The former Black Mountain News reporter launched the online publication in early 2020.
Tag: q and a
Showing 22-39 of 39 results
Q&A with Ray Russell, founder of Ray’s Weather Center
The founder of Ray’s Weather Center speaks about the local forecast service’s growth over the years, how meteorologists handle the area’s tricky topography and what weather sayings carry a grain of truth.
Q&A with Nnweyna Smith, founder of Sankofa Market AVL
The Asheville native seeks to elevate Black small business owners and entrepreneurs with the twice-monthly pop-up market.
Q&A with Katherine de Vos Devine, a lawyer who ‘speaks artist’
Originally from North Carolina, Katherine de Vos Devine found herself uprooted at a young age when her father moved the family to New York City for a new job. In many ways, this transplant shaped Devine’s life. “I grew up in a diverse and bohemian apartment building, surrounded by actors, dancers, artists and elderly Ziegfeld […]
Q&A with Ruth Pittard of the ‘LOVE’ Project
UPDATE, 10/13/21: This piece was updated to state that Pittard attended college in the 1960s and has built a net-zero home. On Wednesdays for the last three years, a few friends stand silently on the busiest corner in Black Mountain holding signs that say “LOVE.” They aren’t affiliated with any religion or political organization. They simply […]
Q&A with Shana Bushyhead Condill, director of Museum of the Cherokee Indian
Growing up, Shana Bushyhead Condill frequently visited museums with her family. Whether in Montana where she was born or in Milwaukee where she graduated high school, Condill had exposure to a broad range of collections. But as a citizen of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, what she did not see was an accurate representation of […]
Q&A with Bigfoot hunter Joneric Bruner
Joneric Bruner and his father, John, are at the heart of Marion’s beloved WNC Bigfoot Festival.
Q&A with Craig LeHoullier, tomato expert
Craig LeHoullier is consumed by tomatoes. He has written two books about growing them: Epic Tomatoes and Growing Vegetables in Straw Bales: Easy Planting, Less Weeding, Early Harvests. He lectures about tomatoes at gardening conferences. He has been the Seed Savers Exchange tomato adviser for 30 years. He and his wife, Sue Angus-LeHoullier, founded Tomatopalooza, a tasting event […]
Q&A with Erica Abrams Locklear, professor of English at UNCA
Update, Sept. 6, 2021: This piece was updated to reflect that Natasha Tretheway’s book Native Guard is a collection of poetry. Growing up in Leicester, Erica Abrams Locklear imagined becoming a pediatrician one day. She loved to read, though, and remembers enjoying Southern authors Jill McCorkle and Clyde Edgerton. But Abrams Locklear didn’t become aware […]
Q&A with Liz Harper, city of Asheville public records officer
Asheville city government’s decision-making should happen in the sunlight. At least, that’s the principle Liz Harper brings to her work as the city’s public records officer. Anyone who has asked for public information about permit violations, purchase orders or police reports since October 2020 has been assisted by Harper. Until recently, Harper kept track of […]
Q&A with Tracy Swartout, Blue Ridge Parkway superintendent
Working in the National Park Service has taken Tracy Swartout all around the country. But in many ways, her new role as superintendent of the Blue Ridge Parkway, based at the service’s office in Asheville, is a homecoming. Swartout grew up in Columbia, S.C., and has many fond memories traveling along the park’s 469-mile route […]
Q&A with Phyllis Lang, founding member of Friends of Buncombe County Special Collections
The statute of limitations long ago expired on the small misdemeanor Phyllis Lang may or may not have committed as a teenage volunteer at the small library in her hometown of Elgin, S.C. “There was a locked case of books that were deemed not appropriate for the average audience — books like Marjorie Morningstar and […]
Q&A with Demp Bradford, president of the Asheville Buncombe Regional Sports Commission
Certain activities are closely associated with Asheville: sampling local craft brews, tubing down the French Broad River, eating one’s own weight in barbecue. If Demp Bradford, president of the Asheville Buncombe Regional Sports Commission, has his way, professional sports will become quintessentially Asheville, too. Bradford, a native of the North Carolina Piedmont, became interested in […]
Q&A with Kareen Boncales, director of entrepreneurship at Mountain BizWorks
Many people who volunteer with the Peace Corps consider it a life-defining experience. Kareen Boncales is one of them. She served in Cameroon from 2009-11 in small enterprise development, teaching basic business skills to everyone from farmers to boutique owners. “I really admired that entrepreneurial spirit of turning challenges into opportunities,” she recalls. “I knew […]
Q&A with Justin McVey, regional wildlife biologist with NC Wildlife Resources Commission
Justin McVey of Horse Shoe looks at the world differently than do most people. A bird feeder and a trash can are a potential buffet for urban black bears scavenging residential properties in search of food. A dead deer on the side of the road might be roadkill — or an indication that disease is […]
Q&A with Mac Franklin, director of horticulture at the NC Arboretum
Since he was a teenager in Charlotte, Mac Franklin knew what his life’s work would be. He began landscaping during high school and continued the career while studying art, industrial art and design at Appalachian State University. After college, Franklin moved west to work for a landscape architect in San Francisco and a nursery in […]
Q&A with Joshua Darty, director of Riverside Cemetery
When Joshua Darty moved to Asheville in 2006 with a freshly minted forest management degree from N.C. State University, an open position at the city’s Parks and Recreation Department seemed like a potential fit. But when he showed up for his interview at 53 Birch St., he was in for a surprise. “I’m like, ‘This […]
Q&A with Chief District Court Judge J. Calvin Hill
In June 1995, a young lawyer named J. Calvin Hill parked his car in downtown Asheville and walked toward the Buncombe County Courthouse. Hill, who had been working for several years as a defense attorney in eastern North Carolina, had been recruited by the Buncombe public defender’s office. As he strolled to his job interview […]