get to play. And second, we want them to be the best student athletes and we know that’s two things. Student and

Beat from the street Larisa Karr

Managing Editor lakarr@unca.edu

Many stories lurk throughout Asheville, whether they are behind the Vaudevillian jazz folk played by buskers around Pritchard Park, the colorful business decorated with funky handmade crafts or the laughter from a patio as locals and tourists alike enjoy delicious beer.

June Star, 30, unemployed, originally from New York So, how would you describe your style?

“My attempt to be as feminine as possible. I don’t really know. Today was dress casually. Some other days I usually try to go for more goth chic, like ‘80s casual goth chic.”

Do you have a life motto that you live by?

“Not really. Other than, I guess, ‘Just go for it.’ Live how you want to actually live.”

Yeah.

“Just pursue your own thing.”

Yeah, that’s good. So, what inspires you creatively, would you say?

“Very random stuff, mostly, mainly nature things. I do art stuff like this, so like bugs, mantises and stuff like that.”

Brandeon Tridell Miller, 32, speaker of the word of God, originally from Jacksonville, Florida So tell me about why you’re out here today.

“Why I’m out here today? I just want people to know that Jesus loves them, that no matter if they believe in him or not, his arms are open wide and he still gave his life so that they may be saved and receive salvation.”

And what initially inspired you

Nice. That’s awesome.

“That’s what I do.”

What got you interested in art?

“Just the impulse. I don’t know.

I felt like doing it one day. I read a bunch of books on it and then I just decided to just do it.”

Yeah. That’s cool. So, what’s one thing you like about Asheville and dislike about Asheville?

“I like that it’s a very openly queer place. They have a great program which is for trans people because I’m a transwoman and one bad thing is I guess the inevitable, encroaching gentrification.”

That’s true. So, yeah, if you were to say one thing that inspires you from day to day, what would you say?

“That other people have lived my life and, you know, prosper and you know, have lived fulfilling lives regardless of bullshit or prejudice, challenges like poverty and so forth.”

to start sharing this message?

“Well, ever since I was younger, I was growing up in a church, but I was taught a certain way of the church. But, when I was able to become mature, as in a man, I had to come to an understanding. I had to receive Him for myself and believe on my own instead of having someone tell me how to believe or how to understand the savior, because He says we’re supposed to basically have our own relationship with Him, not through someone. But, if I say I believe, it’s not that I believe because my mom believed or someone else believed, but I believe because of me. I believe it because I

Photo by Makeda Sandford have a personal relationship.”

Yeah.

“I mean, what made me come out here, I was married, got a divorce. I was falling on hard times. The only thing I had was my bookbag and my Bible and the time of being out on the street, I did not blame God. But in that, I said, ‘Lord, help me to understand what it is that you’d have me to do out here because you allow all things. All things have to come through you, whether you say yay or nay. So, I took the time out, kept reading my Bible. I had a job but I didn’t have enough money because of child support.”

Yeah.

“All kinds of things, so I was just below level.”

Rock bottom?

“Yeah, being able to get anything. So, being out there, I kept telling people about the goodness of the Lord, continued work at my job, helped with the homeless even though I was trying to get up on my own feet. I was still helping people out and finally God made it to where I could get me a place.”

OK. “I got me a place. He increased

NEWS Inmates least some postsecondary

education, compared to 51 percent of the general adult population. As the demand for higher education grows among employers, many newly released inmates find themselves without the necessary skills to find jobs in today’s workforce.

Regine Criser, assistant professor of German, became involved in prison education by volunteering with the Education Justice Project, one of the nation’s leading prison education programs, while studying at the University of Illinois. In the program, she taught inmates courses on American literature, examining works such as To Kill a Mockingbird, Native Son and Catch-22.

“It was super interesting to discuss these major foundational texts with this specific U.S. population who had very strong feelings and insights,” Criser said.

Part of the benefits of prison education programs lies in lowering the rates of recidivism, or the cycle of former inmates returning to prison once more, Criser said.

“We know if we start working with students on the inside with regard to giving them transferable college credit, the recidivism is so immensely reduced,” Criser said.

“It makes all the sense instead of continuing to set people up for failure or not giving them the chance to not fail. Why would we not do that?

