Mountain Xpress 05.27.20

OUR 26TH YEAR OF WEEKLY INDEPENDENT NEWS, ARTS & EVENTS FOR WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA VOL. 26 NO. 44 MAY 27 - JUNE 2, 2020

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16 ‘PARENTS NEED NOT FEAR’ Asheville Archives on how city health officials responded to the 1948 polio outbreak

PAGE 20 SEASON OF UNCERTAINTY While WNC’s small farms have been rocked by the coronavirus, community support and innovative thinking have enabled many local growers to pivot and persist as they work to find a way forward. On the cover: Workers at Ivy Creek Family Farm.

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OPINION

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

CARTO ON BY R A ND Y MOL T O N

Honoring ‘just getting by’ The present time we live, the “now” of our existence, surely must be a very thin place indeed, one made more so by an unimagined pandemic we still don’t fully understand. So what happens when life seems to turn against you, when things go wrong and all our markers of success suddenly dissipate? What happens if you follow all the rules, work hard, get the best education you can, stay out of trouble, save a little, yet face a future made more uncertain each day? What if you now live in a world that, by present standards, can’t be fixed? Wouldn’t it be nice to have a Forever stamp we could have used in a great yesterday now seemingly not returnable?

What if you’re a mountaineer who lives in Western North Carolina, where your hardscrabble life hasn’t been easy in the best of times? Or a young person working in Asheville in a restaurant or retail store that may never reopen? Or just graduating and looking for a job in the worst market in perhaps 70 years? You could be overwhelmed by a sense of hopelessness in your lives, but, if you’re a mountaineer who matches the majestic mountains surrounding us all, you’ll somehow find a way to just get by.

Let me start by not offering myself as a model for success in this brave new COVID world. Instead, let me recommend my parents or perhaps your grandparents as a better one.

Yes, I did grow up in Texas in what USA Today described as two of the most miserable places in America to

live, Willis and Pasadena. My family of five or six shared a single bathroom in an 800-square-foot home, all my brothers piled into one bedroom with me, no air conditioning until well after I left. My mother only went to the sixth and Dad to the seventh grade, and, through inconstant, temporary work like slapdash painting, bad carpentry, working on road crews where asphalt melted in the Texas heat, waitressing and taking in laundry, we cobbled together a life that forever resembled a Greek tragedy that never happened.

Even with so many markers of deprivation and a claim to relative poverty, our circumstances were no worse and even a bit better than everyone else around us. We were the precarity class, our existence forever precarious and threatened, neither middle nor lowered much by life’s ups and downs.

We somehow just got by.

Today we live in a society that celebrates success by wealth, materialism, degrees, titles, recognition and by all the “stuff” we have, whether sports cars, expensive homes, market portfolios or country club memberships. Yet let me suggest that we honor as proud examples those who are just doing OK, just getting by somehow in an increasingly complicated, messy, unstable economic and human environment.

Like my parents, their lives probably involve intensive, even exhausting labor, uncertain outcomes, constant misfortune, shifting circumstances and adaptive, individual abilities that shape that effort. They’re somehow just getting by. Theirs is a remarkable achievement that endures from gen-

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OPINION

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eration to generation. As my mother once said, “What matters in life is that you did the best you could with the tools you had,” even though qualitatively, the “tools” you’re given aren’t as good as those of a lot of other folks.

These days, just getting by should be celebrated as a success, one that makes us all proud.

— Milton Ready Hendersonville

Message of ‘Wake’ goes ignored in Asheville

The humongous “Wake” sculpture is such an ironic display mounted the week Asheville was closing down, the admonition going unseen by Ashevilleans, due to the stay safe, stay home order.

The wires and the run-down properties surrounding the sculpture are a disgrace, detracting from the surreal beauty of the sculpture!

But it fits with the spirit of Asheville’s leaders that we have come to experience in so many other areas: trashed sidewalks, potholes in streets and crosswalks, streetlights out for months on end, trash in streets, tree butchering and tree removal all over town!

Negligence everywhere; what an example this sets for Ashevilleans, especially our youth! Who cares anymore?

The “Wake” is so timely, and yet also completely ignored, fitting Asheville perfectly!

— Inge Durre Asheville

We deserve better political leadership Buncombe County Board of Commissioners Chairman Brownie Newman and Asheville Mayor Esther Manheimer have failed miserably with their response to the virus among us.

Initially, they tried to carve their own response to the virus. With the

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help of Fletcher Tove, [the county’s emergency preparedness coordinator], this Unholy Trinity quickly learned they were not competent enough to deal with the virus. So they ducked behind the state guidelines, with the caveat that they were going to be more restrictive when it comes to tourism, our life’s blood.

Hiding behind the state ignores the fact that Buncombe County is vastly different than many of the other counties. We have minuscule cases of the virus, and our hospitalizations are low and deaths have been flat. These deaths were of people who were elderly and with underlying medical conditions, some severe.

So, we have a very low rate of virus and an economy based on tourism.

What does the Unholy Trinity do?

Well, they put their boot on the neck of the businesses that this area exists on, and that further strangles the already suffering people of the county and city.

It is interesting that they cherry-pick negative statistics while ignoring positive ones. I wonder if they noticed that Georgia has better numbers since opening up?

Millions of dollars are going from our area residents into Tennessee and Georgia, and many millions more from noncounty residents who would rather have spent their money here.

The opened states are helping their citizens. They are doing it smartly.

The Unholy Trinity is not that smart.

We could open tomorrow. If they are not smart enough to come up with new well-thought-out ways to keep the virus at bay and save our future, at least they could copy other states. Masks for employees, strict disinfecting criteria, slightly diminished capacity of spaces, checking temperatures and health of employees, even checking temperatures of diners before they enter a restaurant, are a few of the ways to protect health and livelihoods.

I am sure that when this is all over, they will crow that they saved us all from catastrophic disease spread and continue to ignore the human misery and ruined businesses they perpetuated. All while they raise our taxes to pay for their ineptitude.

— Lex Burkett Asheville Editor’s note: This letter was received while the state was still in Phase 1 of reopening. Xpress contacted Asheville Mayor Esther Manheimer, Buncombe County Board of Commissioners Chairman Brownie Newman and Fletcher Tove, the county’s emergency preparedness coordinator, with a summary

of the letter writer’s points, and we received the following response from Manheimer and Newman: “The city and county have been working in collaboration through our combined emergency response team to build and implement a strategy that keeps our community as safe and healthy as possible. This crisis, unprecedented in our lifetime, has challenged our community as well as all levels of government. I am proud of the local, coordinated response here in Asheville and Buncombe County and the leadership shown by Gov. Cooper.”

Potential casualties of COVID-19 or bureaucracy?

Undoubtedly, we run the risk of overlooking certain individuals struggling on the battlefield that COVID19 has become, and though perhaps not as heroic or glorious as some other marginalized demographics, DUI offenders are now facing serious, possibly life-threatening obstacles.

The devices offenders are required to install and use in their vehicles, aka breathalyzers, it turns out, are set off by the use of hand sanitizer, one of the few essential necessities we have in our already limited arsenal against this relentless pandemic.

To avoid setting off the device, circumventing fines and/or jail time, people must wait 20 minutes to attempt driving again after sanitizing.

Is 20 minutes a safe time to wait after being exposed to a deadly virus? Is it a reasonable time to keep groceries in a hot car, additional time spent driving home not withstanding? Is it enough time to discourage an otherwise health-conscious individual from disinfecting altogether?

Given the average person’s already hectic schedule, compounded with newly acquired pressures of living in a world under siege by a pandemic, waiting 20 minutes every time after performing a potentially lifesaving practice, or forgoing it altogether due to the additional inconvenience now posed, is an unreasonable, unsafe and, in some respects, inhumane requisite.

Granted, these are unprecedented times; but it’s the state’s, as well as our own, civic duty to allow modifications to ensure the fundamental safety and rights of our fellow citizens, even, and perhaps especially, those who have broken laws enacted to protect these very freedoms.

We’ve stressed the importance of not dismissing our medical professionals, the elderly and other such integral

C AR T O O N B Y B R E N T B R O W N members of the community. Let’s not forget our fellow criminals.

— George Bazley

Black Mountain Editor’s note: Xpress contacted the N.C. Department of Transportation, and spokesman Steve Abbott provided the following response: “We understand that during the COVID-19 pandemic, ignition interlock users are inclined to use hand sanitizer more regularly. However, ignition interlock vendors have warned customers since installation that hand sanitizer can cause violations (a potential situation way before the virus hit us). It is in both the documentation provided at installation and in the videos that customers were required to watch.

“Our recommendation continues to be that a driver wait several minutes (at least five minutes, although the longer the better) after applying hand sanitizer to operate the interlock device. Should you choose to attempt to start your vehicle directly after using hand sanitizer, a violation may occur. The division has contaminant review criteria in place if the level of alcohol dissipates within a set period of time. However, some violations may require the driver to address the violation at a hearing.

“Another option is to use only nonalcohol-based sanitizers, as they are also manufactured.”

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OPINION

Celebrating women’s voting rights Editor’s note: The following first-place essay and the next two second-place essays were winners in the local Edward Buncombe Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution Courageous Beginnings contest, part of the organization’s celebration of the 100th anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment. The contest was open to seniors in area high schools, who were asked to think about how this milestone accomplishment may have affected their own family history and what voting means to them today.

The importance of voting

When women won the right to vote in 1920, my great-great-aunt Willie Bowman was 23 years old. The oldest child of very conservative parents, she battled to be independent despite seemingly unpermitting circumstances.

Willie’s parents strongly opposed her becoming self-reliant, but she persevered. While she remained single and lived with her parents their whole lives, Willie succeeded in becoming self-supporting by getting a job as a secretary in the large and industrial city of Chattanooga, Tenn. As a woman who thought for herself and did not let her parents keep her from working, it is probable that Willie was the first woman in my family to vote in an election.

Being among the 21% of employed women at the time, Willie was most likely a supporter of the suffragist movement and very eager to vote in the 1920 election, but it certainly wasn’t easy for her to actually do so. The 19th Amendment gave women the legal right to vote, yet people in the United States were still widely divided over whether

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women truly deserved to vote. Willie’s parents did not allow her to marry, so it’s presumable that voting would have been out of the question. However, like many other young women in the 1920s, Willie realized that the only person who should make decisions about her life was herself. Contributing to the future of her country was far more important to Willie than the opinion of others, even her family.

[This] year will mark 100 years since the 19th Amendment was passed, and women’s suffrage has not lost its importance. Voting is what makes America a democracy, and since women make up more than half of the United States’ population, it is critical that women are able to engage in the responsibility of voting.

Voting allows one to participate in government by choosing representatives.

This process allows every citizen to have a voice in decisions that will determine the course of their lives and liberties.

Without the democratic institution of voting, the United States would not be the country of opportunity that it is for many today.

Trends show that an increasing number of eligible voters are not actually voting. This is attributed, in part, to feelings of disenfranchisement; many feel that politicians are not listening to votes, and as a result, people do not feel voting is worth it. The American government system is far from perfect, but those who decline the opportunity to vote forget that it will never be fixed if citizens like themselves do not elect representatives who can make the necessary changes.

Choosing not to vote is a choice that will never yield results, much less bring change to an imperfect government.

For instance, many state governments are attempting to overturn Roe v. Wade, which found abortion to be a consti-

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tutional right of women. A study conducted by the Pew Research Center found that 60% of women support this right. If those women were to use their right to vote and elect local and federal representatives who shared their opinion, women would ensure that abortion remains legal. As said by Desmond Tutu, a human rights activist from South Africa, “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.” Remaining neutral in elections and choosing not to exercise the liberty of voting results in abuses to the liberties of Americans and of people throughout the world.

Just as it was important to my greatgreat-aunt Willie to express her civil liberties through voting, it is important to me, 100 years later. While there are women around the world who do not have suffrage, I am lucky that many women who came before me fought tirelessly so that one day I could decide who represents me in government. My vote alone may not determine the course of history, but I know that my vote most definitely has an impact on the future of my life, my country and the world.

— Maggie Kinton Senior Asheville High School

The right to vote

I am the first in my family in decades to be born on foreign soil. In Leicester, N.C., this occurrence is rare — we are raised to believe in mountain heritage, the root of Southern patriotism, where the very word “foreign” is scarce. I have grown used to being a starkly different color juxtaposed in front of a white background, taking comfort in the lessons I learn from tackling prejudices firsthand. More importantly, however, I have learned the value of being American, encompassing a woman’s right to vote.

The United States of America, since its establishment as an independent nation, has thrived on an influx of immigrants. From far and wide, people seeking a better life have made the courageous and treacherous jour-

ney to the United States, including a myriad of unique women. Within this ambiguous group of women are some of my ancestors from my adoptive family, who trekked to the United States several generations ago. These immigrants were of Scottish and Irish descent, fleeing the hardships of the 19th-century famine in the wary dream of something better to come. Although the new land seemed promising for an extensive range of people, the hope of women’s suffrage was yet to come.

However, silence was not an option for American women — like all movements in history, an upheaval had to occur.

Enter the 1920s, when women’s suffrage is in full swing. Feminist household names, such as Susan B. Anthony, Ida B. Wells and Elizabeth Cady Stanton take the stage. The people have spoken; the American legislature finally passes the 19th Amendment, which guarantees all women the right to vote. Women’s equality in the United States has finally been established, and freedom rings not only for all American men, but also women. This marks the first in my life of female ancestors who can vote, tracing back to my great-grandmother’s era.

My great-grandmother was strongwilled, independent and always determined to get what she desired. She took every challenge with a sense of pride and sacrificed herself for the well-being of her children. She had so much perseverance, she could do almost everything — except vote. My great-grandmother’s strong opinions and values about society could not be communicated to the very country she lived in.

Her voice was silenced, simply because she was a woman. Despite this, my great-grandmother persevered through it all. She could not simply limit her opinions to herself and her family, and when women gained the right to vote, she ensured to freely exercise it. My grandmother followed suit, and ever since that initial right to vote, women in my family have been active in the democratic process.

I see reflections of myself in my great-grandmother. We are both determined; our ideas are boundless. We have always felt the need to express these ideas, especially in our local and federal governments. Like my grandmother, I was born in a place where my freedom was restricted simply because I was a female. My beginnings lie in a small village within a southern Chinese city known as Qinzhou. In Chinese culture, female children are less desired, due to the expectation that male children will have the responsibility to take care of their parents. The one-child-policy, enacted in China to curb population growth, forced many Chinese

girls to be abandoned in favor of their male counterparts. I was one of the many girls who were abandoned, and one of the few who survived. My life as I know it has been shaped by my birth mother’s attempted infanticide, where I was miraculously adopted and raised in the United States. After hearing about the perseverance of my great-grandmother and realizing my own difficulties as a female in society, I have learned the true value of a woman’s right to vote.

The United States has endured many trials to ensure equality within the nation. Although a perfect state of equality is yet to be achieved, the 19th Amendment, guaranteeing all women the right to vote, has been integral to the foundations of current society. By giving women an equal voice in the decisions of our nation, women are empowered to do great things. People like my great-grandmother, who were determined, hardworking and self-sacrificing, gained a voice and a platform to make real, tangible change.

People like myself, who were born and discarded in a society that placed a value on the life of women, are taught that our opinions and thoughts are equally important as our male coun-

terparts. As a united whole, women in the United States must continue to vote to uplift each other, reinforce the importance of women in society and unanimously work toward legislation that supports the fundamental rights of women.

— Sydney Murray Senior Martin L. Nesbitt Discovery Academy

A duty and honor to vote

What is your definition of courageous? My definition is overcom-

ing obstacles in one’s life through hard work, grace and integrity. My great-grandmother Bessie Smith exemplified all these characteristics while maintaining a household for seven children. Living near the edge of a dead-end road far in the roots of Leicester, N.C., my great-grandmother worked on a farm and in the school system.

