Around 2,000 residents gathered for The People’s Town Hall for Liberty held at Pack Square Park on April 19, noon-2 p.m.
“Welcome to our empty chair people’s town hall,” Gerry Nugent of Good Trouble WNC told the crowd. “An empty town hall is what happens when a politician is invited to a community forum but decides to ghost their constituents harder than a bad Tinder date.”
Nugent went on to explain that the event organizers added their own twist to the gathering, inviting stand-ins for Sen. Thom Tillis, Sen. Ted Budd and U.S. Rep. Chuck Edwards.
“Think of them as political mediums — except instead of channeling spirits, they’ll be channeling silence, spin and selective memory,” Nugent said.
The three fill-ins were joined onstage by local activists, educators, veterans, recently fired federal workers and City Council members Bo Hess and Maggie Ullman.
Submitted questions from audience members were read aloud and those onstage offered responses. Topics included due process, the economy, ongoing recovery efforts from Tropical Storm Helene, the VA, environmental concerns, transgender rights and the potential impact of the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act.
Several organizations set up tables at the event, offering information on how local residents could get involved in political matters. N.C. Poor People’s Campaign, Indivisible Asheville/WNC, Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Asheville and the League of Women Voters Asheville – Buncombe were among the dozen participating groups.
The event ended with Leslie Boyd of the Poor People’s Campaign leading a call and response with the audience, demanding the safe return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland man who was wrongly deported by the federal government and is currently being held in an El Salvador prison. The U.S. Supreme Court has ordered that the Trump administration must “facilitate” Abrego Garcia’s return.
All photos by Thomas Calder.