That was something that motivated me in the beginning to be like, ‘Yes,

Bike Day

increases the likelihood of me getting injured, so I am still a little afraid of doing it regularly,” DaSilva said.

Bike riding to campus on a daily basis is not advisable because it increases the chance someone has to get hurt. The Bike Bonanza aimed to stress sustainability and bike safety with the help of Outdoor Programs and the SEC. “The whole idea of the event is to focus on bicycle advocacy, safety and maintenance and encourage

18 I want to do this work.’”

Professor of Mathematics and Honors Director Patrick Bahls said UNCA’s involvement in prison education reflects the responsibility of the college to the community.

“I think our role as a university, especially as a public university, is at least to serve the community of which we’re a part,” Bahls said.

“Because the knowledge, the skills, the ideas that we have here on campus are meaningless and useless if they aren’t applied.”

Bahls emphasized the classes provided by the upcoming program would demand the same level of effort and commitment as those offered at UNCA, rather than skillbased or trade-based courses.

“These are not just classes in prison. These are bona fide classes.

These are honest-to-goodness college classes that are as rigorous and important and respectable as any others,” Bahls said.

Despite the outreach from university faculty to bring college education inside prison walls, some faculty members worry about the scrutiny former inmates may encounter from university admissions policies after their release.

About 66 percent of colleges, including all UNC system schools, require criminal justice information during their application process, reports a 2010 study from the Center for Community Alternatives, an incarceration and policy advocacy group.

Dean of Students Jackie McHar-

gue belongs to a panel of administrators and faculty which reviews applicants with criminal backgrounds. McHargue emphasized how her team thoroughly evaluates each application on a case by case basis and has no hard, fast rule for denying or admitting students with past criminal convictions.

“We really do believe in that opportunity to not be defined by a single moment. I think we have to normally weigh what that means, but I think we’re also not a campus that does flat denials. I think everyone deserves a shot at hope,” McHargue said. “And we know education’s life changing. And so we take that responsibility really seriously.”

Senior Director of Admissions and Financial Aid Steve McKellips said he and others who review potential students plan to work with the incoming program to provide former inmates with a fair chance of admission.

“From what I have heard about it, our interpretation of the process falls directly in line with the way that they are trying to get the academic side,” McKellips said. “In terms of what courses, what structure, I don’t have any idea how those things are set up. But I do know that their intent is consistent with the way that we handle the applicants through this process. So, there’s a nice synergy to what the students can be told will happen and what actually happens.”

Currently, the program remains in its preliminary stages of develop-

people to get outside. Since it’s in coordination with Greenfest, it’s really cool because it’s working on sustainable ways of transportation, and that's just something we’re all about with Outdoor Programs,” said Lauren Shell, a junior outdoor programs leader at UNCA. Phil German, assistant director of outdoor programs, and the Student Environmental center, worked together to plan and arrange the event.

Ventrella, a project coordinator for the SEC, said the organization was there to support sustainable

energy.

“The Student Environmental Center is promoting sustainability through riding bikes,” Ventrella said.

The recreation store Second Gear attended the event last Tuesday.

Amelia Rosenberg, a senior art student and employee of Second Gear, said the shop sells secondhand items. Shopping for products secondhand is more sustainable because less materials are used.

Rosenberg helped sign people up for a raffle for items from Second Gear as she talked passionately

ment, Walters said. Although funding remains a roadblock to providing credit bearing classes, Walters said he and other faculty members feel enthusiastic and ready to get started as early as spring 2018.

“We don’t have funding for what we’re doing right now, so I just volunteered to do next semester,” Walters said. “It’s not going to be a credit-bearing class. Normally, they would get three credits just like a regular college class that they could transfer to any institution that they wanted to transfer to. But we wanted to get going.”

Meanwhile, Criser said the response from administrative leaders at UNCA has been encouraging.

“Provost Urgo has been very supportive. He has had higher education in prison programs on two previous campuses that he was involved in,” Criser said. “It’s really nice to be able to do this work with an administration that says, ‘Yes, we want you to do this work.’”

Criser said she and others on campus hold high hopes for the program and look forward to helping rebuild the lives of current and former inmates.

“It doesn’t always work out. We know that. But, the times it works out and the times we successfully reduce recidivism and the times that prison education and support outside has turned former convicts into law students, I mean, it happens,” Criser said. “So, I think we should do that work definitely. Definitely.” about the west Asheville area.