Life was not easy, and my family was very poor. All the children worked in the tobacco fields alongside my grandparents to provide an income to stay in school, attend church and live in a house. My great-grandmother never owned a car and was excluded from the surrounding city of Asheville. Bessie never drove a car and would only make it to work by catching a ride on the school bus.

Although this time period enhanced the cult of domesticity, my great-grandmother continuously got her hands dirty and worked just as hard as her male counterparts. She was an inspiring role model who showed that poverty is a challenge but can be overcome. She signified the importance of a woman’s role not only in the home but in the com-

munity as well. She taught her four daughters how to be independent and not to focus on the restrictions that society imposed on women at that time but continued to highlight her courage by registering to vote on April 6, 1968, at the age of 52. Not only did she vote for the first time at this age, but voted alongside her youngest daughter to symbolize that you are never too old to make a difference in your country.

As I turned 18 and will be given the opportunity to vote in the next election, I plan to extend the same courage that my great-grandmother did and celebrate the fight that women throughout the early 1900s fought so diligently for females all across America. As a citizen of the United States, I feel it is my duty to vote not only for myself, but for women like my great-grandmother who came before me and courageously fought for equality. I consider it an honor to walk into the voting booth and cast my ballot to represent all the activists who paved a way for the future of women.

— Allie Jones Senior Clyde A. Erwin High School

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9

NEWS

NEW DOG IN TOWN

Journalism nonprofits work to supplement local reporting watchdog reporting, tracking local government or spotlighting coverage on a single topic.

“The place to start is asking the community what it wants and understanding the real information needs of the community,” Cross says. “Then, start by addressing the most urgent needs. They can broaden out and cover other things over time, but it really does need to be rooted in what the community needs and will support.”

BY MOLLY HORAK mhorak@mountainx.com Like many big ideas, AVL Watchdog was born at a cocktail party.

Two months ago, just before COVID19 burst onto the scene, a group of former media executives and journalists gathered at a party in North Asheville.

The group got to talking and, as one might expect from a group of reporters, the conversation shifted to news. They wanted to see more local stories, explains party attendee Bob Gremillion.

A few days later, Gremillion and his wife, Sally Kestin, met with Steve Keeble, a former executive at Thomson Reuters. Keeble offered to put up seed funding to turn the idea into something real: an online news presence built on the brains and firepower of their friends from the news business. Gremillion agreed, and they got to work.

As Keeble, Gremillion and Kestin sheltered in place, they began workshopping ideas. They met with local news leaders to assess the current media landscape.

They created a network of volunteer editors and sought out freelance reporters. And they carefully studied materials from the Institute for Nonprofit News to learn exactly what it would take to build a nonprofit news organization.

Their site, AVL Watchdog, launched last month, joining hundreds of nonprofit news startups emerging across the United States. As traditional for-profit news outlets face shrinking advertising revenues, staff cuts and consolidation, nonprofit news sources are exploring whether their model may be part of the solution in a changing media landscape.

“We always say we’re just trying to bring more journalism to Asheville,” explains Gremillion, who now manages newsroom operations and partner relations for AVL Watchdog. “We’re trying to supplement journalism in Asheville.

We’re not taking shots at anybody.”

ASSESSING THE TRENDS It’s no secret that news outlets are on the decline. Traditional newspapers,

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MAY 27 - JUNE 2, 2020

FILLING IN GAPS

STARTING SMALL: Steve Keeble, left, Bob Gremillion, right, and Sally Kestin, bottom, hold a virtual AVL Watchdog management meeting. The news nonprofit launched last month to provide longform, investigative reporting for local readers.

Photo courtesy of Bob Gremillion following a business model that relies on selling advertisements to finance the cost of printing and distribution, are struggling to find their footing as more and more news outlets go digital.

Since 2004, the United States has lost more than 60 daily newspapers and 1,700 weekly publications, according to research conducted at UNC Chapel Hill on news deserts. Print circulation dropped 38% between 2004 and 2019, and data collected by the Pew Research Center shows the number of newspaper employees has declined by more than half from 2008 to 2019. A different Pew study noted only 14% of adult Americans have paid for print or online news within the last year.

In stark contrast, nonprofit newsrooms have been launching at a pace of more than one a month in the United States for almost 12 years, according to an Institute of Nonprofit News report that surveyed over 100 nonprofit news outlets in the spring of 2019. Since 2008, the number of digital newsroom staff has

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more than doubled, from 7,400 workers to more than 16,000 in 2019.

Unlike for-profit media, a nonprofit news model generally does not depend on advertising revenue to support its work, explains Sue Cross, the executive director and CEO of the Institute for Nonprofit News. Nonprofit organizations are taxed on any income received that is unrelated to the nonprofit’s mission.

Advertisements fall into this category of unrelated business income, and too much of it can cause a nonprofit to lose its tax-exempt status.

By drawing income from a diverse stream of sources — including foundation funding, grants, individual donations and earned revenue from events, trainings and other initiatives — nonprofit news organizations are positioned to be more sustainable long-term, Cross says.

Roughly half of all nonprofit newsrooms market themselves as national or global news outlets, per the 2019 INN study. Statewide newsrooms, which generally cover a variety of subjects over a broader geographic spread, and local newsrooms, typically reporting on events and issues in their communities, each constitute a quarter of news nonprofits.

Editorial needs vary from community to community, Cross explains. When an organization relies on community support and donations, remaining focused on a specialized goal is crucial, be it

When COVID-19 hit North Carolina, the team at 103.3 Asheville FM jumped into gear. The community station, known for its extensive music programming, reassessed the lineup to bring the community a broader mix of news, talk shows, Spanish-language programming and music sets.

Asheville FM is a nonprofit community radio station that draws roughly 10,000 weekly listeners, explains K.P. Whaley, general manager. Unlike for-profit stations, which Whaley says he’s seen conduct layoffs and furloughs when they stop bringing in money, Asheville FM runs on a network of more than 100 volunteer journalists. Per the station’s most recent tax documents, over 60% of its revenue comes from contributions, grants and gifts. The rest comes from underwriting sponsorships by local businesses, Whaley says.

“A lot of for-profit media, even in Western North Carolina, is operating on reduced staff and are unable to provide coverage when we absolutely need it the most,” Whaley says. “But we haven’t lost anything. In fact, we’ve exponentially expanded our coverage for the community and in providing that information when we need it the most.”

With routines upended by COVID-19, Whaley sees the community searching for varied programming as a break from constant news about the pandemic. He’s made it a priority to provide listeners with music shows, meditation segments and a story hour for children.

Blue Ridge Public Radio, which became a fully qualified public radio station in 1986, serves 13 counties in Western North Carolina and parts of north Georgia. The station runs two channels, BPR News and BPR Classic, and draws more than 85,000 listeners weekly.

David Feingold, who has served as BPR’s general manager since 2015, views the station’s nonprofit business model as a way to support its mission to expand

“Every person I know and respect working in the news industry is concerned about how people will stay informed about what’s happening in their own communities, state and nation.”

— Angie Newsome, Carolina Public Press listeners’ horizons through new perspectives and an interchange of ideas.

As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, BPR receives most of its funding from listeners, with a growing proportion coming from local businesses and institutions, Feingold says. The station doesn’t have the resources to cover every piece of breaking news, he explains, which means the team can focus on the kinds of information community members have said they need and want.

“For us, public radio tends to be a gaps-oriented enterprise focus,” Feingold says. “It’s where, for us, we don’t have the people to be a journal of record, so we have to make a choice of what we can and can’t cover.”

To illustrate ways the station is filling critical gaps in coverage, Feingold cited areas of specialization among BPR staff, including a bilingual morning host with strong connections within the Latinx community, an afternoon host who’s an established health and science reporter, and one of the state’s only arts and culture public radio journalists.

In its examination of local news gaps, AVL Watchdog saw a need for longer, in-depth pieces, Gremillion explains.

Most of the new group’s seven volunteer editors come from print media backgrounds and therefore understand the challenge of marshaling the resources to report and edit long-form articles.

“If you look at anything on our website, you’ll see that they are long stories,” Gremillion says. “Other media may or may not have that option, but we decided to go in that direction because it doesn’t cost anything extra online to print a 3,000-word story versus a 1,000word story.”

STATEWIDE SUCCESSES North Carolina native and former Citizen Times reporter Angie Newsome first began following the rise of digital-first nonprofit news organizations in the late 2000s. The news-first, community-first, public service-first mentality matched her motivations to become a journalist, she writes in an email exchange with Xpress. The model fit, and in 2011 she formally launched Carolina Public Press, with a mission to provide independent, in-depth and investigative news for Western North Carolina. In 2018, the organization expanded statewide.

The team at Carolina Public Press spends “nearly 100% of our time thinking about and trying to report and produce news that adds to the news ecosystem,” Newsome says, whether that’s asking another question, providing more public information or shedding light on topics that need examination. Recent projects include a statewide investigation into the prosecution of sexual assault cases and coverage of the coronavirus in North Carolina nursing homes.

Newsome wishes there was a playbook that could guarantee success regarding what works and what doesn’t for every nonprofit news organization. Some practices work better than others, she says, but there are dozens of specific factors to consider, from revenues to operations to financial oversight.

“Every person I know and respect working in the news industry is concerned about how people will stay informed about what’s happening in their own communities, state and nation,” Newsome says. “The people I look up to the most are prepared with business plans, are trying to think and act thoughtfully about news needs, and are highly concerned about and committed to the communities they serve.”

The most successful new media groups are those that are well-versed in change management, says Mebane Rash, the editor-in-chief of EdNC, a North Carolina nonprofit news organization covering education policy.

“Newsrooms need to be built in a way that they are very able to adapt and iterate to changing circumstances, whether that’s what needs to be covered, funding streams or staffing,” Rash explains. “All of it is about change management. And I think the folks that we see leading the way are really good at that. They are not wed to even their own one model of it.

They know that everything is going to always be changing.”

the Institute for Nonprofit News. These organizations — like EdNC — draw from foundations that have a mission to support journalism and from foundations dedicated to advancing public awareness or work in a given topic area.

Individual and family donations make up nearly 40% of the revenue going to nonprofit news organizations nationally, Cross notes.

Blue Ridge Public Radio draws the majority of its revenue from listener, business and corporate support, as well as some grant funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, according to its most recent tax documents. The station was in the middle of its spring fund drive when the pandemic hit but made the decision to continue asking for donations — because now, more than ever, BPR is providing vital information to listeners, Feingold says.

“We all know when there’s an economic downturn, everyone gets hurt,” he explains. “But we’ve made ourselves strong over the last few years. For a nonprofit, we’ve built up a reserve, built up our endowment and operate very leanly.”

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MONEY DICTATES CHOICES Journalism-focused philanthropy has nearly quadrupled since 2009, according to a report by Media Impact Funders. In 2017, over 1,200 funders contributed over $255 million in journalism grants to 925 organizations.

Most foundation funding is available to news publications that cover a single topic or set of related topics, says Cross of MOUNTAINX.COM

MAY 27 - JUNE 2, 2020

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N EWS

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ASHEVILLE TUNES IN: Helen Chickering, host of ‘All Things Considered’ on Blue Ridge Public Radio, records her program in BPR’s main control room. Nonprofit news organizations, including BPR, help fill gaps left by shrinking news coverage across the region. Photo courtesy of Blue Ridge Public Radio In the wake of COVID-19, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting distributed $75 million in federal stimulus funding to local affiliate public radio and television stations across the United States. BPR will receive $112,136 of this funding.

Because Asheville FM is not a public radio station, the station won’t get any federal support of this size, Whaley explains. Like other nonprofits with fewer funding and grant opportunities, it relies heavily on the community for financial support. “Times like this could be very devastating for small operations like ours,” he says.

AN UNCERTAIN FUTURE North Carolinians deserve access to reliable, insightful, trustworthy news, Newsome says. The more people devoted to that, the better.

Prior to AVL Watchdog’s launch, the team met with several local media groups to offer coverage of stories that other reporters didn’t have time to get to. “We’re trying to be additive and do whatever we can to supplement what’s going on,” Gremillion says.

Carolina Public Press, EdNC, AVL Watchdog and a number of other sites offer their work to other for- and nonprofit outlets across the state for reproduction. “Being able to supplement our ongoing coverage of Western North Carolina’s news, arts and culture with stories that we wouldn’t otherwise have the resources to take on allows us to offer more to our readers. It’s a wonderful service,” says Virginia Daffron, managing editor at Mountain Xpress. At the same

time, she notes, Xpress recognizes the importance of carefully reviewing and vetting any content it republishes.

For Asheville FM and Blue Ridge Public Radio, partnerships with other news organizations are key. BPR’s default model is collaborative, Feingold says, and can be seen in one-on-one on-air interviews with local print journalists to discuss their reporting. He also points to in-person events held in conjunction with other news organizations, allowing reporters to connect with and learn from one another’s audiences. Asheville FM works closely with JMPROTV, a nonprofit organization that provides Spanish-language programming, and with Carolina Public Press.

“I’m seeing this partnership in all areas in Asheville,” Whaley says. “It’s not just in the media landscape, but I do feel like people in organizations are leveraging other organizations and helping them while helping themselves. Like they say, we’re stronger together.”

But cooperation can only do so much when facing an uncertain future. Much will depend on community support and on which organizations prove resilient in the face of a volatile economy. “A lot of news organizations are unfortunately in survival mode,” Feingold says.

Nonprofit newsrooms were poised for success, Cross says, but no one was prepared for the changes brought by COVID-19. “We’re seeing increasing numbers of displaced journalists and at the same time we’re hearing from community leaders seeing news go away and are wanting to figure out their options to keep news in the community,” she says.

“It’s going to change a lot of things.” X

by Daniel Walton

dwalton@mountainx.com

Rooms without boards

now hopes the commission will be able to resume its work in June.

Similar pressures face the Multimodal Transportation Commission, says member and City Council candidate Rich Lee. Policies such as closing streets to allow more outdoor retail and dining space, as was recently passed in Hendersonville, would benefit from open public discussion in meetings that are currently not allowed.

“Our coordination with city staff and the public is limited, even as we’re dealing with time pressure from the state beginning to allow stores and restaurants to reopen with social distancing restrictions still in place,” explains Lee. The absence of meetings has also blunted longer-term planning efforts. Mike McCue, who chairs the Buncombe County Library Board, says all of his board’s goal-setting and strategic work is postponed; the libraries themselves remain closed to the public, with limited curbside service available at four of 13 locations.

Local government advisory groups hindered during COVID-19 In the political sausage factory that is local government, boards and commissions might be thought of as health inspectors.

These citizen groups, appointed by elected city and county officials to give advice on specific areas such as affordable housing, homelessness and transit, scrutinize new proposals and provide structured public oversight of behind-the-scenes staff.

Since March 16, however, most of the sausage coming out of Asheville and Buncombe County has gone unchecked. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, both city and county governments canceled all board and commission meetings — including those conducted electronically or by phone — until further notice.

That means citizens have largely been shut out of formal policy discussions as Asheville City Council and the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners manage the tandem economic and public health crises caused by the coronavirus. Boards and commissions have also been unable to voice new input on local government budgets, which have seen drastic cuts to planned spending since the advisory groups submitted requests earlier in the year.

Asheville City Council member Julie Mayfield says the cancellations have taken away one of the city’s key tools for better decision-making. “Staff is continuing to move much of what would come through these bodies, but the lack of meetings and discussion means Council is more disconnected [from] the work than I like,” she explains. “A lot of ideas and issues get worked out at the commission and committee level that will now get worked out at Council — or perhaps not worked out in the same way.”

SAFETY FIRST City and county staff members say they decided to cancel board and commission meetings to avoid public gatherings, thereby reducing the risk of COVID-19 transmission. But remote meetings, which do not carry the same public health risk, were also paused indefinitely.

Buncombe spokesperson Kassi Day says remote meetings were included in the closure “to allow for time to develop appropriate and reasonable methods to comply with statutory requirements regarding open meetings of public bodies.” Because boards and commissions are officially appointed by government leaders, they must follow the same state open meetings law that also governs elected officials.

