In partnership with the WNC Farmers Market, the Asheville zoo launches its Educational Farmers Market Garden starting Wednesday, Nov. 16. The new exhibit focuses on sustainable relationships between agriculture and nature.
Asheville historic renovation efforts kick into full gear
To bring old buildings up to modern-day standards involves architectural assessments, electrical upgrades, plumbing revamps and structural repairs — challenges that many preservationists are now facing, and seeking to fund, as Asheville’s turn-of-the-century landmarks continue into their second hundred years.
Q&A with Fabrice Julien, professor of health communication at UNC Asheville
Public health is the science of improving health and safety within communities. Fabrice Julien, assistant professor of health and wellness at UNC Asheville, knows that it’s also an art. Julien teaches health communication and the theory of health promotion at UNCA. He thinks a lot about how to break through medical distrust and skepticism, as […]
Q&A with Kelly Bruce, forest bathing guide
Kelly Bruce, a certified Forest Therapy Guide with Natural Wanders and Asheville Wellness Tours, speaks with Xpress about her approach to the work and what people can expect from a bath in the forest.
Q&A with Santa Claus (aka Dennis Reed)
Don’t tell the kids, but Asheville’s most beloved Santa doesn’t live at the North Pole. Dennis Reed and his wife Deborah — aka Mr. and Mrs. Claus — reside in Haywood County, where they both grew up. Dennis worked for 35 years at the Blue Ridge Paper plant and got his start as Santa in 2004 after […]
Q&A: H. Byron Ballard, Asheville’s village witch
Ballard specializes in Appalachian folk magic and folkways.
Local worship leaders balance ministry and music
David Eck, Erin Maxfield-Steele and David LaMotte discuss how their original music does (and doesn’t) intersect with their religious work.
Green in brief: Ecusta Trail land purchase complete
On Aug. 12, a subsidiary of nonprofit Conserving Carolina completed the $7.8 million purchase of the currently unused Ecusta rail line, stretching 19 miles between Hendersonville and Brevard, from the Blue Ridge Southern Railroad.
The work goes on
The murder of George Floyd, a Black man, by white Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin on May 25, 2020, spurred nationwide Black Lives Matter protests. In Asheville, Floyd’s murder had the immediate effect of religious institutions looking inward and engaging with their congregations around racial justice. More than a year on from those events, many […]
Light a Path helps incarcerated people take the next step
Sybriea Lundy counts herself lucky to have been able to participate in programs offered by Light a Path, an Asheville-based nonprofit that brings yoga and movement to underserved populations, while serving the final 2 ½ years of her sentence for drug trafficking at the Swannanoa Correctional Center for Women. The organization also helped Lundy reenter and connect with the Asheville community upon her release.
New translation of the Tao Te Ching applies ancient wisdom to 21st-century experience
In early April, Mars Hill University professor of religious studies Marc Mullinax debuted his new book, Tao Te Ching: Power for the Peaceful, a translation and interpretation that blends a scholarly awareness of the text’s original historical context with an accessible connection to the contemporary American experience.
Local dowsers harness intuition to find water and personal empowerment
Appalachian Dowsers members discuss the numerous benefits they find in looking beyond the visible world.
Green in brief: SAHC conserves nearly 3,000 acres; OGS gets social
The Asheville-based nonprofit Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy’s work included both valuable wildlife habitats, such as the Wiles Creek and Little Rock Creek preserves, and prime farmland at risk of development. Sandy Hollar Farms in Buncombe County and Bowditch Bottoms in Yancey County were among the agricultural projects completed in 2020.
Ryan Bush examines psychology, spirituality and emotion in new book
In his new book, local author Ryan Bush builds on the philosophies of Buddhism and Stoicism to describe a system for rewiring the brain’s response to external events, a method he dubs psychitecture.
Congregations grapple with questions of diversity
As congregations across the region grapple with shifting demographics and a year of racial upheaval, multiracial congregations find themselves tackling tough conversations in the way they know best: Worship and fellowship.
Field to Shroud seeds healthy death culture
Burnsville resident Katherine Savage feels a unique kinship with a small patch of ground on the campus of Warren Wilson College. The 5-foot by 60-foot plot was home this year to a crop of flax, a traditional Southern Appalachian fiber plant, which she is helping process into linen that she will someday wear as her burial shroud.
Marshall phone carves out space for spirituality and grief
Marshall’s wind phone offers a unique conduit for connecting with those who have died or are absent.
On gratitude: Rev. Scott Hardin-Nieri
“The current trends eroding our once-common values honoring truth, wisdom and collaboration will not extinguish my steady hope for our national and global future — a hope for policies and practices that serve all people and planet, starting with our own hearts and relentlessly expanding love into backyards, city streets, forests and beyond.”
From AVL Watchdog: Billy Graham’s legacy threatened by family split
The evangelist’s grandchildren say his son’s pro-Trump politics brings “shame.”
Melody LeBaron on coping with death and dying
People who are facing death, as well as their families, need to make dozens of decisions large and small, author Melody LeBaron says, and everyone should have a plan in place before the final moments of life. Her new book provides support for creating a roadmap to guide individuals and their loved ones as death approaches.
Despite decaying masonry, St. James AME Church remains Black community cornerstone
The Rev. Brent La Prince Edwards says that with gatherings now happening virtually, the COVID-19 pandemic offers an opportunity for his church to embark on a $571,000 renovation project without displacing worship services and other events.