Since west Asheville is home to Second Gear, Rosenberg has knowledge of the area’s biking conditions.

“I think that biking in West Asheville is relatively accessible. So, I see a lot of people biking to work as well as just biking around,” Rosenberg said.

Haywood Road houses many businesses and is located close to neighborhoods so workers can easily bike there. The street is lined by Biscuit Head, The Hop, Nine Mile, the Mothlight and Isis Music Hall.

19

Refugees

and occupational opportunities.

Phillips has lived throughout the world doing work with refugees in Ukraine, Jordan and the United Kingdom. He said the anti-refugee sentiment in the latter country was representative of a small minority of the population, as people were generally willing to help refugees to their new country.

“Most people, once they get their basic facts right are like, ‘Well, why wouldn’t we support? Why wouldn’t we be welcoming?’” Phillips said.

The friendliness and conviction to help those from difficult situations is why he chose to relocate to the Tar Heel state.

“When I was back here in the U.S., I saw this job pop up and being a native North Carolinian and caring a lot about this issue, I felt like it would be a good step for me to apply knowledge and skills to work for people coming to make a home in North Carolina,” Phillips said.

Shoshana Fried, an immigration attorney at Pisgah Legal Services in Asheville, helps immigrants with the paperwork necessary to begin to

loveless

establish residency in the U.S. She said there has been a positive reception overall to new immigrant arrivals in the city, even in light of recent legislation aimed at curtailing the number of people coming to the U.S. “We get calls all the time from community organizations and churches that want to help and want to know how they can help, and really the challenge is finding ways to engage the community because there’s so many people that want to help,” Fried said. “I think that Asheville is a welcoming town.”

Asheville is not particularly known for being a refugee resettlement hub. This is because, Phillips said, housing is costly and employment is seasonal.

He said there are other more optimal areas in the state for refugees to resettle which have steady jobs and a low cost of living.

“We’re generally one of the top states as far as numbers of arrivals go,” Phillips said. “Charlotte and the Triangle are very diverse, which means that they’re generally welcoming. We are fortunate that we have a lot of urban hubs that we can resettle in.”

Asheville’s refugee population

music to be in as long as it speaks to them.

“Usually my favorite thing is the last thing I recorded. I’m sort of a jerk in that once I’ve recorded it, I’m sort of over it,” Loveless said. “I do hope people enjoy it, though.”

Judging by the crowd response at The Orange Peel and the praise of critics and fans, Loveless need not worry about whether or not her material is enjoyable.

“The song ‘Somewhere Else’ is a powerfully sad song, but its rock elements give it a good kick,” said Zach Diasio, freshman biology student.

consists of individuals primarily from eastern Europe, specifically Ukraine and Russia. This particular demographic focus may be a result of a specific policy the U.S. had toward people from this area of the world.

“It was written into law actually, until 1980, only people from communist countries or from the Middle East were refugees and no one came from the Middle East in those times, so it was essentially, by law, only people from communist countries,” Gibney said. “That was a way of showing a superiority of the American way of life as opposed to the Soviet.”

As a result, the U.S. was turning down asylum seekers from Central American countries plagued by brutal civil wars, including El Salvador and Honduras, Gibney said.

Even today, the majority of people who set foot in Fried’s office come from either Honduras, El Salvador or Guatemala.

“The stories that I hear from all three of those countries are just horrendous at how young they’re starting to recruit kids for the gangs and the methods that they go about doing that and the sexual violence,” Fried said.

“Her soulful voice is hard to deny.”

Despite her present success, fans are eager to know what the future — and an upcoming album release — holds for Loveless.

“I love recording albums, and I love doing shows. My favorite part of my career is not working a stupid fucking job,” Loveless said. “But the stuff I’m writing for the future is a lot darker than anything I’ve done before. Probably a bit more pop-y and quieter, too.

So hopefully people won’t be too put off by that.”

Lydia Loveless’ new album Boy Crazy and Single(s) will be available Oct. 13.

NEWS

Many refugees and immigrants throughout the state internalized yet more fear as a result of President Trump’s recent attempts to crack down on immigration.

“Back after the election, we did an analysis of our intakes in February and March and we were receiving 250 percent more calls for service than we had at the same time the year before,” Fried said.