SCREENED OUT: While some public boards, such as the Buncombe County Tourism Development Authority and Greater Asheville Regional Airport Authority, have met remotely under COVID-19 gathering restrictions, most Asheville and Buncombe County boards and commissions have canceled all meetings — including virtual discussions — since March 16. Graphic by Getty Images Polly McDaniel, a spokesperson for the city of Asheville, adds that North Carolina statutes contained no explicit legal framework for remote meetings until May 4. On that date, Gov. Roy Cooper signed such guidance into law as part of the COVID-19 Recovery Act developed by the state Senate.

Yet a March 13 analysis by Frayda Bluestein, a professor with the UNC School of Government, suggests that the city and county may have been overly conservative in their approach. “I believe the risk of a violation of the open meetings law is low in this situation,” she wrote in a post for Coates’ Canons. “Although someone might file a lawsuit, I think a court would consider [electronic meetings] to be a reasonable response to the public health and safety needs at this time.”

And at least two local boards to which local governments appoint members did go ahead with remote meetings before May 4. The Greater Asheville Regional Airport Authority met virtually on April 3, while the Buncombe County Tourism Development Authority met twice in April via the online platform Zoom.

“The BCTDA reviewed the business that would be conducted at both meetings and determined that the majority of the meeting was reporting, not calling for significant action from the board,” says Explore Asheville spokesperson Kathi Petersen. “As a result, the BCTDA made the decision to go ahead and hold a remote meeting that the public could attend (including taking public

comment) so that typical reporting could continue for the sake of transparency.”

“As independent entities, they have made their own decisions on the conduct of meetings,” says McDaniel, when asked why the city’s approach to remote participation was different from that of the airport and TDA. WHAT’S LEFT UNSAID The same COVID-19 emergency that led boards and commissions to be canceled, says Sage Turner, also makes their absence more of a concern. The City Council candidate chairs Asheville’s Downtown Commission and serves as vice chair for the Affordable Housing Advisory Committee, both of which have missed two regular monthly meetings thus far.

“In many ways, it’s meant not being there as best we can for our downtown businesses, residents and greater community during its hardest times,” Turner says. “It’s meant worrying about downtown being the center of a possible resurgence and not feeling nimble and able to plan or respond accordingly, or to come together on needed initiatives like mask collaboration and reopening strategies.”

Turner adds that city staff denied her late-May request to hold a special Downtown Commission meeting for a discussion of public space and safety as Asheville moves into Phase 2 of the state’s three-phase reopening plan. She

THROUGH THE GRAPEVINE Nevertheless, some members of public boards and commissions have found ways to work on issues outside of the formal process. MMTC chair Michael Stratton says his commission is using a “hub and spoke email model” to avoid simultaneous communication with a majority of members, which would technically qualify as a meeting under state law.

“It has been cumbersome; however, we believe the extra effort to remain engaged has already yielded positive results,” Stratton says. “Despite our temporary disbanding, members of City Council have been responsive to our questions and recommendations and have made assurances that meetings will resume as soon as both legal and health logistics have been worked out.”

Turner says she’s also limited her conversations to one commission member at a time as she moves forward with downtown advocacy. Promoting the 2020 Downtown Business Census, fundraising for the One Buncombe Fund and discussing public safety with the Asheville Police Department, she says, all continue to take place.

Sandra Kilgore, a Council candidate and member of Asheville’s Planning and Zoning Commission, says she continues to receive and review information for development projects in the city’s pipeline. She emphasizes that, in the time of COVID-19, her focus is safety. She believes her commission has made the right decision in delaying its meetings.

“Of course, if it becomes something longer, where we do need to address some of these other issues coming up in Planning

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BUNCOMBE BEAT

N EWS and Zoning, we need to take measures to address those issues,” Kilgore continues.

“But right now, I think it’s too early to feel like we need to make adjustments.”

And Buncombe County Commissioner Joe Belcher believes both members of boards and commissions and general citizens haven’t shied away from contacting elected officials during the COVID-19 crisis.

“I’m still getting as much or more — probably more — emails regarding core services that we’re trying to make sure are moving,” he says.

MONEY MOVES Perhaps the biggest pieces of local government business on which boards and commissions regularly weigh in are the Asheville and Buncombe County annual budgets.

This year, those spending plans have been under unprecedented strain. Buncombe, for example, is projecting a 10% year-over-year decline in sales tax revenue for 2020-21, a drop of nearly $3.5 million.

Mayfield notes that Council received all budget requests before its mid-March retreat. Although she admits that the fiscal situation has changed substantially since then, she believes the lack of board and commission meetings hasn’t mattered much to the budget process: “With no money to do anything new, any new requests would be moot now anyway,” she suggests.

Others disagree. “Without committee input, millions of dollars of CARES Act funding are flowing into our city budget with less opportunity for community engagement and oversight,” says city Transit Committee member and Council candidate Kim Roney. “Our neighbors volunteering on the Human Relations Commission must be invited to lend their expertise in applying an equity lens to process and funding when COVID-19 has amplified inequities in our society and community.”

Nicole Townsend, who serves on the HRC and is running alongside Roney for Council, says she’s particularly disappointed that her commission is unable to advocate collectively on higher wages for the lowest-paid city staff. The issue recently attracted attention thanks to Asheville’s firefighters, who claim they’ve been unfairly excluded from city pay policies.

“I believe we could have been an advocate alongside city staff and community members that are fighting every day to ensure that everyone working for the city receives a

minimum of $15 an hour regardless of their job title,” Townsend says.

Council member Keith Young, however, says those seeking more from the city may need to temper their expectations in light of the pandemic. Young, who is also running for reelection, notes that he scrapped a property tax increase he and Mayfield previously proposed to fund climate-related initiatives.

“You would be foolish to think that it’s just business as usual — ‘All right, pandemic’s over, we can continue to ask for the exact same things we asked for before,’” Young says. “I’m not saying don’t advocate for it, and I’m not saying I’m not for it. I’m just saying we have to have a bit of prudence and realize there have been some significant hits to our budget.”

BACK TO WORK As North Carolina continues to relax its COVID-19 restrictions, both Asheville and Buncombe County officials say that boards and commissions will soon be able to resume operations. According to Day with the county, any group that can conduct remote meetings in accordance with state law is allowed to operate at its own discretion after checking in with county legal staff. But Buncombe leaders have not set a uniform date for boards to restart meetings, nor have they indicated when in-person meetings might resume.

Meanwhile, McDaniel says Asheville is taking a phased approach to virtual meetings, all of which will be held through the city’s new public engagement hub, throughout June and July. “Meetings that deal with time-sensitive matters or some other legal deadline or right will begin first,” she explains. “This will allow city staff to manage the tremendous workload of coordinating the technology, training the users and facilitating the meetings themselves.”

In-person meetings, McDaniel adds, will only resume once the city deems conditions “sufficiently safe” within state and county public health guidelines. She did not offer a timeline for when those conditions might be met.

“The cycle of life is going to be really interesting in the next six months to six years to see how we recover, not only as a city but as a nation,” Young says. “We’re going to need people’s input, but we’re also going to need people to look at the numbers with us and put politics aside.” X

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Local school budgets face ‘greatest emergency’ in COVID-19

LONG WAY DOWN: Since 2013, the Buncombe County school district has spent over $13.5 million of its fund balance. The system now projects a deficit for the current fiscal year. Graphic courtesy of Buncombe County Due to COVID-19, the Buncombe County school district is sending its budget into the red. As Superintendent Tony Baldwin explained to the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners during a May 19 pre-meeting, the system’s pandemic response has completely exhausted its $4.6 million rainy day fund — and the schools now project a $2.1 million deficit by the end of the fiscal year.

“Our fund balance, as is yours, is there for emergency purposes,” Baldwin said.

“This has been, certainly from my career standpoint, the greatest emergency that we’ve seen.”

Baldwin’s fiscal year 2020-21 budget request to the commissioners did not include additional money to fill that hole.

Instead, he said the schools had identified $2.1 million in unspecified “cost strategies” that would be used to replenish the fund balance. Baldwin did ask for roughly $1.49 million above last year’s county allocation of $68.22 million, a boost of about 2.2%, to cover increases in employee health care and retirement costs.

The superintendent also anticipated aid from the federal government but said Buncombe had yet to see any of that money. “We’re so anxious to see the Marines hit the beach, or the cavalry come in on the white horses, with those federal funds, because we’re going to be highly dependent on them,” Baldwin said.

(On May 21, the N.C. State Board of Education announced its plans to distribute $396 million in federal COVID19 funds during an emergency meeting.

Buncombe County Schools will receive roughly $5.66 million, while Asheville City Schools will receive nearly $878,000.)

Bobbie Short, interim superintendent of Asheville City Schools, said her orga-

nization also regarded COVID-19 as its “greatest present challenge.” While she did not expect ACS to completely spend its reserves, she noted that the system anticipates using $1.6 million of its fund balance to support operations next fiscal year. Last year, ACS appropriated $3.3 million in general fund balance from a total reserve of $6.5 million.

For fiscal 2020-21, Short requested an additional $1.17 million over the county’s $26.11 million allocation for the current fiscal year, an increase of about 4.5%. The bulk of that money, as with the Buncombe system, would go toward employee health care and retirement.

However, nearly $196,000 would be used to bolster the salaries of 99 teacher assistants, who currently make between $21,000 and $28,000 annually.

“When you talk about the opportunity gap, it focuses on our own employees,” Short said, noting that housing in the city costs nearly 51% more than comparable housing in Winston-Salem and nearly 32% more than in Durham. “How can we expect anyone to live in Asheville when you make $21,000 a year?”

At the end of Short’s presentation, incoming Superintendent Gene Freeman, who will take over on Monday, June 1, offered a potential spot of hope for a future ACS budget. If the schools did not see “substantial improvement” over the five years he plans to spend with the system, Freeman said, “I’ll write you a check for my last year’s salary.” His contract with ACS sets a base salary of $150,000 per year.

“We’re going to hold you to that,” remarked Commissioner Al Whitesides.

— Daniel Walton X

COVID CONVERSATIONS

FEA T U RE S

Sheltering at home, it’s hard to envision what other members of our community are experiencing during this strange time. Even if we could imagine the struggle of a parent trying to care for children while working from home or the isolation of a single older person or the anxieties swirling in the mind of a small-business owner, hearing directly from our neighbors is always more interesting and powerful than anything we could invent.

Condolences The life of a funeral director during COVID-19

And so we continue COVID Conversations, a series of short features based on interviews with members of our community during the coronavirus pandemic in Western North Carolina. For previous articles, visit mountainx.com. If you or someone you know has a unique story you think should be featured in a future issue of Xpress, please let us know at news@mountainx.com.

Wheels go round ART driver feels the stress of COVID-19 changes As 2020 began, the Asheville Rides Transit bus system was gearing up for new routes, increased hours and enhancements to the city’s downtown bus station.

But by early April, the bus system, like many areas of public life, was making drastic changes to stem the spread of COVID-19. Buses began operating fare-free to protect drivers and passengers alike. Three routes were temporarily reduced or eliminated due to staffing issues, and fewer drivers shared more of the workload.

“The No. 1 thing that has increased with the drivers — and I’m sure with the passengers as well — is stress,” says Diane Allen, who has worked as a city bus operator in Asheville for 14 years.

A new social distancing policy caps the number of passengers to nine, down from as many as 35 people seated and standing. Allen says that while the new protocol does increase safety, it has also strained relations between riders and drivers.

“You have people trying to shove their way on to be that ninth passenger, and it causes even more tension if they can’t get on the bus,” she explains.

“People are stuck and have to wait another hour, or even an hour and a half, for another bus.”

Allen, the president of the local union that represents Asheville’s bus drivers, says she and other ART employees have been provided with hand sanitizer, masks and gloves. Shields that separate drivers and passengers have also been installed.

While she doesn’t fear for her own safety, Allen says she does worry about bringing COVID-19 home to her husband, who has a lung condition. So far,

HOPEFUL SUGGESTION: Scott Groce, funeral director at Groce Funeral Home & Cremation Service, prefers that clients wear masks while attending services at his facility. “But we’re not going to make you do it,” he says. “We’re hopeful the suggestion will help.” Photo by Thomas Calder

RISING TENSION: “The No. 1 thing that has increased with the drivers — and I’m sure with the passengers as well — is stress,” says Diane Allen, who has worked as a city bus operator in Asheville for 14 years. Photo courtesy of Allen no drivers have tested positive for the disease; her focus for now, she says, is adjusting to new protocols.

“I think that now it’s just trying to grow accustomed to the new norm, just like everybody else,” Allen says.

“Social distancing on a moving vehicle that doesn’t have much space in it anyway is difficult, but we’re managing the best that we can.”

— Brooke Randle X

These days, Scott Groce advises his staff to keep their hands in their pockets. It helps remind everyone that handshakes are no longer the right way to greet grieving guests at Groce Funeral Home & Cremation Service.

The transition hasn’t been easy.

“By nature, we are trained to be caring and compassionate,” the funeral director explains. “Not only in words but also in demeanor and in action. One of the greatest compliments that we can get from a family is to have somebody actually hug us when we’re finished meeting with them. … That’s something we’re not able to do right now.”

Face coverings create new challenges, as well. Condolences are not as easily conveyed with a mask on, Groce notes. Gauging a client’s response to service proposals is also trickier when you can’t read an individual’s facial expression.

Meanwhile, several elderly clients with hearing issues have had difficulty understanding Groce and other masked colleagues. “A lot of the older folks rely on watching someone’s mouth,” he explains. “It’s a challenging situation because we’re trying to keep them safe by wearing these masks, but then they can’t hear anything we’re saying without us really yelling at them.”

The pandemic has also altered how services are conducted. While most families have delayed memori-

als amid current restrictions, several have opted for smaller, private burials. In such instances, many of these services have been livestreamed.

“That’s helped bring in the extended family and also the community,” Groce says, adding that the virtual option offers closure to those unable to attend.

Other clients have used the stay home, stay safe mandate as an opportunity to forgo standard conventions.

“It’s kind of the norm of society to have visitations, when honestly some families don’t feel comfortable with them,” Groce says. “But people think there is an expectation that this is what folks want them to do and what they’re supposed to do.”

No matter a client’s preference, Groce and his staff continue to work with grieving families from a safe social distance. But as with all things COVID-related, this too has created unique challenges.

“If someone comes at you, and they’ve got their hand out saying, ‘I really appreciate what you did for our family,’ you almost can’t look at them and say, ‘I can’t shake your hand,’” Groce reveals. “And there have been times where people have insisted on a handshake and you do it. And then you immediately go wash your hands.

That’s the best we can do right now.”

MOUNTAINX.COM

— Thomas Calder X

MAY 27 - JUNE 2, 2020

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FEA T U RE S

by Thomas Calder | tcalder@mountainx.com

Pandemic pregnancy

‘Parents need not fear’

Couple quarantine while awaiting first child

City health officials respond to the 1948 polio outbreak

Asheville resident Ruth Pike-Elliot is expecting her first baby, a boy, June 4.

Like other pregnant women, she’s considered at greater risk of getting sick from respiratory viruses and has continued to quarantine at home, which has led to “a complete roller coaster” of emotions.

“On the one hand, [quarantine has been] really nice. On the other hand, it’s really awful,” Pike-Elliot says. “I’ve really missed people celebrating that I’m pregnant, bringing by little gifts and feeling part of that community of other pregnant people and postpartum people.”

The mom-to-be has been able to connect with her doctors through telehealth, and she and her wife, Bren, have enjoyed virtual baby showers with friends and family, though the typical games and traditions didn’t always translate. The isolation has also allowed the couple to focus on self-care and deepening the bonds between their baby and each other.

“There are fewer distractions. I have felt very strong inner connections to the baby and to Bren,” she says. “It’s been nice to kind of go deep and inward.”

