The Overlook with Matt Peiken

LISTENERS: Have thoughts about this episode? Send them my way! Pete Candler wears many creative hats. He’s a photographer and maker of short films—all of it self-taught—and he’s also an author and recovering academic. His new book, titled “A Deeper South," is both an internal and external travelogue over 25 years of road trips through the American South. We’ll also talk about leaving a tenured professorship at Baylor University to pursue his creative impulses, why he has always been drawn to photographing places rather than people and his discovery of a family history too close for comfort to the vestiges of slavery. SPONSOR: Asheville City Soccer Club home games run through June 29 for the women's team and July 13 for the men's team at Greenwood Field on the UNC-Asheville campus. Support the Show. Support The Overlook by joining our Patreon campaign! Advertise your event on The Overlook. Instagram: AVLoverlook | Facebook: AVLoverlook | Twitter: AVLoverlook Listen and Subscribe: All episodes of The Overlook The Overlook theme song, "Maker's Song," comes courtesy of the Asheville band The Resonant Rogues. Podcast Asheville © 2023

LISTENERS: Have thoughts about this episode? Send them my way! Madison Brightwell and Don Silver are local novelists who don’t know each other but have similar creative trajectories. Both spent early years behind the scenes—Brightwell in film production, Silver working for music mogul Clive Davis—before turning to more conventional careers. It wasn’t until their 40s that both leaned into writing fiction. Silver’s new generation-spanning, coming-of-age book is titled “Scorched.” Our talk is the second half of today’s episode. We begin with my conversation with Brightwell, whose new book, “Under the Redbud Tree,” has a teenage girl heroine and blends fantasy with a certain realism people in Western North Carolina should recognize. SPONSOR: Asheville City Soccer Club home games run through June 29 for the women's team and July 13 for the men's team at Greenwood Field on the UNC-Asheville campus. Support the Show. Support The Overlook by joining our Patreon campaign! Advertise your event on The Overlook. Instagram: AVLoverlook | Facebook: AVLoverlook | Twitter: AVLoverlook Listen and Subscribe: All episodes of The Overlook The Overlook theme song, "Maker's Song," comes courtesy of the Asheville band The Resonant Rogues. Podcast Asheville © 2023

LISTENERS: Have thoughts about this episode? Send them my way! Most people reading or listening to this likely take their literacy for granted. But for thousands of youth and adults throughout Buncombe County, literacy is a hurdle impacting nearly every element of life. My guests are executive director Amanda Wrubleski and program directors Rebecca Massey and Erin Sebelius with Literacy Together. It’s an Asheville nonprofit training and teaming reading tutors with struggling youth, immigrants, people emerging from prison and many others. Literacy Together isn’t the only local nonprofit focusing on literacy in Asheville and Buncombe County. Last October, I featured the leaders of Read 2 Succeed. Today, we talk about how literacy is often an issue of equity, how myriad life challenges can hold people back from literacy, how someone can graduate high school and still not be able to read well and how tutoring is really only half the work of Literacy Together’s directors. SPONSOR: Asheville City Soccer Club home games run through June 29 for the women's team and July 13 for the men's team at Greenwood Field on the UNC-Asheville campus. Support the Show. Support The Overlook by joining our Patreon campaign! Advertise your event on The Overlook. Instagram: AVLoverlook | Facebook: AVLoverlook | Twitter: AVLoverlook Listen and Subscribe: All episodes of The Overlook The Overlook theme song, "Maker's Song," comes courtesy of the Asheville band The Resonant Rogues. Podcast Asheville © 2023

LISTENERS: Have thoughts about this episode? Send them my way! April 27 marked the debut of "Hear Here," a series presented in tandem with Citizen Vinyl to elevate conversation around local rock and indie music. The premiere featured talk and performances with the bands Pink Beds and Caged Affair. This episode is all about Caged Affair, a vocalist-guitarist son and his drumming father from Waynesville, whose music is shaped by '90s bands such as Nirvana, Weezer and Everclear. The next "Hear Here" evening is an all-female lineup Tuesday, May 28, at Citizen Vinyl, featuring the bands Detective Blind and OVADYA. Detective Blind is a trio of sisters, the oldest of whom is still in her teens. OVADYA has at least a couple members who would qualify for their AARP cards. SPONSOR: Asheville City Soccer Club home games run through June 29 for the women's team and July 13 for the men's team at Greenwood Field on the UNC-Asheville campus. Support the Show. Support The Overlook by joining our Patreon campaign! Advertise your event on The Overlook. Instagram: AVLoverlook | Facebook: AVLoverlook | Twitter: AVLoverlook Listen and Subscribe: All episodes of The Overlook The Overlook theme song, "Maker's Song," comes courtesy of the Asheville band The Resonant Rogues. Podcast Asheville © 2023

