From a Distance: Infection concerns separate families
- Volume 26
- / Issue 38
Cover Design Credit:
Scott Southwick
Cover Photography Credit:
Cindy Kunst
The health crisis caused by the new coronavirus has ended in-person visits between residents in local care facilities and their families, including the married couple on the cover. To stay connected, they rely on daily online chats and twice-weekly sessions gazing at one another through the windows of Aston Park Health Care Center.
arts
Author Lee Smith discusses publishing during COVID-19
Unlike many of her readers who are currently adhering to "stay home, stay safe" mandates, the characters in Lee Smith's latest work are unbound — they socialize, carry out illicit…Local theaters remain cautiously optimistic amid COVID-19 closures
Representatives from The Magnetic Theatre, North Carolina Stage Company and Asheville Community Theatre discuss their plans during uncertain times.Carl Sandburg Writer-in-Residence Tony Robles creates through COVID-19
Instead of writing in an academic or erudite style, “for me, the onus is to produce work that will resonate” with those in his community, Robles says.
food
Ivory Road Café & Kitchen prepares free meals for health care workers
When local restaurants were forced to close their dining rooms to prevent the spread of COVID-19, chef Jill Wasilewski found a new way to feed people.Grassroots Aid Partnership mobilizes to provide free meals
GAP co-founder and Asheville business owner David Anderson brings the national disaster relief organization home, setting up a mobile kitchen in West Asheville.Asheville Housing Authority turns to local chefs to reopen Southside Community Kitchen
A partnership between the Housing Authority of the City of Asheville and Green Opportunities is bringing together local chefs to cook meals for home-bound residents.
news
Asheville Archives: Exploiting the 1918 influenza
In 1918, as cases of influenza increased, local Asheville businesses sought ways to use the pandemic to increase sales.Marissa Percoco sees a ‘new hunger’ for permaculture knowledge
“I feel like right now this COVID virus is forcing people to slow down and, hopefully, look internally and not just at their phones,” says Percoco, the Firefly Gathering’s new…Local Airbnbs face cancellations, loss of revenue
There are 764 active homestay permits within the city limits. Xpress spoke with local hosts to see how they are handling the current county mandate, which prohibits leisure travel.COVID-19’s environmental impacts unclear in WNC
Xpress reached out to several organizations responsible for monitoring the region’s air and water to learn how the environmental situation has changed since Buncombe County issued its COVID-19 state of…Heath Moody builds A-B Tech sustainability program
“Sustainability is a vast field where you can get into agriculture, transportation, manufacturing and energy,” says Heath Moody, head of the Sustainability Technologies program at A-B Tech. “These skills are…COVID-19 fears separate nursing home residents from families
The COVID-19 pandemic has stopped visits and other contacts between families and thousands of seniors who live in nursing homes, retirement communities, rest homes and other group facilities in Buncombe…Mission nurses advocate for PPE, training
Under the watchful eye of Mission Hospital security, several nurses involved with the push to unionize their colleagues demonstrated during the 6 p.m. shift change on April 9. Their signs…COVID-19 recession squeezes Buncombe budget
Due to the county’s heavy reliance on tourism — an industry especially vulnerable to travel and business restrictions imposed to reduce the spread of COVID-19 — Budget Director Jennifer Barnette…
opinion
Letter: Help make voting accessible to all
"NextGen North Carolina is calling on the North Carolina legislature to adopt a universally accessible vote-by-mail policy that ensures all North Carolinians can cast their ballots this November."Little Free Libraries nourish the soul
"Being stuck at home doesn’t have to mean personal regression. So why not press pause on the remote and go pick up a free book? Just remember to wear gloves…Letter: Asheville will need to remake itself
"Will Asheville, the city I fell in love with, recover in time to prevent irreparable damage?"Letter: Put a mask on the public face of first responders
"I don't understand why there is apparently no organizational push to get these guys and gals into nonmedical face coverings for routine trips into public spaces."Letter: Jane Jacobs would be proud
"My cousins and I believe Martha and Jane were smiling when Mel received a MacArthur award."Windows anti-virus