As a physical therapist, Pike-Elliot knows the power of touch and says that belly rubs from friends and family are one of the things she has missed most about being pregnant during the pandemic.

“It feels surreal to have another human growing inside your body. And yes, people can see the bump, but they don’t realize he’s alive,” she explains.

“When someone can put their hands on you and say, ‘I feel him,’ I think it just really brings it to life. It’s the connection between that person and the reality of this new human.”

— Brooke Randle X

PROS AND CONS: Ruth Pike-Elliot, right, and her wife, Bren, are expecting their first child on June 4. Quarantining during a pregnancy presents obvious challenges, says Pike-Elliot.

But the couple have also discovered many benefits in the process. Photo courtesy of Pike-Elliot

Mountain Xpress presents

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

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

Available at stands everywhere 16

MAY 27 - JUNE 2, 2020

MOUNTAINX.COM

In June 1948, concern was mounting among North Carolina health officials.

Statewide, 51 new cases of polio had been reported over the previous month, doubling the year’s total count to 102. An Associated Press story featured in the June 6 edition of The Asheville Citizen put the information into perspective: “North Carolina’s usual average is from 80 to 100 cases during an entire year.”

Still, the report continued, “Health officials said it is too early to determine whether the state is to be faced with another major polio epidemic such as the ones which occurred in 1935 and 1944.”

By June 21, infection rates doubled yet again to 203. At the time, Asheville maintained a clean bill of health, though two cases were reported in Buncombe County — that of a 24-year-old World War II veteran and a 10-year-old girl from Weaverville.

Soon thereafter, Asheville’s luck and outlook changed when two cases were discovered within city limits. On June 29, 1948, The Asheville Citizen wrote that in the wake of this news, Dr. Margery J. Lord, city health officer, reported a series of phone calls “from distressed parents who report to her that ‘there are 10 — or 20 — or 30 — cases in town and that no one will admit it.’”

Lord maintained that there were only two cases, insisting “there is no intention on the part of health officials to ‘hide anything.’”

In the following day’s edition of The Asheville Citizen, the paper tried its hand at calming the city’s tense residents.

“Poliomyelitis, the crippling children’s disease, actually attacks and harms very few children,” the paper stated. “Of course, it is not to be taken lightly. But it should not cause near-panic in some families — as is unfortunately the case in Asheville[.]”

To further assuage anxious parents, the paper offered comparative data about polio, whooping cough and diphtheria. According to the report, the city had recorded 17 polio cases, resulting in one related death over the previous five years. Meanwhile, in that same time span, Asheville saw 44 cases of diphtheria and 748 cases of whooping cough, resulting in two and seven deaths, respectively.

In addition to these numbers, the paper ran an excerpt from a recent

EPIDEMIC: In 1948, a polio epidemic spread across North Carolina. Initial numbers were low in Asheville, but cases soon surged. This photo shows David Hensley of High Point; the town is located between Winston-Salem and Greensboro. Photo courtesy of The High Point Enterprise article published “in a popular magazine.” Written by Dr. Frank Howard Richardson (whom The Asheville Citizen described as a “nationally famous Black Mountain pediatrician”), the piece cautioned against “poliophobia.” In it, Richardson wrote: “It is wise to exercise precautions, but most unwise to frighten a child concerning a disease. Parents need not fear that actual cases will be kept secret; all known cases are reported and the information is published in the newspapers, as it is in other matters of public health. A fear of disease can in the long run be as damaging as the disease.”

Despite all attempts to mitigate concerns, residents remained alarmed, especially as the number of local cases continued to increase throughout the following month.

Editor’s note: This is the first of an ongoing series exploring the 1948 polio outbreak. Punctuation and spelling are preserved from the original documents. X

COMMUNITY CALENDAR MAY 27 - JUNE 4, 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.

MUSIC A CAPELLA SINGING (PD.) WANNA SING? ashevillebarbershop. com WEDNESDAY, MAY 27 • West African Drumming and Dance for Kids, 12:30pm, Online, avl.mx/71v THURSDAY, MAY 28 • Flood Gallery Virtual Open Mic, 6:00pm, Online, avl.mx/72g FRIDAY, MAY 29 • West African Music, Culture, and Language for Adults, 12:30pm, Online, avl.mx/71v SATURDAY, MAY 30 • LaZoom: What’s Up Your Asheville?, 5:00pm, Online, avl.mx/71s • The Black Mountain Experimental Film and Music Festival, 6:00pm, avl.mx/72g TUESDAY, JUNE 2 • LEAF Global Arts: Percussion Class using Household Objects w/ Agustin Frederic, Online, 9:30am, avl.mx/71v WEDNESDAY, JUNE 3 • Second First Annual Deadly Pandemic Comedy Short Competition, One Stop at Asheville Music Hall, 5:00pm, avl.mx/75x

ART WEDNESDAY, MAY 27 • 310ART Gallery: Break Out Voice: A Live Online Workshop w/ Eric Scott, 7pm, Online, avl.mx/75c SATURDAY, MAY 30 • 310ART Gallery: Family & Friends Paint Along, 7pm, Online, avl.mx/75e TUESDAY, JUNE 2 • 310ART Gallery: Family & Friends Paint Along, 3pm, Online, avl.mx/75e WEDNESDAY, JUNE 3 • 310ART Gallery: Break Out Voice: A Live Workshop w/ Eric Scott, 7pm, Online, avl.mx/75c

• 310ART Gallery: Practicing Magic: The Visual Journal, 1pm, Online, avl.mx/75d THURSDAY, JUNE 4 • 310ART Gallery: Collage Self Portraits, 7pm, Online, avl.mx/75f

FILM SATURDAY, MAY 30 • The Black Mountain Experimental Film and Music Festival, 6pm, Online, avl.mx/72g

ART GALLERY EXHIBITIONS ONGOING • AVL Gallery of Art: Time to Create May Group Show, 12pm, Online, avl.mx/74v

CLASSES, MEETINGS & EVENTS Empyrean Arts Online Live Classes (PD.) The physical studio is closed for now but we are offering some of our regular class offerings online - Go to our website at EMPYREANARTS. ORG, create a new student account, then purchase and sign up for classes.

WEDNESDAY, MAY 27 • Dream Cafe w/ Bernard Welt: Weekly Guided Dream-Sharing Hangout, 9am, Click link for additional time, Online, avl.mx/74h • Online Virtual Shamanic Journey Circle, 6:30pm, Online, dreamtimejourneys. net/ THURSDAY, MAY 28 • Leadership Asheville Summer Buzz Webinar: Shifting Leadership Mindsets to Find Opportunities in Change, 8:30am, Online, avl.mx/75p • MountainTrue Webinar: Solar 101 for Faith Communities,

6pm, Online, mountaintrue.org

9am, SATURDAYS, 340 Victoria RD

FRIDAY, MAY 29 • Ask a Scientist w/ AMOS, 11:30am, Online, facebook.com/ Asheville.Science/ • Discussion on Appalachia with author Lesly MarieBuer, 6:30pm, Online, bit.ly/2Zn3umH • Dream Cafe w/ Bernard Welt: Weekly Guided Dream-Sharing Hangout, 11am, Online, avl.mx/74h • Firestorm Books Virtual Chat: RX Appalachia w/ Author Lesly-Marie Buer, 6:30pm, E-mail venue@firestorm.coop to RSVP w/'Rx Appalachia' in subject line, Online, avl.mx/75u • World Cinema w/ Flood Gallery, 6pm, Online, avl.mx/72g

THURSDAY, MAY 28 • The Edible Essay: Writing a Culinary Memoir w/ Recipes, 8pm, Online, revolveavl.org/ home-school

SATURDAY, MAY 30 • Graduation 2020 Drive Thru Celebration & Parking Lot Party Honoring High School & College Grads w/ Slay the Mic, 4pm, Smoothie King, 1578 Hendersonville Rd, Asheville TUESDAY, JUNE 2 • Making Fish Sauce, Fish Fertilizers, and Garums, 5 pm, Living Web Farms, 176 Kimzey Road, Mills River • MountainTrue Forest Plan Info Session: Invasive Species, 5:30pm, Online, avl.mx/747 WEDNESDAY, JUNE 3 • Dream Cafe w/ Bernard Welt: Weekly Guided Dream-Sharing Hangout, 9am, Online, avl.mx/74h • League of Women Voters Asheville-Buncombe Forum: Does Your Vote Count? The Impact of Gerrymandering, 6pm, Event limited to 100 participants, registration required, Online, avl.mx/75t THURSDAY, JUNE 4 • Sierra Club Webinar: Electric Vehicles – The Future is Now, 7pm, Online, avl.mx/75z FRIDAY, JUNE 5 • Dream Cafe w/ Bernard Welt: Weekly Guided Dream-Sharing Hangout, 11am, Online, avl.mx/74h

FOOD & BEER ONGOING • ASAP Farmer's Market at A-B Tech,

FRIDAY, MAY 29 • Weekly Zoom Guided Beer Tastings w/ The Whale AVL, 5pm, Online, facebook.com/ TheWhaleAVL

SPIRITUALITY Astro-Counseling (PD.) Licensed counselor and accredited professional astrologer uses your chart when counseling for additional insight into yourself, your relationships and life directions. Stellar Counseling

Services. Christy Gunther, MA, LPC. (828) 258-3229.

ONGOING • Sunday Celebration Service w/ Jubilee Church, 9:30pm, Online, jubileecommunity.org • Weekly Online Stream: Jewish Power Hour w/ Rabbi Susskind, 6pm, Online, chabadasheville.org

VOLUNTEERING Free Books through Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library!

(PD.) All children under the age of five are eligible to receive a brand-new, age-appropriate book each month mailed directly to their home. Enroll online/ more info at www.litcouncil.com or

imaginationlibrary. com. Free.

THURSDAY, MAY 28 • Tranzmission Prison Project, 6pm, Firestorm Books & Coffee, 610 Haywood Rd WEDNESDAY, JUNE 3 • 12 Baskets Cafe Volunteer Orientation, 10:30am, 12 Baskets Cafe, 610 Haywood Rd

TUESDAY, JUNE 2 • MetroWines & Chef Sam Etheridge: The Whole Package Bistro Burger Pickup Night, 5pm, Vegetarian options available, preorder meals by calling 828-575-9525, Metro Wines, 169 Charlotte St. FRIDAY, JUNE 5 • Weekly Zoom Guided Beer Tastings w/ The Whale AVL, 5pm, Online, facebook.com/ TheWhaleAVL

KIDS ONGOING • Livestream: Miss Malaprop's Storytime, 10am, Online, avl.mx/73b • Weekday Stream: Janet's Planet Online Astronaut Academy, 10:30am, Online, avl.mx/71n THURSDAY, MAY 28 • Easel Rider Crafts, 3pm, Online, avl.mx/71v TUESDAY, JUNE 2 • LEAF Global Arts: Percussion Class using Household Objects w/ Agustin Frederic, 9:30am, Online, avl.mx/71v

OUTDOORS SATURDAY, MAY 30 • Get Outside! w/ Girl Scouts, 11am, Online, avl.mx/72h • Virtual Forest Bathing & Nature Therapy, 9am, Online, GoFINDOutdoors.org

PUBLIC LECTURES MONDAY, JUNE 1 • Music of the North Carolina Textile Mills Webinar, 6:30 pm, Online, avl.mx/75y

MOUNTAINX.COM

MAY 27 - JUNE 2, 2020

17

WELLNESS

STANDARD OF CARE

Recent advances are transforming breast cancer treatment

BY KAY WEST kwest@mountainx.com Women’s relationship with their breasts is complicated. It includes apprehension about development, insecurity about size and shape, uncertainty about how to enhance/reveal/cover up/support them — and then, post-middle age, concern about how well they’re holding up.

But nothing compares to the alarm felt when detecting a suspicious lump while taking a shower, the anxiety while awaiting the results of a mammogram or the heart-stopping terror triggered by the words “It’s cancer.”

No one knows this more intimately than the medical professionals who interact with patients in the rapidly evolving field of breast health: geneticists, genetic counselors, radiologists, oncologists and nurse navigators.

“Most breast cancers require a combination of different treatments, and the order and combination of those things is a whole lot more complicated today than ever before,” says Dr. Blair Harkness, a gynecological oncologist at Hope Women’s Cancer Centers, an arm of Mission Health. “That is not a negative: We know so much more today about the different subtypes of breast cancer.

Treatment is much more individualized, based on the biology of the different types of breast cancer.

THE BIG SQUEEZE: While mammograms are still the procedure most laywomen think of when it comes to getting undressed and having their breasts squeezed between plates, breast imaging is a more accurate description of the many tools radiologists currently use to “see” the breast. Photo by Getty Images “You have to identify exactly what you’re dealing with first, what kind of cancer, and then you can put together the plan and order of things. It’s an important multidisciplinary team: genetics, surgery, medical oncology, radiation oncology, radiology, pathology. We all work together.”

Dr. Jennifer McAlister, a breast surgeon at Pardee UNC Health Care, concurs. “Each patient at Pardee receives multidisciplinary care,” she explains.

“The entire breast cancer team is on one floor in the cancer center, so it’s easy for us to talk about specific cases. We also have a multidisciplinary tumor board that meets weekly to discuss all cancer cases.

That team includes a radiologist, pathologist, medical oncologists, radiation oncologist, surgeons and palliative care.”

Meanwhile, the current pandemic has further complicated efforts to diagnose and treat the disease (see sidebar, “Breast cancer in the time of COVID”).

BASELINES AND GRAY AREAS

Dr. Jennifer McAlister of Pardee UNC Health Care in Hendersonville. Photo courtesy of Pardee 18

MAY 27 - JUNE 2, 2020

Physicians encourage adult women of all ages to perform monthly breast self-exams. At age 40, women are advised to get a first baseline mammogram. “Mission recommends an annual screening beginning at 40, because that reduces your risk of dying from breast cancer by 40%,” says Dr. Sheri Fleeman, assistant medi-

MOUNTAINX.COM

cal director of breast imaging at Mission Health. “One out of 6 breast cancers are diagnosed in the 40-to-49-year-old age range. Our goal is to find cancers early, treat them early and save as many lives as possible, and we feel like we can do that best if we start at 40 and do an annual.”

There are exceptions, however. “We recommend a baseline mammogram at age 40 unless a patient had a direct family member previously diagnosed with breast cancer,” said Linda Richards, who has since retired as administrative director of cancer services at AdventHealth Hendersonville (formerly Park Ridge Health). “For example, if a woman’s mother was diagnosed with breast cancer at 42, the recommendation for baseline for this woman would be 32: 10 years prior to the family member’s diagnosis.”

Documenting family medical history is now standard procedure: For their first appointment at any practice, all new patients complete a lengthy questionnaire. When that information raises a red flag, patients may be referred to a genetic counselor.

“Providers are becoming a lot more proactive asking about family history, and if there is cause, they may suggest an appointment at a genetics center,” says Mission Health’s Carolyn Wilson. “We see people here for all types of indications, but the biggest area of growth, here and at all genetics centers, is in the area of

inherited cancer,” notes Wilson, one of six genetic counselors at the region’s only such facility.

“We know that about 10% of cancer is genetic, so it’s very common for people who either have a family history of cancer or a new diagnosis of breast cancer or another type of cancer to be referred to genetics.” Determining if they might be in the genetic group, she continues, “can certainly impact their screening, their treatment and medication choices.”

Patients can expect the first appointment with a genetic counselor to run from 75-90 minutes. In addition to reviewing both personal and family cancer history, counselors will discuss the benefits and limitations of genetic testing. The process, says Wilson, “is kind of complicated, and the results are not always black or white. We sometimes find an uncertain genetic change, which is not the same as a positive. ... You might not get a yes or no answer.”

For those who decide to go ahead with it, the process involves either a blood or a saliva test. It takes two to three weeks to get the results, “And if anything comes back positive or uncertain, we are happy to meet again to review the information,” says Wilson.