LISTENERS: Have thoughts about this episode? Send them my way! We all know the impact of Asheville’s skyrocketing housing costs. What we don’t hear nearly as much about is how artists and arts organizations are finding it more challenging to do their work in Asheville. Affordable workspaces was the topic of the latest ArtsAVL Creative Space Town Hall. Matt Peiken moderated a May 10 panel at Asheville Community Theater and recorded it to bring it to you here. Joining Matt on stage were DeWayne Barton (Blue Note Junction), Ashleigh Hardes Koslow (Lexington Glassworks), Jeffrey Burroughs (River Arts District Artists), Tamara Sparacino (Asheville Community Theatre) and Rebekkah Hilgraves (RadHaus Studios). SPONSOR: Asheville City Soccer Club home games run through June 29 for the women's team and July 13 for the men's team at Greenwood Field on the UNC-Asheville campus. Support the Show. Support The Overlook by joining our Patreon campaign! Advertise your event on The Overlook. Instagram: AVLoverlook | Facebook: AVLoverlook | Twitter: AVLoverlook Listen and Subscribe: All episodes of The Overlook The Overlook theme song, "Maker's Song," comes courtesy of the Asheville band The Resonant Rogues. Podcast Asheville © 2023

LISTENERS: Have thoughts about this episode? Send them my way! We hear a lot about pervasive social issues in our community—homelessness, addiction, racial inequities, affordable housing, liveable wages. All of those play roles in one particular need we rarely hear about—diapers. My guests today are Alicia Heacock and Meagan Lyon Leimena, co-executive directors of Babies Need Bottoms, an Asheville nonprofit diaper bank that distributes about 40,000 diapers every month to partner organizations across 16 Western North Carolinas counties. Alicia and Meagan say diaper need, as it’s called, multiplied fivefold during the pandemic. They talk about the daisy chain of circumstances, from transportation challenges to state sales taxes, that make it more difficult to afford diapers. They also detail the social and economic impacts, such as being closed off from childcare, when parents can’t afford diapers. SPONSOR: Asheville City Soccer Club home games run through June 29 for the women's team and July 13 for the men's team at Greenwood Field on the UNC-Asheville campus. Support the Show. Support The Overlook by joining our Patreon campaign! Advertise your event on The Overlook. Instagram: AVLoverlook | Facebook: AVLoverlook | Twitter: AVLoverlook Listen and Subscribe: All episodes of The Overlook The Overlook theme song, "Maker's Song," comes courtesy of the Asheville band The Resonant Rogues. Podcast Asheville © 2023

LISTENERS: Have thoughts about this episode? Send them my way! It’s a female-powered, multi-generational, one-of-a-kind lineup for the next Hear Here—Tuesday, May 28, featuring the Asheville-area bands Detective Blind and O•VAD•YA. Listen here for clips of their music. Advance tickets are just $12. SPONSOR: Asheville City Soccer Club home games run through June 29 for the women's team and July 13 for the men's team at Greenwood Field on the UNC-Asheville campus. Support the Show. Support The Overlook by joining our Patreon campaign! Advertise your event on The Overlook. Instagram: AVLoverlook | Facebook: AVLoverlook | Twitter: AVLoverlook Listen and Subscribe: All episodes of The Overlook The Overlook theme song, "Maker's Song," comes courtesy of the Asheville band The Resonant Rogues. Podcast Asheville © 2023

