On rural stretches of the Blue Ridge Parkway, businesses fear losing another tourist season
When you see a hot-air balloon flying in Western North Carolina, you’re likely awestruck at the romantic sight. You’re also witnessing advanced flying skills practiced by only a handful of local pilots, including Louise Egerton and James “Chief” Eagle. But as the pair prepares to retire from the sky, they’re seeking to pass on their knowledge to younger pilots.
Indivisble Asheville organizer discusses the group’s ongoing quest to engage the
Mold is just one of many harmful substances circulating in our atmosphere
Asheville
David Wilcox debuts a new album with his
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Woodfin businesses make town special
It seems there was quite an oversight on the last article about Woodfin [“Where is Woodfin?’ Ask a Stupid Question, Get Intelligent Answers,” Nov. 5, Xpress]. There are some very excellent proprietors that make Woodfin special.
Quench! Wine Bistro is a charming place with over-the-top inventive and delicious food and, of course, an incredible wine selection from the wonderful couple who own Metro Wines.
Another nearly daily visit is to the Blue Ridge Market. It has farmfresh produce, eggs and cheese, with twice-weekly deliveries of fresh sourdough bread. The women in this market have all the traditional knowledge and more to walk you through recipes passed down through generations.
Last, Oriental Pavilion, a true New York-style restaurant, has moved to Woodfin from West Asheville. A quick run up to Woodfin can quench your thirst for egg drop soup (see what I did there?).
Let’s give this area a glow up for their efforts to provide options to the bustling city of Asheville.
— Alison Hack North Asheville
HCA should be forced to sell Mission
[“Mission Hospital Placed in Immediate Jeopardy; Sanction Is Third Since Sale to HCA,” Oct. 24, Asheville Watchdog via Xpress:]
In my opinion, HCA seems to be maintaining its history of buying up hospitals and destroying them.
There are some excellent departments at HCA Mission. However, I think there are too many subpar departments of HCA Mission to balance the excellent ones.
HCA should be forced to sell to a more service-oriented, patient-focused group. Probably public.
Private ownership is not appropriate for health care and social services. Stockholder profits get the highest priority. Services suffer.
— Frances Burton Asheville
Word of the week
dirigible (adj.and n.)
1. (adj.) capable of being steered 2. (n.) a lighter-than-air aircraft having propulsion and steering systems If you’re unable to guess what inspired the week’s word, give the cover one more glance. Or turn to Page 22. X
India pale ale has been good to Asheville
[Regarding “The Bitter Taste of India Pale Ale’s History,” Nov. 5, Xpress:]
The phenomenon of what India pale ale has done for the brewing renaissance in America has been quite remarkable. Yes, the British have always been known for their ability to bring civilization to the Third World. Right or wrong, it’s always been about the belief that they can make others better than they were, while filling their own coffers and believing in the power they hold.
As far as a Karmic IPA is concerned, it’s not really in our position to be the executioner of karma, ever. Karma just happens instantaneously.
And I believe that more often than not, some of the worst things that have occurred throughout civilization have blossomed into something beautiful. That’s how I believe the universe works.
Because as Lao Tzu explains, “Under heaven all can see beauty as beauty only because there is ugliness.”
I would also say that India pale ale has been very good to me and this community as a whole.
— Carl Melissas Original brewer/creator of Iron Rail IPA Asheville
Editor’s note
As part of our Fall Nonprofit Issue, Xpress reached out to a number of local organizations for updates on their missions and future plans. The “Whatever it takes” series is available in this week’s issue. X
Readers win with ‘I Beg to Differ’
In late August, my wife and I visited our son and grandchildren in Asheville, and as always when in town, I picked up a copy of the Mountain Xpress. I just got around to paging through the Best of WNC awards issue and followed that by opening the next week’s Part Two publication.
The “I Beg To Differ” column on the opinion pages is a positive testament to the valuable publication you create, particularly in light of the horrible news regarding the assassination of Mr. Charlie Kirk [ “I Beg to Differ: What’s Wrong With Our Political Discourse?” Aug. 27]. Americans who listen and digest issues from both sides become better for the effort. I look forward to future pieces from Bill Branyon and Carl Mumpower. Thank you for being a truly unique source of information and a provider of timely local issues and events.
We currently live full time in Florida but enjoyed many years in Asheville as visitors, and then as residents. From 20172022, we split our time between an apartment on Coxe Avenue and at our home in The Villages, Fla. As stated previously, when in town I always pick up a copy. When in Florida, reading the Mountain Xpress online makes me feel like I am still right there in Beer City enjoying the people, the venues and life in the mountains.
— Dick Domann
The Villages, Fla.
Skeleton displays fail to charm
[Regarding “Bare-bones Operation: A Pair of Neighbors Bring Year-round Skeleton Displays to North Asheville,” Oct. 29, Xpress:]
I’m all for people discovering their creativity, but I feel bad for their neighbors who have to look at that year-round. I’d be furious. It looks like a junkyard — maybe move it indoors and have some consideration for people’s home values.
— J. Conrad Weaverville
An ode to public servants
In a time wherein we seem permanently divided and angry with all levels of government — all with due cause — it is useful and appropriate to remind ourselves from time to time that there are a lot of people in government and in volunteer service answering the call to do things right, for all the right reasons. I had opportunities in recent weeks to see a bit of that up close locally.
Over the last few months, I attended a long and detailed session of the Asheville Planning and Zoning Commission and one by the Asheville City Council, and followed processes by the Asheville Technical Review Committee. Some tough and complicated issues are always before these bodies. A number of impressions linger with me after watching these people and the organizations do their work.
First, the nature of their responsibilities is that in so many cases, perhaps in almost all of them, half the people following a given issue will not be happy with the decisions made. They cannot make everyone happy.
Second, I was impressed with how thoroughly these people had prepared for these sessions. They clearly had done their homework, had listened to and responded to many citizens with varying views, and they asked probing questions.
Third, the amount of time they put into these efforts is impressive. For the zoning commission, the session I attended started around 6 p.m.; the matter I was following ran until almost 11 p.m., and they had more issues to follow on the agenda for that day. Same with the City Council; they meet in the evenings, making it possible for more citizens to attend in person or online.
Both the Commission and the Council have professional staff, who clearly did excellent work to bring issues to an informed conclusion; the principals are elected officials (Council) or appointed volunteers (Commission). The amount of time and effort all of these people put into serving the community as best they can is admirable.
Any of us may care passionately about the outcome of any given issue, but we would do well to equally value the honesty and competency of the processes and people that result in decisions. More often than we realize, we are well served by people doing their best to get it right. They deserve our thanks.
— Bill Clontz Asheville X
CARTOON BY RANDY MOLTON
CARTOON BY BRENT BROWN
Saying ‘yes’ Bair
BY DENNIS RAY
“I love you, Dad,” Nicholas says, stepping out of the car to go to his first day of work this past June. He pauses, bright afternoon sunlight winking off his open car door’s window as he leans back in for a hug.
“I’m proud of you,” I say, immediately realizing that it sounded hokey. He pulls back a bit, hesitates and murmurs, “It’s Bojangles, Dad. Not Harvard.”
“I know,” I say. “I’m still proud of you. I’m proud of everything you’ve —”
“I’m running late,” he says. “Gotta go.” Then smiles and closes the door. I watch him head up the sidewalk, confident and now taller than I am. His black hair, recently cut for the job, is short and mussed, and his clothes hang loose on his thin frame.
A FATEFUL ‘YES’
It’s been nine years since I said “yes” to having Nicholas come live with us — a wide-eyed, smartmouthed, 7-year-old kid with a million
Foundation matches WNC kids with foster parents
ideas always racing through his head. Like a soldier with hidden enemies behind every tree, he was constantly aware of his surroundings, always careful of people, never letting anyone too close, keeping safe behind the high walls he built. A year later, we adopted him into our family.
One “yes” carried him from that frightened little boy to now, almost a man, heading off to his first real job. That “yes” eventually led to the destruction of many of his walls, though some things he keeps close to the vest — stuff he will never tell, something we all do, not because of fear or shame, but because some things are best left in the past, never to resurface.
THE FOSTER CARE CRISIS
As Western North Carolina continues to rebuild from the immense damage and flooding caused by Tropical Storm Helene a year ago, another crisis persists: the need for foster families. More than 10,000 children are
in foster care across North Carolina. Here in WNC, the numbers are pressing. There are over 500 in Buncombe County, 150 in Henderson County and more than 130 in Haywood County, all waiting for a safe home.
Many are teenagers or part of sibling groups. They might have been at six schools in two years, never in one place for more than 10 months. Some are siblings who need to stay together. When no one nearby says “yes,” they bounce from temporary beds in respite homes, sleep in offices meant for paperwork or get placed hours away from their schools, friends and teams, most likely at a group home.
Like all statistics easily found online, they are made of numbers, generalities used to concretize large amounts of data into something accessible. What statistics cannot provide is the personal or relatable stuff, like just how bleak things are from the child’s perspective when they aren’t placed in families, knowing they’ll probably simply age out and be left on their own. Or what these children have suffered through and how desperate they are to be part of a “real” family: to have someone to call Mom or Dad; to have a parent to show up at parent/teacher nights or at after-school activities; to work with them on homework or learning how to make pizza from scratch; to tell them that that everything will be all right; to have a parent say, “I got you.”
When these needs are not met or even slightly fulfilled, the odds favor them becoming incarcerated, homeless or unemployed, creating a steady stream of angry adults looking for fights or to commit crimes. Give a child a stable home, love and a sense of belonging, and watch those odds shift. So, the question is: How do we move on from here?
SUPPORT AND TRAINING
And this is where The Bair Foundation comes in. It’s a Christian-based organization I discovered and used in 2016 for Nicholas and three years later, for my youngest, Vincent, now almost 14. Bair recruits, trains and stands with foster families.
Its Asheville office works with counties and courts in WNC to match kids and caregivers, offering 24/7 staff support, respite care, coaching, clinical and behavioral health services, and foster-to-adopt pathways for kids ready for permanency. For youths with trauma his-
“More than 10,000 children are in foster care across North Carolina.”
tories, Bair uses a structured trauma-responsive model that builds skills and stability while backing up the caregiver. The state provides full medical coverage. Bair adds training, a team you can reach at any hour and a plan you can follow.
“My goal is to find the adults in WNC who still believe in community and the power of love to change the future for the better, one, two or three youth at a time,” says Daphne Chandler, Bair’s foster parent recruiter in Asheville.
MAKING A DIFFERENCE
If you’re wondering whether you’re the right person, here’s what I’ve learned: You won’t be right for every child. You will be right for one. If your life feels too chaotic to foster — remember, life is always chaotic. There are always 10,000 things needing attention, a hundred calls to make and a dozen or so meetings to attend. But things often get easier with the routine of showing up for someone else.
Worried you’ll get too attached? Ask about foster-to-adopt. I have said “yes” twice.
One “yes” won’t fix the system. However, like the proverbial starfish thrown back into the ocean, it makes a difference for that one child. The child you help.
Dennis Ray is the publisher of Rapid River Magazine in Asheville. You can reach The Bair Foundation’s Asheville office (410 Executive Park) at 828-350-5197. X
DENNIS RAY
For millennia, the river we call the French Broad went by her Cherokee name, Tah-kee-os-tee, a flowing resource for food, drinking, and paddling along her “racing waters.”
Using nature as our guide, RiverLink works for cleaner water, natural green spaces, and environmental education for the next generation of river stewards -- all with climate resilience in mind. Visit riverlink.org to learn more, and volunteer or make a donation today.
Lather, rinse, repeat
Will anything break the cycle of problems at Mission Hospital?
BY MARK BARRETT
markbarrett@charter.net
News in October that government regulators had sanctioned Mission Hospital for inadequate patient care had a familiar ring.
After all, the same thing happened in 2021 and 2024, when citations of “immediate jeopardy” threatened Mission with the loss of Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements unless the hospital took corrective steps. And all three actions came against the background of regular media reports of all sorts of problems — chaos in the emergency department, the end of certain types of care and even poor janitorial services — at Mission since for-profit giant HCA Healthcare bought the hospital in 2019.
Julie Mayfield, a Democratic state senator from Asheville who chairs a local group pushing for improvements at Mission, says the sanctions and complaints are part of a “feedback loop” at Mission that shows no sign of ending. Hospital leaders refuse to employ enough nurses and other workers, she says, which leads to poor treatment of patients, government investigations and then promises of improvement by Mission that gradually fade away as problems resurface.
The group Mayfield heads, Reclaim Healthcare WNC, fields public complaints about Mission and passes them on to the state agency responsible for regulating hospitals.
When problems surface at Mission, “They’ll staff up, things get better and then over the course of weeks or maybe months it trails off again and then we start getting more phone calls,” Mayfield says.
Is that story destined to occur over and over, or are there developments on the horizon that might change the way HCA operates Mission?
A decision on a lawsuit brought by the state Department of Justice that alleges Mission is not providing services it promised when HCA bought the hospital is expected next year. A hospital planned in Weaverville will likely give
SORE SPOT: Long wait times and concerns about quality of care have brought criticism of Mission Hospital’s emergency room since HCA Healthcare bought the hospital and the rest of the Mission Health system in 2019. Photo by Mark Barrett
area residents another choice for some types of care, possibly pushing Mission to make changes, but the project is tied up in litigation.
The prospect of HCA selling Mission to a nonprofit, sometimes suggested in public conversations about the hospital, seems much less likely. Data suggest Mission is busy and profitable, and HCA says it has no interest in a sale.
Here’s a look at what may lie ahead.
SOUL CRUSHING
Mission Hospital is the key piece of Mission Health, a health system that also includes hospitals in Brevard, Franklin, Highlands, Marion and Spruce Pine, a home health agency and other health care services. The $1.5 billion that HCA, a publicly traded for-profit company based in Nashville, Tenn., paid for what had been an independent nonprofit went to Dogwood Health Trust, a foundation that makes grants intended to improve the health and quality of life of Western North
the hospital recently exceeded its goal of hiring 200 new workers, including 100 nurses, in 100 days. As of press time, Mission’s online job listings included offers of signing bonuses that topped out at $20,000 for full-time, experienced registered nurses, $15,000 for recently graduated RNs and $5,000 to $15,000 for several other positions.
But Mayfield and Zenker say that as new employees come on board, existing ones jump ship because of poor working conditions. “When you’re short-staffing nurses, what you’re doing is crushing their souls,” Zenker said.
WHAT DOES ‘DISCONTINUED’ MEAN?
The judge hearing a lawsuit brought by the state will decide whether Mission has adhered to the purchase agreement for the health system that HCA entered into in 2019, and if not, what to do about it. The state is acting on behalf of Dogwood.
The agreement says HCA “shall not discontinue the provision of” medical services listed in the agreement, including services associated with a specific level of trauma care. The lawsuit filed in December 2023 says emergency room and certain oncology services at Mission Hospital had become so degraded that Mission is not meeting that requirement.
Carolina residents. Dogwood also hires companies that monitor HCA’s compliance with the purchase agreement.
The transition from nonprofit to for-profit ownership was wrenching for many employees and sparked complaints from physicians, public officials and patients and their families, many related to a shortage of workers in the hospital.
That concern has not gone away. “The issue is like nurses keep saying over and over again,” Molly Zenker, a Mission nurse who lives in Weaverville, says. “If you short-staff the nurses and the other workers in the hospital, you’re not going to” fix problems identified by regulators.
Mission officials strongly disagree with many of the criticisms, citing, among other things, favorable grades of the hospital’s performance by two organizations that rate hospitals. One, Healthgrades, says Mission is one of the 50 best hospitals in the country. (Critics say the grades can be manipulated.)
Hospital President and CEO Greg Lowe has called some reports of inadequate care “anecdotal commentary.”
Hospital spokesperson Nancy Lindell said in a statement that Mission “remains confident in the ability of our team to provide compassionate, high-quality care and is committed to continuous improvement in patient safety and clinical excellence.”
HCA established a local nursing school after buying Mission. Lindell said
“Patients who go to the emergency department wait hours for a bed; some leave without treatment. Others are treated in the waiting room without the basic dignity and privacy of a room or even sufficient medical equipment,” the lawsuit says. It says physicians providing the oncology services stopped practicing at Mission because HCA did not have enough nurses and support staff to assist them.
Mission’s attorneys argue that while wait times at the emergency room may have been long, that was due in large part to fluctuations in the number of patients who seek treatment and constraints caused by COVID. They say the purchase agreement does not impose any requirements that services be of a certain quality or any minimum staff-to-patient ratios and that Mission has taken several steps to recruit or retain employees.
The attorneys wrote that Mission’s “doors remain open for credentialed physicians who choose to provide oncology care at Mission,” that many oncology services are still available at the hospital and that it cannot control the decisions of physicians who were not its employees to leave.
Mission asked the judge in the case Oct. 27 to decide the case in its favor. Business Court Judge Julianna Theall Earp has already ruled that there is more than one way to interpret the
language of the purchase agreement and that a decision may depend in part on the parties’ understanding of it at the time.
The last legal filings on HCA’s request are due before the end of the year, suggesting Earp’s decision is likely in 2026. An unknown is just what she could force Mission to do if she rules in the state’s favor. The purchase agreement demands the provision of services but does not include any penalties for noncompliance.
That’s been a source of concern for Mission critics. Local physician Dr. Clay Ballantine calls the agreement “grotesquely lopsided in HCA’s favor.”
Brevard Mayor Maureen Copelof says she would like for U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to temporarily take over administration of Mission Health. “You have to be in there day in and day out to correct these problems,” she says.
Mayfield says Reclaim has pushed for that, but such arrangements typically last no more than a year, and it is unclear whether CMS would ever take such a step for a hospital.
ALTERNATIVES AHEAD?
AdventHealth, a nonprofit health system based in Florida, plans a new hospital to be located off Monticello Road in Weaverville and has cleared the site but hasn’t begun construction. Just how large that hospital will be — and, by extension, how robust a competitor it will become for Mission — is an open question.
Under state law, major medical facilities can’t open in North Carolina
Who gets to build?
The N.C. Department of Health and Human Services is taking comments on four competing applications from UNC Health West Medical Center, Novant Health Asheville Medical Center, AdventHealth Asheville and a subsidiary of HCA Healthcare to either build a new hospital or expand hospital facilities in Buncombe County. Comments may be sent as an attachment to an email to DHSR. CON.Comments@dhhs.nc.gov or by postal mail to Healthcare Planning and Certificate of Need Section, Division of Health Service Regulation 2704 Mail Service Center, Raleigh, NC 27699-2704. Comments must be received by Monday, Dec. 1.
A public hearing on the proposals will be held Tuesday, Dec. 16, at 10 a.m., in the Ferguson Auditorium, A-B Tech Community College, 340 Victoria Road in Asheville. X
without permission from the state Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS). DHHS periodically takes applications for facilities it says are needed, and providers compete for what’s called a certificate of need to build and operate them.
Advent, which has a hospital in northern Henderson County, won initial approvals from the state to build a 93-bed hospital in Weaverville. Then last month, Advent applied for permission to expand the unbuilt hospital by another 129 beds, bringing the total to 222.
But, HCA has challenged approvals of the 93 beds in court, and its appeals are working their way through the court system. It will be some months at least before regulators decide whether Advent or a competitor will be given permission to build the additional 129 beds, and there is a good chance that losing applicants will challenge that award, too.
Mission and UNC Health, a nonprofit system affiliated with the University of North Carolina, separately applied for the 129 beds the same day Advent did, with UNC Health saying it would build a new hospital in southern Buncombe County. At the same time, Novant Health, a nonprofit network of hospitals, clinics and other medical services based in Winston-Salem, asked for permission to build a new hospital with 34 beds. It would be on Long Shoals Road. The state is likely to award a certificate of need to build another 92 beds to serve Buncombe and four other Western North Carolina counties as soon as next year.
Ballantine and Mayfield hope a competing hospital or hospitals in the county would force HCA to up its game at Mission. Reclaim, the group Mayfield heads, has not endorsed any particular competitor, she says: “What we have said is effectively anyone except HCA” should get state approval.
But even if Advent wins rights to all of the beds the state will allocate this year and next, its Weaverville hospital would still be less than half the size of Mission Hospital, which is licensed for 733 beds plus another 120 at its psychiatric hospital. That, Mayfield says, would mean many patients needing specialized care would still end up at Mission, though she added that Mission seems to be more generous with employees and other resources for those services than more routine care.
Ballantine would like for the state to suspend certificate of need restrictions for Buncombe County altogether.
“Let’s pull the fences down,” he says. “Let all of the big health care systems build whatever they want so we have full and open competition.”
Mission says it would expand at its current campus south of downtown Asheville and argues that it is in a better position to use the additional
beds. Lindell, the Mission spokesperson, wrote in an email that the hospital accepts thousands of transfers of patients annually from other hospitals, “including facilities currently seeking approval to expand … because patients need a level of care only available at our hospital.
“We consider it a privilege to care for our region’s sickest patients, but need more beds to do so,” Lindell wrote.
NO SALE
Persuading HCA to sell Mission to a nonprofit health system was an early goal of Reclaim, but Mayfield now calls that “unlikely.”