“The report and a detailed letter are sent to them and their provider, so together they can map their next steps.”

3D IMAGING Even for those who test negative, however, the center creates a risk assessment based on personal and family history.

Nongenetic factors that increase breast cancer risk include increased breast density shown on mammograms, having one’s first period at a young age, having children later in life or not at all and hormone replacement therapy.

“If a person’s lifetime assessment risk for breast cancer is greater than 20% based on these computer-based models, they are recommended to follow highrisk breast screening, which includes an annual mammogram and breast MRI,” notes Wilson.

And while mammograms are still the procedure most laywomen think of when it comes to getting naked and having their breasts squeezed flat between plates, breast imaging is a more accurate description of the many tools radiologists currently use to “see” the breast.

“The 3D mammogram,” explains Dr. David Onofrey of AdventHealth Medical Group’s Breast Center, “creates a better image by pulling multiple X-ray images in just 10 seconds. A computer puts the images together, and this produces concisely focused three-dimensional images throughout the breast. Studies show that 3D mammography detects slightly

“It’s not enough to simply say ‘breast cancer’ anymore.

It’s ‘What kind?’”

— Dr. Blair Harkness, Hope Women’s Cancer Centers TARGETING TUMORS

Dr. David Onofrey of AdventHealth Medical Group’s Breast Center. Photo courtesy of AdventHealth more breast cancers than standard.”

AdventHealth, Mission and Pardee all perform this procedure.

At Pardee, notes McAlister, all mammograms are now 3D. “In patients with dense breast tissue, we know that 3D mammograms find smaller masses or cancers that could be hidden on traditional 2D mammograms,” she says. “When the breast tissue is dense, it tends to overlap on itself and can be difficult to read.” The 3D imaging “allows us to view the breast in ‘slices,’ so there is less risk of missing something small.”

Another useful technology for women who have dense breast tissue — a condition that, when discovered in a standard mammogram, must be reported to both physician and patient — is the 3D whole breast ultrasound, or ABUS. The procedure, says Fleeman of Mission Health, uses sound waves to take 3D pictures of the breast. “This is helpful because the breast is composed of fatty tissue and glandular tissue. The more glandular tissue you have, the denser your breasts. On mammograms, the fatty tissue is black and the glandular tissue is white. Cancers also show up as white, so in dense breasts, it’s like looking for a polar bear in a snowstorm. ABUS is a totally different way of looking at breast tissue, and in patients with dense breasts it can pick up cancers a mammogram might miss.”

Yet another advanced tool is a breast MRI, which requires an IV to provide contrast. A more expensive test, it’s reserved for high-risk patients, says Fleeman.

If a tumor is detected, the next step would be a biopsy, and here too, advanced technology plays a role. “The 3D-guided biopsy provides the radiologist with a clearer, more detailed image, allowing precise, accurate sampling of the tissue,” explains Lisa Gundersen, clinical operations director of cancer services at AdventHealth. It’s also more comfortable for the patient, she continues. AdventHealth, Mission and Pardee all offer this procedure.

For patients diagnosed with cancer, the interdisciplinary team develops an individualized treatment plan. “It’s not enough to simply say ‘breast cancer’ anymore,” notes Harkness. “It’s ‘What kind?’ Because treatments we do are far more individualized for both the patient and the type of breast cancer we’re dealing with. So the first step is really understanding the imaging, the biopsy result and the subtype of cancer someone has, and then coming up with the best order and combination of treatment.

“Most breast cancers,” he continues, “need some combination of surgery, radiation, chemotherapy and hormonal therapy; some cancers need all, but not every one. The order and combination depend on the subtype and the stage.”

With new tests, says Harkness, oncologists can ascertain the tumor’s genetic makeup and, based on that, determine whether chemotherapy is likely to be effective. “We use a lot less chemo for breast cancer than we used to, but hopefully we’re giving it more to people who will actually benefit from it.” He adds that while some chemo regimens are harder to tolerate, thanks to better anti-nausea medications, the experience isn’t nearly as bad as it used to be.

POSITIVE TRENDS Despite the challenges, professionals engaged in the battle against breast cancer find reasons for optimism.

For Fleeman, the recent advances in sophisticated imaging are a key factor.

“We like 3D because we see better and it’s harder for the cancers to hide,” she says. “Our goal is to find and treat cancers early. With screening-detected cancer, the patient has to have less extensive surgery and less chemotherapy. When we find a cancer at Stage 1, it’s just a bump in the road.”

Wilson, the genetic counselor, cites insurance companies’ increased acceptance of genetic testing. “They used to look at it as kind of experimental, but now it’s really standard of care, because it can really make a difference financially and medically. If, through genetic testing, you can get someone the right treatment from the beginning versus failing five other treatments first, it makes a tremendous difference and impacts outcomes.”

Harkness, meanwhile, believes, “The biggest thing with breast cancer is how much research is being done. We have seen such dramatic strides in different areas of breast cancer over the last couple of decades; we are constantly refining and making advances. While nobody can know what that next thing is going to be, the trajectory of how much better we do in finding, treating and curing breast cancer today than we did even 10-15 years ago is where I find optimism.” X

Breast cancer in the time of COVID Like just about everyone else, health care providers and medical facilities have felt the impact of COVID-19 ever since the pandemic’s implications first became clear.

This is as true for the diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer as it is for other types of surgeries, services and procedures.

Xpress checked in with providers at several local institutions, most of whom told a similar tale: implementing enhanced measures aimed at keeping everybody safe while ensuring that essential procedures are performed as needed.

“Breast cancer surgery is not considered elective,” and thus has not been “canceled or delayed,” Dr. Jennifer McAlister, a surgeon at Pardee UNC Health Care, explained via email. And while Pardee did pause elective surgeries for a period of time, routine mammography has been performed at the patient’s discretion, and diagnostic studies (for those with a problem or as follow-up for cancer patients) have continued as scheduled.

Over at AdventHealth, Jennifer Sorensen-Taiwo, administrative director of operations for physician services, said: “I am not aware if any surgeries were canceled. ... We asked each provider involved in care to review and make the decision based on the patient’s need.”

Patients receiving chemotherapy or radiation treatments, she continued, “cannot postpone care, and we maintained their schedules as usual. We provided deep cleaning in between each patient, maintained social distancing in clinics, all clinical staff wore PPE, and we screened all patients prior to their visits. We also began offering telehealth options, as appropriate, for some traditional office visits.”

Remote delivery has also loomed large at Mission Health’s Fullerton

Genetics Center, which has remained open, counselor Carolyn Wilson noted. “We have transitioned to seeing as many patients as possible by telemedicine,” she wrote in an email. “Patients who proceed with testing are then sent saliva collection kits directly to their homes, and they return them by mail or FedEx. Genetic counseling is particularly well suited for remote visits, and we are working diligently to see as many patients as possible in this way.”

Dr. Blair Harkness, a gynecological oncologist at Hope Women’s Cancer Centers, said, “Surgeries for invasive breast cancer were not delayed due to COVID; breast reconstruction was delayed in most but not all cases.” Some other surgeries and radiation treatments may have been delayed, he explained, but only if “those delays would not be expected to affect outcomes.”

McAlister, meanwhile, said Pardee has followed breast cancer “recommendations made by a multidisciplinary task force of medical oncologists, surgeons and radiation oncologists. These guidelines allowed for ‘low risk’ cancers (small and hormone receptor positive) to be placed on hormone blocking therapy until surgery could be done. This would be without any detriment to the patient, since these medications are used for therapy.” Decisions, she noted, “were made on a case-by-case basis. Some patients chose to proceed with surgery as their first step, others chose hormone blockade as their first step.”

To ensure the safety of everyone involved, she continued, Pardee has “asked screening questions and monitored temperatures of staff and patients; required use of masks for all staff and all patients; and not allowed visitors. With these precautions in place, we’re able to continue ‘normal’ operations of the cancer center and safely serve our patients.” X

MOUNTAINX.COM

MAY 27 - JUNE 2, 2020

19

GREEN SCENE

SEASON OF UNCERTAINTY COLD SNAP

BY GINA SMITH gsmith@mountainx.com Farmers are accustomed to rolling the dice. Success in the fields is inherently dependent on weather, pests and other fickle variables. But COVID-19 introduced previously unimaginable challenges to the local industry this spring, just as the growing season was getting started.

When North Carolina shut down restaurants, schools and many retail shops in March, the more than 600 Western North Carolina farms that supply those outlets suddenly found themselves without buyers for perishable harvests. As reported in The New York Times, The Guardian and other publications, similar situations have forced farmers from Florida to California to dump their crops, till millions of ripe tomatoes back into the ground and wash tankers of high-quality milk down the drain.

While WNC’s small farms have also been rocked by the coronavirus, community support and innovative thinking have enabled many local growers to pivot and persist as they work to find a way forward. “I think that this whole situation is an opportunity for people to recognize that the systems that have been in place and appearing to work and function don’t necessarily do that,” says Kendra Topalian-Sinicrope, wholesale manager and agritourism director for Mills River Creamery and Dairy. “A great silver lining in all of this is that people that haven’t necessarily purchased our product in the past are seeking it out and hearing about us and buying our stuff.”

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MAY 27 - JUNE 2, 2020

WNC farms grow new markets through community

In a late-March survey, the Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project found that 80% of its network of 935 farmers and vendors had seen immediate declines in customers and sales due to COVID-19. And two-thirds of respondents feared the financial distress of a prolonged market disruption would result in them closing their businesses, declaring bankruptcy and quitting farming.

“Being that it is early in the season, we have yet to see the impact this crisis will have on produce farms in the region, especially those that were targeting wholesale food service and restaurants,” says ASAP program director Molly Nicholie.

Almost 20% of surveyed farmers reported a need to restructure their business plans by transitioning to new market outlets or changing production.

“Some farms have seen success shifting to online sales or [community supported agriculture] models, but the impacts of this crisis will not be fully realized until we are in the heat of the growing season,” says Nicholie.

BARELY AFLOAT When dining rooms closed in March, Evan Chender, owner of The Culinary Gardener, was able to keep his business going by swiftly transitioning away from his established model of selling high-end vegetables and edible flowers exclusively to chefs. “We grow year-round and have a lot of hoop houses and tunnels and stuff, so we had quite a bit of production and nowhere to sell it,” he says. “And at the time, all the farmers markets were closed, too. So the only logical path forward was to try to figure out how to sell directly to the public.”

By launching a CSA program the same week his restaurant market dried up, Chender was able to avoid wasting his crops and has managed to keep the business afloat. But he says the new model is not economically sustainable.

“From the outside, it looks pretty good — we’re doing between 140 and 150 shares a week. But it’s not working out particularly well from a business point of view,” Chender explains. “In the next couple of weeks, my revenues will be decreased by probably 45% or 50% a week.”

Chender received a federal Small Business Administration Paycheck Protection Program loan to help cover

MOUNTAINX.COM

TABLE OF PLENTY: Julie Mansfield, who co-owns Mountain Harvest Organics in Hot Springs with Carl Evans, packs vegetables for the farm’s community-supported agriculture program. Photo courtesy of Mountain Harvest Organics his three employees’ wages for a few weeks. And support from ASAP and other local farm-focused organizations in navigating the application processes for loans and grants has also been a boon.

But with all his energy and time focused on keeping the CSA going, he has no answers about how his farm will be able to operate beyond the near future.

“We’re just kind of in the busiest time of year right now, on top of everything else, so I honestly haven’t really been able to give any thought to anything beyond what we’re doing tomorrow or what we’re doing this afternoon,” he says.

SILVER LINING Mills River Creamery and Dairy also found itself blindsided and burdened with a surplus of milk when the restaurants and coffee shops that normally make up about 60% of its business suddenly closed.

“We can’t shut down,” says the dairy’s Topalian-Sinicrope. “The animals still need to be milked. You can’t just turn off the lights, close the doors and walk away.”

Because Mills River Creamery processes its own milk, it was able to avoid sending its product swirling down the drain, as was the fate of many large commodity dairies under the same circumstances.

But the cost of handling and bottling milk

that had no buyer was prohibitive, so Mills River neighbor Living Web Farms jumped in to fund that part of the process, allowing the dairy to donate 500 gallons of unsold milk to a local food pantry.

From there, the dairy developed sales through community partnerships, including its existing relationship with local grocery delivery service Mother Earth Food, which has seen its business more than quadruple since mid-March. Mills River is also collaborating with the TRACTOR Food and Farms food hub in Yancey County and was one of 30 area stakeholders that helped launch the new Buncombe County cooperative online food hub, Patchwork Alliance.

As a result of this strategy, says Topalian-Sinicrope, Mills River Creamery is holding its own, especially as WNC consumers rally to support local farms and businesses. “I wouldn’t say that we are where we were prior to COVID-19, but we’re existing,” she says.

“I had some fears, but they’ve been eliminated. Our retail outlets have just really, really grown.”

HEART AND SOUL One part of Mills River Creamery’s business that hasn’t held on through the pandemic, however, is agritourism. “I

be opportunities for farmers who shift to target those markets. “I’ve been really impressed with how innovative people have been over the last couple of months to try things in different ways,” Ainspan says. “To a large degree, rather than getting despondent, they have started thinking about, ‘Hey, what am I going to do, and how am I going to do it?’”

Mansfield points out that WNC’s many small-scale, family-owned operations have the advantage of being nimble. “We can just change our process. We didn’t have to dump our crops when the markets were canceled because CSA members came through and bought them,”

HAVE A COW, MAN: Because Mills River Creamery and Dairy processes its own milk, owner Bradley Johnston was able to avoid dumping product down the drain when demand from restaurants and coffee shops evaporated due to COVID-19. Photo courtesy of Mills River Creamery had tours booked from the end of March through the summer almost every day of the week, which is a huge piece of income that we’ve lost,” says Topalian-Sinicrope.

Julie Mansfield and Carl Evans, owners of Mountain Harvest Organics in Hot Springs, have also keenly felt the loss of tourism. The pair, who are 60 years old, shifted their business model a couple of years ago to focus heavily on farm stays and tailgate market sales after 20 years of diversified growing for a CSA. “Vegetable farming is very physically challenging, so we can’t do as much production as we did in our heyday,” says Mansfield.

But when COVID-19 shut down travel and kept tailgate markets from opening on schedule at the end of a cashpoor winter, the couple had to switch approaches yet again. They moved their annual spring plant sales online and reignited their CSA program.

“It’s a lot harder to farm a CSA because you have to have so much [crop] diversity. We don’t have as much diversity right now because our production was geared toward market sales, but people are still buying from us every week,” says Mansfield. “We still had a huge loss of income, but we’re still paying our bills through farming.”

Mountain Harvest Organics received $500 to buy packaging for its CSA through an ASAP Appalachian Grown Immediate Needs Grant, a program created to help farmers adapt to market changes due to COVID-19. The operation also qualified for a $5,000 Small Business Administration loan. But Mansfield is not sure she and Evans will be able to keep farming.

“We’ve shed a lot of tears because our heart and soul are in the soil here in this farm,” she says. “We think financially we should sell, but we might try to hang on. I don’t know. I mean, we opened our

she says. “Small farms that are highly diversified can switch gears real fast.”

She also credits Mother Earth Food and the Patchwork Alliance for providing new markets for farms, as well as fresh, local options for consumers. “We are lucky to have such a great region that’s so supportive of local food,” Mansfield says.

Topalian-Sinicrope agrees. “I’ve been really impressed with the partnerships that have developed over this past month and a half,” she says. “We live in a really resilient community. I’m proud to say that, and I’m proud to give [local businesses] my support and my money.” X

Pollination Celebration! to feature photo contest

accommodations up this week, but who’s going to travel right now? How is that going to recover?”

SWITCHING GEARS Local distributors are another key piece of WNC’s food system forced to devise creative strategies to survive the crisis. Ron Ainspan, a former farmer and founder of wholesale delivery business Mountain Food Products, has been connecting local growers with restaurants and other markets since 1984. Although Mountain Food Products initially lost about 80% of its business with the stayat-home mandate, Ainspan was able to keep operating by changing his focus.

