Welcome to DKos Asheville!
EST 2/13/2011
This space appears each weekend with links to news and opinion from Asheville and Western North Carolina, and the floor is open for comment and discussion. Wishing all a good day from this still beautiful part of the world.
“Daily Kos fights for a progressive America by empowering its community and allies with information and tools to directly impact the political process.”
Today, I offer a gentle collection of stories that I found to be compelling and hopeful.
I am relatively new to Asheville, having moved here from Miami in 2021. I am still a board member with Artists in Residence in the Everglades, a residency program that partners with the Everglades National Park to give resident artists access to the knowledge held there.
One of the lessons I learned in this process is that these parks grew from the 19th-century conservation movement. During that time — and to this day — there was an assumption that the nature one should save and preserve had to be “pure” or untouched by people. Thus, when the national parks were established in this spirit, the federal government actively removed people living with nature from those lands because they did not fit the ideal. In the Everglades, Gladesmen had lived in the difficult ecosystem for generations, mingling with Native Americans, sustaining life, economies and unique cultures. All of them were removed. They were too messy.
Urban forests prove a different case — that forests can coexist with and enrich densely populated places. They are dynamic spaces in which human activities can be assets to the forest’s and community’s health and resilience. Regular human disturbances can create the conditions for certain species of mushrooms to grow. Regular brush clearing and thinning can help forests resist fires, and controlling invasive species can generate practices that can be adopted more broadly around the community to support native plant species. Volunteers learn about the care of the forest and each other. There are place-making and psychological benefits of the urban forest to the city. The opportunities an urban forest affords are in fact far more than the limited scope other development opportunities may have. <More>
BLACK MOUNTAIN, N.C. (WLOS) — As recovery progresses after Helene, most distribution centers have closed their doors. But one center still serves hundreds of people per day thanks to generous donations and volunteers from across the country.
Driving by on Highway 70 you might miss Valley Strong Disaster Relief’s massive operation is still going on five days a week in Black Mountain. Ian Monley, Co-Founder and Site Coordinator said they started serving the community right after the storm.
"We had some extras left over so we set up right on the main highway at Silverado’s," Monley said. Jenalee Tipton, Chairman of Valley Strong Disaster Relief, said the need for essentials is still very much alive. “It’s hard because yes, we all do need to try to grow, which part of that growth is starting to get back to normal," Tipton said.
"But for some of these people this is their new normal, and they don’t know what to do yet," he said.
The donations as well as the people who need them have kept the operation going. So we still have between 150-200 cars a day everyday come through.
On Feb. 3, residents took to the streets of downtown Asheville for the first of two major demonstrations in response to President Donald Trump’s executive orders on immigration. The event culminated in a block party that spilled onto Interstate 240 as souped-up cars revved in celebration of Mexican heritage.
Initially, participants did not know who organized the gathering. Some heard about it on Instagram. Others received emails. Ultimately, siblings Karen and Victor Perez, 15 and 18, respectively, stepped forward. The two went on to organize the subsequent Feb. 8 rally. Both gatherings drew hundreds of participants and spanned multiple hours.
Xpress recently caught up with the siblings about their efforts. Along with the recent protests, they have launched an Instagram account, @immigrationsalertasheville, which has over 1,000 followers.
“We’ve definitely gotten busier this week,” says Karen, who, like her brother, is juggling the demands of high school and a part-time job in addition to their activism.
This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity. Click the title for more.
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – Four artists of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI) are among Indigenous artists featured in a new exhibit at the McClung Museum of Natural History and Culture on the campus of the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, Tenn. The exhibit is entitled “Homelands: Connecting to Mounds through Native Art” and will be on display at the McClung for the next three years.
“It was agreed upon by all of us (at McClung) that this needed to be a collaborative exhibition with Native nations with ties to Knox County,” said Sadie Counts, McClung curator of Indigenous Collections and assistant curator of exhibitions. “Everything in the exhibition was driven by our Native partners. We approached them and said, ‘The idea is about mounds. What do you want to see in this space?’ And, they wanted to see contemporary artwork, which I was very excited about.”
Counts noted that the exhibit doesn’t include any photos of mounds as requested by the tribal partners.
The exhibit features artists from the EBCI, the Cherokee Nation (Okla.), the Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana, and the Muscogee (Creek) Nation (Okla.). The EBCI portion of the exhibit was co-curated by Dakota Brown, Museum of the Cherokee People director, and Miranda Panther, EBCI Tribal Historic Preservation Office NAGPRA officer.
The four EBCI artists featured in the exhibit include John Henry Gloyne, Rhiannon Skye Tafoya, Atsei Cooper, and Aaron Lambert.
CHEROKEE, N.C. (WLOS) — A runner in Cherokee is going the distance for a cause personal to him.