“HCA makes a lot of money” at Mission, she says, and, “Its value has increased tremendously such that it would be difficult for another system to buy it.”
Lowe said in April that HCA had spent more than $800 million on capital improvements in the Mission Health system. That includes new technology, replacing the former hospital building in Franklin and building a new psychiatric hospital on the south side of Asheville.
While many people have lowered their opinion of Mission Hospital or the Mission Health system since HCA took
over, the patients keep coming. Because of the demand for care at the hospital, Mission Hospital regularly asks state regulators for a waiver allowing it to house more than its licensed capacity, hospital officials say, and those requests are routinely granted.
Dogwood had $2 billion in assets at the end of 2024, an amount that would allow it to make a serious bid for Mission if it chose to, but there has been no indication that the foundation is considering that option. Rachel Ryan, Dogwood’s general counsel, said during a webinar in August that HCA “is not in the process of selling their hospitals at the moment.”
HCA has occasionally sold hospitals in other places, including a 185-bed hospital in San Jose, Calif., that was the subject of complaints when HCA cut services there. Mayfield says those are business decisions, not typically caused by public pressure.
“They’re not going to hang onto something that isn’t making money,” she says. “I don’t think they’re going to sell something out of the goodness of their hearts.”
HCA has consistently said it has no plans to sell Mission. Asked for this story whether there is any possibility of a sale, Lindell responded simply “no.” X
For many nonprofits across Western North Carolina, the past year has been a relentless test of endurance.
First came Tropical Storm Helene and its devastating impact on housing and food security across the region. Then the Trump administration cut funding for SNAP, WIC and other key programs and helped foster an atmosphere many organizations say is hostile to the work they do. The federal government shutdown only made things worse.
“I’ve worked in nonprofit for 23 years — so my entire adult life — and this absolutely has been the hardest year I’ve ever had,” says Lauren Wilkie, chief executive officer of Hendersonvillebased Safelight, which supports victims of interpersonal violence, sexual assault and child abuse. “And that’s compared to COVID, which is a close second.”
The story is the same for other WNC nonprofit leaders, who say staff morale is frayed and exhaustion is pervasive. Demand is surging, with many human services organizations seeing dozens of new families seeking food, housing and other needs.
Nicole Hinebaugh, director of food security initiatives at Haywood Christian Ministry, describes the environment as “turbocharged,” with staff scrambling to adjust to the challenges. SafeLight’s Wilkie notes that housing challenges, shelter repairs and storm-related expenses have drained both funds and staff energy.
“My staff is worried,” adds Paige Christie, executive director of Sylva’s The Community Table. “They’re coming to me, asking, ‘What do we do if this hap-
A TIME TO SERVE: Food security staffers at Haywood Christian Ministry are feeling stressed but undeterred. “It is a very challenging environment to keep staff morale high, but we try to build a culture that is inviting, warm and values everyone here,” says Nicole Hinebaugh, director of food security initiatives for the Waynesville nonprofit. Photo courtesy of Haywood Christian Ministry
pens? What do we do if that happens?’ And I’m like, ‘Well, we figure it out. We rally our donors, and we talk to people who care about us and we don’t stop what we do. We keep feeding people.’”
MORALE BOOSTERS
Nonprofits are trying a variety of strategies to keep staff engaged and resilient. Small morale boosters, wellness initiatives and flexible work arrangements are common, but leaders acknowledge such approaches are not a panacea.
At The Community Table, executives have turned to small, tangible perks to sustain morale. Staff members enjoy holiday parties, birthday celebrations and even “silly song days,” Christie says. A grant from the WNC Bridge Foundation for staff well-being also allowed employees to take spa days and participate in wellness activities.
“It’s the little stuff that keeps us going, because the big stuff is overwhelming,” she explains.
The nonprofit, which runs a food pantry and community meal program
serving thousands, relies on three fulltime staff members and about 30-40 regular volunteers. Christie says those morale boosters offer brief relief but can’t offset the deeper strain staff members are feeling.
“We can take a break for an hour or a day, but the next day the lines of people needing help are right back at our doors,” she says.
At Safelight, leadership has invested in structured retreats and daily initiatives focused on self-care. Activities include sound-bathing sessions, team reflection time and mental health support programs. Wilkie says these approaches help the staff of about 40 people process trauma while maintaining service levels.
“We do a lot to make sure we’re working on ourselves before working on other people,” she says. Staff members report these sessions strengthen cohesion and reduce burnout.
Waynesville-based Haywood Christian Ministry emphasizes flexibility and a “family-first” culture, says Hinebaugh. The ministry, which oper-
ates the Smoky Mountain Harvest Hub, provides free food through a community market, home-delivered boxes and 24/7 refrigerated lockers.
To support its staff of about 35 — 14 or 15 of whom focus on food security — the nonprofit encourages mental health days, flexible schedules and communal lunches to maintain connection, she explains.
“One thing a mentor told me many years ago was, ‘In this world, the most important thing you can do is to create that family feeling. Everything else comes from that,’” Hinebaugh recalls. “There’s a sense that as long as we’re together, maybe we can weather this storm, put our heads down and keep doing the work.”
Yet she adds that even with these measures, morale remains fragile, especially as federal funding cuts and suspended programs like the Healthy Opportunities Pilot (HOP) remove critical resources.
The WNC Food Systems Coalition, a nonprofit that seeks to build an equitable food system by collaborating across multiple agencies, has relied on a clear mission to sustain morale.
“We’re fortunate to have a community of supporters who recognize that we’re in this for the long haul,” Executive Director Dana Choquette says. Staff engagement comes from reflecting on organizational goals and seeing the tangible impact of their work. While these practices build resilience, she admits, stress and fatigue remain constant challenges.
Across organizations, leaders agree morale-boosting strategies help but don’t solve underlying problems. Still, leaders remain committed, seeing them as essential to keeping teams functional and motivated.
ONLINE HARASSMENT ADDS PRESSURE
As nonprofits seek to boost morale, some are facing a new type of challenge: aggressive online harassment and doxxing. Organizations that publicly embrace equity or inclusion initiatives are especially aware of potential risks.
Such initiatives have been targeted nationwide by the Trump administration.
The WNC Food Systems Coalition recently experienced a series of harassing posts from a Facebook user living outside the region. The man initially targeted a staff member for their LGBT identity.
“[He] was hoping to have our staff be targeted or punished for being LGBT,” Choquette recalls. “We didn’t do that, obviously, and were able to put a stop to it, but not without some harm to our morale, to our perception of safety. [The man] looked up and posted all of our home addresses. It was very, very threatening, seemingly out of nowhere.”
The man also zeroed in on the coalition’s equity statements and use of pronouns online, she says. “[He] really wanted to make sure that their community knew, ‘Hey, this is an enemy and that we should not support them.’”
Nonprofits have few clear guidelines for handling such incidents, she points out. “It feels like one path is to buckle under the bullying and fully remove any public wording or even programming. The other path is to try to basically be more covert in the work that we do.”
Other groups are similarly paying close attention to their online presence and potential vulnerabilities, even if they haven’t faced direct harassment.
Hinebaugh of Haywood Christian Ministry says her organization has taken a cautious approach. “It does actually lead people to make some changes and some choices about how publicly we want to share who works for the organization and who our board members are,” she says. “We do want to keep people safe during this time.”
At Safelight, Wilkie notes that social media can amplify criticism, particularly around programs related to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). “I’m not surprised by the backlash,” she says. “But my staff nicknamed me ‘The Bulldog.’ I’d love to see someone come at me with that.”
She emphasizes that criticism, while expected, adds emotional strain for staff already managing trauma in their daily work.
Leaders say they are increasingly sharing strategies among themselves, creating informal networks to respond to threats, protect staff and support each other emotionally.
“Even if there’s potential for harassment, we can’t stop our work,” Hinebaugh says. “People need our help.”
‘WE WILL BE HERE’
Despite the enormous challenges, nonprofit leaders are looking to the future with optimism and determination.
“As long as needs remain, we will be here, regardless of political climate or natural disaster or whatever,” says Choquette. “We’re going to be feeding people until people are no longer hungry, and that will likely outlast this administration.”
She adds: “The people who do this work are really scrappy and hard to deter.”
Hinebaugh has ambitious plans for Haywood Christian Ministry. The community market will move indoors to operate year-round and a new commercial kitchen at the Smoky Mountain Harvest Hub will turn perishable donations into usable food while supporting local farmers and food entrepreneurs. A composting facility on-site will keep resources circulating in the community.
“No one is coming to save us, so we’re going to have to be the ones to build those systems,” she says.
Safelight’s Wilkie is focused on sustaining and expanding the agency’s work. She has tripled fundraising efforts, doubled the agency’s budget over five years and even paid off the organization’s mortgage.
She is also sharing her expertise with other nonprofits, helping them adopt the strategies that have kept her organization strong. “We’ve really diversified our funding, knowing we need less reliance on the federal government,” she says.
Meanwhile, The Community Table is recalibrating fundraising and staffing plans to meet growing demand, aiming to serve nearly 15,000 people with up to 20,000 meals by the end of the year.
“Times are tough, and our staff members are tired and frustrated,” Christie says. “But they’re not quitting.” X
‘There’s no way’
BY DAN DEWITT AN ASHEVILLE WATCHDOG REPORT
Virginia Gilbert was shocked and angry after she learned recently that premiums for her Affordable Care Act (ACA) insurance policy will more than double next year, jumping from $930 to $2,042.
She was freshly outraged after U.S. senators reached an agreement last week to end the six-week government shutdown without securing an extension of enhanced premium tax credits for ACA-backed plans.
That leaves little prospect for the continuation of bigger subsidies and little hope of adequate assistance for people like Gilbert — a self-employed marriage and family therapist — who don’t have access to employee-backed coverage, she said.
Gilbert and other ACA enrollees interviewed by Asheville Watchdog are considering a range of options to address these costs — from working more to choosing bare-bones plans or even dropping healthcare coverage altogether.
“I’m not really even thinking about myself at this point,” said Gilbert, 63, whose expected 2026 premiums will roughly equal the monthly mortgage payments for her Asheville condominium.
“What happens to the country if most people who don’t have employer-funded health insurance can’t afford health insurance?” she asked rhetorically. “It just feels so dystopian.”
Gilbert is one of 975,000 residents in North Carolina and nearly 32,000 in Buncombe County covered by ACA-backed plans, said Nicholas Riggs of Legal Aid of North Carolina and the director of the NC (ACA) Navigator Consortium.
STICKER SHOCK: Virginia Gilbert’s ACA medical insurance premiums will more than double next year, jumping from $930 to $2,042. The self-employed marriage and family therapist said that realizing so many people lack employer-funded insurance and won’t be able to afford soaring premiums “feels so dystopian.”
The expected jump in her premiums is typical, according to health research nonprofit KFF, which has estimated a 114% average increase in the cost of ACA-backed plans. KFF and other sources also show that higher health care costs in Western North Carolina are resulting in higher premiums than in much of the rest of the state.
ACA policyholders face difficult choices with much reduced federally funded support, said Riggs, whose consortium advises current and potential ACA plan enrollees.
The Trump administration previously cut the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) funding for the network of ACA navigators by 90% nationally and from $7.5 million to $750,000 in North Carolina, Riggs said.
Several nonprofits are continuing this work with other funding sources and Legal Aid of North Carolina, which has received a grant from Dogwood Health Trust and operates an office in Sylva. But the cut has left Pisgah Legal Services as the only CMS-funded navigator in much of the 18 counties in Western North Carolina.
“We don’t have as much capacity as we did last year at a time when a lot of people need more help than ever,” said Riggs, who added that because of the predicted strains on the navigation network people needing guidance should reach out long before the Jan. 15 end of the ACA open enrollment period.
The KFF online premium calculator shows costs of ACA-backed plans in Asheville are about 15% higher than, for example, in Raleigh.
of the budget fight that led to the federal government shutdown. Originally approved as part of the 2021 American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), the program of boosted subsidies expanded eligibility to enrollees earning more than 400% of the federal poverty level and lowered caps on premiums based on income.
“For example, with the enhanced tax credits in place, an individual making $28,000 will pay no more than around 1% ($325) of their annual income towards a benchmark plan,” a KFF web page says.
“If the enhanced tax credits expire, this same individual would pay nearly 6% of their income ($1,562 annually) towards a benchmark plan in 2026.”
The expanded subsidies were due to expire at the end of this year, and Democratic senators had previously said they would not agree to reopen the government until Republicans agreed to extend them. But on Sunday, eight members of the Democratic caucus said they would vote to reopen the government until the end of January without a commitment to extend the subsidies. They did so Monday night.
Republican Senate leaders have agreed only to a vote on the issue in December, believed to have little chance of passing, and President Trump has announced his opposition to the extension in a social media post, calling the subsidies “a windfall for Health Insurance Companies and a DISASTER for the American People.”
A DIRECT JUMP IN PREMIUMS, PLUS SECONDARY INCREASES
But the end to enhanced credits are leading not only to a direct jump in premiums, but to secondary increases based on actuarial calculations, according to KFF. As subsidies drop and rates climb, insurers expect “healthier enrollees to drop coverage” its website says. “That, in turn, increases underlying premiums.”
“Some areas like Western North Carolina are dominated by only one hospital system,” the N.C. Blue Cross Blue Shield website says, referring to HCA Healthcare-owned Mission Health. “That lack of competition not only drives up the cost of care but also makes it much more difficult for insurers to negotiate lower prices with hospitals.”
The elimination of enhanced subsidies would come on top of cuts to ACA in July’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act budget reconciliation, which included the future elimination of enhanced tax credits for several groups of legal immigrants, including Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients.
The continuation of enhanced premium tax credits was the centerpiece
Riggs said he was not in a position to comment on the prospects for passing an extension, but he did share Gilbert’s concern about the impact of reduced subsidies on small businesses. The population covered by ACA-backed plans is disproportionately self-employed, he said. “When premiums are affordable, it allows people the freedom to become entrepreneurs. It allows people the ability to open up their own businesses, or be job creators,” he said. “When it’s not affordable, that’s when you see a ripple effect throughout the economy.”
Gilbert said she is healthy except for a digestive issue that requires expensive medication. Paying for that out of pocket would cost far less than her 2026 ACA-
Photo by Starr Sariego of Asheville Watchdog
backed Blue Cross Blue Shield plan, she said.
She could cut out vacations and work more hours to fill the cost gap, she said. She has also considered doing without coverage until she qualifies for Medicare in less than two years.
But in light of cuts to so many federal programs, even Medicare doesn’t seem like a sure thing, she said. “All the scaffolding structures that supported people, especially as they get older, they’re just kind of disappearing.”
Sarah Laliberte, 43, a freelance textbook editor, said the subsidy structure creates a “very odd” incentive to earn less money.
AN INCREASE FROM $1,450 PER MONTH TO $3,145
She is currently paying $1,450 per month to cover herself, her husband and their two children, ages eight and 10. Her expected monthly premium will climb to $3,145 based on an estimated household income of $150,000.
But her husband was recently laid off after the food program he worked for lost its state grant. Her work has dried up in the past year due to increased federal oversight of politically controversial teaching material.
CUTS: After the Trump administration cut the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) funding for the network of ACA navigators by 90% nationally and from $7.5 million to $750,000 in North Carolina, Pisgah Legal Services is left as the only CMS-funded navigator in much of Western North Carolina. Photo by Andrew R. Jones of Asheville Watchdog
Because the subsidies are prepaid reimbursements on income tax, their monthly premiums would fall to about $1,000 if she reduced their estimated income to $75,000.
rhetorically. “Is this going to put us over the limit to all of a sudden have to pay back $24,000?”
Carlos Halasz, 62, is retired from a job in international trade compliance with Hewlett-Packard and his wife receives Medicare coverage, he said.
Though he was dismayed to read the letter from his insurer saying his premiums will more than double, he considers himself lucky because the costs won’t be crippling, and he’s more worried about what the increases will mean for less fortunate ACA policyholders.
That includes Mary Williams, 62, who said she cannot hope to pay her premiums, which are set to soar from $172 to $1,879.
Her subsidy was based on her modest income as a freelance artist and musician, she said. Her rent recently tripled because two roommates moved out and she is paying off her $900 share of an emergency room bill for a kidney stone treatment.
“I can’t pay that,” she said of the hospital bill, and her insurance premiums would come to more than half her salary.
But that would mean taking a big year-end hit if her husband finds another job and she secures more work.
“Where would that put us at the end of the year for our income?” she asked
“It’s like a 1,000% increase,” she said. “I mean, there’s no way.”
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Shut off
On rural stretches of the Blue Ridge Parkway, businesses fear losing another tourist season
BY GERARD ALBERT III
David Roe, who helps manage the Switzerland Inn in Mitchell County, has one word to describe the ongoing closure on a nearby section of the Blue Ridge Parkway: devastating.
The usually full hotel has only a trickle of guests. The restaurant, which in past peak seasons has had to turn away visitors because it reaches capacity, now sees a fraction of the guests who once stayed.
The hotel — and its adjoining restaurant, pub and cafe — sit just off a section of the Blue Ridge Parkway that has been described as “ground zero” for damage caused by Tropical Storm Helene. This section of the parkway — from Mount Mitchell to Little Switzerland — was once a lifeline for tourism-based businesses in the area. But it is not expected to open until late 2026 — meaning local businesses have suffered two lackluster summer and fall tourism seasons.
Businesses along closed sections of the parkway in McDowell, Mitchell and Yancey counties are suffering as they try to come up with new ways to attract visitors — and construction repairs on this section are a long way from being completed.
About 16 million people visit the parkway each year, making it one of the most visited National Park Service (NPS) sites, according to data from the NPS. And those visitors aren’t just driving through. Data from the agency shows $1.3 billion was spent in communities along the parkway in 2023.
Helene caused almost 60 landslides along the Blue Ridge Parkway and damaged roads, trails and structures. The entire 469-mile parkway was closed after the storm but sections have gradually reopened.
Meanwhile, at places like the Switzerland Inn — which sits steps away from the parkway — overall business is a fraction of what it normally would be. Roe estimates food services make up about half of the property’s revenue. The other half is made from stays at the hotel.
“If you come in from the south, from Asheville, there is nothing to stop at. So by the time people get to us, they’re very hungry,” he explained.
In normal years, the restaurant is packed and the hotel is booked to capacity for most of the season — roughly May through November — but this year, Roe estimates they were at half of that.
“We could tell this year. Our summers are really busy normally, but this year, it was probably less than half the traffic that we could see,” he said.
The hotel usually employs about 80 people, but as revenues decline, it has been operating with a “skeleton staff” that was cut by more than half, Roe said.
“It disrupts not only us as a business, but the people who we staff,” he said.
To combat the impact of the road closures, the hotel will stay open for the winter season for the first time. Roe hopes that the longer season will attract more visitors to the scenic lodge.
“It’s going to be a really great time to come up here and experience what the mountains have to offer up here during the winter. Not many facilities like ours are open during the winter,” he said.
Van Phillips, a prominent businessman in Mitchell County who sits on the Governor’s Recovery Office for Western North Carolina, said business owners are fighting “a terribly losing battle” with parkway closures.
“The parkway is a big economic driver for everybody in Western North Carolina. But most of everybody’s back up except this stretch right here, and it’s been hurting,” he told Blue Ridge Public Radio “They’re being pretty much shut off and have no parkway visits.”
October is usually the busiest month for tourism in the area. And many businesses along the parkway rely on these tourists to stay afloat. If the section of the parkway doesn’t
Blue Ridge Parkway near Little Switzerland. Photo by Gerard Albert III of
reopen in these areas until late next year, businesses would be set to lose three peak tourism seasons.
BPR sent an interview request to a spokesperson for the parkway, but she was not authorized to work during the government shutdown.
Kelly Jones, who leads Mitchell County’s Tourism Development Agency, said the county hasn’t seen a dip in sales or occupancy tax revenue, but that doesn’t tell the entire story.
“Those numbers are looking really great, but from a tourism aspect, I see, like, our retail and our shops along the pathway that are really struggling. And so, looking at a sales tax perspective, you wouldn’t know that,” she said. “They’re not the ones that are being fed into or kind of sought after.”
Jones said volunteer groups who stay at local hotels and locals who shop at furniture and hardware stores are helping to keep county tax numbers up.
The parkway is closed to the south of the Switzerland Inn and then open for a few miles to the north before it closes again north of mile marker 327.
In that short stretch of open road sits Altapass Orchard, a nonprofit apple farm that works to preserve rare varieties of apples. The orchard finances depend entirely on visitors who pay to pick apples and purchase baked goods, as well as donations from visitors.
Sam McKinney, who serves as the sustainability manager, said the storm hit during peak apple-picking season. Helene knocked down about 15% of the trees, and the loss of visitors resulted in a revenue hit of $300,000 in 2024. That’s about 40% of the total budget.
“We depend on September and October to get us through the whole season. Those are our biggest revenue months. And October brings in more than 70% of our annual budget, just that one month. So it was devastating,” he said.
This year, the season started slowly.