This is due, Fried said, to the administration’s policies being unclear.

“With almost all of my clients, there’s that added layer of being afraid of ICE and getting deported and also that fear of just having to hide in the shadows a little bit and not knowing what tomorrow, next week, next month will look like,” Fried said.

For Phillips, it remains crucial that one does not merely reduce human beings to simple statistics.

“When we’re doing this job and when we’re doing federal government policy jobs, you tend to have to rely on numbers,” Phillips said.

“We’re not talking about numbers.

We’re talking about human beings and they’re looking for safe freedoms for their family.”

A&F

20

SPotlight think that’s carried me through more than anything else.”

Glawson works with one of her faculty advisors, Jackson Martin, assistant professor of art, who has guided her work for the past two and a half years.

“Shanna is both talented and ambitious,” Martin said. “Having a strong studio work ethic and the willingness to work hard to achieve goals is infinitely valuable.”

Glawson said her work takes anywhere between three weeks and six months to complete depending on her level of involvement. She often starts many sculpture projects at once to get her ideas down and see what takes off and what falls flat.

“Shanna has taken some extremely recognizable symbols, reproduced countless times by our culture,” Martin said. “With sculpture, Shanna is able to fully develop her ideas and engage her viewer in-theround.”

Glawson notes a meaningful duality within the heart that informs some of the ways she plays with combining the anatomical heart and the symbolic heart.

“I have this cool part of my paper where I talk about the heart as a sexual organ,” Glawson said. “It’s both throbbing like a male but it’s also able to be wounded and be pen-

Pride Center

munity, including houses of worship.

Communities of Faith, currently available on the center’s website, puts together a list of different churches in the area accepting of the LGBTQ+ community. The list includes various religions.

White said plans to expand this service include launching the Blue Ridge Virtual LGBTQ+ Center. The virtual center will include not only churches but other services, events, classes and support groups for the LGBTQ+ community for free.

Another part of expansion will include the Welcoming Communi-

etrated like a woman. There’s this give and take.”

Brittany Klutz, senior art student and painter from Charlotte, considers the role of love in her life.

Klutz and her girlfriend Christine have been together for almost three years now.

“For me personally right now — and it can’t be like this in every case — but it seems like my friends and family have somewhat abandoned me,” Klutz said. “So naturally right now romantic love is the most important to me.”

Love can be motivational due to its passion. It’s not all positive.

Sometimes love creates hurt and anger, but it gives a person a lot of content to express, Klutz said.

“Loving someone can be a super spiritual thing,” Klutz said.

“Giving yourself to a person and being vulnerable can naturally be a spiritual thing.”

Glawson intends to make viewers question their own feelings when they view her pieces. She wants the juxtaposition between sacred and profane to arouse her viewers’ curiosity, speaking to her own discoveries between the triumphant and pitiful within the heart.

“Eros, Agape and Other Heart Conditions” will be available for viewing in the S. Tucker Cooke gallery in Owen Hall beginning Oct. 27-Nov. 7.

ties Program, including businesses, schools and other communities open to the LGBTQ+ community.

White said the purpose of the program will not only give people a chance to find places accepting of the community, but to shine light on the places that welcome everyone.

She said she believes those who are hateful receive too much attention and those who are accepting should get recognition.

“We’re not asking for special treatment, we just want to have the same rights as everyone else,” Wiener said. “If you see something just point it out. If you're organizing a program look and listen to feedback.

It makes all the difference.”

Coffee the coveted trophy. Josh Gibbs and Andy Gibbon started the company in 2008 after several years of playing music together and brewing coffee as a hobby.

“We were excited to participate in last year’s first coffee expo,” Gibbon said. “Western North Carolina has a thriving coffee scene full of passionate people doing interesting things.

But it is rare that we get a chance to all be in the same place at the same time, demonstrating why Asheville is an exciting place for coffee.”

Gibbon said they try to bring a few unique coffees sourced just for the expo. This year, they found a few experimental-processed fair trade and organic microlots on a recent sourcing trip to Honduras.

“We were thrilled to be awarded the “Best House Cup” last year. We have had the cup proudly on display at our coffee bar. We would be thrilled, of course, to repeat this year,” Gibbon said. “We work hard to source and roast the finest fair trade and organic coffees we can find and love that people are enjoying them.”

