For centuries, Edward Ball’s ancestors owned some 25 rice plantations near Charleston, S.C. And between 1698 and 1865, more than 4,000 black people were either purchased by the Balls or born into slavery on the family plantations. In Ball’s 1998 book Slaves in the Family, which won both the Southern Book Award for Nonfiction and … Read more
Aurora “Rory” Block’s music has been known to literally save lives. “A guy said he decided not to kill himself after hearing my music,” she recalls, describing one particularly poignant fan letter she received. “Life is short, and it’s fragile,” warns Block. “Don’t forget that it’s a great privilege to be in this miraculous place … Read more
The experts took one look at Pritchard Park, and saw more than a triangular, quarter-acre park locked between busy downtown streets. They saw a town square — an old-fashioned, people-oriented kind of place for meeting, dining, relaxing and attending city-sponsored events. That’s how Genesis Group consultants replied when Asheville Mayor Leni Sitnick took one look … Read more
The devil is in the details, or so it seemed at the Buncombe county-commissioners’ first meeting of 1999, which covered a daunting, varied and lengthy agenda on Jan. 5. On the docket were: animal-adoption concerns, a neighborhood battle over a shooting club, a proposed mountain-bike path around the new county landfill, the sale or disposal … Read more
A two-way street If you think our fair city has escaped the ravages of racism, think again: While Asheville has a well-deserved reputation for tolerance and open-mindedness, it is still living down the legacy of the American South (not to mention the rest of the world). But the folks at Building Bridges have an eight-week … Read more