“Our summers are really busy normally, but this year, it was probably less than half the traffic that we could see.”
— David Roe, manager of the Switzerland Inn
“We were greatly affected by the parkway closures earlier in the season,” he said. “Our first apples come in around the first part of July, and so from July through October we typically have apples, but until, really until Labor Day weekend, we were very, very slow.
Things picked up for the orchard after Labor Day.
“We wouldn’t have even known the parkway was closed this fall,” he said, attributing the uptick in visitors to other local businesses recommending customers visit the farm.
McKinney said that despite the somewhat normal fall season, the orchard will still be down in revenue, but not as much as he thought.
“We were really nervous, especially some weekends into August. I mean, the parking lot was fairly empty and we thought, ‘Are we gonna even be able to sell all the apples that we have?’”
The orchard did sell all its apples for the season, and despite the loss in revenue, McKinney, whose family has tended the land for four generations, has no plans to abandon the work.
And there is a lot of it. The orchard is facing a half-million-dollar repair project after the storm.
“A lot of times when I’m driving into work, it kind of hits me coming down the road, and I look out over it in the mountains, and I just kind of feel like I’m supposed to be here,” he said. “I feel like it’s providential that I’m here and still involved with this little piece of land.” X
Asheville City Board of Education accepts draft version of spending report
The Asheville City Board of Education voted unanimously to accept a draft version of a clean audit of last fiscal year’s financial statements for Asheville City Schools at the board’s Nov. 10 meeting.
The board also extended Superintendent Maggie Fehrman’s contract and reviewed staff feedback gathered through the Meet, Confer and Collaborate process between the Asheville City Association of Educators, the union that represents school employees, and Asheville City Schools.
SPENDING REPORT
The Asheville City Schools audit remains in draft form as the district waits for documents to be signed by the federal government. However, if it could be issued today, auditor Shannon Dennison said at the meeting, it would serve as the final copy.
“The only change we are aware of as far as the audit is going to be the dates. So we felt it was important to get you all the information about the fund balance and district performance as soon as possible,” Dennison said.
The total general fund balance, essentially the district’s savings account, that was available for appropriation was $12.9 million, and increased by $243,000 during the last fiscal year. The general fund is primarily spent on operational costs that go toward students’ education.
Nearly $10.8 million in the general fund is available to be spent in future years.
The capital outlay fund, which goes toward capital projects, had $5.4 million remaining in it at the end of the fiscal year. Since the fiscal year ended June 30, when a lot of capital projects were still being done, anything completed after that date will be accounted for in the 2025-26 fiscal year.
Fortunately, the district did not outspend its budget that was approved by the board, Dennison said.
Dennison also suggested keeping an eye on the child nutrition fund. If it were to decrease to zero, the general fund would have to contribute more to it.
She noted that there has been a decrease over the last couple years in federal reimbursement rates for child nutrition.
Dennison pointed to a chart showing how governmental funds have fluctuated over the past nine years. She said to pay attention to federal revenues in particular, which increased
with the American Rescue Plan (ARP) Elementary and Secondary Schools Emergency Relief (ESSER III) funds to help schools deal with the COVID19 pandemic, but have decreased and then gone away.
County and state funds are also anticipated to increase.
“State fund increases are going to come with increased costs, whether it be teacher salaries, whether it be retirement increases, hospitalization increases, those types of costs are going to come associated with state increases, which are then also going to have pressures on the federal and local budgets to be able to meet and match those,” Dennison said.
BUYOUT CONCERNS
In a closed session the previous week, the board discussed an amendment to superintendent Fehrman’s employment contract, board chair Sarah Thornburg said at the Nov. 10 meeting.
The amendment extends her contract by four years, with no changes to her overall compensation package. The motion was approved 6-1, with board member Pepi Acebo opposed.
Acebo said later that the amendment also includes a pre-set contract buyout amount for termination “without cause,” equal to the remaining total compensation for the remaining years of the contract. In other words, should the superintendent be terminated, it could cost the school district as much as $1 million, since she is paid $250,000 annually with benefits.
“I am opposed to giving any superintendent a golden parachute. I am
FLUCTUATING FUNDS: Auditor Shannon Dennison told members of the Asheville City Board of Education that costs associated with teacher salaries and retirement plans are anticipated to increase next year. Screen grab from Asheville City Schools’ Youtube channel
specifically opposed to adding a $1 million golden parachute, based on a full payout of a four-year contract term,” Acebo told Xpress after the meeting.
WORK REQUESTS
The Meet, Confer, Collaborate team made up of the Asheville City Association of Educators (ACAE) and Asheville City Schools (ACS) met for the first time in October, Fehrman told the board.
Requests from ACAE include:
• Allowing all employees the option to work remotely on inclement weather days.
• Providing double pay for any staff who choose to work in person on those days.
• Moving the school delay or cancellation notification time up from 6 a.m. to 5 a.m.
Currently, teachers and administrators typically work from home during inclement weather, while custodians and other hourly staff must either report to work or make up the time later.
Additional requests include allowing staff to work remotely on optional workdays and permitting N.C. Association of Educators (NCAE) staff to meet with members during school hours.
“We … want to try to meet our staff as close to what they were asking for as possible,” Fehrman said.
As staff reviewed the requests, they agreed employees should have the option to work remotely on inclement weather days, Fehrman said. Additionally, hourly staff will have some options to do training or personalized learning on their own so that every staff member has the option to work from home.
“However, we do know that there are some of those essential workers who, regardless, will have to come to work in our maintenance team and some staff in our buildings,” Fehrman said, and that those workers could potentially receive hazard pay.
Regarding optional teacher work days, Fehrman said ACS agreed that staff who could complete job-related work at home could work remotely on those days.
However, Fehrman said that administrators want to stick with the 6 a.m. notification time to delay or cancel school since weather conditions can change so rapidly. And ACS did not agree that NCAE representatives could meet with their members during school hours.
Discussions on the requests will continue, Fehrman told the board.
— Brionna Dallara X
County school board approves $417M budget
Facing uncertainty over state and federal funding, the Buncombe County Board of Education unanimously approved a $417.6 million 2025-26 budget at its Nov. 6 meeting.
“The word that best describes this [budget] process is unprecedented,” said Buncombe County Schools (BCS) Superintendent Rob Jackson. Jackson noted that the state legislature has yet to pass its budget, leaving school systems across North Carolina hanging in the balance. Meanwhile, he continued, grants and title funds that draw from federal sources are at risk amid changes at the U.S. Department of Education.
Student enrollment in Buncombe County Schools has also fluctuated due to both Tropical Storm Helene, which displaced county residents, and an increase in the number of students attending private schools following the 2023 state law that eliminated income limits for families seeking opportunity scholarships, which are taxpayer-funded vouchers used to subsidize tuition for private schools.
According to the N.C. State Education Assistance Authority, 699 Buncombe County students received opportunity scholarships during the 2022-23 school year, when restrictions were in place based on income levels. As of Oct. 6, following the elimination of income requirements, the total number of students in Buncombe County who received vouchers increased to 2,169. This number represents a loss of over $6 million to the BSC budget.
“Add to that uncertainty of the federal government shutdown and the slow pace of FEMA [Federal Emergency Management Agency] reimbursements for storm-related damages, and it’s clear that these
are challenging times. And yet we continue forward,” Jackson said at the Nov. 6 meeting.
Budget overview by type of funding
Nearly one-third of BCS’ entire budget is focused on regular instructional programming. The next-largest areas of focus include: capital projects (19.19%); operational support services (10.34%); special populations services (10.01%); schoolbased support services (5.18%); and school leadership services (4.96%).
The budget consists of several different revenue streams.
pals and other school staff, but does not raise salaries themselves.
Federal grants account for nearly $22 million of BCS’ budget. However, there is discussion at the federal level of potential reductions to grants that BCS receives, according to the budget overview.
The largest local funding comes from local taxes. The Buncombe County Board Commissioners appropriated nearly $104 million for this year’s budget, which supports 30.6% of BCS’ operational costs.
The budget also includes the use of $3.9 million in Article 39 funds, approved by the commissioners. The funds had previously been designated for school capital projects but now will move to operating expenses to keep the school system revenue neutral to the adopted fiscal year 2025 local current expense appropriation.
The rest of the budget comes from the following funds:
• Capital outlay fund ($94.2 million): Pays for design and construction, major renovation and replacement of facilities and building projects to meet educational standards.
State public school funding contributes a little over $171 million to the budget, supporting over half of the school system’s operational budget, which includes salaries and benefits. According to the budget overview, the state constitution “mandates that the General Assembly adopt a biennial state budget every two years.” Since the General Assembly has not adopted the latest state budget, legislation has allowed the school board to spend at the same levels as last year.
As of mid-October, there has been no agreement on salary increases, however a mini-budget was passed this summer, which funds step adjustments for employees on salary schedules, including teachers, princi-
• School nutrition fund ($18.5 million): Funded primarily by U.S. Department of Agriculture reim bursement, BCS participates in the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) program, which provides free breakfasts to all students. Other local revenues include grants, interest income and sales revenues.
• Child care fund ($629,150): The BCS Learning labs child care program is funded by tuition, which is supplement ed by an Early Childhood Education grant from the Board of Commissioners.
• Other funds ($7.3 million) comes from grants, donations, indirect costs and building/facility use fees. For additional information, visit avl.mx/f76.
NEW YEAR, OLD BUDGET: Tina Thorpe, Buncombe County Schools’ chief finance officer, presented the 2025-26 budget overview to the Buncombe County Board of Education. Thorpe noted that state allotments are based on last year’s budget since the N.C. General Assembly has not yet passed its budget. Screen grab from Buncombe County Schools’ YouTube channel
Strategic plan highlights
Assistant Superintendent Jennifer Reid spotlighted BCS’ improvement teams during a presentation on the county schools strategic plan. School improvement teams are at every school in the state and have specific representatives (such as the principal, assistant principals and teachers according to state law) that look into how schools can improve.
The BCS school improvement teams have their own set of guidelines, Reid said. For instance, each BCS school improvement team has two parents who reflect the racial and socioeconomic composition of the students enrolled at the school.
One of the most powerful practices that the school improvement teams did this summer was study the school system’s root cause analysis, which examines core problems in the classroom and where improvements can be made. Action steps from this type of analysis will inform the school improvement plan.
Several of these action steps require grants or other funding
streams. Amy Churchill, vice chair of the school board, asked whether there was a plan in place if federal funds are eliminated.
“I would hate to see the momentum get lost because we don’t have the federal dollars,” Churchill said.
It’s certainly something that worries BCS staff, Jackson said.
“We understand how dependent we are on those federal funds and the support received from the United States Department of Education,” Jackson said. “One of the things that I’m very proud of is you saw more grant funds this year than we’ve typically had. Our team is proactively seeking grants to support our work so that we can move away from being so dependent on those federal funds. I don’t know that there’s enough philanthropy in the world to replace those federal funds for our school system.”
Additionally, Jackson said the N.C. School Superintendents Association is working closely with the N.C. Department of Public Instruction to advocate for federal funding, as is state Superintendent Mo Green
— Brionna Dallara X
Against the wind
BY EMILY KLINGER ANTOLIC
e.antolic@gmail.com
North Carolina is well-known for the world’s first powered flight, but aviation’s history actually started in France. In 1783, the first living creatures sailed into the sky in front of King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. Brothers JosephMichel and Jacques-Étienne Montgolfier placed three animals — a duck, a sheep and a rooster — into a hot-air balloon and launched it from the palace of Versailles. When the balloon landed safely and all three animals were unharmed by the altitude, humans quickly hopped aboard, went skyward and never stopped.
When you see a hot-air balloon flying in Western North Carolina, you’re likely awestruck at the romantic sight. You’re also witnessing advanced flying skills practiced by only a handful of local pilots, including Louise Egerton and James “Chief” Eagle, who have decades of experience navigating the airstreams above our region’s mountains.
The three of us meet for coffee at Dripolator in Candler, where Eagle draws a map of the area to explain the unique obstacles balloonists see in the terrain.
“You have big mountains over here, and over here. You don’t want to go that way,” he says. “And over here, where the wind funnels between the two mountain ranges” — he points to U.S. 19/23 in Candler — “it’s called the pipeline. Drift into that without knowing what you’re doing, and you might accelerate like a race car.”
Egerton points east and notes the visibility requirements of flying in the Asheville Regional Airport airspace. She also says that fog from the French Broad River can impede morning flights.
Yet within these parameters, and after much trial and error, the thrill of flying never stopped these two balloonatics
from making it work. Now, as they near the end of their piloting days, they’re seeking to inspire future generations in WNC to carry on the ballooning tradition.
COLD MORNINGS, HOT AIR
Hot-air balloons launch at dawn or a few hours before sunset, the two times of day that offer the best wind conditions for flying.
A typical flight involves meeting in a field, where the crew and pilot begin their well-practiced routine. The envelope (the
ripstop nylon fabric balloon) is stretched across the land, then gets attached to the basket and burner systems via stainless steel suspension cables.
At this point in the process, everything is horizontal.
Next, a noisy gasoline-powered industrial fan fills the envelope with air. The pilot fires the propane burners, and slowly, everything becomes vertical. You hop into the nostalgic wicker basket, a tether rope tying the basket to a truck hitch is released, and you lift off the ground.
Silently, you float upward. Below, people, structures and trees gradually begin
to look like a miniature exhibition in a museum.
You inspect the living tapestry, and sometimes it inspects you back. Cars pull over to snap pictures. Dogs bark, donkeys bray, and the children wave excitedly. It’s peaceful and magical, and then there’s a deafening FWOOOOSH bursting from the double-barreled propane flamethrower above your head. Didn’t forget about that, did you? It makes such elementary sense: Ascend by stoking the burner to make hot air; descend by pulling the venting line to release air. But steering? There’s not a wheel …
UP AND AWAY: When you see a hot-air balloon flying in Western North Carolina, you’re likely awestruck at the romantic sight. You’re also witnessing advanced flying skills practiced by only a handful of local pilots, including Louise Egerton and James “Chief” Eagle, who have decades of experience flying in the mountains. Photo by Sam Szobody
“You’ve got to think of the atmosphere above us like layers in a piece of plywood,” Eagle says. “And each layer has wind going a different direction and speed.” By navigating those airstreams, the pilots can change direction.
THE THRILL OF LANDING
There’s a saying in aviation that goes: “Flying is the second-greatest thrill known to man. Landing is the first.” That’s a good show of priorities.
“You need to constantly be aware of where you’re going to land,” Eagle says.
“Ideally,” adds Egerton, “I’m looking to land in a big clear field with easy vehicle access and no power lines.”
Talking about landing spots spurs comedic banter between the two pilots. They swap stories of accidentally interrupting private moments from above — landing in parking lots, kids soccer games, treetops deep in the woods. Eagle tells us how he learned not to land on dairy farms the hard way, as balloons scare the cows and can cause them to stop producing milk. Horses are another landing consideration, as they can become skittish and distraught by balloons.
Egerton takes out her phone to show me a satellite image of the zone around her flying area. Properties highlighted in green are OK to land in. Red areas are off limits. Meanwhile, a yellow highlight indicates there are rules for landing there — for example, pastures that are fair game so long as no cows are present.
“Landowners can make or break being able to fly in an area,” Egerton says.
And because landing is the first thrill known to man, balloonists typically celebrate a successful run by popping Champagne. The tradition dates to early ballooning in France, when pilots would gift landowners with a bottle of bubbly to thank them for a safe landing spot.
‘GRAYING OUT’
All this specialized and highly local knowledge means flying in WNC is an advanced form of ballooning. Though the number has fluctuated over the years, Egerton and Eagle estimate there are around a half-dozen balloon pilots in the region.
“We don’t want to limit the folks who want to fly here, but they sort of self-eliminate,” Eagle explains. He and Egerton have seen experienced pilots attempt flights here, only for the winds or landscape to spook them out of doing it again. “That’s why it’s important to stay low and follow the pilots who fly here all the time,” he says.
Pilots seeking easier conditions travel to regional destinations with larger ballooning communities. In Anderson, S.C., for example, the Western Carolinas
PASSING THE TORCH: After decades of flying, local pilots Louise Egerton, left, and James “Chief” Eagle, say they’re “graying out.” Currently, the pair is working to share their love of the activity with the next generation of pilots. Photo by Emily Klinger Antolic
Balloon Association coordinates occasional fun flys, balloon glows and charity events.
Then there’s Statesville, a city 100 miles east of Asheville and nicknamed the Ballooning Capital of the East. The country’s second-oldest balloon festival — Carolina BalloonFest (CBF) — held its first event there in 1975. The nonprofit festival celebrated its 50th anniversary in October, and 40,000 balloon enthusiasts attended the sold-out weekend.
Although Egerton and Eagle have attended and flown at big events like CBF in the past, they’re slowing down now due to time and age. “We’re graying out,” Egerton says with a chuckle.
“I’m more interested in getting a new person involved in ballooning,” Eagle adds. “There’s an opportunity here, but that window [for me] is closing all the time.”
The pair is currently working with two pilots new to the area, teaching them mountain-specific techniques and sharing Egerton’s color-coordinated
map. Meanwhile, Eagle also does occasional balloon demonstrations at local high schools to inspire and capture the youths’ interest.
A TEAM EFFORT
The sport requires more than just a pilot. “One of the most beautiful parts of ballooning is the crew interaction,” Eagle says.
The crew team — at least two employees — help with ground tasks such as passenger assistance, setting up the balloon, chasing the balloon to its landing spot and breaking down the equipment after the flight. It’s a special relationship that involves communication, coordination and cooperation. For several pilots, including Egerton, working as a crew member is what led to her becoming a pilot.
The Federal Aviation Administration is the governing body that oversees pilot certification. The process requires passing a written test, an oral exam and a practical. Additionally, individuals need 10 hours of flight training for a private certificate, whereas a commercial certificate requires 35 hours.
Since a new balloon can cost around $45,000, Egerton and Eagle are identifying ways to make the sport more accessible and affordable for new pilots. They’ve discussed donating used baskets and inflator fans to beginners looking to build their own setup, or establishing a balloon pilot scholarship fund.
The two pilots spitball ideas back and forth as our coffee mugs get cleared from the table. My cheeks are sore from laughing as the friends make joking jabs and one-up each other’s stories.
At home, I familiarize myself more with the history of hot-air ballooning and realize that the pair’s delightful and amusing nature was not for show. It’s part of the community’s identity. Perhaps it’s due to the sport’s origin story — sending a duck, a sheep and a rooster up in a hot-air balloon. Or maybe it’s the Champagne. X
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Lost and found
Family heirlooms carried off by floodwaters find their way home
BY BRIONNA DALLARA
bdallara@mountainx.com
In early April, nearly seven months after Tropical Storm Helene, Mandy Wallace and her fellow MountainTrue crew members were removing debris near Biltmore Village, where Sweeten Creek flows into the Swannanoa River. Amid the cleanup effort, Wallace noticed a few items, including a ceramic mug and a photo album.
When she picked up the latter, she couldn’t help but think of her kids. “I’ve got two boys,” she says. “They’re in their 20s now, but I have their baby albums — those are priceless.”
To Wallace’s delight, the photos had not been damaged by the flood. After cleaning off the mud, she posted images of the album and mug on a Facebook page designed to connect residents with items lost during the storm. Within a few hours, Caitlin Wright reached out to Wallace in the comment section, noting the items were hers.
“Neither of us could believe it,” Wallace said.
The two items, Wallace continues, were the only things Wright managed to reclaim from her family business, which was destroyed by Helene.
Wallace is no stranger to the storm’s impact. Before Helene, she worked as the after-school program director for Asheville Adventure Co., where she also led raft guides and managed the company’s social media and marketing. Asheville Adventure Co. temporarily closed due to storm damage, leading Wallace to join MountainTrue’s debris removal team. What initially began as a temporary initiative morphed into a multiyear program in August, after the nonprofit secured $10 million in funding from the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality (NCDEQ) to launch an 18-month River Debris Cleanup Program.
Shortly after returning the photo album and mug to Wright, Wallace, who holds a degree in anthropology and spent years as an archaeological consultant, put her experience to use at MountainTrue, launching the nonprofit’s Found after the Flood Facebook page, where photos of items are cataloged and shared.
To date, the page has helped reunite community members with 15 found objects. But there are nearly 400 unclaimed personal items remaining, which Wallace has processed and posted online. Meanwhile, plans for
Nonprofit Feature Fall
REUNITED: Mandy Wallace, left, who works for the nonprofit MountainTrue, has been helping to reunite residents with lost objects the nonprofit’s team has found during post-Tropical Storm Helene river cleanups. She stands with Caitlin Wright, right, and her daughter Abi, center, who display a family photo album Wallace found in April near Biltmore Village. Photo courtesy of MountainTrue
the page continue to evolve, as does Wallace’s relationship to the initiative.
ONLINE SLEUTH
Among the found items is one with a personal connection to Wallace: the insert for a sandwich board sign from Asheville Adventure Co. The equipment, Wallace says, traveled more than 30 miles from the storefront to where her team discovered it.