ShareWell Coffee Co., another participant in the expo,

COnfederacy

while he was fixing his bandana.

His suspicious grimace turned into a gentle, friendly smile when I asked him if he knew how to get to North Carolina. He asked me to grab a seat at the table where plates were stacked up after their meal, and pulled up his phone. In a very thick, southern accent he told me how I would make it home safely.

Afterward, I asked him if he had been in North Carolina, and he told me stories of how he has traveled through the South on his bike.

We had a long conversation, until his wife reminded him to move on

was launched by Candice Pritz in 2016 with her husband, Zach, who has a long history in the coffee business. They lived in Michigan when they decided to start their own coffee company.

“The first week we moved back to Hendersonville, we heard that there was going to be the first ever annual Asheville Coffee Expo,” Pritz said. “We decided we needed to giddy up and have our ducks in a row to be there. Even though we hadn’t even roasted or served our coffee to the public, we pulled it off. So last year, the first Asheville Coffee Expo, was our true birthday as a company.”

Pritz said the expo provides the community with a demographic committed to coffee and supporting small and local businesses, making it a great addition to the area. She plans to participate in future expos because combining forces with other roasters and businesses helps feature the area and the amazing coffee it offers.

“We are strictly roasters; we don’t have a café,” Pritz said.

“So for us, this is a treat because we get to literally hand a cup of our coffee to someone and connect. We get to share about the farmer behind each roast, our approach, what notes we get and what notes they get.” with their day and we separated.

So what does the Confederacy mean?

I am still not sure. My interaction with the white couple proved my generalization wrong in this instance.

Still, I do not, and doubt I would ever think the Confederacy could be a positive symbol of the South.

My solo trip to Kentucky made me realize human interaction and conversation is important.

I am not an expert on either the history of the South or the culture of the contemporary South, but I do think it is important to discuss the appearance of the Confederate symbols.

A&F Of Montreal ate, reflect and heal from a divorce.

Innocence Reaches deviates from the typical of Montreal sound mainly because Barnes, who has decried modern music in the past, wanted to make an album that stepped more into the present era.

The band has a diverse array of influences, including late ‘60s surf rock, David Bowie and literary figures like Sylvia Plath.

“I remember I met some of my favorite people at an of Montreal show, people who are into art, into culture, into literature,” Thrasher said.

The audience demographics at this show were surprising.

At previous of Montreal concerts,

Vegans

a recipe could not be a magic fix for a mental illness.

Other vegans tend to contain a more neutral outlook on these issues, like purchasing local honey rather than corporate.

Neutral vegans tend to be willing to take prescription medication when natural remedies cannot solve the medical issue, as well as understanding the importance of vaccinations. Bristow said she shares similar sentiments regarding prescription medication and vaccinations, but also wants to learn about prescription medicine options which do not test on animals.

Sadly, when most people think of veganism they only see one perspective, the radical side, and assume all vegans follow the same rigorous philosophy.

Bristow tries to eat local honey in order to support local beekeepers which she believes will help support the local environment as well as putting more sustainable practices in place.

the crowd has mainly consisted of 20-something hipsters decked out in outrageous costumes and mountains of glitter.

At this show, there was an individual swathed in mottled white fur with horns sticking out of his head, resembling an incarnation of a creature from The Chronicles of Narnia.

A girl had costume jewelry woven into her fuchsia hair, creating a tone of regality matching that of the elusive lead singer.

These were the exceptions, however, as the majority of people came dressed in casual garb and ranged in age from late teens to their late 50s.

Nonetheless, they were all there for the same reason: to let loose and get down.

“Seeing them live, it’s literally always like a guaranteed party,” said

“I consume honey because of the declining numbers of bees. By purchasing honey from a beekeeper, you are paying for bees to live,” Bristow said. “However, I don’t know much about the ethics behind collecting honey and if I were in a world where bee populations were not in danger, perhaps I wouldn’t buy honey. I know that the number of less invasive methods of collecting honey is rising, so that provides hope. I think it’s more ethical to keep bees alive and pollinating than it is to stop supporting bees monetarily altogether.”

As a vegan myself, I acknowledge the need for prescription medication even though animals are sometimes tested in the production process. I stray from taking prescription medication unless it is imminent for my health.

I do believe in vaccinations because of the overwhelming evidence proving they serve a purpose and keep society healthy.