LISTENERS: Have thoughts about this episode? Send them my way! April 27 marked the debut of "Hear Here," a series presented in tandem with Citizen Vinyl to elevate conversation around local rock and indie music. The premiere featured talk and performances with the bands Pink Beds and Caged Affair. This episode is all about Pink Beds, a quartet shaped by disco, old-school pop and contemporary rock. You’ll hear the episode with Caged Affair next Friday, May 17. The next "Hear Here" evening is an all-female lineup Tuesday, May 28, at Citizen Vinyl, featuring the bands Detective Blind and OVADYA. Detective Blind is a trio of sisters, the oldest of whom is still in her teens. OVADYA has at least a couple members who would qualify for their AARP cards. SPONSOR: Asheville City Soccer Club home games run through June 29 for the women's team and July 13 for the men's team at Greenwood Field on the UNC-Asheville campus. Support the Show. Support The Overlook by joining our Patreon campaign! Advertise your event on The Overlook. Instagram: AVLoverlook | Facebook: AVLoverlook | Twitter: AVLoverlook Listen and Subscribe: All episodes of The Overlook The Overlook theme song, "Maker's Song," comes courtesy of the Asheville band The Resonant Rogues. Podcast Asheville © 2023

LISTENERS: Have thoughts about this episode? Send them my way! Asheville artists Heather Hietala and Nava Lubelski have already tasted success commercial success. Now, their new work in separate exhibitions marks new ground in their personal and artistic evolutions. In the first half, I talk with Hietala, whose response to her mother's death takes shape in the two- and three-dimensional canoes and boats that are metaphors for personal journeys. After the break, we meet Lubelski, who was an emerging success in New York City’s gallery scene before she to Asheville. Her newest works are abstracted, chaotic collages of stitching, painting, scraps of fabric and other found material. A reception for Hietala's new exhibition at Momentum Gallery is May 9. Lubelski's solo show is on view through June 8 at Tracey Morgan Gallery. SPONSOR: Asheville City Soccer Club home games run through June 29 for the women's team and July 13 for the men's team at Greenwood Field on the UNC-Asheville campus. Support the Show. Support The Overlook by joining our Patreon campaign! Advertise your event on The Overlook. Instagram: AVLoverlook | Facebook: AVLoverlook | Twitter: AVLoverlook Listen and Subscribe: All episodes of The Overlook The Overlook theme song, "Maker's Song," comes courtesy of the Asheville band The Resonant Rogues. Podcast Asheville © 2023

LISTENERS: Have thoughts about this episode? Send them my way! Gavin Stewart and Vanessa Owen have spent many years building lives for themselves in contemporary dance. Not long ago, they believed they largely had to perform and teach around the country to make it sustainable. Now, fueled by artistic residencies in Western North Carolina and the embrace of the Wortham Center for the Performing Arts, the couple hopes Stewart-Owen Dance can become a fixture for Asheville dancers and audiences. This conversation happened just after a rehearsal inside the Wortham's Tina McGuire Theatre, where the company performs a string of performances there, May 9-19. We dissect their artistic process, how they translate concepts into movement and what sustainability looks like in today’s ecosystem of contemporary dance. SPONSOR: Asheville City Soccer Club home games run through June 29 for the women's team and July 13 for the men's team at Greenwood Field on the UNC-Asheville campus. Support the Show. Support The Overlook by joining our Patreon campaign! Advertise your event on The Overlook. Instagram: AVLoverlook | Facebook: AVLoverlook | Twitter: AVLoverlook Listen and Subscribe: All episodes of The Overlook The Overlook theme song, "Maker's Song," comes courtesy of the Asheville band The Resonant Rogues. Podcast Asheville © 2023

LISTENERS: Have thoughts about this episode? Send them my way! David Brendan Hopes has written more novels, poems and plays than he can count. The river of writing hasn’t slowed at all since his retirement from UNC-Asheville, where Hopes taught English and creative writing for more than three decades. Hopes’ newest play is titled “A God in the Waters.” The Sublime Theater in Asheville is premiering it May 9-18 at the Bebe Theater. We’ll talk about the play in the second half as part of a larger conversation on answering the call of creativity. But first, we take an unplanned dive into the financial troubles at UNC-Asheville and what Hopes views as the root causes. SPONSOR: Asheville City Soccer Club home games run through June 29 for the women's team and July 13 for the men's team at Greenwood Field on the UNC-Asheville campus. Support the Show. Support The Overlook by joining our Patreon campaign! Advertise your event on The Overlook. Instagram: AVLoverlook | Facebook: AVLoverlook | Twitter: AVLoverlook Listen and Subscribe: All episodes of The Overlook The Overlook theme song, "Maker's Song," comes courtesy of the Asheville band The Resonant Rogues. Podcast Asheville © 2023