In Wallace’s pre-Helene life, part of her job at Asheville Adventure involved placing the board outside to direct customers where to park. “Every day, I was like, ‘Oh God, I got to bring the sandwich board in before I lock up.’”
The item is a reminder that even trivial things can connect individuals with their past. Recognizing this fuels Wallace to keep going. “If all it takes is gathering items, cleaning them up, and sharing them on our Facebook page to make some happy stories, then that is 100% worth it.”
Each item receives an identification number and information on where it was found. Currently, MountainTrue is also developing a digital map to display where objects were recovered. Wallace realizes certain things, such a Dumbo VHS or a series of DVDs, might never be reclaimed. But “I want to document things, because that’s what’s going to tell the story,” she says.
Along with posting these items on the Facebook page, Wallace has also become a bit of an online sleuth.
“Looking through social media is a big, big player in this because you can find out a lot. I’ve tracked down relatives who then put me in touch with whoever it was. And I’ve used Google Lens for a couple of things, just trying to identify what something is,” she says.
But she’s also aware that some residents might not be interested in reliving the storm’s trauma. “I hate at this point not knowing if what I’m about to try to give back to them may actually cause more harm than good.”
THE MOTHERSHIP
Because of her continued quest to reunite residents, Wallace now holds the official title of artifact recovery technician (ART) with MountainTrue. She uses the nonprofit’s warehouse in Weaverville, which she calls “the mothership,” as her conservation workshop. Here, she continues to clean, catalog and reunite owners with their lost objects.
But Wallace also has a vision for the unclaimed pieces.
“I’m hopeful that maybe someday some of these items, if they have not been claimed, will go toward some type of exhibition or collection — something to just keep telling the story of what people went through here in Western North Carolina,” she says. If you lost something in the flood during Helene, Wallace might have seen it. Email her at founditems@ mountaintrue.org. X
25 Years
Youth Rink at 99 Riverside Drive appreciation to:
Angel-Luis Duran, Fran Lane, Joel Johnson, Bill Coluzzi, Wiley Black, Paulie Olszewski, Kenny Stilwell, Darren & Marissa Green, Brenley Kaiser, AJ Doerrer, Mike Smith, Jason Whitman, Monica Curwen, Gary Pisano, Silver Line Plastic, Asheville Fence and Sherwin Williams.
AHL Board of Directors: Anthony Cerrato, Dan Dean, Jay Curwen, Bart Hodgins, Justin Kaiser, Jim Brunner, Austin Gomez, Joe Geier.
Beyond protests
Indivisible Asheville organizer discusses the group’s ongoing quest to engage the public
BY BRIONNA DALLARA
bdallara@mountainx.com
According to research by Erica Chenoweth, a political scientist at Harvard University who studies political violence and its alternatives, nonviolent campaigns are twice as likely to achieve their goals as violent campaigns. Furthermore, her data notes that it takes around 3.5% of a country’s population to actively participate in protests to see political change.
Robin Lively Summers, who serves on the board of Indivisible Asheville, a local chapter of the national organization opposed to the Trump administration, believes the nonprofit can achieve this number. She points to the steady climb in participation over the previous seven months. On April 5, an estimated 3 million people participated in the Hands Off Nationwide Day of Action. Two months later, the June 14 No Kings Nationwide Day of Defiance saw around 5 million participants. And the more recent Oct. 18 No Kings rally totaled around 7 million. The 3.5% threshold would require roughly 12.7 million Americans’ involvement in the movement.
“I believe that we can get to 12 million,” she says. “We are working in multiple areas to build coalition, educate the community to the dangers of this hostile political takeover and share strategies that protect our community.”
Party leaders across the region previously spoke with Xpress about the role protests play in political movements. All agreed that demonstrations without subsequent action are not enough to make an impact. Xpress recently caught back up with Lively Summers about her group’s ongoing work, some of the criticism the No Kings rally received and what engagement looks like moving forward.
Editor’s note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Xpress: Some commenters on platforms such as Reddit have noted that because Asheville is a blue city and that protests like No Kings are just shouting into the echo chamber. What are your thoughts on this critique?
We’re indeed the blueberry in the tomato soup, but I cannot emphasize
how many people have told me that these last two big protests are the first time they have engaged in First Amendment activities. We are welcoming all groups from the centrists to the socialists. We are not excluding anyone. And if you look at the people that are being affected by the policies and executive orders, people are pissed, and they’re not just left-leaning voters. People vote their pocketbooks, and when you are told that your expenses will go down and instead they go up, even the voters who don’t agree with our protests are going to vote the way of turning this mess around.
In previous Xpress reporting, leaders from both political parties made the argument that protests are not enough. Real political change requires additional action. What kind of engagement are you seeing in the aftermath of the Oct. 18 No Kings rally?
We are promoting multiple projects to help us take the momentum from the protests and turn it into political action. We actively promote the 5 Calls app, where we can let our representatives know we are unhappy with the choices and capitulation being made by our Republican congressmen. We are providing trainings for Signs of Solidarity, a program which provides First Amendment information and encourages businesses to provide safe spaces for people of color. We are hosting protest-safety trainings and the One Million Rising program, which gives people who are unable or uninterested in joining a national group more information and support about hosting small, informal get-togethers to educate friends and family about how the Trump regime is working to dismantle our social structure for the benefit of the few. And we know that we are being effective; our email subscription has quadrupled since January. We are in three different coalitions and have doubled our leadership group.
Some critics of No Kings have argued that President Donald Trump won the popular vote in 2024. They also note that if he were indeed a king, such protests would be prohibited. How do you respond to such criticism?
A FIRST: “We’re indeed the blueberry in the tomato soup, but I cannot emphasize how many people have told me that these last two [No Kings rallies] are the first time they have engaged in First Amendment activities,” says Robin Lively Summers. Photo courtesy of Lively Summers
He won the popular vote based on lies. He lied and cannot deliver on his promises while enacting the Project 2025 agenda. [Project 2025 is a comprehensive conservative policy initiative spearheaded by the Heritage Foundation.] They are antithetical to each other. And make no mistake, if he could move any faster to enact the Insurrection Act [the U.S. federal law that empowers the president to nationally deploy the military and to federalize the National Guard units of the individual states in specific circumstances] to stop us, he would. It is only if we can maintain our commitment to peaceful nonviolence that we will be able to keep him and his hostile takeover from steamrolling over our First Amendment and the rest of the Constitution.
Other critics point out that the No Kings rally lacks a definitive message — that it is too broad. How do you respond to this criticism?
How do you specifically respond to the firehose of terrible policies that this administration has shoved out by executive order? The far right’s strategy of flooding the zone leaves those of us that would fight back having to fight in broad strokes. We are a coalition. All of us who have a cause or specific grievance with this regime are coming together to say, “Stop.” Our message is definitive: No one is above the law, and we won’t give up our country without a fight.
Before the Oct. 18 events, No Kings was being described by opponents of the movement as an anti-American, pro-Hamas, violent cohort.
Throughout the local event, you and other speakers stressed nonviolence. Across the nation, there was little reported violence during the gatherings. The criticism subsequently shifted from focusing on the threat of violence to deriding the movement as being made up of an overwhelmingly white and older segment of the population. What is your response to both the shift in the attack and the accusation that the movement has a narrow demographic, unrepresentative of the country at large?
The Republicans must spin the story somehow; otherwise, they would have to admit that what they are doing isn’t ethically sound and downright unpopular. I always fall back on Gandhi’s position that first they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win. I think they are trying to laugh, but the fight is about to begin. It is true that there are a lot of older white people participating in our work. It is not that the movement is unrepresentative of the country, but this demographic has the resources and time to support and fight for all Americans, including those who are working two or three jobs and paying half their paychecks on rent or child care.
The income inequality in this country leaves no place for many Americans to participate in the time-consuming volunteer grassroots work. We old white folks are standing up for those who suffer most.
Are there additional nonprofits that you encourage people to get involved in and why?
We always encourage people who attend our meetings and rallies to find a cause that speaks to them and get involved. There are so many grassroots organizations that would welcome new volunteers. We, as Indivisible AVL, don’t care what organization people choose to affiliate with; just that they get involved. Because in the end, we will all be working together.
What comes next in terms of No Kings? Will there be additional rallies?
We have not gotten any hint of what the next big event will be, but I am certain that there will be more. Even when this government decides to crack down and try to stop us, it will continue. I also feel that the actions that we will be undertaking will expand past marches and rallies. There are enough true patriots who understand the core of our Constitution, the fundamental concept that all people are created equal and no one is above the law. X
WHATEVER IT TAKES
‘More clinical space to serve even more’
Sarah Newberry is director of development and community engagement for St. Gerard Center for Autism, a nonprofit that provides applied behavior analysis therapy, prevocational training, social skills classes and a wide array of other services for individuals with autism.
Xpress: What is your organization’s most urgent need at this time, and how can community members provide assistance, financially or otherwise?
Newberry: St. Gerard’s most urgent need is financial support for our ongoing operating costs. Any gift, large or small, helps to provide our clients and families with the best tools to support their journey with autism. We also maintain an Amazon wish list that helps guide supporters into the types of items we’re in need of. These can be purchased locally and shipped directly to St. Gerard. View our list at www.sgforautism. org/donate/.
What is a recent accomplishment within your organization that you’d like more community members to know about. How, if at all, will this achievement impact local residents?
We have recently purchased a building in East Flat Rock that will be transformed into The St. Gerard Center for Autism, boasting of more clinical space to serve even more members of our surrounding communities. Are there any upcoming initiatives within your organization that you can tell our readers about and how they can get involved?
Our community garden is a large space across from Hendersonville High School that needs a more robust and regular group of volunteers to maintain. We are also looking for stories about why the community supports St. Gerard. If you’ve chosen to give through this Give!Local Campaign or have been a supporter of St. Gerard in the past, please reach out to us to share your story at info@sgforautism.org.
Have federal cuts impacted your organization? If so, in what ways have they affected your operations?
While we have not yet seen a direct reduction in Medicaid reimbursement rates, the recent federal cuts have created a ripple effect that is influencing state Medicaid cuts. These changes are expected to impact reimbursement levels for the therapy services we provide at St. Gerard Center. We’re monitoring the situation closely, as any reduction in Medicaid funding ultimately affects our ability to serve children and families who rely on consistent, high-quality therapy. X
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WHATEVER IT TAKES
Act now
Angela Shepherd is communications director of Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy (SAHC), a nonprofit that aims to conserve the unique plant and animal habitat, clean water, farmland, scenic beauty and places for all people to enjoy outdoor recreation in the mountains of North Carolina and Tennessee.
Xpress: What is your organization’s most urgent need at this time, and how can community members provide assistance, financially or otherwise?
Shepherd: The Southern Appalachians are at a crossroads because of intensifying development, growing population and climate change impacts. In one direction is a loss of the land we hold so dear. In the other is its preservation and access to land for outdoor recreation. If we don’t act right now, the choice of direction will be out of our hands.
Make a contribution. Contact your local representatives and advocate for federal and state funding. Volunteer.
What is a recent accomplishment within your organization that you’d like more community members to know about. How, if at all, will this achievement impact local residents?
SAHC purchased 191 acres on the Warren Wilson College campus in the Swannanoa valley. The purchase ensures the property will be protected forever from real estate development, preserving its scenic beauty and its water resources, habitat and trails for people to enjoy. We will own and manage the land as a nature preserve and partner with Warren Wilson College, which will continue to use the property for education and land management training.
Are there any upcoming initiatives within your organization that you can tell our readers about and how they can get involved?
SAHC will host our sixth annual Winter Hiking Challenge (Jan. 1-March 1) that helps get folks outside. The challenge is to hike, bike, walk, run or roll 60 miles in 60 days, to be completed in your own time and at your own speed. Look for details on appalachian.org soon.
SAHC’s local land and water conservation efforts wouldn’t be possible without the support of our members. Consider becoming a member today. Have federal cuts impacted your organization? If so, in what ways have they affected your operations?
Yes — we have felt impacts through our work with federal partners in landscape-scale conservation initiatives — from challenges faced by research partners to uncertainty around funding sources, including funding uncertainty with shifting agency priorities. One of the things we have experienced is that reduced staff puts stress on our federal partners, and with the shutdown, many of our partners are not able to work right now. X
ANGELA SHEPHERD
Redpoint
BY FELICIA SONMEZ A BLUE RIDGE PUBLIC RADIO REPORT
Chimney Rock will soon be home to a new rock-climbing area featuring some of the toughest climbs in North Carolina.
It’s welcome news for one of the communities that was hardest hit by Hurricane Helene.
Two nonprofits — Access Fund and the Carolina Climbers Coalition — recently purchased more than 16 acres of land near Chimney Rock State Park featuring towering cliffs that offer a dramatic view of Hickory Nut Gorge. The area is called Lower Ghost Town, after an old amusement park that used to sit in the meadow below the cliffs.
Mike Reardon, executive director of the Carolina Climbers Coalition, told Blue Ridge Public Radio the acquisition comes after a 25-year effort to secure access to the land.
“And now, with kind of some of the Hurricane Helene hits, we’re happy to purchase it and try to get people back onto the property and get hikers and climbers back out there and enjoying it,” Reardon said.
The area has more than 50 different climbs— some of which feature steep slopes and overhangs — including a trio called The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. The Good and The Bad are already established as some of North Carolina’s most challenging routes, while The Ugly remains a work in progress.
“The Ugly has not ‘gone free’ yet — that means that the climber has fallen each time they’ve tried to attempt it,” Reardon said. “There’s protection for falls, so that’s not a falling injury. And so, they haven’t done it all in one successful go yet without falling. When that does happen, it’s called ‘redpointing’ the route, meaning that you’ve gone from the bottom to the top without any falls. Then that will more than likely be the most difficult climb in the state of North Carolina.”
The upper portion of the Ghost Town cliffs is owned by Chimney Rock State Park and is not yet accessible to the public.
Aiding the groups in securing funding was the Great Trails State Coalition, a group of nonprofits, businesses, local governments and other entities advocating for
increased investment in North Carolina’s trail infrastructure.
The Carolina Climbers Coalition and Access Fund plan to build a trail
connecting the climbing area to Main Street in downtown Chimney Rock, with about half of the trail expected to be completed by April 2026.
Once the trail is done, Reardon said access will be easy: Visitors “can park at the barbecue place and walk up from the trailhead.”
The Lower Ghost Town project dovetails with the Chimney Rock and Lake Lure region’s renewed focus on outdoor recreation as an economic driver after the devastation wrought by last year’s historic storm.
“It was really heavily hit by Helene and heavily impacted,” Reardon said. “And having this just incredible, world-class climbing area but also incredible hiking area, trail, natural area accessible and free and open to the public, and right on Main Street … I think those types of economic impacts tying to conservation lands [are] just right in line with what a hopeful future for Chimney Rock Village and the greater Hickory Nut Gorge region could be.”
Once the trail-building effort gets underway, the Carolina Climbers Coalition will be looking for volunteers to take part. Information on trail-work days will be posted online here. X
ROCK IT: A climber on one of the Lower Ghost Town cliffs in Hickory Nut Gorge. Photo courtesy of Carolina Climbers Coalition
LONG WAY DOWN: A climber on one of the most challenging Lower Ghost Town routes. Photo courtesy of Carolina Climbers Coalition
COMMUNITY CALENDAR
NOV. 19 - NOV. 27, 2025
For a full list of community calendar guidelines, please visit mountainx.com/calendar. For questions about free listings, call 828-251-1333, opt. 4. For questions about paid calendar listings, please call 828-251-1333, opt. 1.
Online-only events
More info, page 48
More info, page 50
WELLNESS
Free Community
Zumba
Mix low-intensity and high-intensity moves for an interval style, dance fitness party.
WE (11/19, 26), 5:30pm, YWCA of Asheville, 185 S French Broad Ave
Intro to the Fitness Center
Learn how to use each machine and receive lots of encouragement to keep you on track.
TH (11/20), 1pm, Stephens-Lee Recreation Center, 30 George Washington Carver Ave
Goats in Sweaters
Yoga
A 45-minute, all-levels yoga class—equal parts stretch, giggle, and snuggle: surrounded by sweater-clad furry friends.
SA (11/22), 11am, Wilde Dairy Goat Farm, 984 Monte Vista Rd, Candler
Himalayan Sound Bath Meditation
Immerse yourself in a somatic journey of sound and relaxation, where ancient wisdom meets modern well-being.
SA (11/22), 11am, Somatic Sounds, 157 S Lexington Ave
Free Community Qi
Gong
Ancient Chinese holistic set of exercises that includes various postures and slow physical movements.
SA (11/22), 11:30am, YWCA of Asheville, 185 S French Broad Ave
Sunday Morning Meditation Group
The Sunday Morning Meditation Group will gather for a combination of silent sitting and walking meditation.
SU (11/23), 10am, The Lodge at Quietude, 1130 Montreat Rd, Black Mountain
Yoga Hike
Enjoy a moderate one mile hike up to the summit of a scenic mountain top plus an hour of yoga for all levels.
Imagine the soothing tones of Himalayan singing bowls washing over you, calming your mind, and rejuvenating your spirit.
SU (11/23), 11am, Somatic Sounds, 157 S Lexington Ave
Free Community Athletic Conditioning
Combine strength training, HIIT, plyometrics, kickboxing and step.
MO (11/24), 8am, free, YWCA of Asheville, 185
S French Broad Ave
Doom Metal Yoga w/ Quantum Mystic Doom metal Yoga will be a slower paced yoga class connecting movements with the breath.
MO (11/24), 6:30pm, Eulogy, 10 Buxton Ave
Chen Tai Chi
Chen style is known for its spiral movements and fajin, or issuing power. It is considered a very high level of Tai Chi.
MO (11/24), 1pm, Dragon Phoenix, 51 N Merrimon Ave
Yoga to Start Your Day
A full body movement series to get you poised for an energized day.
TU (11/25), 8:45am, YWCA of Asheville, 185 S French Broad Ave
Chair Aerobics
Workout
A well rounded workout that helps reduce the risk of falling, alleviates joint pain, increases flexibility and range of motion.
TU (11/25), noon, Linwood Crump Shiloh Community Center, 121 Shiloh Rd
Training w/Tre for Teens
This teen exercise program will help you begin your fitness journey. Pushups, burpees and sit ups are part of the fun.
TU (11/25), 6:15pm, Stephens-Lee Recreation Center, 30 George Washington Carver Ave
STOUT SHOWDOWN: Hi-Wire Brewing in Biltmore Village hosts this year’s Stout Bout beer festival on Saturday, Nov. 22, starting at 2 p.m. Fourteen breweries from across the region will provide an afternoon of friendly stout competitions, along with live music, food vendors and even a wrestling show from Urban Combat Wrestling. Photo courtesy of Hi-Wire Brewing
SUPPORT GROUPS
Virtual Listening Circle
This free virtual listening circle offers a judgement-free, trauma-informed spaced to gather, reset and reflect-together. Register at avl.mx/f29.
WE (11/19), noon, Online
Disordered Eating/ Eating Disorders
This support group is peer-led and facilitated by licensed therapists & dietitians specializing in eating disorders. Regiser at avl.mx/es6.
WE (11/19, 26), 6pm, Online
Reconnecting Through Hard Times
In this 1-hour virtual training you’ll gain an understanding of how hard times affect us all, and what to do or say for others when it matters most. Register at avl.mx/f0s
TH (11/20), noon, Online
Mad Hatter’s Collective: Hearing Voices Network
A group collective that gathers to talk about encounters with visual, tactile, sensational, or fringe experiences with life and the interaction of energy.
Magnetic Minds: Depression & Bipolar Support Group
A free weekly peer-led meeting for those living with depression, bipolar, and related mental health challenges. For more information contact (828) 367-7660.
SA (11/22), 2pm, First Congregational UCC of Asheville, 20 Oak St
The Men’s Nest Make meaningful human connections to strengthen your social health, cultivate compassion, and learn to use your power to give and receive authentic support.
TU (11/25), 5:15pm, SeekHealing, 50 S. French Broad Ave, Ste 138
DANCE
Open-Level Adult Contemporary Dance (Ages 16+)
Rediscover your love of movement
in this drop-in Adult Contemporary class. Blend modern, lyrical, and jazz elements in a supportive, body-positive environment.
WE (11/19, 26), 5:30pm, Black Mountain Center for the Arts, 225 W State St, Black Mountain
BMCA Dance: Kids in Motion 2 This class focuses on growing the foundations needed for many dance techniques, including contemporary, ballet, jazz, and lyrical.
TH (11/20, 27),
3:45pm, Black Mountain Center for the Arts, 225 W State St, Black Mountain
BMCA Dance: Contemporary 3 (Ages 13 - 16) This class fuses contemporary, modern, lyrical, and jazz styles for diverse dance knowledge. Designed for experienced teens to refine artistry, technique, and performance.
TH (11/20, 27), 6:45pm, Black Mountain Center for the Arts, 225 W State St, Black Mountain
We Line Dance Brenda Mills leads an all-inclusive exercise class using line dancing to get your body moving.