Talia Scarpelli, a 24-year-old arts center employee who has seen the band 11 times. “Everyone’s generally really fun and really cool. I’ve met so many people at shows like these.”

Performing crowd favorites like “Gronlandic Edit” and “Oslo in the Summertime,” there was a lulling period in the middle of the set where Barnes played more obscure songs and the crowd seemed relatively lost in a daze.

Barnes said his favorite songs are the ones the audience is not as enthusiastic about, whereas the simple songs seem to connect more with people.

This was evident when the thumping electro chorus of “let’s relate” blared over the loudspeakers and the audience began to bounce

21

up and down like happy kangaroos, satiated at the familiarity.

By the time of Montreal ended their set, the applause was uproarious and they emerged back onto the stage for the encore, performing their anthem “Heimdalsgate Like A Promethean Curse” from what many consider to be their magnum opus, 2007’s Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer?

Afterwards, many concertgoers trickled to the back patio for cigarettes, to linger with their old — and new — friends and to discuss the show.

“I’ve seen them four times and every fucking time I’ve been drenched in sweat and happy as hell at the end of it,” Bentley Jr. said.

SPORTS

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Swim Team athlete.”

During her three years of competing on UNCA’s swim team, van Dorsten had a 4.0 GPA. She completed her bachelor’s degree in biology this May. Van Dorsten said she started to feel like she was owned by the team. There were so many things she wanted to do, but being on the swim team held her back. So she stopped swimming at the end of her junior year.

“I just found myself my junior year not putting the effort into my training that I had in the past two years,” van Dorsten said, fidgeting with her keys. “It kind of bothered me. But at the same time, I just didn’t have that motivation anymore.”

If she had stayed on the team her senior year, there was a chance she would have been captain. She said she would have been a role model for the rest of the team, and did not want to appear apathetic to the freshmen looking up to her.

Coach Lykins said while she felt sad to lose van Dorsten, she did not try to convince her to stay on the team. Her heart just was not in it anymore.

“I really loved what she brought to the team,” Lykins said. “Unfortunately, she just decided she didn’t

want to do it anymore. Unfortunate for me, not unfortunate for her. It seemed to be the right choice for her.”

Van Dorsten decided leaving was best for herself and the team.

Even though she would have been a strong competitor and scored points, she said attitude is more important.

One day before practice at the end of her junior year, Van Dorsten sat down with her team and told them she was leaving. She said she cried. Some of her teammates cried with her.

“When swimming ended, I kind of felt like I should have been graduated,” van Dorsten said. “Like, why am I still in school when I’m not swimming? And so I felt like school was over when it wasn’t. I don’t know. I kind of crashed and burned that semester, but then it got better after that.”

Van Dorsten said after she quit her grades dropped. She stopped going to class and went through a period of depression. The worst part about leaving the team, she said, was losing her routine and no longer seeing her teammates every day. She had to rebuild her social life.

“I kind of lost touch with a lot of the team,” van Dorsten said “I didn’t have that routine and I didn’t get the dopamine rush every day, and the endorphins and stuff. I

don’t know. I just got really sad for a while.”

Van Dorsten did not exercise for an entire year after leaving the team. She went from two practices a day to not lifting weights, swimming or running. She said the lack of exercise contributed to her depression and she lost 30 pounds in two months.

While it was not an easy transition, she said things eventually started to improve.

“It took me a while to start actually being active and consciously making an effort to be active,” van Dorsten said. “Once I started doing that, I started feeling better. Now, I go for a lot of hikes, or I’ll force myself to go for a run every once in a while.”

Once she realized her newfound freedom, van Dorsten said she filled her senior year with all the things she dreamt of doing while on the swim team. She got involved with the Asheville community and made a lot of new friends.

She started contra dancing, which lead her to learn other types of dances, like bachata, salsa and swing. She found a love for mountain biking and rock climbing. She said she learned she likes to camp and loves hiking at Black Balsam.

“The best part was that I had my weekends and I could do whatever I wanted with them,” van Dor-

sten said. “I went to Charleston for a dance weekend one weekend and I was able to go to the Women’s March in D.C. I could go home when I wanted to go home. I could go camping. I could visit my friends.”

