Day: February 21, 2007
UNCA students up in arms over counselor’s dismissal: Walkouts, rallies planned
Some UNCA students say that recent “restructuring” of the university staff has led to the termination of a counselor who’s relied on and trusted. Maggie Weshner, a 28-year employee at the Asheville campus, recently received a two-week notice after administrators decided to eliminate her job — director of the UNCA counseling center.
Over the rubble and through the square
Unless your office happens to overlook the sprawl of mud and rubble in downtown Asheville where City/County Plaza used to be, or you have reason to drive College Street and run the gauntlet of concrete barriers, or you’ve tried to approach the City Building or the Buncombe County Courthouse on foot, you may not have … Read more
Skating back to Africa
Few areas of the world have suffered more over the last couple of centuries than the continent of Africa. It’s been plundered for gold, diamonds and oil. Slave-trade-fueled tribal conflicts, colonialism and brutal dictatorships have successively exploited many of its countries. The population has been ravaged by malnutrition, warfare and, more recently, an unchecked AIDS … Read more
Am I my brother’s keeper?
The continuing push-and-shove between Council member Carl Mumpower and the Asheville Police Department is instructive for all city residents. The APD was arresting someone for cocaine possession when Mumpower, who’s been walking the projects in order to make his point about local drug trafficking, asked them to look into the sale of yet more cocaine … Read more
Through a windshield, darkly
There is a feeling of precise formality in Holden Gallery at Warren Wilson College. Peter Schlessinger’s digital ink-jet prints are displayed in a carefully thought-out way that belies their creator’s stated method of working. “I am interested,” he says, “in the way forms feel—it’s an emotional divining rod. I don’t think about it too much.” … Read more
Growing old Gaelic-ly
Surprise: The classic Irish-American girls’ names—Erin and Shannon, for example—are never bestowed on babies in the Emerald Isle. (Over there, they’re place names only.) Similarly, “the songs that people in America [once] regarded as Irish were songs that I didn’t know at all,” recalls Dáithí Sproule, guitarist for Irish band Altan. “Things like ‘Johnson’s Jaunting … Read more
Gallery gossip
• If you’re tired of work made by people with MFAs being billed as folk art, go to the current exhibit at the Asheville Area Arts Council’s Front Gallery. The show comes from The Open Hearts Art Center, pieces done by local adults with mental, physical, developmental and emotional disabilities. They show joyful self-portraits, colorful … Read more
Buzzworm news briefs
Water witching reunion Say the word “dowsing” to most people, and if you aren’t met with a blank stare of incomprehension, chances are they’ll say something like, “You mean that thing where you look for water with forked stick, right?” Dowsing (or, more colorfully, “water witching”) has been used for thousands of years to aid … Read more