TH (11/20, 27), 6:15pm, Stephens-Lee Recreation Center, 30 George Washington Carver Ave Country Line Dancing w/Kristey Featuring beginner and advanced classes that’s open to everyone. This event is hosted by Kristey.
WE (11/19, 26), 6pm, Eda’s Hide-a-Way, 1098 New Stock Rd, Weaverville
Latin Night Wednesday w/DJ Mtn Vibez
A Latin dance social featuring salsa, bachata, merengue, cumbia, and reggaeton with dance lessons for all skill levels.
WE (11/19, 26), 8pm, One World Brewing West, 520 Haywood Rd
Free Community Zumba Gold
This class introduces easy-to-follow Zumba choreography that focuses on balance, range of motion and coordination.
FR (11/21), 10am, YWCA of Asheville, 185 S French Broad Ave
Monday Night Contra Dance
Contra dancing is a fun, social dance for everyone. Follow a lesson at 7 p.m. and then dance to a live band and caller at 7:30 p.m.
MO (11/24), 7:30pm, A-B Tech, 340 Victoria Rd
artists pushing the boundaries of glass as a contemporary art form.
Gallery open Tuesday through Friday, 10am. Exhibition through Dec. 12
WCU Bardo Arts Center, 199 Centennial Dr, Cullowhee
Points in Space: Performance
This exhibition will feature visual and timebased artworks that echo BMC’s innovative spirit from 1933 to 1957. BMC was a nexus of avant-garde activity, fostering innovation through collaboration and experiential learning. Gallery open Tuesday through Saturday, 11am. Exhibition through Jan. 10, 2026. Black Mountain College Museum & Arts Center, 120 College St
Artful Living: The Spirit of the Craftsman Style
A landmark exhibition that will spotlight the work of both established and emerging
Through clay, canvas, wood, and metal, Artful Living explores the soul of the Craftsman ethos—simplicity, utility, and harmony with the natural world.
Gallery open Monday through Sunday, 10am.
Exhibition through Dec. 31.
Grovewood Gallery, 111 Grovewood Rd
Bachelor of Fine Art Portfolio Exhibition
2025
This exhibition highlights their comprehensive course of study at WCU’s School of Art & Design and serves as a preface to their forthcoming careers as professional artists. Gallery open Tuesday through Friday, 10am. Exhibition through Dec. 5.
WCU Bardo Arts Center, 199 Centennial Dr, Cullowhee
Michelle Hamilton: Rising from the River Hamilton's work is a joyful exploration of encaustics, mixed media, and resin, where bold colors and layered textures converge to create harmonious compositions. Gallery open Monday through Friday, 10am. Exhibition through Nov. 26.
Black Mountain Center for the Arts, 225 W State St, Black Mountain
Artful Journey: Fra Angelico at the Strozzi Palance
Each artful journey will
begin with a delightful morning drink and pastry, followed by an inspiring lecture and discussion with art historian and curator Julianna Caro. FR (11/21), 10:30am, Black Mountain Center for the Arts, 225 West State St, Black Mountain
Look Homeward, Angel: Letterio Calapai’s Wood Engravings of the Asheville-Inspired Novel
This exhibition presents a folio of prints by Letterio Calapai illustrating "Look Homeward, Angel" (1929)—Thomas Wolfe’s semi-autobiographical novel set in a fictionalized Asheville. Gallery open Wednesday through Sunday, 11am. Exhibition through Feb. 22, 2026. Asheville Art Museum, 2 S Pack Square Shadow Art Soiree Flora & Forage
A special evening of art making by way of playful use of watercolor paints, pencils, and various papers to create enchanting art pieces inspired by shadows made from
WHATEVER IT TAKES
Keeping cars on the road
Lindsay Jones is president of Asheville Garage Goblins, a nonprofit that works to make the freedom of mobility accessible to all people by connecting volunteer mechanics with those who cannot afford the cost of repair.
Xpress: What is your organization’s most urgent need at this time, and how can community members provide assistance, financially or otherwise?
Jones: Our most urgent need right now is a workspace. We currently work on cars in parking lots and driveways, and the weather can really slow us down during the cold and wet seasons. If anyone has a garage space available please get in touch. Of course, we always need volunteer admin folks as well as volunteer mechanics. Email us at avlgaragegoblins@ gmail.com to get involved.
LINDSAY JONES
What is a recent accomplishment within your organization that you’d like more community members to know about. How, if at all, will this achievement impact local residents?
We have repaired more than 150 cars since starting operations. This keeps our community safe by keeping cars on the road in safe condition, allowing folks to get to their jobs, doctors and the store, and keeping our neighbors whose homes are their cars, safe and mobile. We have kept multiple cars out of the scrapyard and on the road so families can put their money toward other necessities instead of a replacement car.
Are there any upcoming initiatives within your organization that you can tell our readers about and how they can get involved?
We are currently fundraising to repair a donated car so that it can be given to someone on our waitlist who is in need. You can find the fundraiser by searching for us on gofundme.com. X
ART
North Carolina Glass 2025
botanicals.
SA (11/22), 5:30pm, Flora, 428B Haywood Rd
Lasting Legacies:
Architecture in Asheville by Richard Sharp
Smith, Albert Heath
Carrier & Douglas D. Ellington
Lasting Legacies
shines a spotlight on the contributions of two of the city’s most prominent architectural firms to Asheville’s built environment and artistic spirit in the early decades of the 20th century. Gallery open Wednesday through Sunday, 11am. Exhibition through Jan. 18, 2026.
Asheville Art Museum, 2 S Pack Square
Modern Bestiary:
Creatures from the Collection
This exhibition explores the artistic legacy of the medieval bestiary through a selection of animals and fantastic beasts from the Museum’s Collection. Gallery open Wednesday through Sunday, 11am. Exhibition through March 15, 2026.
Asheville Art Museum, 2 S Pack Square
Raw & Unfiltered
Exhibition
This exhibition features 25 local artists showing multiple perspectives and styles. It will feature art medias such as stained glass, painting, drawing, photography, collage, printmaking, ceramic, quilt making and more. Gallery open daily, noon. Exhibition through Dec. 6. Flood Gallery, 802 Fairview Rd Ste 1200
COMMUNITY MUSIC
Sandbox Percussion
A quartet that shares meaningful musical experiences with communities worldwide through performance, collaboration, and education.
WE (11/19), 7pm, Black Mountain College Museum & Arts Center, 120 College St
UNCA Jazz Night w/ Dr. William Bares
A night of incredible jazz with pianist, composer, scholar and educator William Bares, a professor or music and co-director of jazz studies at UNC Asheville.
WE (11/19), 7pm, White Horse Black Mountain, 105C Montreat Rd, Black Mountain
Blue Ridge Holler
This hurricane-relief concert series blue ridge holler features an exciting blend of up-and-coming artists and seasoned musicians.
FR (11/21), 7pm, Wortham Center For The Performing Arts, 18 Biltmore Ave
Madelyn Llana: Record Release Celebration
Madelyn ilana is a singer-songwriter, violinist, healing artist, and community leader based in Asheville, NC.
Incorporating electronics, found instruments, and performance art as well as traditional musical elements, the ensemble collaborates to create a full concert of new, original music every semester.
SA (11/22), 2pm, Black Mountain College Museum & Arts Center, 120 College St
Womansong's Fall Concerts: Keep Marching
The eclectic blend of music will make you feel energized, empowered, and uplifted.
SA (11/22), 3pm, Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Asheville, 1 Edwin Place
Buncombe Turnpike in Concert
Their sets are made up of primarily hand-crafted original songs, but the band also plays a variety of other heartfelt tunes.
SA (11/22), 7:30pm, Black Mountain Center for the Arts, 225 W State St, Black Mountain
Tuatha Dea
Hendersonville Theatre welcomes back one of the top 10 Celtic bands in the United States, Tuatha Dea, for the Hometown Sound Music Series finale.
SA (11/22), 7:30pm, Hendersonville Theatre, 229 South Washington St, Hendersonville
SVCC Fall Concert
This singers—drawn from across the valley—will share seasonal favorites, new choral works, and pieces to inspire hope and community as winter approaches.
SU (11/23), 2pm, Black Mountain Center for the Arts, 225 W State St, Black Mountain
Steve Lapointe Sunday live performance by Steve Lapointe in the Windgate Foundation Atrium.
SU (11/23), 4pm, Asheville Art Museum, 2 S Pack Square
Community Kirtan & Song Circle
Experience the joy and connection of kirtan, a heart-centered gathering where we come together to sing devotional chants in a call-and-response
format.
SU (11/23), 6:30pm, The Well, 3 Louisiana Ave
Tribute to The Duke & The Count Asheville Jazz Orchestra pay tribute to two jazz and big band legends: Duke Ellington and Count Basie.
SU (11/23), 7:30pm, White Horse Black Mountain, 105C Montreat Rd, Black Mountain
All Aboard AVL: The Last Waltz The Travers Brothers reunite for a rare and unforgettable night, honoring the legendary Last Waltz concert film by Martin Scorsese. See p50
WE (11/26), 8pm, The Grey Eagle, 185 Clingman Ave
LITERARY
Asheville StorySLAM: Cheat
Prepare a five-minute story about deceit. Pulling a fast one or being played for a fool. Counting cards, forbidden flings, tax evasion, and adventures in plagiarism.
TH (11/20), 7:30pm, The Grey Eagle, 185 Clingman Ave
Flooded Poetry
Mondays A poetry-specific open mic that stars you plus weekly featured readers.
MO (11/24), 6:30pm, Flood Gallery, 802 Fairview Rd Ste 1200 Meter & Melody: Poetry Night Poetry open mic hosted by Dill every last Wednesday of the month.
WE (11/26), 7pm, Static Age Loft, 116 N Lexington Ave
Poetry Open Mic
This open mic welcomes any form of artistic expression from poetry to improv theatre to music to dance.
WE (11/26), 8:30pm, Sovereign Kava, 268 Biltmore Ave
COMMUNITY WORKSHOPS
Simply Charmed: Drop In Workshop
Choose from more than 60 styles of metal stamps and a variety of jewelers hammers to complete your charm.
WE (11/19, 26), TU (11/25), 11am, Ignite Jewelry Studios, 84 Walnut St Unit A Access to Capital Whether you’re a start-up or interested in growing your business, this workshop is here to guide you through the process to secure a business loan. Register at avl.mx/f6x.
TH (11/20), 11am, Online
Adulting 101
Teens gain confidence and learn the basics of navigating the real world independently including practical skills like cooking, interviewing for a job, and more.
FR (11/21), 6pm, Tempie Avery Montford Community Center, 34 Pearson Ave
Enamel a Silver Charm You’ll sift the enamel onto the silver charm then fire it in a kiln to flow the glass enamel onto the silver, and repeat until your piece is complete.
SA (11/22), 11am, Ignite Jewelry Studios, 84 Walnut St Unit A
Therapeutic Recreation Adaptive Tennis Teaches the basics of the game for adults and kids with intellectual disabilities ages 8 and above. Please contact APR Therapeutic Recreation at (828) 232-4529 for more info.
SA (11/22), 1pm, The Omni Grove Park Inn, 290 Macon Ave
Community Drum Class w/Larry McDowell
Larry McDowell is offering this group drum class for beginner and intermediate students. No experience necessary.
MO (11/24), 7pm, The Well, 3 Louisiana Ave
THEATER & FILM
Is This A Room FBI agents arrive at Reality Winner’s door. What follows is word-for-word from the interrogation transcript — an extraordinary human drama about honor, conscience, and our country.
WE (11/19), TH (11/20), SA (11/22), 7:30pm, FR (11/21), SU (11/23), 2pm, NC Stage Co., 15 Stage Ln Weekday Movie Matinee
Take a midday break and unwind with classic public-domain films in the cozy, living-room style basement of the Local Collective.
WE (11/19, 26), FR (11/21), MO (11/24), 12pm, The Local Collective, 52 S Main St, Weaverville Film Screening: The Last Letter Writer David Raymond and Trong Nguyen have made a film about a day in the life of a public letter writer in Ho Chi Minh City.
TH (11/20), 5pm, Little Animals Space, 31 Carolina Ln
Kids Movie Night A free kid’s movie night every Monday and Thursday.
Movie Nights Featuring heaters on and bonfires going, so everyone will be cozy and parents can pop outside to enjoy a drink, dessert, or meal by the fire, once kids settle in.
TH (11/20), 5pm, Foothills Watershed, 655 Catawba River Rd, Old Fort
The Thanksgiving Play Good intentions collide with absurd assumptions as a troupe of terminally woke teaching artists scrambles to celebrate both Turkey Day and Native American History Month.
TH (11/20), FR (11/21), SA (11/22), 7:30pm, SU (11/23), 2pm, Belk Theatre, UNC Asheville, 1 University Heights
Forks After Dark: Twilight Saga Viewing Party
Grab some snacks, get comfy, and watch the saga unfold with friends. Vampires, werewolves, and all the drama make for the perfect Friday night hangout.
FR (11/21), 5:30pm, Dr Wesley Grant Sr. Southside Community Center, 285 Livingston St
Tahi: The Human Journey
Filmmaker Karina Duffy leads an inspiring evening featuring her award-winning film, Tahi, The Human Journey. You can also hear updates on the life-changing work of Tahi Global.
FR (11/21), 6pm, Community Commons at CSL Asheville, 3 Science of Mind Way
Foreign Film Fridays: The Cremator
In Prague, Kopfrkingl enjoys his work at the crematorium perhaps a bit too much, having gained a perverse idea of reincarnation from his haphazard studies of Tibet.
A strange and unusual teen befriends a mischievous ghost in this hilarious and haunting 90-minute version of the hit Broadway musical based on the Tim Burton film.
FR (11/21), SA (11/22), 7:30pm, SU (11/23), Hart Theatre, 250 Pigeon St, Waynesville
The Thanksgiving Play Good intentions collide with absurd assumptions as a
troupe of terminally woke teaching artists scrambles to create a pageant that somehow manages to celebrate both Turkey Day and Native American Heritage Month.
FR (11/21), SA (11/22), 7:30pm, SU (11/23), Attic Salt Theatre, The Mills at Riverside, 2002 Riverside Dr, Ste 42-O Horror Movies
Every Sunday will feature Cagney's cult classics but you'll never know what will be showed until the lights go dark.
This is a space for real talk, deep connection, and conscious spiritual practice. When we gather with intention and love, anything is possible.
WE (11/19), 3:30pm, Community Commons at CSL Asheville, 3 Science of Mind Way
Tarot Community Circle
Each week we will cover different topics, so every class will pro-
vide new information. Bring a deck based on the system of the Rider Waite Smith tarot.
WE (11/19), 6pm, House of Black Cat Magic, Co., 841 Haywood Rd
Poppets As Healing Tools: A Ritual Workshop w/Muggarose A hands-on experience designed to honor, release, and transform grief through art and ritual. Historically, poppets were used as spiritual vessels of intention, healing, and connection.
WE (11/19), 6:30pm, Calamus & Honey, 278 Haywood Rd
NSA-WNC Meeting
Professional keynote speakers, coaches, trainers, facilitators, and consultants who cover a broad range of topics, skills and knowledge.
Put your skills to the test at Grove Street's famous annual pie contest where judges grade on overall taste, texture, and originality.
TH (11/20), 2pm, Grove St Community Center, 36 Grove St
A Course in Miracles Study Group
It is a platform for clarification on a personal level uncovering the deeper truer self.
FR (11/21), 1pm, Community Commons at CSL Asheville, 3
Science of Mind Way
Simple Self-Defense
Learn self-defense using body mechanics to outsmart bigger attackers with leverage, balance, and movement.
SA (11/22), 1pm, Alliance Kinetics Martial Arts, 8 Glenn Willow Dr Unit 26, Arden
Magdalene Rose Circle of Sacred Connection
Step into a sacred space of alchemical co-creation to unlock your intentions for unity, empowerment, love, and transformation.
SA (11/22), 2pm, The Well, 3 Louisiana Ave
Tantra Speed Date
A speed dating revolution with a 94% connection rate. You'll be able to meet singles and ignite connections through fun, chemistry-building games.
SA (11/22), 5:30pm, WellSpring Wellness Center, 966 Tunnel Rd
Climbing Wall Belay Clinic
This hour and a half long clinic will go over the basics of knot tying, safety checks, and belaying using the PBUS technique.
SU (11/23), 1:15pm, Tempie Avery Montford Community Center, 34 Pearson Ave
Coloring w/Cats
Take 50 minutes for yourself and cuddle with the panthers, meet other cat-lovers, and color a beautiful picture of a cat from our adult coloring books.
SU (11/23), 2pm, House of Black Cat Magic, Co., 841 Haywood Rd
Open Gym Climb
A limited number of staff will be on hand to belay climbers. Participants must attend and pass an APR climbing course or belay clinic to belay.
SU (11/23), 2:30pm, Tempie Avery Montford Community Center, 34 Pearson Ave
Monday Marketing Meetup
A collaborative marketing meetup where entrepreneurs and creatives share what they're working on, exchange ideas, and support each other's
next steps. MO (11/24), 1pm, The Local Collective, 52 S Main St, Weaverville Tech Time w/Becca Becca guides you through the ever-changing digital world, one topic at a time to explore the latest technology and apps.
TU (11/25), 3pm, Harvest House, 205 Kenilworth Rd
Stamp Carving Golden Hour Gathering
A cozy evening of stamp carving and greeting card making. Share in the creativity of making hands on art together and make little gifts for someone you love.
TU (11/25), 5pm, Ecusta Market & Cafe, 877 Lennox Park Dr, Hendersonville
Self Defense w/Freya Self defense to empower women, girls, and all marginalized genders with practical self defense skills.
TU (11/25), 5:30pm, All Bodies Movement and Wellness, 211 Merrimon Ave
Intuition & Mediumship Practice Circle
The circle will include exercises to develop your skills, practice readings,
and discussions about all things spirit- and intuition-related.
TU (11/25), 7pm, The Well, 3 Louisiana Ave
IBN Biz Lunch: West Asheville
All are invited to attend and promote their business, products, and services, and meet new referral contacts.
WE (11/26), noon, Yao, 153 Smoky Park Hwy
Southside Cyber Wednesday
Dive into the exciting world of e-sports and gaming with two powerful PlayStation 5 consoles.
WE (11/26), 6pm, Dr Wesley Grant Sr. Southside Community Center, 285 Livingston St
GAMES & CLUBS
Asheville Board Game Club Meet-Up
Featuring a wide variety of tabletop games—from light party games to deep strategy favorites.
WE (11/19, 26), 5:30pm, Well Played, 162 Coxe Ave, Ste 101
Music Bingo w/DJ Spence
Featuring a music bingo night hosted by DJ Spence with special
Transform Lives Through the Power of Music
prizes to win.
WE (11/19), 6pm, Green Man Brewery, 27 Buxton Ave
Senior Games Track & Field Club
Practice sprints, starts, and jumps or just get some exercise around the city’s brand new track.
TH (11/20), 1pm, Memorial Stadium, 32 Buchanan Pl
Bid Whist
Make bids, call trumps, and win the tricks every Saturday with your community.
SA (11/22), 1pm, Dr Wesley Grant Sr. Southside Community Center, 285 Livingston St
828 Golf Sim Saturdays
Every Saturday in November, 828 Golf
Sim will be on the brew deck with free to play golf simulator.
SA (11/22), 4pm, Green Man Brewery, 27 Buxton Ave
Weekly Sunday Scrabble!
If you like Wordle, Boggle, Words with Friends or Scrabble online, this club may be a good fit for you. All of the games are provided.
SU (11/23), 1:30pm,
Stephens Lee Recreation Center, 30
George Washington Carver Ave
Ping Pong Tournament
Come by and shoot your shot against some of the best ping pong players in town. Free to enter and $50 bar tab to the winner.
MO (11/24), 6pm, Sovereign Kava, 268 Biltmore Ave
Music Bingo w/ Spencer
Bring your friends to Taproom Tuesdays featuring Music Bingo with Spencer and rotating food trucks.
TU (11/25), 6pm, Highland Brewing Co., 12 Old Charlotte Hwy, Ste 200
KID-FRIENDLY PROGRAMS
Tiny Tykes Play Dates
Open play for toddlers to explore bikes, balls, inflatables, and climbing structures.
WE (11/19), 10am, Stephens-Lee Recreation Center, 30 George Washington Carver Ave
Family Story Time
A fun and interactive story time designed for children ages 18 months to 3 years.
WE (11/19, 26), 10:30am, Black Mountain Library, Black Mountain
Black Cat Tales: Story Time w/Cats
Foster a love of reading in your kiddos while also socializing the cats in the lounge.
WE (11/19, 26), TH (11/20), FR (11/21), 4pm, House of Black Cat Magic, Co., 841 Haywood Rd
Little Monkeys
A mix of fun games and activities for little adventurers who love to climb and scramble their way around the house.
TH (11/20), 10am, Tempie Avery Montford Community Center, 34 Pearson Ave
Baby Storytime
A lively language enrichment story time designed for children ages 4 to 18 months.