In the end, van Dorsten was able to enjoy both the experience of being on a team as well as the freedom of being just a student. She said she feels glad she had her senior year to herself, but she also feels grateful for the bonds she made with the people on her team.

Van Dorsten encourages people to not fear the commitment of being a collegiate athlete.

“It was worth it for the three years that I did it,” van Dorsten said. “And it’s not like the time and the commitment was the reason that I quit. I could’ve kept doing it.

I could’ve made it my fourth year.

I just didn’t think I was going to make it happy.”

Coach Lykins said van Dorsten has gone on to do great things.

“She’s really free-spirited,” Lykins said. “She enjoys life to the fullest whenever she can. I actually think she got better at that when she left swimming. I think she felt quite a bit of pressure from swimming and stress on herself and she did a much better job of enjoying herself and having fun once she was finished swimming.”

THE BLUE BAnNER

Your Ad Here Email kritchie@unca.edu

Beat from the street where God brought me from to the state that I was, I mean, looking at clothes with tags still on it, games I haven’t even opened, just stuff.”

Plentiful, yeah.

“You know, just saving money and I was like, ‘Lord, I trust you and I believe in you and if I truly, truly do say that I believe in you, I’m going to do what you tell me to do in your word’ and that’s basically, ‘Give my life for your life.’

You know, so, by me doing that, leaving father, mother, sister, brother and family, home, job, everything, to come out here to tell my brothers and my sisters that Christ’s arms are still open wide. Whether you believe it or not, He still loves you, still died for you. You always have a chance. There is nothing that can shorten His arms from saving you. And basically coming out here to live what I believe, more than just speak what I believe, to live it that others may see and understand that it’s not just a talk, but there’s a walk. So, I’m walking and talking and giving encouragement to the brothers, whosoever believe in or whatever they believe in. I say it like this, ‘Whatever you believe in, believe it with your whole heart’ because other than that, it’s a waste of your time.”

my job. I got a better job and maybe about two months later, He increased my job again. So I got an even better job. Say, not even two weeks later, He increased my job a third time to where I wasn’t just paycheck to paycheck, but I was able to provide and also buy anything that I wanted, like I was--” A lot better, yeah.

“You could say riding a speed bike. You know, I was floating. So, you got media design for a YouTube page and everything, Chris-

tians Assemble. But, looking at the media and looking at the world and looking at how bad it was and me being able to discern that things are wrong in this world. Everybody says, ‘This is good,’ even if it’s bad.

So they agree on different terms but looking at that and seeing my situation, how God brought me from the bottom to the top, I could get anything. You would say, a man would say, rich man. I felt like a rich man.”

Yeah.

“So I was able to look back on

That’s good.

“I mean, I’m out here. I believe that Christ is the word of God. I believe he was sent from God. I believe that through him, we receive salvation. We are able to be reconciled unto God, through Christ alone. I believe that he’s it. I believe that he’s the word of God. I believe that all things created by Him basically are. If anyone would believe the same and receive Him, they could receive salvation and reconciliation unto god.”

You’ve traveled all over the States, you said?

“No, not yet. I started nine months ago.”

OK. “I started from Statesboro, Georgia and I’m here now. I’ve been meeting brothers and sisters.”

OK. “But yeah, God linked me up with this brother down here. But it’s been nine months of walking in true faith, totally not dependent on nothing but God. Everything that I need is met. I could think of something or not even speak anything. It could be on my mind and god would bring somebody to me. It’s not happening or sometimes, it’s happening all the time and I encourage anyone, just sitting out here. That’s why I’m out here. I’m going to stay out here until I’m finished, that by my testimony and by the things that I have experienced, no lie, because to lie to try to promote God is, it won’t even be enough even if you lie because the best lie you can come up to try to promote God or who He is or the glory and the majesty and the praise and anything. You can find your best lie to try to make him look good and it will not be enough, you know? So, I want to live it out the best way I can, when I speak to people, they know truth and they can see truth and they can see truth in my life. Just ask God, ‘How do I understand who you are? Let me find out who you are for myself.’”

What would you say the craziest experience you’ve had in another state has been?

“Craziest experience, basically trying to protect someone, a young homeless man and he was on real bad drugs and I was trying to tell him, since he was homeless, he could come with me. Basically, use his life for something better and he just wanted to stay. He wanted to continue doing what he doing. He wanted to continue doing drugs. He wanted to keep being drunk and it kind of frustrated me because it’s like you’re wasting your life. But I didn’t say it like that but you know, ‘You can do better with your life.