A few years ago, Kallup McCoy, from Cherokee, ran the Trail of Tears to help start a recovery home on the reservation.
McCoy is a recovered drug addict.
ADDICTION RECOVERY CENTER OPENS ON CHEROKEE RESERVATION, PROMOTING COMMUNITY HEALTH
Now, he's gearing up for a run across the entire country to raise funds for his non-profit, RezHOPE.
We caught up with him Friday, getting in some training at Lake Junaluska.
“I wanted to attach my running to a greater purpose. And I said Well, let's go ahead and run across the nation. And let's get some social media. Let's get some eyes on what we're doing here with our organization,” said McCoy.
Maurice Manning has led countless writing workshops over the course of his career, but the Pulitzer Prize-nominated poet experienced something special at the Tremont Writers Conference last October. The conference, now preparing for its third year, is jointly created and coordinated by Smokies Life and the Great Smoky Mountains Institute at Tremont, and it takes place on Tremont’s campus nestled inside Great Smoky Mountains National Park, just as the fall leaves near their peak.
“The thing that stands out to me about the Tremont conference is that the Great Smoky Mountains is not simply a setting for the program,” Manning said. “It is an integrated feature of the program. I've long been a believer that the landscape, the natural surroundings, ought to be generative for one’s writing, and Tremont’s location makes that immensely possible.”
Manning led the poetry cohort during the 2024 conference and enjoyed the experience so much he’s filling the same role in 2025. This year’s conference, slated for Oct. 22-26, is accepting applications from writers of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction through May 15.
ASHEVILLE, N.C. (WLOS) — For the second weekend in a row, musician Billy Strings is back in Asheville. He’s playing six sold-out shows at Harrah’s Cherokee Center Asheville and fans aren’t the only ones excited for the concert series.
The shows are a big boost for local businesses too. They’re happening less than five months after Hurricane Helene.
Mountain Folk Lore owner Jo Potter said the hurricane cost her a third of her income. Causing her to shut down ten of her biggest events of the year.
LOCAL BUSINESSES SHINE AT SHAKEDOWN ON WALL STREET PARTY AHEAD OF BILLY STRINGS CONCERT
The small business owner said water came just a few feet away from flooding her shop in Biltmore Village.
They’re appreciative of the back-to-back weekends for their businesses.
“When 30% of our income comes from tourism from the city, this is such a wonderful boost for us,” said Johnson. “It’s huge. It’s a lot of hard work but it’s really wonderful.”
Country music singer-songwriter Sturgill Simpson is set to perform at the ExploreAsheville.com Arena during summer of 2025.
In 2024, Sturgill Simpson brought his "Why Not?" tour to Asheville on Oct. 21 with the release of a new album, "Passage Du Desir."
In 2025, Sturgill Simpson's "Who the F**k is Johnny Blue Skies?" tour will open Feb. 23 in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The first tour dates in the United States fall on April 5 at the Choctaw Grand Theater in Durant, Oklahoma.
The band will play music from Sturgill Simpson's entire catalog of music. Here's what else to know about tour dates and tickets for Simpson's 2025 tour.
"Vumbi Pride" by Michael Nichols
Thanks to a new exhibition at The N.C. Arboretum, you don’t have to brave the wild to observe the wild. A new collection from National Geographic, curated by nature photo editor Kathy Moran, is now on display at The N.C. Arboretum’s Baker Exhibit Center through Sunday, May 11.
“The Greatest Wildlife Photographs” exhibition features over 70 framed wildlife photographs taken over more than a century by celebrated National Geographic photographers, including Michael “Nick” Nichols, Steve Winter, Paul Nicklen, Beverly Joubert, David Doubiletand more. Text panels that accompany each photo explain how the photographers achieved the images, often through innovative methods such as camera traps, remote imaging and underwater technology. From snow leopards in India and gelada baboons in Ethiopia to the flightless 250-pound cassowary of Australia and the gray wolves of Minnesota, the exhibit takes visitors on a worldwide journey to see animals in their natural habitats.
Entry to the exhibit is included with The N.C. Arboretum’s regular parking fee; members are admitted for free. avl.mx/eig
Following a rainy week, Western North Carolina is expected to see even more rain over the weekend - and the potential for snow is looming.
A weather hazard alert issued by the National Weather Service at 4:08 a.m. on Feb. 14 warned of potential freezing rain early Saturday morning, Feb. 15. The likelihood of freezing rain is highest along the Blue Ridge Escarpment, portions of the northern mountains and possibly parts of the foothills and I-40 corridor.
Icing could create slippery conditions on roads, bridges and sidewalks, and some power outages could occur, especially in areas that saw outages during the last icing. The hazard is active from Saturday, Feb. 15, to Thursday, Feb. 20.
Thanks for stopping by, wishing everyone a strong weekend!
”Be safe out there” Lamont Cranston