TH (11/20, 27), 10:30am, Black Mountain Library, Black Mountain
Coloring w/Cats: Kiddie Edition
An artistic session with coloring books and markers for children ages 13 and under to relax by coloring as they pet cats to reduce stress and anxiety.
SA (11/22), 1pm, House of Black Cat Magic, Co., 841 Haywood Rd
Growing in Motion
A joyful and engaging movement class designed for toddlers ages 2-5 and their caregivers. More than just physical activity, this class fosters creativity, body awareness, social interaction and more. MO (11/24), 10am, Dr Wesley Grant Sr. Southside Community Center, 285 Livingston St
Dr. Grant Gym Rats
A fun and active P.E. program specifically for homeschooled students that offers a variety of physical activities, games, and sports. MO (11/24), 11:45am, Dr Wesley Grant Sr. Southside Community Center, 285 Livingston St
This market features a selection of fresh, locally grown produce, grass fed beef, pork, chicken, eggs, cheese, baked goods, artisan bread, eclectic handmade goodies, garden and landscaping plants.
LOCAL MARKETS
Weaverville Tailgate Market
Open year-round.
WE (11/19, 26), 3pm, 60 Lake Shore Dr
Weaverville
East Asheville Holiday Tailgate Market
The final market of the season will feature your favorite regular season vendors plus additional craft vendors to help get your holiday shopping done.
FR (11/21), 2:30pm, Groce United Methodist Church, 954 Tunnel Rd
East Asheville Tailgate Market
Featuring over 25 vendors selling meat, seafood, produce, flowers, bread, eggs, baked goods, fruit, herbs, sweet treats, tamales, and more. Every Friday through Nov. 21.
FR (11/21), 3pm, Groce United Methodist Church, 954 Tunnel Rd
North Asheville Tailgate Market
Browse from over 70 vendors that will be offering sustainably produced produce, meats, eggs, cheeses, breads, honey, plants, prepared foods, crafts and more.
SA (11/22), 8am, 275 Edgewood Rd
Asheville City Market
A producer-only market featuring local food products, including fresh produce, meat, cheese, bread, pastries, and other artisan products. Every Saturday through December.
SA (11/22), 9am, 52 N Market St
Black Mountain Tailgate Market
A seasonal community event featuring organic and sustainably grown produce, plants, cut flowers, herbs, local raised meats, seafood, breads, pastries, cheeses, eggs and locally handcrafted items. Every Saturday through Nov. 22.
SA (11/22), 9am, 130 Montreat Rd, Black Mountain
Holiday Bulb Market
This market will feature several different types of big amaryllis bulbs, two kinds of paperwhite bulbs, potted plants, assorted greens, holiday bouquets and more.
SA (11/22), 9am, Bloom WNC Flower Farm, 806 North Fork Rd
Holiday Book Market
Spend the day in Black Mountain to get your holiday shopping done at the Friends of the Library Book market. It will feature, books, puzzles, blind dates, gift baskets and more.
SA (11/22), 10am, Black Mountain Public Library, 105 N Dougherty St, Black Mountain
Ross Farm & Appalachian Standard Holiday Market
This holiday market will feature local craft vendors, seasonal treats with a dessert food truck and hot dogs, caroling and community sing-a-longs, cozy holiday vibes and more.
SA (11/22), noon, Appalachian Standard at Ross Farm, 91 Holbrook Rd, Candler
WNC Farmers Market
This year-round market features locally grown produce, fruits and vegetables, mountain crafts, plants, shops, arts and crafts, sourwood honey, and other farm fresh items. Open daily, 8am. 570 Brevard Rd
FESTIVALS & SPECIAL EVENTS
An Evening of Ghosthorse Stories & Songs w/Ashley Heath & Dave Quinn
Celebrate the life and legacy of J.R. Ghosthorse with Ashley Heath and Dave Quinn. It will be an evening of song and story.
WE (11/19), 6pm, Pisgah Brewing Co., 2948 US Hwy 70 W, Black Mountain
16th Annual Handmade Holiday Sale
This event features high-quality, handmade gifts created by students, staff, and alumni. Items for sale include artwork, ceramics, wearable accessories, woodwork, and a variety of other handmade craft items.
TH (11/20), 10am, WCU Bardo Arts Center, 199 Centennial Dr, Cullowhee
National Rural Health Day: Celebrating Rural Rising
This year’s National Rural Health Day theme is Rural Rising, which celebrates the strength, resilience, and innovation of North Carolina’s rural communities.
Lineup will begin at the intersection of Biltmore Street and Hilliard Avenue, allowing South Charlotte Street to remain open for the duration of the event. All public parking garages will remain accessible throughout the parade.
SA (11/22), 11am, Downtown Asheville
Friendsgiving Gather at Burton Street Community Center for a delicious potluck meal and good company.
SA (11/22), 11am, Burton Street Community Center, 134 Burton St
A Magical Nutcracker Tea Party Step into a winter wonderland and experience the enchantment of the Nutcracker like never before. It will be an afternoon tea party featuring talented performers from the Asheville Ballet Theater. SA (11/22), 1pm, Black Mountain Center for the Arts, 225 W State St, Black Mountain
Thanksgiving Community Potluck Neighbors gather for an afternoon of fellowship at this Thanksgiving community potluck. Please sign up to bring your favorite dish.
SA (11/22), 1pm, Linwood Crump Shiloh Community Center, 121 Shiloh Rd
Stout Bout Beer Festival 2025 After last year’s cancellation due to Hurricane Helene, Stout Bout returns bigger and bolder than ever for an afternoon of indulgent pours, live entertainment, and a little friendly competition. See p48
SA (11/22), 2pm, Hi-Wire BrewingBiltmore Village, 2A Huntsman Place
Ozdust Ballroom:
A Wicked Inspired Immersive Dance Party Step onto the dance floor and into the world of Oz at this Wicked inspired immersive dance party w/DJ Ganymede. It will feature photo ops, drink specials and more surprises.
SA (11/22), 7pm, The Mule at Devil's Foot Beverage, 131 Sweeten Creek Rd
AdventHealth Girls on the Run Fall 5K
Come with family and friends to celebrate the over 200 girls who completed the Girls on the Run program this fall and run along with them.
SU (11/23), 8am, Tanger Outlets Asheville, 800 Brevard Rd
Chili Chillout: The Mule Friendsgiving Come on over for a day of fun, football and the world’s best chili; we’ll have live music, specials on drinks, friends at Heritage Hammers doing live blacksmith demos and more.
SU (11/23), 1pm, The Mule at Devil's Foot Beverage, 131 Sweeten Creek Rd
Tellabration 2025!
This 29th Anniversary features a night of storytelling with Josh Goforth, acclaimed Grammy-nominated musician and storyteller. He will be joined by four members of the Asheville Storytelling Circle.
SU (11/23), 2pm, Folk Art Center, 382 Blue Ridge Parkway
South Asheville Turkey Trot
Kick off Thanksgiving morning with a relaxed 5K through the beautiful Biltmore Park neighborhood - where the vibes are festive, the shirts are vintage-cool, and the finisher medals are worth the effort.
TH (11/27), 9am, Biltmore Park Town Square, Town Square Blvd
BENEFITS & VOLUNTEERING
Low-Cost Community Neuter Clinic
Please schedule and pay for your appointment prior to showing up. Appointments and additional services can be scheduled at avl.mx/dlq.
TH (11/20), 9am, House of Black Cat Magic, Co., 841 Haywood Rd
Montreat Music Program White Horse Benefit
Enjoy an incredible showcase of student talent across multiple genres—all while supporting a beloved community venue.
TH (11/20), 7:30pm, White Horse Black Mountain, 105C Montreat Rd, Black Mountain
Wizard of Oz Themed Drag Dinner Show to Benefit MANNA Food Bank
Celebrate the release of Wicked: For Good, the second part of the film adaptation of the musical Wicked, with dinner, drag, and dazzling performances.
FR (11/21), 7pm, Highland Brewing Co., 12 Old Charlotte Hwy, Ste 200
Art Sale for Bailey Mountain
Come find great deals on fine local art and pottery while sales go towards expanding Bailey Mountain Preserve by purchasing the West Property.
SA (11/22), 10am, Broyhill Chapel, 338 Cascade St, Mars Hill
Find Your Familiar: Black Cat Adoption Event
Featuring black cats galore of all shapes, sizes, and ages- all familiars looking to find their soul person and forever home.
SA (11/22), noon, House of Black Cat Magic, Co., 841 Haywood Rd
Beer & Hymns
Beer & Hymns brings people together to raise a glass and a voice while raising funds for organizations that change the world.
MO (11/24), 7:30pm, White Horse Black Mountain, 105C Montreat Rd, Black Mountain
‘Take what you need’
BY MERIN M c DIVITT
When author and community organizer Aisha Adams’ college-age son, Doriyan, first read her new book, he learned plenty of things he didn’t know about his mom, including details of the challenges and traumas she’d faced in the past.
“My son was like, ‘Mom … life’s not supposed to be that way. You’ve been through a lot,’” Adams remembers.
This is precisely why the Mills River resident wrote This Is What Made Me: Surviving Trauma, Challenging Systems, and Claiming Healing. Published in October, Adams’ debut memoir shares
her story of resilience, opening the way for larger community conversations about issues of identity and social justice.
Originally from Birmingham, Ala., Adams has called Western North Carolina home for over 14 years, working with organizations including Mountain BizWorks, Black Wall Street AVL and Sistas Caring for Sistas. Unlike more traditional memoirs, This Is What Made Me follows a nonlinear structure, featuring a series of short essays grouped around the central themes of pain, grit and reclamation.
Adams describes these elements as ingredients in a complex recipe for achieving growth and authenticity.
“Stir them into your conversations.
Pour them into staff meetings, classrooms, and kitchen tables. Take what you need,” she writes, expressing the hope that these personal reflections will encourage ongoing community dialogue about discrimination, trauma and grit.
This Is What Made Me is available locally at the Noir Collective and Malaprop’s Bookstore/Café. Xpress sat down recently with Adams to talk about the book and the process of writing it.
Editor’s note: This interview has been edited and condensed for brevity and clarity.
Xpress: You’ve been involved in so many different creative and community projects — this is something a little bit different. What was the inspiration behind the book?
Adams: I’ve always been a storyteller, telling stories through my workshops, my creative projects. My undergraduate degree is in English with a concentration in creative writing. I’m using stories as a catalyst to bring community together, to keep community together
and then to influence us to move further. Our cultures and traditions — the oral history, the storytelling — have always been an intricate part of what we do and how we do it.
You share experiences and traumas from throughout your life but begin the book near the chronological “end” with Tropical Storm Helene. Writing that “Hurricanes do not play favorites, but systems always do,” you highlight how Helene exposed existing inequalities and discrimination. Why was it important for you to begin with the storm?
It was a crumbling for me, literally and metaphorically. I feel like it was important for me to share my particular story, and because of where I live, in Mills River, I know there’s not going to be a lot of Black voices [sharing their storm experiences].
I’ve also been spending a lot of time, especially post-Hurricane Helene, traveling through Western North Carolina, and really beginning to understand the
RISING ABOVE: With her debut memoir, Aisha Adams, left, hopes to spark communitywide conversations, ideas and collaborations. Images courtesy of the author
landscape, visiting different places and meeting the people. It felt like a good place to bring people in, and we don’t talk enough about environmental justice in our memoirs or essays.
In This Is What Made Me, you discuss how Black women are rarely allowed to express “the full complexity of their stories” and how the book is your attempt to do so. What is the power and potency of sharing this complexity?
In my work, I’m going into organizations, into women’s circles and book clubs and classrooms, and I can’t push false hope. I have to be honest about how failure has been OK for me, how it shaped me and has been a catalyst for me. And that there has still been racism, discrimination, sexism, the patriarchy’s pain, all of these things.
So it’s really just being honest about my story, and hopefully it can be a tool to someone else. Bringing understanding that sometimes hope does not cut it, you’ve got to have the other part: resilience and learning. One of the major turning points in my life has been the idea that failure is a process. For me, failure has been more like a catalyst. It can become our identity, or it could be something that we use, something helpful.
What do you hope that readers will take away from the book?
Good conversation matters. I do not need everyone to agree with me, because this is my life and my account of it. I hope that by sharing my story, it sparks new conversations, ideas, collaborations
and openings for others to speak their truths. That is the ideal outcome. The book is designed as a storytelling text that invites community conversation.
I wanted to share my experience as a woman, a mother, a Black person in Appalachia, an entrepreneur and a fat Black woman. These are the lenses I move through the world with. My story is not the only story, but it is worth sharing. And I am willing to be brave enough to let people learn from my mistakes and my growth. I am not here to gatekeep any of it. This November, I’ve had two book signings in conversations in community, at Asheville’s Noir Collective and in my hometown, Birmingham.
How does the book connect to your community work?
When I talk about my writing, I see it as community-centered. The stories come from my life, but they are also tied to the lives of others. They honor people I love, people I have learned from and people whose experiences deserve to be remembered and uplifted.
I began as a poet, so I have always listened for the conversations happening in the community. My writing has grown from that. I want my work to be readable and accessible, not something that takes up space without reaching people. Many of the people in my network are doing meaningful social change work, organizing, caring for families, and building community. They do not have time to decipher complicated language. I write in a way that supports them, not pulling them away from their work. X
The air we breathe
BY TROY JACKSON
troyjackson@authentichealth.com
For Western North Carolina, Sept. 27, 2024, will forever be scarred into our collective memories. The sheer devastation from wind and water in our quiet mountains was something we could have never expected.
In the aftermath, the storm left us questioning environmental toxins and their effects on our health. It certainly did for Carol Kowalski, an Xpress reader who wrote in, describing her experience with acute mold toxicity after Tropical Storm Helene. Her journey raises a larger question about the health impacts of mold, especially given our naturally wet and humid climate.
WHAT IS MOLD?
Mold refers to the structure that fungi can take as they grow on various surfaces. In nature, molds serve to break down organic matter. They spread by way of mold spores, microscopic particles that easily float through the air or stick on clothing, making their way into our homes.
Once inside, molds easily colonize, preferring to grow in damp, humid environments, such as crawlspaces, basements, bathrooms and within walls. Once colonized, they produce more spores and other chemicals that circulate in our indoor air and settle on walls, floors and furniture as dust.
Some of these chemicals are called mycotoxins, known to cause ill effects if they enter the body through inhalation or ingestion.
AWARENESS CAMPAIGN: “Our environmental health and our personal health are intricately linked,” writes Dr. Troy Jackson. “Awareness and appropriate action are the best first steps.” Photo courtesy of Jackson
MOLD AND THE HOME
I spoke with Rick Bayless, a local indoor environmental specialist, to better understand why mold is so prevalent in Western North Carolina. He describes our climate as a temperate rainforest, mild temperatures and high rainfall, which drives abundant growth for vegetation and mold.
“We’ve always had … plenty of mold growth, even without a hurricane,” he told me.
But Helene did increase our awareness of environmental contamination.
“Helene grabbed our attention,” Bayless continued, encouraging conversations not just about mold but also the broader landscape of rebuilding with environmental health in mind.
HEALTH EFFECTS OF MYCOTOXINS
Storms of any kind can disturb particulates in the air, temporarily increasing circulating toxicants like mycotoxins. With mycotoxins, the dose makes the poison — rapid, high volume exposure causing immediate reactions or chronic, low-level exposure bringing vaguer symptoms.
After the storm, some, like Kowalski, suffered from acute mold toxicities related to this rapid mold growth, often with severe sinus congestion and sinusitis, asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) flares, and sudden brain fog or fatigue. Chronic
symptoms, though, are much more difficult to notice day to day.
This chronic inflammatory state can also disrupt hormonal patterns over time. Some refer to this constellation of symptoms as “sick-building syndrome.” Since mold tends to bloom in the summer, chronic sufferers may notice seasonal symptoms, improving over the winter. Individuals at higher risk for mycotoxin-related illnesses are children, the elderly, those with chronic respiratory or immunosuppressive conditions and certain genetic susceptibilities.
There are no FDA-approved methods that can test for the presence of mycotoxins in your body, although some integrative clinicians will use urinary mycotoxin tests to guide recommendations. You should still speak with your doctor if you’re concerned about mycotoxin illness, but the most important first step will always be to reduce the exposure.
I recommend hiring an indoor air specialist — a doctor for your home — to conduct a thorough assessment of your property. Other ways to support detoxification include regular bowel movements, good hydration, fiber- and antioxidant-rich foods (berries, cruciferous vegetables, grains, nuts, seeds), deep sleep and sweating. Also, limit substances that stress the liver such as alcohol and smoking. Some integrative physicians may add supplements such as N-acetyl cysteine (NAC), B vitamins, and fulvic/humic acid, though evidence is mixed and it’s and best done under medical guidance.
HOW TO TEST FOR MOLD IN YOUR HOME
Mold growth is most influenced by poorly managed rain and groundwater, leaks from internal plumbing and indoor air humidity. If you have trouble controlling water and moisture levels in and around your home, or have found leaking pipes, there’s a good chance you have mold.
Look for a company that will evaluate the home, not just for mold but for an array of environmental toxicants that can reduce indoor air quality and lead to poor health. They should also provide clear guidance on where damage resides, mitigation recommendations and future prevention.
Given the complexity of indoor air quality and the strategies for remediation, I would avoid using tests such as environmental relative moldiness
index (ERMI) or air sampling, as these will miss other airborne contaminants.
CLEARING THE AIR
Here’s a list of strategies for taking control and reducing mold growth:
• Control rainwater: Roofs should be leakproof and the gutters/ downspouts should be clear. Assess for outdoor slopes that may direct rainwater toward the home.
• Regularly monitor your indoor plumbing for slow leaks.
• Run a dehumidifier to keep the indoor humidity less than 50%, especially in lower-level damp spaces in the summer.
• Use an exhaust fan when bathing, dry out the tub or shower after each use and remove the damp towel from the room. If you want to learn more, the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services has a great resource page on how to properly clean mold from areas in your home at avl.mx/f6y.
PART OF A LARGER PROBLEM
Though this is an article about mold, I must highlight that mold is
just one of many potentially harmful substances circulating in our air. From off-gassing building materials to pilot light fumes, pet dander to smoke, mold may just be a small part of a larger issue affecting your health.
This is the main point Bayless wanted to drive home during our conversation. He cautioned against going “all-in” on mold and missing the mark on other contributors to poor air quality.
Dr. Kate Cranford, a local allergist, also agrees with this broader view, stating that “mold is a respiratory irritant. ... Issues with buildings are often due to a variety of factors which lead to poor air quality.”
Our environmental health and our personal health are intricately linked, much like Kowalski experienced after Helene. We are now asking great questions on ways to better care for our land, our waterways, our homes and our bodies. These questions should drive decisions on how we rebuild and interact with our environment in a healthier and more sustainable way. Mold is not new to this area and will forever be a problem we have to manage. Awareness and appropriate action are the best first steps. X
ARTS & CULTURE
BY GINA SMITH
The takeaway
With the turkey-focused onset of 2025’s season of eating quickly sneaking up, not everyone is bubbling with excitement at the thought of the laborious meal planning, grocery shopping and cooking required to produce a homemade holiday meal. This Thanksgiving, thanks to some innovative local chefs, more than a few folks in Western North Carolina will have professional help preparing memorable dishes for their holiday gatherings.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, many chefs developed innovative alternatives to working for or owning a traditional restaurant, including launching readyto-eat meals businesses. In the years since, the prepackaged meals industry has steadily expanded, with nearly 7% growth anticipated from 2024 to 2025, according to Fortune Business Insights
Several Asheville-area chefs are part of that trend, building successful businesses around creating quality prepared meals to grace customers’ home tables for both quick weeknight dinners and celebratory feasts. Work-life balance and adaptability are among the benefits these local culinary professionals are finding in their ventures outside the restaurant kitchen.
‘A DIFFERENT WAY’
“The recurring theme for our business and how the model has evolved is ‘necessity is the mother of invention,’” says Red Fiddle Vittles co-owner Matt Farr. Since Farr launched Red Fiddle in 2018 with his wife, chef Erica Beneke, it’s shifted with the pressures of family needs, COVID19 and Tropical Storm Helene from a
REINVENTION: “The recurring theme for our business and how the model has evolved is ‘Necessity is the mother of invention,’” says Red Fiddle Vittles co-owner Matt Farr, pictured right with his wife, business partner and chef Erica Beneke. Photo courtesy of Farr
catering business into a South Asheville brick-and-mortar gourmet market and kitchen offering preordered, frozen takehome dinners and catering services.
In her 20s, Beneke was a notable culinary mover and shaker in Austin, Texas, achieving the position of executive chef by age 24. And in 2013, she was crowned champion of the Food Network cooking competition “Chopped.” But burnout soon followed.
In 2017, she relocated to WNC, seeking a less stressful career as a personal chef and caterer. “I think when she moved here to Asheville, she was looking for a different way,” Farr says.
A former nonprofit professional, Farr met Beneke at MANNA FoodBank’s Empty Bowls fundraiser in 2017. After collaborating on a 250-person volunteer appreciation dinner for MANNA a few months later, the pair launched Red Fiddle Vittles as a catering company. At around the same time, they found out they were expecting their first child.