“The thought was that we were going to have to close,” he says. “But then we just started trying things.”

When he saw demand from individuals interested in home delivery, Ainspan started working with people to create small buying clubs — groups who preorder items in bulk then divvy up the purchases. Like Mills River Creamery, he started partnering with Mother Earth Food for home delivery; he also more than doubled the size of Mountain Food Products’ existing multifarm CSA program.

“Between those two pop-up programs of home delivery and Mother Earth, which was already a business, and our own CSA, there started to be some bubbling up of demand,” Ainspan says. “It felt like we were really helping out the community, and it was working and really generating some revenue where food service was not.”

He notes that traffic at the WNC Farmers Market and small produce stands has been robust as people gravitate to outdoor shopping, so there may

POLLINATOR PHOTO SAFARI: Humans may still need to keep at a distance from one another, but bees and other pollinators remain as busy as ever at their important work this June. For the first time, Asheville Pollination Celebration! includes a photo contest open to all. Photo by Nancy Adamson The worker bees of Bee City USA have been busy putting together the biggest event on the pollination calendar, and it’s nearly here. The monthlong Asheville Pollination Celebration! spans the month of June and includes a photography contest open to all.

Bee City USA founder Phyllis Stiles is abuzz with the possibilities for getting up close and personal with pollen and pollinators. “It’s really fun to watch a small sweat bee or burly bumblebee packing pollen on her back legs. If you’re lucky, you may see a leafcutter bee with pollen under her abdomen — and that pollen may not be yellow.

Pollen comes in a variety of colors depending on the plant species,” she explains.

All pollinator species, including butterflies, moths, flower flies, beetles and hummingbirds as well as bees, are fair game for the contest. Entrants may submit as many photos as they like for chances to have their images shared on the Asheville GreenWorks Instagram account. Prizes will be announced in early July and will include a $250 shopping spree from Reems Creek Nursery. Categories include children, teens, adults and professionals. More information is available at avl.mx/75n.

Other items on the celebration’s agenda — modified to incorporate social distancing this year — include an online screening of the documentary film The Pollinators on Tuesday, June 23. After the viewing, scientists James and Maryann Frazier, who appear in the film, will answer questions.

Three online informational workshops also are planned, and Asheville GreenWorks will post activities designed for kids, such as butterfly origami, on its website throughout the month. For more information and registration, visit avl.mx/65u. X

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FOOD

STREET SMART

Two West Asheville restaurants reinvent their service models to meet COVID challenge

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kwest@mountainx.com “When life hands you lemons, open a lemonade stand.” That’s what Sean Piper mused to his wife, Shelly, in March after they had to close the dining room at Jargon, the popular restaurant they opened in West Asheville in May 2017.

The concept appealed to her, so Sean tied some balloons to the entrance, made a bunch of fresh lemonade and opened a walk-up window selling sandwiches, sides and beverages Monday through Thursday noon-4 p.m.

In mid-May, the restaurant added a Tuesday afternoon pop-up stand across Haywood Road at the West Asheville Tailgate Market.

After spending three weeks deep-cleaning the closed restaurant, and before opening the lemonade stand, Jargon began offering its menu online for takeout service on Friday and Saturday evenings. But Plan A quickly morphed to Plan B. “Our regular menu wasn’t translating well to takeout and didn’t keep well in a box,” Piper says. So, in late April, Jargon transitioned to Slang — an abbreviated menu of items specifically designed for takeout, available to preorder online for pickup at reserved times on Fridays and Saturdays.

“We added some new things to the Slang menu,” says Piper. “The duck wings have been a hit. The softshell po’ boy sold out in four hours.”

A few doors down, another Haywood Road hot spot flipped the script on its business model in response to the COVID-19 crisis. “The West Asheville Biscuit Head has been closed since mid-March,” says chef Jason Roy, who co-owns the three Asheville Biscuit Head locations (and one in Greenville, S.C.) with his wife, Carolyn. “We’ve been doing takeout from the Biltmore location since then and will likely open South Asheville for takeout, too. But does Asheville really need three Biscuit Heads right now? I don’t think so. We decided it was an opportunity to do something fun and different.”

While El Salvadoran pupusas might seem a world — or at least a hemisphere — away from biscuits, themat-

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THE BIG SQUEEZE: If life hands you lemons, Jargon owner Sean Piper advises making a lemonade stand. Piper created a tongue-in-cheek photo illustration of the walk-up sandwich and beverage takeout window he and bar manager Chris Keane, left, operate outside the restaurant Monday-Thursday, noon-4 p.m., and Tuesdays, 3:30-6:30 p.m., at the West Asheville Tailgate Market. Image courtesy of Jargon ically it maintains the Biscuit Head motto to “Put some South in your mouth.” And, says Roy, the Pupusa Head Pop-Up that takes place Fridays through Sundays is keeping it all in the Biscuit Head extended family.

Herminia Arrioza has been a cook at the West Asheville store for about seven years, Roy explains. “She was always bringing pupusas and tamales and pastelitos in for the staff,” he says.

“Her food is just so good. Before all this happened, she and I had talked about helping her open her own place, a Salvadoran restaurant. Then this happened, and it seemed like perfect timing to do this fun weekend thing from the front window. Pupusa Cabeza!”

The weekend menu offers four or five dishes from Arrioza, including five kinds of pupusas; tamales; Salvadoran empanadas filled with potatoes, green beans and carrots; and pollo guisado —

stewed chicken thighs with rice. On the other side of the menu border are biscuit sandwiches, including hot chicken with pimento cheese and the Nutella Elvis, a buttermilk biscuit with Nutella, bananas and bacon.

“It’s gone over really well,” Roy enthuses. “It’s been fun to showcase what Herminia does. Who knows where it will lead?”

Piper is also doing his best to see the silver lining in the COVID-19 cloud.

“I’ve always wanted to open another place that would be a fun, funky Jargon with elevated street food. With Slang, we have the chance to try some of those things out. I’ve always been a positive person so we’re fighting the fight with all we’ve got and making the best of the situation.”

For updated information, hours of operation and menus, visit biscuitheads. com and jargonrestaurant.com. X

Doors close, window opens New coffee shop owners faced a pandemic shortly after opening

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752 Biltmore Avenue • 828-251-0094 • www.naturesvitaminsandherbs.com PERKED UP: Farewell’s Max Puterbaugh prepares a beverage for pickup while 5-year-old Maxwell takes a coffee break inside the currently closed interior. Photo courtesy of Farewell In the 18 months Max Puterbaugh spent on the grueling rehab of the South Slope building that had long housed JJ’s Tires, he was also building a future customer base, one passer-by at a time.

“People in the neighborhood were really curious,” he says. “They would look in the windows and ask what we were doing.”

What he, his father-in-law and brother-in-law were up to was transforming the dilapidated corner building on Southside Avenue into the pristine space that would become South Slope Cheese Co. on one side, and Puterbaugh and his wife Jordane’s coffee shop, Farewell, on the other.

“Jordane and I had a coffee truck in Canton, Ohio,” says Puterbaugh.

“When her brother and his wife bought this building, they said we should put a coffee shop in. We’ve always been drawn to Asheville, so we moved down here with our two boys and started the demo.”

The concept for Farewell was a cozy, serene daytime and nighttime hangout, spotlighting select roasters and winemakers. The business opened quietly on Jan. 13 with no

advertising and a small sign. “We saw a lot of people who had been watching the build-out, then coffee people heard of us, and we had a solid, busy two months,” says Puterbaugh.

It was two months and two days after it opened, to be exact, before Farewell closed for two weeks in response to COVID-19. But looking at the roll-up window that fronts the store, Puterbaugh saw an opportunity to resume business via takeout.

“It’s been great,” he says. “As it turns out, we were lucky we opened in January because our customer base was local and they have stayed with us.”

Among those locals is pastry chef Ashley Capps, introduced to Puterbaugh by South Slope neighbor and leather craftsman Billy Moore.

The mouthwatering Instagram photos of sweet and savory items Capps is delivering to Farewell have driven traffic to the nascent business.

“Farewell was built on relationships,” he says. “They are our backbone.”

Call ahead at 828-505-2721 or order at Farewell’s window at 11 Southside Ave. For more details, visit avl.mx/6x6.

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Run of the mill Hominy Farm bread builds a following despite quarantine

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FIRED UP: Sydney Rubin and Eli Je Bailey warm up in front of the Turtle Rock wood-fired oven where he bakes Hominy Farm breads from locally grown and milled grains. Photo by Camilla Calnan Artist Sydney Rubin and bread baker Eli Je Bailey had no intention of buying a house in Asheville when they landed in the area in October 2018 from their native Florida. “We were living in a friend’s basement,” says Rubin.

“I was teaching art at the Montessori School in Hendersonville, and Eli was baking at OWL.” “This house popped up for sale, and we went to see it because it was Dave Bauer’s, and we’re huge fans of his and Farm & Sparrow,” Bailey confesses with a laugh.

When the revered founder of Farm & Sparrow mill told them that he wanted to sell the property to a young baker, “It felt like it was meant to be,” says Rubin.

In January 2019, the couple bought the house and the building next door — complete with a wood-fired brick oven built by Turtle Rock Masonry — that had once been the home of Farm & Sparrow Bakery. Bailey spent months learning the process of woodfired baking before debuting his business, Hominy Farm, at the River Arts District Farmers Market in February.

The launch preceded by just six weeks the closures due to COVID-19.

While the impact of the shutdown was dire for many businesses, Bailey says that even with the restrictive distancing measures and remote payment procedures put in place at tailgate mar-

kets, he’s seen an increased interest in his breads.

“It seems that a lot of people have realized the importance of shopping small and local from people who they know and trust,” says Bailey. “It has also offered us the opportunity to give back to our community by donating loaves to service workers, doctors, nurses and people who have been laid off due to COVID-19.”

Hominy Farm’s menu of six naturally leavened breads, made with 100% organic, locally milled grains and flour, gives a nod to Bailey’s Lebanese heritage. “I first thought I’d be doing baguettes and ciabatta, but when I sent a picture of the oven to my Lebanese grandma, she told me it looked like the village oven in Hakur, where she grew up. So it made sense to draw from my Middle Eastern roots.”

Since its launch, the bakery’s most popular items have remained gan de mie loaves and manoushe, a Lebanese flatbread topped with dried herbs and sesame seeds. Hominy Farm also sells weekly at the North Asheville Tailgate Market and by monthly subscription through its website. “We love doing markets because we can talk directly to people about our bread,” says Bailey.

“I’m kind of a freak about it.”

For more on Hominy Farm, visit avl.mx/75h. X

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

VIRAL CREATIVITY

Local visual artists find inspiration during quarantine

BY EDWIN ARNAUDIN earnaudin@mountainx.com Before the COVID-19 pandemic upended their lives, Asheville-based visual artists Maxx Feist, Jen Toledo and Liz Williams were gearing up for a busy season.

Feist, a painter and illustrator specializing in “bright and slightly creepy pop art paintings,” and Toledo, a pen and ink/watercolor artist who focuses on Appalachian wildlife, were getting ready for shows, retail sales and art markets. But the galleries and retail shops have closed indefinitely, and the markets have either canceled or are in a place of uncertainty.

Williams, a digital artist working in photography, graphic design, illustration and experimental video work, hasn’t been able to schedule photo and video shoots as she normally would. Her role as the Artistin-Residence for local LGBTQ nonprofit Campaign for Southern Equality, where she tries “to start a dialogue and create a visual narrative documenting and highlighting the lives and many facets of the LGBTQ community in the South,” has also been impacted.

“I was laying down the groundwork for an exciting collaboration with multiple queer musicians in the area,” Williams says. “The project would have incorporated photography, videography, as well as a musical showcase. The concert would also be an effort to encourage voter turnout in November. Unfortunately, with this pandemic, everything is on hold.”

Creative minds that they are, each artist has adapted to the changes. Toledo already worked from home and credits having an “established space and routine” with keeping her grounded. During quarantine, she’s been doing more commissioned work than usual, which allows her to branch out in subject matter based on what people have requested. She appre-

FLOWER POWER: “Because of this new era of life, my work has incorporated a self-portrait series featuring me in isolation with masks I’ve received from work and from friends,” says local artist Liz Williams. “Luckily, nature is in full bloom, and that has also inspired my work during this isolation.” Photo courtesy of the artist ciates the randomness of these assignments, which push her out of her comfort zones and in new directions, be it through textures, color palettes, shapes or feelings.

She’s also utilized the extra downtime to explore ideas she’s previously had to set aside, as well as make art “that feels less like work and more like play,” which she feels is something that can be lost in the daily grind.

“As an artist, I feel like it is extremely important to do this from time to time.

At times, it has felt extremely difficult to focus with the world turned upside down, but it is a reminder that difficult times are what initially turned me to art as a child, teenager and young adult, and got me on this path,” Toledo says.

“When you can’t control the environment around you, all you can control is yourself. Creating something is a great way to feel grounded again.”

Maxx Feist’s “into the mouths of madness.” Image courtesy of the artist

Inspired by the current cultural climate, Feist has been making “mostly plague- and pandemic-themed pieces,” which they describe as “a little different than what [they] usually paint.”

Williams, who works full time in a grocery store, says she’s had PPE, safety and anxiety at the forefront of her mind since mid-March, which can’t help but affect her creations.

“Because of this new era of life, my work has incorporated a self-portrait series featuring me in isolation with masks I’ve received from work and from friends,” Williams says. “Luckily, nature is in full bloom, and that has also inspired my work during this isolation.”

Selling artwork, however, has proved more challenging. All three artists have turned to online sales, including Instagram, Facebook and personal websites, though sales are far from robust.

Feist estimates a 90% loss of personal income, which has made them financially dependent on their partner, who for now still has a job.

“If retailers sell anything, then they send me money through PayPal. Otherwise, I’m just making attempts at sales through Facebook and Instagram,” Feist says. “If I’m gonna sell my own stuff, I would prefer to do so when I can engage with the public at markets. Online is tough. It is very competitive. I also know that people are struggling, so I don’t want to push people to buy my stuff.”

Feist is additionally “trying to think of other ways to engage with people about art without it just being geared to

financial gain” — a sentiment that also resonates with Toledo. Her work is based on animal life in Western North Carolina and consistently serves as a point of connection between her and the people she meets at art markets. She misses hearing stories about animal encounters or why a specific animal is meaningful to the customer and looks forward to resuming these conversations when the time is right. The time away from these traditional revenue streams has also increased her gratitude for industry facets that rarely receive proper credit.

“Not having access to the public via public downtown spaces in multiple cities and towns has decreased my sales a lot but also really makes me appreciate the business owners and workers who have been working those spaces and who will likely be going back to work soon, or who already have gone back to work,” Toledo says.

In finding the strength to persevere, each artist cites the supportive local art community. Williams shares “inspiration, experiences and resources” through virtual engagement with friends and artists, including digital meetups each Tuesday with queer artists around the South via Southern Equality Studios. Meanwhile, Toledo has persevered by giving herself permission not to be positive or motivated, though embraces inspiration on days when it’s present, and Feist is learning to garden and be more self-sufficient.

“I remind myself daily that I am very fortunate to be in such an amazing community. I have lived in Asheville for 20 years and have seen people come together through hard times before the pandemic,” Feist says. “This time is harder, but I believe in the people here.

My community, my dogs, my partner and knowing that there are scientists working all the time to fix this problem help keep me going.” X

“Kissing Foxes” by Jen Toledo. Image courtesy of the artist

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A&E

by Edwin Arnaudin

earnaudin@mountainx.com

Hands-off learning

WNC craft schools prepare for a summer without courses The Penland School of Craft’s educational philosophy is based on such core ideas as “Total-immersion workshop education is a uniquely effective way of learning” and “Close interaction with others promotes the exchange of information and ideas between individuals and disciplines.”