You don’t have to feel like this.’”

Yeah.

“You know, you can do better with your life even though you don’t have anything. You can go out there and help people with what you do not have.”

HOROSCOPES

James hughes

Multimedia Editor jhughes3@unca.edu

Our Sun sign is what we most commonly know. It is the essence of our personality. But there is more to us than just a paragraph, as there is more to astrology than just one sign. Combining all your planets and houses will better tell the whole story of your individuality. Looking into and understanding your birth chart will provide deeper insight into yourself and your connection with the universe.

Aries (March 21 - April 19) An Aries of the calmest nature is still prone to emotional outbursts or at the very least strong waves that roll in and out. It may feel like you are riding the wave, laid-back surfer style, but that is not always how it is perceived.

Being conscientious of how you are dealing with the rush of emotions can help prevent coming across as more aggressive or obnoxious than intended.

Taurus (April 20 - May 20) It is often underestimated how dedicated you are to your dreams. The bull, Taurus’ representation, has a tremendous amount of force, partially because of its weight. You do not take the energy required to put that force into motion lightly, so once your dreams are put into motion, there is not much to slow you down.

Gemini (May 21 - June 21) When the world is an endless realm of possibilities, how do you know what is right and what means missing out on something that could be more right? Trust yourself. You have a natural knack for understanding the world around you, but not the world inside you. If you bring that outward curiosity inward, it can only strengthen what feels right.

Cancer (June 22 - July 22) In a world where you can detect the slightest changes in your peers’ emotional essence, it can often feel like you are alone.

You care so immensely for what is around you, that you wonder if others care or feel the same about you. Of course they do!

There are many positive emotions you can focus on if you need affirmation, but as long as you love yourself, the world will follow.

Leo (July 23 - Aug. 22) You are very experience based, meaning the things you have learned and done in the past carry into your current or future decisions. This gives you a view of the world that is often very unique to your experiences.

Remember, different people respond in different ways, so what worked for you may not work for everyone.

Virgo (Aug. 23 - Sept. 22) It is easy for a Virgo to be seen as all work and no play. But work is second to breathing. You are not a workaholic, but you know how to get what you want, You have to make an effort. It is cause and effect. Your attention to detail will paint the picture of your work ethic. Take the time to play on the playground after it is constructed. You can gain an extra appreciation for your work.

Libra (Sept. 23 - Oct. 22 You often try to avoid confrontation because losing your temper is not always diplomatic.

But you do not let go easily.

This can be a dangerous combination. Allowing tension to incubate in your mind can cause other thoughts to turn negative in nature. Do not let your inner vernacular become toxic. Let it out or let it go.

Capricorn (Dec. 22 - Jan. 19) You often plan for the worst and hope for, not the best, but anything better than the worst.

That may make anything better than the worst a positive but it makes the worst neutral or default. This can result in a condescending or pessimistic attitude as you accept the worst as what will happen. Do not become jaded to joy because reality is not always worst case scenario.

Scorpio (Oct. 23 - Nov. 21) Your intuitive understanding of people’s emotions gives you deeper insight what is being said and their intentions. This gift of gab gives you many social connections but only a select few are friends. You can be a passionately loyal friend and want to avoid giving that energy to someone you do not trust to reciprocate it.

Aquarius (Jan. 20 - Feb. 18) To be so aloof yet understanding, you can be surprisingly stubborn. Surprising to you, not everyone else, they often notice it almost immediately. You can be very open-minded but unwavering from your base knowledge.

When ideas challenge what you have built years of knowledge around, you take it as a challenge to your being and that open mindedness can close real quick, leaving you closed off from progress.

Sagittarius (Nov. 22 - Dec. 21) Sometimes you speak well above the heads of your peers.

You often use comedy or some form of storytelling to bridge the gap. The problem is you may feel like you are not being taken as serious as you think you should because they are focused more on the show than the content. They are listening, do not get discouraged.

Pisces (Feb. 19 - March 20) You are a sponge for negative emotions but you are as positive as the environment you place yourself in. Soaking in the negativity of your surroundings allows you to transform them and create something positive. You run the risk of soaking in too much, which will spill into your normally positive disposition.