LISTENERS: Have thoughts about this episode? Send them my way! Talks of establishing a business improvement district in downtown Asheville stretch back to the 1980s. But over the past year, those talks have gained a lot of momentum, and some civic leaders are lobbying city council to approve it before the start of the next fiscal year. A chorus of critics are also reaching a crescendo with their opposition, pushing back against what they see as vague details, a lack of accountability and oversight and a process they say has been anything but thorough and inclusive. Today is the second half of a two-part conversation. My guests are Rebecca Hecht, owner of Shining Rock Goods; Susan Griffin, a 20-year downtown resident who co-chaired a previous effort to pass a BID; Karen Ramshaw of Public Interest Projects and Patrick Conant, founder of Sunshine Labs, a relatively new Asheville organization pushing for greater accountability and transparency in local government. Over the course of this conversation, we dissect some of the details, or lack thereof, of the proposed BID, including the subjective discretion of people hired to patrol the streets on behalf of the BID. We also talk about the potential economic impacts for residential renters and small business, the proposed power structure of the BID’s governing board and criticisms of a process led by the Chamber of Commerce and Asheville Downtown Association. SPONSOR: Asheville City Soccer Club home games run through June 29 for the women's team and July 13 for the men's team at Greenwood Field on the UNC-Asheville campus. Support the Show. Support The Overlook by joining our Patreon campaign! Advertise your event on The Overlook. Instagram: AVLoverlook | Facebook: AVLoverlook | Twitter: AVLoverlook Listen and Subscribe: All episodes of The Overlook The Overlook theme song, "Maker's Song," comes courtesy of the Asheville band The Resonant Rogues. Podcast Asheville © 2023

LISTENERS: Have thoughts about this episode? Send them my way! There’s seemingly a full-court press from certain civic leaders to push Asheville City Council to approve a business improvement district for downtown. This BID would tax property owners, and by extension downtown commercial and residential tenants, to pay for a supplemental workforce to help the city’s efforts to clean up downtown and make it safer for the people who live, work and visit downtown. Amid this push, a pushback is developing steam from people with deep histories and stakes in the city. They smell vague details, a lack of accountability and oversight and a process they say has been anything but thorough and inclusive. A couple weeks ago, I produced an episode featuring the voices of advocates for the downtown BID. Today, in the first half of a two-part conversation, I talk with people with many concerns about the proposal on the table: Rebecca Hecht, owner of Shining Rock Goods; Susan Griffin, a 20-year downtown resident who co-chaired a previous effort to pass a BID; Karen Ramshaw of Public Interest Projects and Patrick Conant, founder of Sunshine Labs, a relatively new Asheville organization pushing for greater accountability and transparency in local government. Our talk dissects some of the details, or lack thereof, of the proposed BID, including the subjective discretion of people hired to patrol the streets on behalf of the BID. We also talk about the potential economic impacts for residential renters and small business, the proposed power structure of the BID’s governing board and criticisms of a process led by the Chamber of Commerce and Asheville Downtown Association. SPONSOR: Asheville City Soccer Club home games run through June 29 for the women's team and July 13 for the men's team at Greenwood Field on the UNC-Asheville campus. Support the Show. Support The Overlook by joining our Patreon campaign! Advertise your event on The Overlook. Instagram: AVLoverlook | Facebook: AVLoverlook | Twitter: AVLoverlook Listen and Subscribe: All episodes of The Overlook The Overlook theme song, "Maker's Song," comes courtesy of the Asheville band The Resonant Rogues. Podcast Asheville © 2023