“So we knew we needed to shape the business in a way that we could also have a family,” says Farr. “Sustainability was at the core from the beginning.”
The take-home dinner concept and storefront emerged in 2020, when COVID-19 canceled all of Red Fiddle Vittles’ catering events. When Helene hit in 2024, the model proved itself resilient and adaptable.
“We were able to pivot immediately from catered events — because they all got canceled for the month of October last year — and really focus on producing food out of our storefront, both from a mutual aid standpoint as well as getting back in business from a revenue and business growth standpoint,” says Farr.
TIME FOR FAMILY
Farr remembers hustling in Red Fiddle’s early years, when it was still just him and Beneke bringing their baby, now 6, in a car seat for prep shifts in a downtown commissary kitchen. The family now also has a 20-month-old, but with their locally sourced, Appalachianinspired take-home meal model locked in — weekly menus and wine-pairing recommendations are posted online for preorder — and three full-time staff members to help out, life feels more manageable.
“We eat dinner together most nights as a family, we have breakfast together most mornings,” says Farr. “It’s what we envisioned for how we can live our lives and also run a business that is meaningful, not just to us but to the community as well. It has enabled us to live fuller lives in the ways that we want to, instead of being relegated to the grind of a lot of traditional food and beverage industry work.”
The desire for work-life balance — in addition to the impacts of COVID and Helene — have also been primary forces guiding the business decisions of chef Katie Fiore, owner of Fioreously Delicious catering and prepared meal service, and longtime local chefs and life partners Ashley Capps and Travis Schultz of Woodfin-based ready-made meal company New Stock.
A WNC native and graduate of the New England Culinary Institute, Fiore and her husband, also a chef, had operated a business similar to Red Fiddle Vittles in Burlington, Vt., but with a more demanding model offering breakfast, lunch and dinner. After relocating to Asheville in 2013, Fiore — seeking a career path that would allow her time to be with her two young children — began working as a personal chef with a focus on healthy eating and special diets.
“It was a goal of mine not to have a brick-and-mortar, because of [needing] the flexibility,” Fiore says.
She eventually bought a production kitchen space in Arden, and in 2019 went full time offering prepared, delivered meals along with full-service catering. When COVID-19 hit, her business tripled due to her delivery service.
Recently, though, as demand for delivery has waned, Fioreously Delicious has stopped weekly deliveries, switching to a monthly freezer meal menu and personal chef and catering services. The business also offers retreat catering and a prepared meal and fridge-stocking service for guests in area short-term rentals, called Culinary Concierge, which Fiore is especially excited about.
“We’re always changing, we’re always figuring out better ways to do things,” she says.
OUT ON A LIMB
Capps, a James Beard Awardnominated pastry chef, and Schultz were both on the opening team for chef John Fleer’s celebrated downtown farm-to-table restaurant, Rhubarb (now closed). In early 2020, the duo left Rhubarb with the plan to open a brickand-mortar restaurant, retail shop and cooking school. But that March, the pandemic dissolved their dream.
The pair pivoted to a delivery model, preparing multicourse meals from a commissary kitchen, then dropping them off on customers’ front porches along with charming, hand-drawn
menus. “It was like a restaurant on wheels,” says Capps. “We had different themes, and we made it fun.”
New Stock’s customer base grew quickly by word of mouth, but as the cooking and delivery schedule became increasingly demanding, Capps and Schultz thought about changing their model.
“We were a little gun shy to open a restaurant post-COVID,” says Capps. “We just really desired to not be running all over the place, to have a brick-andmortar so we could just sell our food in one spot and have people come to us.”
In 2022, Capps and Schultz began offering their prepared meals and other products from a lovingly decorated retail space and kitchen in the River Arts District. At the same time, their daughter, Wylie, was born.
The couple brought the baby to work, wheeling her around all day in her bassinet in a green stock cart. “She was always right beside us — she was on my back in a sling, or in the front, or on that little green cart,” Capps remembers.
In September 2024, flooding from Helene brought 28 feet of water into their Riverview Station space, gutting the building and destroying all of their product and equipment. Without missing a beat, Capps and Schultz transitioned the entire business to its current location, a small kitchen they had acquired a few months prior at 148 Weaverville Road.
“It’s just a production kitchen and was never meant to be customer-facing,” says Capps. “It doesn’t have the ambience of our old shop that we put a lot of love into, but we’re very grateful.”
With no storefront for distributing their meals, they began selling them at local tailgate markets. After a market was canceled due to bad weather, leaving them with lots of cooked food and nowhere to sell it, Capps went out on another limb.
“I sent out a newsletter, and I said, ‘Hey, customers, for the first time ever, come into our kitchen. Don’t expect much,’” she says. “And guess what? They didn’t care. They don’t care what this place looks like. They just bought lasagna and bourguignon and butternut squash soup.”
Now New Stock puts out a weekly meal menu and customers can stop by the little kitchen Wednesday-Friday, 10 a.m.-6 p.m. and Saturday, 9 a.m.-noon. New Stock also continues to sell meals each week at the Asheville City Market, West Asheville Tailgate Market and RAD Farmers Market.
All three businesses are creating special menus through the holidays, though most Thanksgiving orders were closed by press time. Red Fiddle is still accepting orders for side items, including fresh cranberry sauce and sourdough stuffing, through Friday, Nov. 21. New Stock will have sides and pies available Monday-Wednesday, Nov. 24-26. X
Sculpture Park open everyday dawn until dusk, 100 works on display Brand new gallery Open Sat/Sun 1-5 pm featuring works from artists across the US, both 2D and 3D functional and sculptural.
501(c)3 non profit organization Dontate Today!
1 1/2 hours from Asheville
Sculpture by Scott Strader
A hero’s journey
David Wilcox debuts a new album with his Thanksgiving concert
BY BILL KOPP
Plenty of songwriters take a conventional approach to making albums. They think to themselves, “I’ve written 10 new songs since the last record, and here they are.”
There’s nothing wrong with that approach, but David Wilcox likes to put some thought into the process. For his latest release, The Way I Tell the Story, he decided to draw upon some recent and close-to-home challenges that he has faced.
“I listen to a lot of singer-songwriters,” says the Western North Carolina-based folk artist. “And every once in a while, when they come out with a record that’s really good, I think to myself, ‘They must have been through some sh*t.’”
Wilcox believes that good songs that come out of difficult experiences are a kind of cathartic silver lining. “Times get tough and songs get good,” he says. He will celebrate The Way I Tell the Story with an album release show combined with his annual Thanksgiving concert at The Grey Eagle Music Hall on Friday, Nov. 28, at 7 p.m.
CLEARING THE LOADING DOCK
Wilcox’s primary pursuits beyond touring and recording tend to focus on music; he often leads songwriting workshops in which he can offer wisdom gained through his own 40-plus years as a musician and composer. “I like to encourage people to dive into their own creativity,” he explains.
HIS OWN MIND: For his 20th studio album, David Wilcox draws upon the hardships he’s faced, using music as a means of catharsis and connection.
Photo by Lynne Harty
Part of that endeavor, he believes, is coming to terms with the immutable fact that in order to write great songs, one often has to write a lot of bad songs. He employs a metaphor to underscore his point. “You have to clear the loading dock so the good ones can get out of the warehouse,” he says. When it comes to songwriting, he never sets out with the specific goal of making an album. “That’s always the last thing on my mind, until one morning, it’s the only thing,” he says. “There’s a fig tree in our yard; I never think about that fig tree until suddenly it’s like, ‘I’ve got to get those figs before the bears do!’ And we had such a great harvest this year.”
album?” He’ll explain that, no, it isn’t; hearing it live is the only way to experience it. The audience member might persist, asking why the song isn’t on the record. “It just didn’t fit with the others,” Wilcox will explain.
PERSONAL PERSPECTIVE
The songs on The Way I Tell the Story do indeed all fit together. While it’s not a concept album, Wilcox’s latest — his 20th studio release since 1987’s The Nightshift Watchman — does have a theme running through it: navigating through the difficult parts of life.
One of the album’s songs reaches beyond his own experience. “I Can’t Argue” is one of his “custom songs,” written on commission for a fan who was going through tough times. On a personal level, Wilcox says his wife’s diagnosis with Parkinson’s disease informed the perspective that he brought to all of his songs.
For Wilcox, this year’s harvest of songs was bountiful as well. “When we started the [album] project, my producer Michael [Selverne] said, ‘Send me the top-of-the-list songs that you would really like to have on the record.’” Wilcox sent over demos for 50 songs.
Both Wilcox and Selverne saw the producer’s role as more than simply overseeing the recording sessions; Selverne helped pare down the song selection. “He gave me a lot of notes like, ‘This song’s chords are too much like that one’s,’ or ‘This idea is too much like that idea,’” Wilcox recalls.
The artist says he welcomed that feedback from his producer and longtime friend. “Michael held me to a higher standard of writing. That was very satisfying,” Wilcox says. “I love an assignment.”
The Way I Tell the Story features a dozen of those songs, but inevitably, some of the ones Wilcox considered favorites didn’t make the cut. “It’s like at the airport,” he says. “The rental car shuttle bus comes by, and the driver just waves you off because the bus is full: ‘Sorry, dude.’”
Asked what became of the 38 or so tunes that didn’t make it onto The Way I Tell the Story, Wilcox explains that the best of them resurface in other ways. At a gig, he says, he might play a new song, and an audience member will ask, “Is that on the new
While The Way I Tell the Story has been out for several weeks, Wilcox is making his annual Thanksgiving show at The Grey Eagle the unofficial album launch. “There will be the usual suspects,” he says, mentioning longtime friends and musical associates David Lamotte, Chris Rosser and Billy Jonas. “And there will be some surprises, too.”
The forthright candor Wilcox exhibits in his songwriting is a key feature of his appeal to listeners. And while it comes naturally to the 67-year-old musician, it’s also the product of a conscious decision. “I decided years ago that vulnerability is only scary if you’re holding a firewall, protecting some things,” he explains. “If you’re not protecting anything, then you’re completely safe.”
With a long career and a large body of work to his credit, Wilcox still feels at the peak of his creative powers and in touch with his listeners. “I’m really grateful for this kind of music,” he says. “What I’ve wanted all along was to find my tribe, find the people who had the same appetite for life being juicy and full and interesting. It seems like I have found these brave people, and they have found me.”
WHAT David Wilcox’s annual Thanksgiving Homecoming Concert WHERE
The Grey Eagle Music Hall, 185 Clingman Ave., avl.mx/epg WHEN Friday, Nov. 28, 7 p.m. $30.75
The answer to every question
With its small brewing operation, Nine Mile restaurant is a new kid on the Beer City block
BY CHRISTOPHER ARBOR
yearinbeerasheville@gmail.com
On Jan. 1, Christopher Arbor and his friends pledged to visit one Asheville brewery each week for all of 2025 in the order that they opened, then share the experience with Mountain Xpress readers. To read about their trip to Diatribe Brewing Co., visit avl.mx/f7d.
During this yearlong adventure, I’ve wandered into breweries that have broadened my awareness of what’s possible, sampled innovative brews that expanded my palate and — most importantly — met people who have deepened my love for our beloved community.
For all the novelty, there are also old friends that I know better than the back of my hand — places like the Nine Mile. The self-described “Caribbean-inspired, vegetarian friendly” restaurant opened way back in 2008 north of downtown on Montford Avenue and was an instant hit with locals. It’s part of our tour — and late on our schedule — because it just started brewing beer last year.
Ah, Nine Mile. It’s the answer to almost every question.
My wife asks where I want to go for date night. Nine Mile.
What if it’s my birthday or our anniversary? Nine Mile.
What’s the name of the nuclear power plant in Scriba, N.Y., on the shore of Lake Ontario? Nine Mile! (Specifically, it’s Nine Mile Point.)
What’s the name of the Eminem biographical film? Eight Mile.
Hey, I said the answer to almost every question.
When we stepped inside the West Asheville location, the familiar smell of spices and simmering sauces hit our senses even before the colorful murals and stained glass windows, even before the music of conversation and laughter punctuated with the occasional clinking of glasses.
The crew gathered around a hightop table near the bar and were soon swapping stories from our week.
Since opening, it’s expanded to include two additional locations — one in South Asheville and one in West Asheville. How far apart are those two restaurants? Nine miles! (Seriously!)
One of Asheville’s newest brewing operations, it’s also one of the smallest. The beer menu is, in some ways, the opposite of the food menu: Lean and straightforward rather than indulgent and over the top. It includes just seven beers — a Mexican lager, pilsner, golden ale, ESB and stout plus two IPAs — and none of them have any sort of gimmicks or adjuncts or are part of any fad. They’re just solid, well-crafted beers.
When the server took our orders, I paired the stout with the same thing I always order: the Raggy Road with tilapia and cavatappi pasta. As I write this, my mouth is watering just thinking of the robust depth of flavor.
The server asked me to specify the heat level, and I wimped out and said “moderate.” If memory serves, it’s a one-to-seven scale, and “moderate” is just a two. I once dared to go to three. While I have no regrets, I won’t be doing that again any time soon.
Nine Mile is an old friend. Next week’s installment is about one of my new friends: Terra Nova Beer Co. As the old song goes, “One is silver, and the other’s gold.” Raise a glass.
Oh, and do you know what town Bob Marley was born in? Nine Mile. Of course he was.
With just two stops to go, time is running out to join us. We gather at 5:30 p.m. Wednesdays. You can email me at yearinbeerasheville@ gmail.com or just show up.
• Wednesday, Nov. 19: Chemist Spirits
• Monday, Nov. 24: The Wedge at Foundation (Note that this is a Monday and our final stop! Come join us.) X
BITES AND BREWS: The small brewery at Nine Mile restaurant’s original Montford space produces a handful of beers that are available at all three locations, including a stout, pictured with food from the Caribbean-inspired menu. Photo by Gina Smith
11/19: Reader: Jessica 12-5
Women’s Circle w/ Ally 5-6
11/20: NEW MOON in Scorpio
11/21: Reader: Krysta 12-6
11/22: Reader: Melissa 11-3 Reader: Ed 12-6
Holiday Magical Item Swap 2-5:30pm
11/25: Reader: Sage 2-7
Give ’em the boot
Keeping it punk in Asheville
BY THOMAS CALDER
For local musician Alex Deutsch, Green Day’s 1994 major label debut, Dookie, was his gateway drug into punk rock, eventually leading him to additional groups such as NOFX, Offspring and other lesser-known acts from the independent label Epitaph Records.
“I went deeper and deeper down the punk rabbit hole,” he recalls of his youth spent in Long Island. “This also led me to start going to local punk shows when I was in seventh grade with some like-minded friends, and then shortly after, forming my first band.”
Today, Deutsch plays bass with a number of local groups across various genres — from his soul cover band, Double Love and the Trouble, to his indie/post-punk group Lower Peaks. He is also a member of punk band The Deathbots, though the group is on hiatus.
“That energetic, busy style and pronounced attack of punk bass playing is something that originally attracted me to bass,” he says. “It’s one of the reasons I play with a pick.”
As part of Xpress’ recurring feature “The Playlist,” Deutsch put together a punk-rock playlist that features a long
WNC’S PUNK SCENE
list of local acts. You can download it at avl.mx/f5e. Along with the list is a conversation about the songs and punk scene.
Xpress: This playlist is a great reminder that punk rock has range. From hardcore to pop and everything in between, you capture most, if not all, of it here. Pop-punk is obviously the most appealing subgenre for those less familiar with the style. But what do you love about some of the other varieties, especially the harder stuff? And what should first-time punk-rock listeners keep in mind as they encounter the less polished material?
Deutsch: I think diversity of sound is one of the cool things about punk. I know that heavier sound might be off-putting for some at first. However, it, paired with honest and vulnerable lyrics — another staple of punk music — helps to give catharsis for feelings of frustration and angst for everything ranging from personal, everyday life stuff to far-reaching political/social issues. It helps to exorcize those emotions in healthy and inspired ways. When I listen to punk, especially the heavier kind, it actually leaves me feeling calmer. It helps me know I’m not alone, and that there’s a whole community that shares my feelings.
Courtesy of Alex Deutsch. Download the playlist on Spotify at avl.mx/f5e.
Cigarette Party by Busy Weather
You’ll Get That on These Big Jobs by snakesnakewhale
Hidden Hand by Holley 750
White Hole by Fantømex
Time Wages On by Call the Next Witness
Better Off by Basement Healer
Worlds Collide by Player vs. Player
Simple by Warm ōnes
French Sh*twater by Janx Spirit
Fact or Fiction by The Discs
Power Button by PINKEYE
Pissed-In Ashtrays by Small Doses
Lights Out by My Gal Monday
Dead Weight by Drowning Leo
All Your XXI’s by Bonny Dagger
Writing on the Wall by Cardboard Box Colony
FAST-PACED: “That energetic, busy style and pronounced attack of punk bass playing is something that originally attracted me to bass,” says local musician Alex Deutsch. “It’s one of the reasons I play with a pick.”
Photo by Scott Sturdy Photography
That concept of community ties into the punk ethos. Can you speak to this?
Punk is a safe space for outsiders. It’s a community of individuals, of people that might not fit anywhere else. That diversity drives cross-pollination of ideas, leading to creativity and good art. Punks respect and appreciate each other’s differences, so long as everyone is willing to live and let live. The only thing the punk scene doesn’t tolerate is hate.
Trash Talk by Bad Fidelity
Plague of the Planet by Harriers of Discord
Enemy is Me by John Kirby Jr. and the New Seniors
Heard & Word by tinyTVs
Better Off by Rhinestone Pickup Truck
Stay Up by Lower Peaks
Nothing by The Deathbots
Most punk fans will be familiar with the name Matt Freeman — the iconic bassist for Rancid, known for his incredibly fast and complex solos. There are a couple of tracks on your playlist that include bass lines reminiscent of Freeman’s style. In your opinion, who is the Matt Freeman in our local punk scene?
As a bass player myself, the frenetic bass playing in punk is definitely one of the things that draws me to punk — though I’ve styled myself more after Karl Alvarez from Descendents than Matt Freeman, probably. There are a ton of great bass players in town, many of whom play in punk bands. It’s hard to choose, but I’m a particularly big fan of Chainer Mulkey from Busy Weather, Samuel Fox from Warmones, Chad Nance from John Kirby Jr. and the New Seniors, and Jason Sampler from Drowning Leo. I don’t know if I’d say any of them play just like Matt Freeman, but each expresses their own voice on the instrument in a unique way, which is pretty cool.
Your list of bass players — as well as your playlist! — really emphasizes the local punk scene’s deep bench. For readers looking to check out some venues, what are your favorite spots to play and/or see a punk show?
We really do have a thriving punk scene here in Asheville. Back in the day, it was a lot of house shows that supported the scene, but now we are lucky enough to have many established venues that are supportive of the punk scene and regularly host punk and punk-adjacent music. On any given night, you can catch shows at Fleetwood’s, Sly Grog Lounge, The Odd, 27 Club, Shakey’s, Burger Bar, Eulogy and Static Age. Even The Orange Peel has occasional local punk showcases. And The Grey Eagle is always great about including local openers on the bill, especially when the headliner is a nationally touring punk band.
It feels as if culturally, we’re much more open these days to various musical styles. Growing up in the ’90s, it felt like you found your genre and that was your thing. Veering from it — especially within my personal experience of punk — was frowned upon. Did you have a similar experience? And how has that mentality shifted, in your opinion, as it relates to punk in the 2020s?
I definitely think there was some of that back in the ’90s and 2000s. Just like any other group, punk scenes had cliques, and there was some friction if you weren’t “punk enough” and people got called poseurs — spelled with a “U” or you’re a poser! Thankfully, I think that way of thinking has mostly died off. People are way more open-minded. Everyone has eclectic taste in music. Most of us play in more than one kind of band, and usually not all punk. And punk itself has become better because it now draws from many styles of music.
Any theories for what led the scene and style to expand in terms of style and influence?
I think that may have actually been one of the few positive benefits we still see from the internet. I think people have become exposed to more music and are less hemmed in by narrow styles and identities. Also, there are so many more easily accessible resources for musicians that people are getting better at their instruments and trying more and different things. People are more open to experimentation, and I think local punk scenes have relaxed because of this. It’s really made for a renaissance in punk. These days, being a punk band doesn’t necessarily put you in as narrow of a box, stylistically. There are many ways to be a punk band. It’s more about the ethos and the community than ascribing to one particular sound. X
Turkey Day
Local restaurants serve Thanksgiving meals
Not interested in hosting or cooking a Thanksgiving meal this year?
Numerous local restaurants have you covered on Thursday, Nov. 27.
• Capella on 9 offers family-style seatings at 1 and 3:30 p.m., featuring traditional holiday favorites and several soulful classics. Tickets are $70 per adult and $50 for children younger than 12. The bar will be open, and guests ages 21 and older will receive one complimentary drink ticket with admission. To learn more, visit avl.mx/f72.
• Noon-8 p.m., Wildwood Still serves a four-course, prix fixe, family-style meal composed of Thanksgiving classics prepared with the kitchen’s signature flair. Tickets are $89 for adults and $49 for children, not including tax and gratuity. To learn more, visit avl.mx/f73.