But with restrictions stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic still in place, hands-on learning in close quarters remains impractical. Add to those challenges the fact that students and faculty come to Penland from around the world and that the rural Mitchell County health system could easily be overwhelmed, and it’s no surprise that Executive Director Mia Hall and her colleagues decided early on to cancel all workshops for this summer. Though Hall says Penland has rescheduled as many instructors who were going to teach this term as possible for the next few years, and next summer is almost fully planned out, implementing anything sooner wasn’t feasible.

“Trying to quickly change the format was not something we’re interested in,” Hall says. “We wanted to make sure we could guarantee a high-quality experience. With so little time to change that format, we didn’t want to just go online.”

Offering digital classes is also simply implausible for many courses from area craft schools. Hall notes that a mending class that utilizes fabric, needle and thread could work, but that few people have the necessary equipment to partake in metal casting, blacksmithing or woodworking.

“Our intuition initially led us to offer online paid courses, but it turns out everyone everywhere is offering online

NO SUBSTITUTE: Students at Penland School of Craft take part in a blacksmithing workshop led by Seth Gould, middle, in the campus’s iron studio. “We believe in hands-on, communal learning, and it’s what we want to get back to,” says Executive Director Mia Hall. Photo by Robin Dreyer, Penland School of Craft classes, and they are often doing so for free. When you can take a complete online neuroscience class from Harvard [University] for free, it may not be the time to offer a tuition-based online art-making class,” says Will Barclift, executive director of Tryon Arts & Crafts School.

“Our staff’s time is as valuable now as it was in February, so we do not want to spin our wheels trying to force our standard programs into a format that won’t work or a timeline that is unknowable due to the virus. So, our postponed workshops will remain postponed until a time when we can ensure the safety

of our students and teachers as well as ensure the quality of the program.”

In the interim, craft schools are finding value in free online art demonstrations. The Penland staff is exploring that option, while Tryon currently offers them, plus kiln firing and clay takeout and delivery — providing a safe substitute for its clay studio — and virtual tours of the school. And at the John C. Campbell Folk School in Brasstown, monthly webinars focused on Appalachian craft and weekly MorningSong concerts are aired on Facebook Live, along with videos of “Farmer Teddy” Pitsiokos at work.

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The absence of each school’s usual population has also allowed staff to get to projects that had been set aside for more pressing issues, as well as maintenance and upkeep of the grounds’ various buildings and green spaces.

“We are investing a lot of our energy in addressing our facilities wish list, technology upgrades, landscaping improvements and remodeling,” Barclift says. “When we reopen, we want to be better than when we closed.”

For now, funding at all three institutions is sufficient, though classes will eventually need to resume in order to remain financially afloat. According to Jerry Jackson, executive director of the folk school, individual donor giving is currently $100,000 above what it was this same time last year, and its Giving Tuesday Now campaign on May 5 raised $42,500.

Hall says that, a year and a half ago, Penland received a large endowment gift that’s proving “extremely helpful right now.” She and her staff have also applied for grants and received generous donations, along with many students gifting their summer tuition to the school. Similarly, Barclift reports that Tryon has received loans and advancement of grant funds that are helping offset its expenses into the summer, but he and his colleagues are researching emergency grant funding in case the entire summer schedule is canceled.

“We are discussing the possibility of increasing the number of classes at smaller sizes, allowing us to socially distance,” Barclift says. “We anticipate that we will take a hit financially as we phase back into our operations. But we will do what we have to do to regain our creative culture and in good health. The ends justify the means.”

The folk school is likewise in the process of evaluating the student experience and how it will be augmented to follow guidelines for safety and physical distancing in its common areas, dining hall, studios and student houses.

Jackson notes that numerous students have been in communication with the staff and are expecting the school will make the necessary changes in order to reopen and continue to provide programs with physical distancing and safety measures in place.

“We’re hearing from several students who say they need the folk school now more than ever, and they are looking forward to returning in the future,” Jackson says. “A ‘Welcome Home’ sign hangs over the door of Keith House, our main house and central hub of our 270acre campus. The idea for the sign came from a student and echoed the sentiments of many Folk School students who say the Folk School is their home away from home.” X

by Edwin Arnaudin

earnaudin@mountainx.com

Shifting screens

Grail Moviehouse moving to a new location

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MOTION PICTURES: Grail Moviehouse owners Davida Horwitz and Steve White are moving their indie theater to a new location that will allow them to create a space designed for social distancing for as long as it is needed, rather than reopen to uncertainty at their current building. Graphic courtesy of Grail Moviehouse Just over four years after opening at 45 S. French Broad Ave., Grail Moviehouse is moving to a new home.

Owners Davida Horwitz and Steve White will announce the exact location once a lease is signed but plan to stick with a three-screen layout, possibly growing to four, and guarantee free parking.

Horwitz and White had been considering a different spot for a while, and as the COVID-19 pandemic unfolded, they say it became clear they had to decide between investing in their current space or expediting the relocation.

The week of May 11, they chose the latter option, which will allow them to create a space designed for social distancing for as long as it is needed, rather than reopen to uncertainty in their current building.

“The partners that we would be dealing with — the property owners/ landlords — are also enthusiastic about it, so we have a good feeling we’re going to make it work where we’re looking,” White says.

The Grail has been closed since March 16 but quickly entered into a revenue-share partnership with independent distributors, including Oscilloscope Laboratories and Kino Lorber, to offer digital rentals of new indie/art releases. While such films as Up from the Streets and Fantastic Fungi have performed well, Horwitz views the initiative as less of a revenue

generator and more a means of giving their loyal patrons new movies in a curated manner.

“In the meantime, we’ll keep the virtual cinema as long as it’s going, and hopefully we can do pop-ups,” she says. “We don’t know if that would be a once-a-month situation or more often, but we’re definitely hoping to do stuff in the interim until we open up.”

These indoor screenings with safety measures in place would echo the path taken prior to opening the Grail, which included a showing of its namesake film, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, at Asheville Community Theatre.

Looking back at their time on French Broad, the owners fondly recall their children growing up in the theater, the employees they’ve stayed in touch with and the many instances of sitting in their office and hearing positive audience reactions to a film.

“While we were playing Cinema Paradiso that first week, and I could hear the music coming through and I knew there were people sitting in there, watching that movie, and it was an emotional moment,” White says. “That first week, we were terrified. We didn’t know if it was gonna work, and it took a while to get it to the point where we were comfortable, because every day we would make little improvements.”

Horwitz concurs: “Asheville is really so special. I don’t think that this could work in too many other places.” X

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MOVIE REVIEWS THIS WEEK’S CONTRIBUTOR

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

BRUCE STEELE bcsteele@gmail.com Melissa Myers

= MAX RATING

New French Shorts 2020 HHHH DIRECTOR: Various PLAYERS: Various SHORT FILMS NOT RATED

The Trip to Greece HHHHS

DIRECTOR: Michael Winterbottom PLAYERS: Steve Coogan, Rob Brydon COMEDY NOT RATED Fans of director Michael Winterbottom’s Trip films are in for another treat with The Trip to Greece, the fourth and allegedly final installment in the decadelong series.

The delightful duo of Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon are back, again playing slightly fictional versions of themselves, this time retracing Odysseus’ journey from Troy to Ithaca.

While little insight is offered to resolve Coogan’s seemingly perilous circumstances following the cliffhanger ending to the previous edition, The Trip to Spain, the latest adventure charges forth with the saga’s still potent combination of gorgeous scenery, mouthwatering cuisine — and, best of all, the stars’ witty banter, complete with good-natured (?) pot shots at one another and hilarious celebrity impersonations.

“Targets” this go-round include a few returning favorites (e.g., Mick Jagger, Roger Moore and Marlon Brando) and many welcome additions, including Arnold Schwarzenegger, Werner Herzog, Laurence Olivier, Dustin Hoffman, Keith Richards and, best of all, Ray Winstone (playing Henry VIII, no less).

However, as has been the case with the Trip installments from the beginning, Greece has its share of esoteric details.

Certain British cultural references fly by 28

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without explanation, and a brief detour involving Turkish refugees makes more sense for people who’ve seen the recent Winterbottom/Coogan collaboration Greed, but the plot moves so nimbly that another bit of eye and/or ear candy is only moments away.

Keeping with the series’ tradition, Winterbottom and his cast also weave in entertaining local history lessons and a dramatic subplot as intelligent counters to the witty comedy. Here, the serious storyline concerns the rapidly declining health of Steve’s father, with Steve’s son Joe (Tim Leach) providing updates via increasingly emotional phone calls and Steve being haunted by his shortcomings as a son through imaginative B&W nightmares.

True to its predecessors, the existential undercurrent vaults Greece from a mere lark to another well-rounded portrait of middle-age masculinity — though the masterful comedy thankfully remains at its forefront.

In today’s world of reboots and reunions, viewers can still logically hold out hope for an eventual The Trip to America, but if Greece is indeed the last chapter in this wonderful set of films, it’s a fitting conclusion.

Available to rent via Amazon Video, iTunes, Google Play and YouTube REVIEWED BY EDWIN ARNAUDIN EARNAUDIN@MOUNTAINX.COM

MOUNTAINX.COM

The New French Shorts 2020 program is a way to travel to distant lands during a time when many are stuck at home.

From a public bathhouse in Paris to a remote filling station in Greece, the settings of these selected shorts are sure to take you away for just a bit. And despite some somber moments, the overall general tone is uplifting and redemptive — enough to act as a balm of optimism and hope. Below are a few highlights: “Sheep, Wolves and a Cup of Tea” HHHHS

The story: As a household settles in for the night, a child takes a surreal road trip with a wolf that he summons from a box under his bed.

In short: This animated film evokes the watercolor illustrations of a children’s book with the whimsy of Where the Wild Things Are. It’s a dream of childhood escapism and fantasy, with a slightly eerie, borderline creepy ambiance. Free of dialogue, yet full of foley art that congeals into a musical background score, it’s a painting come to life.

“The Glorious Acceptance Speech of Nicolas Chauvin” HHHHH The story: Chauvin, an apocryphal French historical figure from whom the term “chauvinism” was coined, makes a comedic and brash acceptance speech for a lifetime achievement award.

In short: Chauvin lives up to his reputation, bragging of his sexual and wartime conquests, all while using the modern vernacular — perhaps most memorably when he challenges us to “Google it” after he addresses the rumor of Napoleon Bonaparte’s third nipple. It’s a fantastically acted monologue full of sly and crude humor, reminiscent of a Monty Python bit. Extra credit awarded for the JSTOR reference.

Read the full review at mountainx. com/movies/reviews REVIEWED BY MELISSA MYERS MELISSA.L.MYERS@GMAIL.COM

Ali McGhee

AVAILABLE VIA FINEARTSTHEATRE.COM (FA) GRAILMOVIEHOUSE.COM (GM) Alice (NR) HHH (FA) Beanpole (R) HHHS(FA) Beyond the Visible: Hilma af Klint (NR) HHHS (FA) The Booksellers (NR) HHHS(FA) Crescendo (NR) HHHS (GM) Diana Kennedy: Nothing Fancy (NR) HHHHH (GM) Fantastic Fungi (NR) HHHH (FA) Fourteen (NR) HHHH (FA) The Ghost of Peter Sellers (NR) HHHH (GM) The Hottest August (NR) H (FA) Lucky Grandma (NR) HHHH (FA, GM) Military Wives (PG-13) HHH (FA) New French Shorts 2020 (NR) HHHH (GM) Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and The Band (R) HHHH (FA) Pahokee (NR) HHHHS(FA) The Painter and the Thief (NR) HHHH (FA) Papicha (NR) HHH (FA) Slay the Dragon (PG-13) HHHH (FA) Someone, Somewhere (NR) HHHH (FA) Sorry We Missed You (NR) HHHHS(FA) Spaceship Earth (NR) HHHS (FA) The Times of Bill Cunningham (NR) HHHHS (FA) Up from the Streets — New Orleans: The City of Music (NR) HHHH (GM) Vitalina Varela (NR) HHHHS (FA) The Whistlers (NR) HHHH (FA) The Woman Who Loves Giraffes (NR) HHHHH (FA)

Papicha HHH DIRECTOR: Mounia Meddour PLAYERS: Lyna Khoudri, Shirine Boutella DRAMA/ROMANCE NOT RATED This French-Algerian film is an admirable portrait of resilient youth, following one young woman’s unwavering resistance to the murderous repression of Islamic extremists during the Algerian Civil War in the late 1990s. Nedjma (Lyna Khoudri) is studying French at a women’s university in Algiers, but as we meet her, she and her best friend and roommate, Wassila (Shirine Boutella), are sneaking out to meet their friends in a dance club bathroom — where Nedjma sells homemade gowns she designs herself.

The rest of the film grows from seeds planted during that scene: Nedjma decides to hold a fashion show in defi-

ance of the terrorists; the young women find boyfriends whose views of a woman’s place in society vary widely; and the university becomes increasingly fortified and isolated. The details verge on soap opera territory, but the setting is vividly re-created. Directing her first feature, Mounia Meddour has a kinetic, verité style that keeps the camera moving in a mostly choreographed way, not so much to fake documentary authenticity as to keep viewers close to the action.

(The handheld shakiness thankfully isn’t enough to warrant Dramamine.)

Khoudri is tough and appealing in the lead role, and her friends and family are well-cast for both talent and believability. Where the film falters is in its storytelling, as many plot points are telegraphed in advance (e.g. an assassination), while others seem easy choices (such as a character’s response to an unwanted pregnancy). And for a film about a harsh, violent time, Papicha — the title is Algerian slang for an attractive young woman — pulls most of its punches. When a beloved professor is hooded and kidnapped right from his classroom, for instance, the students barely react, and he’s never mentioned again. A grittier film would have been harder to watch, certainly, but perhaps more true to its own themes.

REVIEWED BY BRUCE STEELE BCSTEELE@GMAIL.COM

The Lovebirds HHHH DIRECTOR: Michael Showalter PLAYERS: Issa Rae, Kumail Nanjiani COMEDY/ACTION RATED R Romantic comedies often treat us to relationships’ beginnings — even if they come on the heels of breakups.

So it’s always refreshing when a film takes a different approach, especially if it’s pulled off as well as it is in The Lovebirds, the new feature from director Michael Showalter (The Big Sick) that asks whether love that has dimmed can be rekindled by way of solving a murder.

While we do get to see our charming protagonists Jibran (Kumail Nanjiani, also from The Big Sick) and Leilani (Issa Rae, HBO’s “Insecure”) meet and fall hard for one another in a sweet opening-scene montage, we quickly jump to four years — and a lot of fights — later, when the pair’s early, winsome flirtations have evolved into petty, barbed battles.

After glumly deciding to break up on the way to a friend’s dinner party, they hit a cyclist on the streets of New Orleans. He’s injured but seems panicked and runs off. Shortly after, a man claiming to be a cop hijacks their car, kills the cyclist (for real this time) and

flees, leaving the bewildered Jibran and Leilani at the scene of the crime.

Due to a couple of witnesses appearing at exactly the wrong moment and because Leilani and Leilani are both people of color, they presume they’ll be the prime suspects and decide to solve the mystery themselves. Determined to track down the murderer (whom they dub “Mustache”) themselves rather than going to the police, they chase clues through The Big Easy — during Mardi Gras, no less — to seedy nightclubs, fraternity crashpads, Deep South stables and secret society parties.

It’s hard not to have fun with our two leads, who still seem compatible even though they rarely stop bickering.

Although this makes their relationship a little one note, especially since there’s (not really a spoiler alert) never any question they’re going to make it, the genuinely funny script and the actors’ talent keep the film afloat. Rae is especially gorgeous and driven here, and Nanjiani’s Jibran often seems a little startled by his good luck wooing her, yet he charms us by consistently displaying the courage that underlies his anxious exterior. They’re such a likable couple that everyone — even the bad guys — are rooting for them to get back together.

The humor is consistently strong and refreshingly savvy. The characters wrangle with tough issues like racism, wealth inequality and political corruption, layered into far-fetched but highly entertaining scenarios. While some of these feel clichéd — like the Eyes Wide Shut masked soiree they attend near the film’s climax — it’s still fun to spend some time with our couple, who often function as a stand-in for the audience, experiencing what’s happening around them with a guileless naiveté.

Or maybe that’s just because I resonated with them so much. As an Ashevillean, I related to the way they simply live in their city while visitors flock around them. I also appreciated the more real moments of their relationship, such as when Leilani knows exactly how to cheer Jibran up or when he pauses to allow space for a sweet moment to play out. Characters throughout the film comment on how hard relationships are — and how social media, which positions the realm of double taps and retweets literally at our fingertips, creates more distance between us and the people we actually know and love. A murder pushes Jibran and Leilani to remember why it’s worth it to stay together, but hopefully the rest of us don’t have to take things quite that far.

Available to stream via Netflix REVIEWED BY ALI MCGHEE ALIMCGHEE@GMAIL.COM

“Why are they publishing this Crier rubbish?” you may be asking. We certainly are. The rest of this edition of Mountain Xpress can’t help but show the tough times WNC is facing. Here’s one little spot in the paper where we offer a bit of levity, to possibly brighten someone’s day, poking a bit of fun at the outrageousness of it all.

How to outsmart a bully (local edition) With law-abiders being harassed by mask-shunners for following Buncombe County’s requirement to wear face coverings at all commercial establishments, officials have devised a list of retorts for use by those complying with the new decree.

During a press conference Tuesday, interim health director Dr. Jennifer Mullendore described the suggested responses as “designed to preserve your health, so you can stay alive like the brothers Gibb, while making the aggressor think about his or her actions, a la Aretha Franklin.” Below is the department’s list of approved phrases.

Use while listening to Mullendore’s “COVID Comfort” Spotify playlist — and carrying a big stick.

• “Do you kiss your immune-compromised mother with that mouth?”

• “I just ate at Rise ‘n Shine Café, and my face is a mess!”

• “I’m getting into character for Bane: The Musical.”

• “Reckon you won’t be joining my gang for this here railroad heist.”

• “I’m late for my ‘Masked Singer’ audition at Harrah’s!”

• “You don’t like my birthmark?”

• “I’m just doing this to own the Libs.”

• “I know where there’s toilet paper.”

Commissioner Robert Pressley, in an effort to “level the racetrack,” released his own set of recommended phrases for non-mask-wearers, thus clarifying his position that noncompliance is constitutionally protected protest.

• “Four score and seven days ago, I didn’t have to wear this crap.”

• “Don’t tread on my face.”

• “Mine eyes have seen the glory of a robust economy.”

• “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free — without this damn face mask.”

• “We may think of freedom as the right to do as we please.”

• “Our obligations to our country never cease but with our convenience.”

• “Doing things for other people’s benefit is the last refuge of the scoundrel.”

• “O say can you see … my face?”

• “Live free or die — of COVID.” • “Ask not what I can do for my country, ask: Isn’t this probably a conspiracy?”

MOUNTAINX.COM

MAY 27 - JUNE 2, 2020

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FREEWILL ASTROLOGY ARIES (March 21-April 19): “The best of my nature reveals itself in play, and play is sacred,” wrote the feisty Aries author Karen Blixen, who sometimes used the pen name Isak Dinesen.

The attitude described in that statement helps illuminate the meaning of another one of her famous quotations: “I do not think that I could ever really love a woman who had not, at one time or another, been up on a broomstick.”

In my interpretation of this humorous remark, Blixen referred to the fact that she had a strong preference for witchy women with rascally magical ways. I bring this to your attention, Aries, because I’m inviting you to cultivate a Blixen-like streak of sacred play and sly magic in the coming days.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Taurus music legend Willie Nelson has played the same guitar since 1969. He calls it “my horse,” and named it after Trigger, a famous horse in Hollywood films.

Although Nelson still loves the tones that come from his instrument, it’s neither sleek nor elegant.

It’s bruised with multiple stains and has a jagged gash near its sound hole. Some Tauruses want their useful things to be fine and beautiful, but not Willie. Having said that, I wonder if maybe he will finally change guitars sometime soon.

For you Bulls, the coming months will be time to consider trading in an old horse for a new one.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): I’ve got a message for you, courtesy of poet Lisel Mueller. I think her wisdom can help you thrive in the coming weeks.

She writes, “The past pushed away, the future left unimagined, for the sake of the glorious, difficult, passionate present.” Of course, it’s always helpful for us to liberate ourselves from the oppressive thoughts of what once was in the past and what might be in the future. But it’ll be especially valuable for you to claim that superpower in the coming weeks. To the degree that you do, the present will be more glorious and passionate and not so difficult.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): When Lewis Carroll’s fictional heroine Alice visits the exotic underground realm known as Wonderland, she encounters two odd men named Tweedledee and Tweedledum.

The latter tells her, “You know very well you’re not real.” He’s implying that Alice is merely a character in the dream of a man who’s sleeping nearby. This upsets her. “I am real!” she protests and breaks into tears. Tweedledum presses on, insisting she’s just a phantom. Alice summons her courageous wisdom and thinks to herself, “I know they’re talking nonsense, and it’s foolish to cry about it.” I suspect you Cancerians may have to deal with people and influences that give you messages akin to those of Tweedledum. If that happens, be like Alice.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): “The less you fear, the more power you will have,” says the rapper known as 50 Cent. I agree with him. If you can dissolve even, say, 25% of your fear, your ability to do what you want will rise significantly, as will your influence and clout. But here’s the major riddle: How exactly can you dissolve your fear? My answers to that question would require far more room than I have in this horoscope. But here’s the really good news, Leo: In the coming weeks, you will naturally have an abundance of good insights about to dissolve your own fear. Trust what your intuition tells you. And be receptive to clues that serendipity brings you.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): For his film Parasite, Virgo filmmaker Bong Joon-ho received Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Original Screenplay. In his natal horoscope, Joon-ho has Pluto conjunct his sun in Virgo, and during the time Parasite began to score major success, Saturn and Pluto were making a favorable transit to that powerful point in his chart. I’m expecting the next six months to be a time when you can make significant progress toward your own version of a Joon-ho style achievement. In what part of your life is that most likely to happen? Focus on it. Feed it. Love it.

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LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): According to my analysis of the astrological omens, the coming weeks will be a favorable time for you to seek out, seduce, and attract luck. To inspire you in this holy task, I’ll provide a prayer written by Hoodoo conjurer Stephanie Rose Bird: “O sweet luck, I call your name. Luck with force and power to make change, walk with me and talk through me. With your help, all that can and should be will be!” If there are further invocations you’d like to add to hers, Libra, please do. The best way to ensure that good fortune will stream into your life is to have fun as you draw it to you.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Scorpio comedian John Cleese does solo work, but many of his successful films, albums, stage shows and TV programs have arisen from joining forces with other comedians. “When you collaborate with someone else on something creative,” he testifies, “you get to places that you would never get to on your own.” I propose you make this your temporary motto, Scorpio. Whatever line of work or play you’re in, the coming weeks will offer opportunities to start getting involved in sterling synergies and symbioses. To overcome the potential limitations of social distancing, make creative use of Zoom and other online video conferencing.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): “Wherever I am, let me never forget to distinguish want from need,” vows author Barbara Kingsolver. “Let me be a good animal,” she adds. That would be a stirring prayer to keep simmering at the forefront of your awareness in the next six weeks. According to my understanding of the astrological omens, you’ll be getting clear signals about the differences between your wants and needs. You will also discover effective strategies about how to satisfy them both in the post-pandemic world, and fine intuitions about which one to prioritize at any particular time.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Writing some Chinese characters can be quite demanding. To make “biáng,” for example, which is used in the name for a certain kind of noodle, you must draw 58 separate strokes. This is a good metaphor for exactly what you should avoid in the coming weeks: spending too much time and devoting too much thought and getting wrapped up in too much complexity about trivial matters. Your focus should instead be on simple, bold approaches that encourage you to be crisp and decisive.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Singer-songwriter Jill Scott is strongly committed to her creative process.

She tells us, “I was once making a burger for myself at my boyfriend’s house and a lyric started pouring out and I had to catch it, so I ran to another room to write it down, but then the kitchen caught fire.

His cabinets were charred, and he was furious.

But it was worth it for a song.” My perspective: Scott’s level of devotion to the muse is too intense for my tastes. Personally, I would have taken the burger off the stove before fleeing the scene to record my good idea. What about you, Aquarius?

According to my analysis, you’re in a phase when creative ideas should flow even better than usual.

Pay close attention. Be prepared to capture as much of that potentially life-altering stuff as possible.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): To protect ourselves and others from the pandemic, most of us have been spending more time than usual at home — often engaged in what amounts to enforced relaxation.

For some of us, that has been a problem. But I’m going to propose that it will be the opposite of a problem for you in the next three weeks. In my astrological opinion, your words to live by will be this counsel from author and philosopher Mike Dooley: “What if it was your downtime, your lounging-inbed-too-long time, that made possible your greatest achievements? Would they still make you feel guilty?

Or would you allow yourself to enjoy them?”

MOUNTAINX.COM

MARKETPLACE

BY ROB BREZSNY

REAL ESTATE & RENTALS | ROOMMATES | JOBS | SERVICES ANNOUNCEMENTS | CLASSES & WORKSHOPS | MIND, BODY, SPIRIT MUSICIANS’ SERVICES | PETS | AUTOMOTIVE | XCHANGE | ADULT Want to advertise in Marketplace? 828-251-1333 landrews@mountainx.com • mountainx.com/classifieds If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Remember the Russian proverb: “Doveryai, no proveryai,” trust but verify. When answering classified ads, always err on the side of caution. Especially beware of any party asking you to give them financial or identification information. The Mountain Xpress cannot be responsible for ensuring that each advertising client is legitimate. Please report scams to ads@mountainx.com RENTALS SHORT-TERM RENTALS SHORT TERM/VACATION RENTAL Great for relocations, short term assignments, local events, etc. $1600/month, $700/week, $175/day, 2 day minimum. Weaverville area, 15 minutes to Asheville. 828231-9145

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EMPLOYMENT GENERAL EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF EBLEN CHARITIES The Board of Directors is actively seeking an Executive Director to lead Eblen Charities, an Asheville, North Carolina non-profit that has been serving our community since 1991. For details visit www.eblencharities.org 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.

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HUMAN SERVICES ASSOCIATE COORDINATOR FOR HOUSING PROGRAMMING Helpmate, the domestic violence organization in Buncombe County, NC is seeking an Associate Coordinator for Housing Programming. This position oversees the operation & functioning of multiple housing grants as well as direct service support to survivors.

Key duties include providing safety planning, referrals and advocacy to survivors of domestic violence as well as coordinating the functioning of the housing programs and ensuring compliance, reporting and meeting outcomes. The Associate Coordinator for Housing Programming supervises the Case Manager – Housing

RBG MOVING CO.

Focus. This position requires on-call responsibilities, including recurring night/weekend availability. Qualified candidates will have a commitment to gender equity as well as diversity, equity and inclusion. The role requires the ability to make independent decisions within the framework of policies, procedures, budgetary constraints, and grant restrictions. Helpmate seeks someone with strong conflict resolution skills, a focus on a survivor empowerment, and capable of clear, concise and accurate communication. A bachelor’s degree, or equivalent experience required, plus 2 years of experience in the field. Diverse candidates encouraged to apply. Email resume, cover letter by 9 am on Monday, June 1st to hiring@ helpmateonline.org. Applicants without both a cover letter and resume will not be considered.

TEACHING/ EDUCATION GRADES 2-3 MATH/ SCIENCE TEACHER AND GRADES K-8 PE/ OUTDOOR ED TEACHER Come join our dynamic teaching team! FMI about each position, visit http:// thelearningcommunity.org/ employment-opportunities/ 828-686-3080 employment@ thelearningcommunity.org www.thelearningcommunity. org

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Position responsibilities include developing and implementing a fundraising strategy and budget in consultation with the Board Fundraising Committee and staff members. Integral to success is growing the donor base and oversight of the Annual Fund and an annual Scholarship Fundraising event as well as management of the Scholarship and Endowment Funds. The position requires a commitment of 28 hrs/wk.

For a complete job description and application information visit www.arthurmorganschool.org

edited by Will Shortz

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1 Word after play or before luck 5 The “P” of P.B.R.

10 Home to the Bay of Pigs 14 Fell on one’s face big-time

19 Sign of autumn 20 Artery 17 21 Location of a 1979 accident 20 24 Potpie ingredient 23 25 TV’s Dr. ___ 26 Location where Italy’s capital is 31 32 33 said to have been founded 34 Big lug 35 Touch-and-go 41 36 Looked too soon, 47 48 say 37 Tattaglia and 51 Barzini, in “The Godfather” 39 Scullers’ gear 58 59 60 41 32-year-old artist pictured on the cover of Time 63 magazine in 1936 66 42 De facto 45 Ceremonies 69 48 Dearie 49 Location in the New World until 1776 16 Give out one’s address?

52 The “G” of Geico: Abbr.

17 Candid 18 Zoroastrianism, e.g. 53 Ballet move 10

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No. 0422 54 Asset that’s all about “location, location, location” … with a hint to the starts of 21-, 26- and 49-Across 61 Gator’s cousin 62 12/31, for one 63 It’s a knockout 64 City on the Arno 65 Utopias 66 Justice Kagan 67 Skating feat 68 Takes to the limit, perhaps 69 Revivalists, for short?

DOWN 1 Bats 2 “The Greatest Snow on Earth” sloganeer 3 Head of government between Eshkol and Rabin 4 “Buzz off!”

5 Inside-the-Beltway type 6 Seed covering

puzzle by Jules Markey 7 Dearie 8 Cartoonists’ output 9 Establishment with steep prices?

10 Orangish shade 11 Well versed in 12 Droplet 13 & 15 Song by the Doors that, paradoxically, is heard at the start of “Apocalypse Now” 22 When doubled, a Hawaiian fish 23 Vivacity 26 Begin’s negotiating partner for peace 27 Long time 28 20, in Italian 29 Master 30 A mondegreen is a misheard one 31 Cousin of a giraffe 32 Free-for-all 33 Text tweaks 38 Like some caps and gowns

40 Kind of order on Wall Street

55 Type of wine with an accent

43 Little wonder?

56 Vacation times on la Côte d’Azur

44 Young hare

57 “You ___ kiddin’!”

46 She: Fr. 47 “Yes, that’s clear to me”

58 Throat clearer

50 Big online brokerage

59 Mobile home?

51 Sharply annoy

60 Long times 61 I.R.S. worker, for short

54 Grand ___

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS NY TIMES PUZZLE

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MOUNTAIN X P R ES S

celebrating 25 Years!

2020 X AWARDS

Thank You FOR VOTING! RESULTS COMING LATER THIS SUMMER!

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PUBLIC HEARING

Community Action Opportunities (CAO) will receive $952,913 from the CARES NC Program (NC’s allocation from CARES Act Community Services Block Grant Supplemental Award) to serve Buncombe, Henderson, Madison, McDowell, Polk and Transylvania counties.

CAO will host a public hearing webinar on Friday, May 29, 2020 at 12pm.

Visit https://communityactionopportunities.org for hearing details.

HELP WANTED Wastewater/Water Plant Operator positions available in the Asheville Area!

Midwest Water Operations LLC is looking to add good team members with mechanical abilities to our growing team to work in the Asheville area. Pay scale ranges depending on qualifications. Paid health insurance, vacation & sick leave, and retirement. Wastewater and Water certification is required.

MOUNTAINX.COM

Fill out application at midwestwaterop.com MAY 27 - JUNE 2, 2020

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MAY 27 - JUNE 2, 2020

MOUNTAINX.COM