• Posana Biltmore Park presents a four-course, family-style dinner, with seatings 2-7 p.m. According to
the restaurant’s website, the menu “highlights the beloved flavors of the season, each dish reimagined with Posana’s contemporary culinary touch.” Tickets are $95 for adults and $45 for children. Wine pairings are also available for $45. To learn more, visit avl.mx/f74.
• Embassy Suites by Hilton Asheville Downtown hosts a Thanksgiving buffet noon-5 p.m. According to a press release, the culinary team will fix “a classic holiday spread featuring Joyce Farms roasted turkey, honey-glazed ham, seasonal sides and chef’s holiday desserts.” Nonalcoholic beverages are included, with complimentary hot chocolate and hot apple cider for kids. A full cash bar will be available. A portion of ticket sales will benefit Eblen Charities, and all leftovers will be donated to Asheville Poverty Initiative’s 12 Baskets Café. Tickets are $62 per person (ages 13 and older), $25 for children ages 5-12 and free for children ages 4 and younger. To learn more, visit avl.mx/f75.
Hi-Wire’s Stout Bout returns
After a one-year break caused by fallout from Tropical Storm Helene, Hi-Wire Brewing’s Stout Bout returns to its Biltmore Village taproom on Saturday, Nov. 22, 2-6 p.m. The 2025 edition features unique stouts from 14 regional breweries competing for such titles as Best Aroma, Best Flavor and Most Decadent Body — plus the Stout Bout Champion, voted on by attend-
ees. The day concludes with the latest event from locally produced Urban Combat Wrestling (UCW) at 7 p.m.
“Stout Bout has always been about bringing people together to celebrate great beer and our incredible brewing community,” says Peter Batinski, Hi-Wire’s head of specialty and sour program, in a press release. “After having to cancel last year due to Helene, we’re thrilled to welcome some of our favorite breweries for this year’s extra special showdown.”
Tickets range from $16.91 for Stout Bout or UCW general admission to $106.39 for the VIP experience, which includes access to both events and other perks.
To learn more, visit avl.mx/f6z.
Sierra Nevada turns 45
On Nov. 15, Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. celebrated 45 years of craft brewing. The brewery launched in 1980 in Chico, Calif., opened its East Coast production brewery in Mills River in 2014 and is currently distributing in all 50 U.S. states. It remains family-owned and operated, and it placed third in the Brewers Association’s 2025 annual rankings of the top 50 craft brewing companies by beer sales volume.
“Since Day 1, we’ve continued to brew with the same respect for tradition and attention to detail, while continuing to push the boundaries of our craft,” says Sierra Nevada founder Ken Grossman in a press release. “It’s taken a lot of hard work and dedication from our entire team over the past 45 years to build the company we have today. Our unwavering commitment to quality and sustainability has allowed us to grow and survive in this incredibly competitive and dynamic industry.”
To learn more, visit avl.mx/f70.
Wheelhouse opens
Wheelhouse coffee shop is now open on 255 Coxe Ave. — at the bottom of the South Slope by the Southside Avenue and Short Coxe Avenue intersection. The business offers coffee drinks made with beans from Cooperative Coffee Roasters and baked goods from Mattie Lou’s Café and Bakery.
According to the business’s Instagram page, ownership has plans to get a liquor license, add a pool table and begin booking live music in the near future. Artists seeking potential gigs can complete an interest form on the Wheelhouse website.
To learn more, visit avl.mx/f71.
— Edwin Arnaudin X
ALL THE TRIMMINGS: Thanksgiving at Embassy Suites features a carving station. Photo courtesy of Bill Kaelin Marketing
SMART BETS
by Edwin Arnaudin
Blue Spiral 1 Exhibitions Bountiful Bowls
As of Nov. 7, downtown gallery Blue Spiral 1 has not one, not two, not three — but four new exhibitions.
Showing in the Main Level Gallery, Spectrum unites an array of works that explore the expressive energy of color across various media. And in the Small Format Gallery, Heidi Tarver: The Story So Far provides an in-depth look at the ceramic artist’s patterned vessels, made through a method she calls “slip printing.”
In a two-person exhibit in the Showcase Gallery, Chris Liberti’s paintings and Will Dickert’s sculptural ceramic forms explore the impermanence of time and place. And in the Lower Level Gallery, Field of Vision showcases a curated selection of landscape-inspired works from three painters and two sculptors.
All works are on display through Wednesday, Dec. 24, and free to view during business hours.
To learn more, visit avl.mx/f7c.
Ben Kweller
The last time Ben Kweller played Asheville, George W. Bush was president. Since that 2007 show at The Grey Eagle, the indie rocker has experienced multiple unimaginable hardships — namely acute carbon monoxide poisoning in 2013 and the tragic loss of his 16-year-old son, Dorian, in a 2023 car accident near their rural Texas home. But he’s consistently returned to music, and the results have been nothing short of astounding.
Kweller’s 2025 album, Cover the Mirrors, references a component of the Jewish mourning tradition of sitting
shiva in its title, and while the songs reference grief, a sense of joy, gratitude and perseverance are its overarching sentiments. Featuring inspired collaborations with MJ Lenderman, Waxahatchee and The Flaming Lips, the collection also includes Dorian’s unfinished ballad, “Trapped,” which Kweller completed following his son’s passing.
Kweller makes his long-awaited return to town on Friday, Nov. 21, at Eulogy. Miami-based indie pop artist Modern Love Child kicks off the evening at 8 p.m. Tickets are $36.16. To learn more, visit avl.mx/f77. X
Just in time for the Thanksgiving holiday, Ona Armstrong of Firefly Valley Pottery is partnering with local nonprofit Food Connection for the Bountiful Bowls fundraiser on Sunday, Nov. 23, 5:30-7:30 p.m., at St. George’s Episcopal Church. Tickets are $50 per person, and each attendee receives a freshly cooked meal and an artisan bowl to take home.
“We are so grateful for the community collaboration and partnerships coming together for this inaugural event,” says the Rev. Kelsey Davis, vicar of St. George’s Episcopal Church, in a press release. “Bountiful Bowls was intentionally named to celebrate the truth that when we bring our various gifts together, there is sustenance to be shared in body and spirit.”
The bowls will be created by Armstrong, an Ayurvedic health counselor, who will also present a 30-minute wellness presentation from 5-5:30 p.m., titled “What to Eat and How to Sleep Deeply in Autumn.”
“No one should go hungry in the world’s richest country, and I am excit-
ed to help raise critical funds for the organizations that help feed families in Asheville,” Armstrong says. “This event allows me to use my talents in pottery while supporting organizations that help strengthen my community.”
Registration is required. To learn more, visit avl.mx/f7a. X
The Last Waltz
On Thanksgiving Day 1976 at San Francisco’s Winterland Ballroom, The Band played its final show. Joined by such A-list guests as Bob Dylan, Ringo Starr, Neil Young, Emmylou Harris, Eric Clapton, Muddy Waters, Dr. John and Van Morrison, the occasion was documented by director Martin Scorsese in The Last Waltz, considered one of the greatest concert films of all time.
Since 2021, local band Travers Brothership has paid tribute to this monumental show each Thanksgiving eve
with its own intelligently curated performance at The Grey Eagle, featuring some of the area’s top musical talents. This year’s edition on Wednesday, Nov. 26, includes collaborations with Mac Arnold (Muddy Waters), Chris Bullock (Snarky Puppy), Justin Perkins (Toubab Krewe), Jonathan Lloyd (The JLloyd Mashup), Shane Pruitt (Marshall Tucker Band), Ashley Heath and Jack Mascari. The festivities get underway at 8 p.m. Tickets are $22.60.
To learn more, visit avl.mx/f79. X
Photo of Spring Fever by Scott Upton courtesy of Blue Spiral 1
Photo of Ben Kweller by Lizzy Kweller
Photo from Travers Brothership’s 2024 Last Waltz tribute show, courtesy of All Aboard AVL
Nick Mac & the Noise w/Laron Huntly (rock, country, soul), 5pm
BETWEEN DREAM AND MEMORY: On Friday, Nov. 21, singer-songwriter Julianna Jade performs at The One Stop at Asheville Music Hall, starting at 6 p.m. Based in Asheville, Jade will bring her delicate blend of indie soul and dreamy storytelling to the stage. Photo courtesy of J Hawke Photography
FLEETWOOD'S Primal Static, Starseer & The Disaster Years (emo, punk, indie), 9pm
FLOOD GALLERY
True Home Open Mic, 6pm
FRENCH BROAD RIVER BREWERY
Jerry's Dead Thursdays (Grateful Dead & JGB tribute), 6pm
HI-WIRE BREWING South Slope Open Mic w/Stephen Evans, 5:30pm
HIGHLAND BREWING CO.
Clock Out, Rock Out w/DJ Molly Parti, 6pm
JACK OF THE WOOD PUB
Bluegrass Jam w/Drew Matulich, 7pm
LAZOOM ROOM BAR & GORILLA
YIKES! Dating Disaster Comedy w/Sarah Love, 7pm
LEVELLER BREWING CO.
Old Time Jam, 6pm
MAD CO. BREW HOUSE
Chris Long (country), 6pm
MILLS RIVER BREWING CO.
Jesse Talbott (Americana, blues, folk), 6pm
NEW BELGIUM
BREWING CO.
Daniel Shearin (acoustic), 3pm
OKLAWAHA BREWING CO.
• Alma Russ (country, folk, Appalachian), 7pm
• Thursday Karaoke, 9:30pm
STATIC AGE LOFT
Auto-Tune Karaoke w/ Who Gave This B*tch A Mic, 10pm
STATIC AGE RECORDS
Boat Command, Cruel
Buddhist & Cerulean
Moth (lofi, yacht-wave, vapor-funk), 8:45pm
THE ONE STOP AT ASHEVILLE MUSIC
HALL
Fancy Trio (country, Americana), 9pm
THIRD ROOM
HEYZ w/Grimmjoi (electronic, dance, dubstep), 9pm
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 21
ASHEVILLE MUSIC
HALL
Let It Happen: Tame Impala Dance Party, 9pm
CORK & KEG
Parker's Back (jazz, swing), 8pm
CROW & QUILL
Firecracker Jazz Band (jazz), 8pm
EULOGY
Ben Kweller w/Modern Love Child (alt-indie, power-pop, folk), 8pm
The Local Honeys w/ Abby Hamilton (folk, country), 8pm
THE ODD Party Foul Drag, 8pm
THE ONE STOP AT ASHEVILLE MUSIC
HALL
• Riyen Roots (blues, soul), 6pm
• Quickchester (multigenre), 10pm
THE ORANGE PEEL
Sold Out: Watchhouse (folk, Americana, bluegrass), 8pm
THIRD ROOM
Space Bacon w/Cozm & Nova (jamtronica, funk), 9pm
WHITE HORSE BLACK MOUNTAIN
Kat Williams (jazz, blues), 7:30pm
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 23
EDA'S HIDE-A-WAY
Open Mic Night, 7pm
EULOGY
Sold Out: GZA of Wu-Tang Clan (hiphop), 8pm
FLEETWOOD'S Bloodletting Goth Night, 8:30pm
FRENCH BROAD RIVER BREWERY
Reggae Sunday w/ Chalwa, 3pm
GINGER'S REVENGE
CRAFT BREWERY & TASTING ROOM
Sunday Jazz Jam, 2:30pm
HIGHLAND BREWING CO.
Lazybirds (Americana), 2pm
JACK OF THE WOOD PUB
Traditional Irish Music Session, 3:30pm
OKLAWAHA
BREWING CO.
• Kayla McKinney (country), 3pm
• Sunday Karaoke, 8pm
ONE WORLD BREWING WEST
• Suns of Stars Sunday Residency (bluegrass), 2pm
• One Live Sundays w/Strong Fire (Ska, reggae, rock), 7pm
PISGAH BREWING CO.
Sunday Jam: Spiro & Friends, 6:30pm
S & W MARKET
Mr Jimmy (blues), 1pm
SIERRA NEVADA BREWING CO.
Bob Sinclair & the Big Deals (Americana, jazz), 2pm
SLY GROG LOUNGE
• Open Mic w/Mike Andersen, 6:30pm
• Old Dead Gods w/ The Deviled Eggs, Wage Worker, Socialist Anxiety & Street Creature Puppet (multi-genre), 7pm
THE EVENT CENTER AT HIGHLAND BREWING
Las Montañitas Dance Party w/DJ Mtn Vibes (Latin, cumbia, Appalachian), 6pm
THE ORANGE PEEL
An Evening w/Kevin Smith (comedy), 7pm
THIRD ROOM
Bearly Dead w/Suns Of Stars & MoonShroom (Grateful Dead tribute), 6pm
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 24
27 CLUB
Rock Star Karaoke w/ Grimm Morrison, 9pm
DIATRIBE BREWING CO
Big Brain Trivia, 7pm EDA'S HIDE-A-WAY Pool Night, 6:30pm FLEETWOOD'S Best Ever Karaoke w/ Honey, 9pm
FRENCH BROAD RIVER BREWERY
Alex Bazemore & Friends (bluegrass), 6pm
HIGHLAND BREWING CO.
Trivia Night w/Two Bald Guys & A Mic, 6pm
ONE WORLD BREWING
Open Mic Downtown, 6:30pm
ONE WORLD BREWING WEST
Mashup Mondays w/ JLloyd, 8pm
STATIC AGE LOFT Hot Seat Comedy w/C.J. Green, 8pm
STATIC AGE RECORDS Sun Organ, Tombstone Poetry, Okapi, Sean Hamilton & Jonas Van Den Bossche (sludge-pop, noise, experimental), 8:45pm THE GREY EAGLE Ariel Pink (experimental-pop, indie), 8pm THE JOINT NEXT DOOR
THE JOINT NEXT DOOR Roots & Dore (Americana, blues), 7pm
THE MULE Jazz Trio & Wine Wednesdays, 6pm THE ODD Terraoke Karaoke Takeover, 9pm
THE ONE STOP AT ASHEVILLE MUSIC
HALL
Coyote Rodeo (bluegrass), 10pm THIRD ROOM
Disclaimer Stand-Up Comedy Open Mic, 8pm
URBAN ORCHARD
Wayward Trivia, 6:30pm
WHITE HORSE BLACK MOUNTAIN
• Irish Session, 5pm
• Open Mic Night, 7pm
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 27
FRENCH BROAD RIVER BREWERY
Jerry's Dead Thursdays (Grateful Dead & JGB tribute), 6pm
HI-WIRE BREWING South Slope Open Mic w/Stephen Evans, 5:30pm
JACK OF THE WOOD PUB
Bluegrass Jam w/Drew Matulich, 7pm
OKLAWAHA BREWING CO. Thursday Karaoke, 9:30pm
SHAKEY'S Karaoke w/DJ Franco Nino, 9pm
STATIC AGE LOFT
Auto-Tune Karaoke w/ Who Gave This B*tch A Mic, 10pm
FREEWILL ASTROLOGY BY ROB BREZSNY
ARIES (March 21-April 19): In the coming weeks, I invite you to commune intimately with your holy anger. Not petulant tantrums, not the ego's defensive rage, but the fierce love that refuses to tolerate injustice. You will be wise to draw on the righteous "No!" that draws boundaries and defends the vulnerable. I hope you will call on protective fury on behalf of those who need help. Here’s a reminder of what I’m sure you know: Calmness in the face of cruelty isn’t enlightenment but complicity. Your anger, when it safeguards and serves love rather than destroys, is a spiritual practice.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20): The Korean concept of *jeong* is the emotional bond that forms between people, places, or things through shared experiences over time. It's deeper than love and more complex than attachment: the accumulated weight of history together. You can have jeong for a person you don't even like anymore, for a city that broke your heart, for a coffee mug you've used every morning for years. As the scar tissue of togetherness, it can be beautiful and poignant. Now is an especially good time for you to appreciate and honor your jeong. Celebrate and learn from the soulful mysteries your history has bequeathed you.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Over 100 trillion bacteria live in your intestines. They have a powerful impact. They produce neurotransmitters, influence your mood, train your immune system, and communicate with your brain via the vagus nerve. Other life forms are part of the team within you, too, including fungi, viruses, and archaea. So in a real sense, you are not merely a human who contains small organisms. You are an ecosystem of species making collective decisions. Your "gut feelings" are collaborations. I bring this all to your attention because the coming weeks will be a highly favorable time to enhance the health of your gut biome. For more info: https://tinyurl.com/EnhanceGutBiome
CANCER (June 21-July 22): Why, yes, I myself am born under the sign of Cancer the Crab, just as you are. So as I offer you my ongoing observations and counsel, I am also giving myself blessings. In the coming weeks, we will benefit from going through a phase of consolidation and integration. The creative flourishes we have unveiled recently need to be refined and activated on deeper levels. This necessary deepening may initially feel more like work than play, and not as much fun as the rapid progress we have been enjoying. But with a slight tweak of our attitude, we can thoroughly thrive during this upcoming phase.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): I suggest that in the coming weeks you care more about getting things done than pursuing impossible magnificence. The simple labor of love you actually finish is worth more than the masterpiece you never start. The healthy but makeshift meal you throw together feeds you well, whereas the theoretical but abandoned feast does not. Even more than usual, Leo, the perfect will be the enemy of the good. Here are quotes to inspire you. 1. "Perfectionism is self-abuse of the highest order." —Anne Wilson Schaef. 2. "Striving for excellence motivates you; striving for perfection is demoralizing." —Harriet Braiker. 3. "Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection, we can catch excellence." —Vince Lombardi.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Now is an excellent time to practice the art of forgetting. I hope you formulate an intention to release the grievances and grudges that are overdue for dissolution. They not only don’t serve you but actually diminish you. Here's a fact about your brain: It remembers everything unless you actively practice forgetting. So here’s my plan: Meditate on the truth that forgiveness is not a feeling; it's a decision to stop rehearsing the resentment, to quit telling yourself the story that keeps the wound fresh. The lesson you’re ready to learn: Some memories are worth
evicting. Not all the past is worth preserving. Selective amnesia can be a survival skill.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): A Navajo blessing says, “May you walk in beauty.” Not just see beauty or create it, but walk in it, inhabit it, and move through the world as if beauty is your gravity. When you’re at the height of your lyrical powers, Libra, you do this naturally. You are especially receptive to the aesthetic soul of things. You can draw out the harmony beneath surface friction and improvise grace in the midst of chaos. I’m happy to tell you that you are currently at the height of these lyrical powers. I hope you’ll be bold in expressing them. Even if others aren’t consciously aware and appreciative of what you’re doing, beautify every situation you’re in.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Your theme for the coming weeks is the fertile power of small things: the transformations that happen in the margins and subtle gestures. A kind word that shifts someone's day, for instance. Or a refusal to participate in casual cruelty. Or a choice to see value in what you're supposed to ignore. So I hope you will meditate on this healing theme: Change doesn't always announce itself with drama and manifestos. The most heroic act might be to pay tender attention and refuse to be numbed. Find power in understated insurrections.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): A day on Venus (one rotation on its axis) lasts about 243 Earth days. However, a year on Venus (one orbit around the sun) takes only about 225 Earth days. So a Venusian day is longer than its year. If you lived on Venus, the sun wouldn’t even set before your next Venusian birthday arrived. Here's another weird fact: Contrary to what happens on every other planet in the solar system, on Venus the sun rises in the west and sets in the east. Moral of the story: Even planets refuse to conform and make their own rules. If celestial bodies can be so gloriously contrary to convention, so can you. In accordance with current astrological omens, I encourage you to exuberantly explore this creative freedom in the coming weeks.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Let’s revisit the ancient Greeks’ understanding that we are all born with a daimon: a guiding spirit who whispers help and counsel, especially if we stay alert for its assistance. Typically, the messages are subtle, even half-disguised. Our daimons don’t usually shout. But I predict that will change for you in the coming weeks, especially if you cultivate listening as a superpower. Your personal daimon will be extra talkative and forthcoming. So be vigilant for unexpected support, Capricorn. Expect epiphanies and breakthrough revelations. Pay attention to the book that falls open to a page that has an oracular hint just for you. Take notice of a song that repeats or a sudden urge to change direction on your walk.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Awe should be one of your featured emotions in the coming weeks. I hope you will also seek out and cultivate reverence, deep respect, excited wonder, and an attraction to sublime surprises. Why do I recommend such seemingly impractical measures? Because you’re close to breaking through into a heightened capacity for generosity of spirit and a sweet lust for life. Being alert for amazement and attuned to transcendent experiences could change your life for the better forever. I love your ego—it’s a crucial aspect of your make-up—but now is a time to exalt and uplift your soul.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): What if your anxiety is actually misinterpreted excitement? What if the difference between worry and exhilaration is the story you tell yourself about the electricity streaming through you? Maybe your body is revving up for something interesting and important, but your mind mislabels the sensation. Try this experiment: Next time your heart races and your mind spins, tell yourself "I'm excited" instead of "I'm anxious.” See if your mood shape-shifts.
MARKETPLACE
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