LISTENERS: Have thoughts about this episode? Send them my way! Choral groups were among the hardest-hit and slowest to rebound from the pandemic. Two of the region’s enduring choirs are still finding their footing both artistically and in the wider public. Today, we hear from the choirs’ two artistic directors—Kyle Ritter of Asheville Symphony Chorus and Emily Floyd of Asheville Youth Choirs. They’re performing together April 27 at First Baptist Church. We talk with the choral directors about the challenges of surviving and rebounding from the pandemic. Kyle goes into detail about his choir’s relationship to the Asheville Symphony Orchestra and building an identity of its own. Emily talks about balancing the sacred and the secular. Both weigh in on marketing choral music to today’s distracted public, adapting pop music into choral music and the future of the world’s oldest art form. SPONSOR: Asheville City Soccer Club home games run through June 29 for the women's team and July 13 for the men's team at Greenwood Field on the UNC-Asheville campus. Support the Show. Support The Overlook by joining our Patreon campaign! Advertise your event on The Overlook. Instagram: AVLoverlook | Facebook: AVLoverlook | Twitter: AVLoverlook Listen and Subscribe: All episodes of The Overlook The Overlook theme song, "Maker's Song," comes courtesy of the Asheville band The Resonant Rogues. Podcast Asheville © 2023

LISTENERS: Have thoughts about this episode? Send them my way! Just as Asheville’s arts community has evolved, so too has ArtsAVL. It changed its name just a year and a half ago from the Asheville Area Arts Council and, even before the pandemic, refocused its mission from service to advocacy. My guest today is Katie Cornell, executive director now in her fifth year with ArtsAVL. We talk about that mission shift and the work that goes into gathering the data to inform her advocacy with elected officials at the city, county and state. We also talk about where arts tourism fits into the city’s marketing efforts and how rising real estate costs are potentially pushing artists’ workspaces and arts organizations out of Asheville. 01:32 Shifting Focus: From Small Town Model to Community Support 02:36 Data-Driven Decisions: Navigating Through the Pandemic 07:08 Advocacy and Funding: Transforming Arts Support in Asheville 11:02 Creative Economy Insights: Jobs, Impact, and Future Challenges 16:20 Arts and Tourism: Navigating New Challenges 23:40 Affordable Spaces for Artists: A Growing Crisis 29:15 Looking Ahead: Solutions and Strategies for Asheville's Arts Community SPONSOR: Asheville City Soccer Club home games run through June 29 for the women's team and July 13 for the men's team at Greenwood Field on the UNC-Asheville campus. Support the Show. Support The Overlook by joining our Patreon campaign! Advertise your event on The Overlook. Instagram: AVLoverlook | Facebook: AVLoverlook | Twitter: AVLoverlook Listen and Subscribe: All episodes of The Overlook The Overlook theme song, "Maker's Song," comes courtesy of the Asheville band The Resonant Rogues. Podcast Asheville © 2023

LISTENERS: Have thoughts about this episode? Send them my way! Want to know what’s happening with McCormick Field, Thomas Wolfe Auditorium and the Western North Carolina Nature Center? My guest has the answers. Chris Corl is General Manager and Director of Community & Regional Entertainment Facilities for the City of Asheville. We go into detail about the upcoming trip around the bases for McCormick Field’s renovation, including what’s being done to turn the stadium into a year-round facility. We also go through changes at the nature center, the city’s municipal golf course and how the city managed to patch Thomas Wolfe up enough to get back into business. Will the deeper renovations needed or a completely new facility ever happen? I ask that question too. SPONSOR: Asheville City Soccer Club home games run through June 29 for the women's team and July 13 for the men's team at Greenwood Field on the UNC-Asheville campus. Support the Show. Support The Overlook by joining our Patreon campaign! Advertise your event on The Overlook. Instagram: AVLoverlook | Facebook: AVLoverlook | Twitter: AVLoverlook Listen and Subscribe: All episodes of The Overlook The Overlook theme song, "Maker's Song," comes courtesy of the Asheville band The Resonant Rogues. Podcast Asheville © 2023

LISTENERS: Have thoughts about this episode? Send them my way! Asheville is very much a music town—not just for musicians, but also for fans, as evidenced by the six record stores dotting the city. As we approach the annual Record Store Day, April 20, we talk with Mark Capon of Harvest Records, Jesse McSwain of Static-Age Records and Morgan Markowitz of Earth River Records. We talk about the evolution of their shops—for instance, Static-Age is now also a bar/restaurant and live music venue—the risky and speculative nature of the vinyl record business and the unique approaches each is taking to carving a sustainable life in music. SPONSOR: Asheville City Soccer Club home games run through June 29 for the women's team and July 13 for the men's team at Greenwood Field on the UNC-Asheville campus. Support the Show. Support The Overlook by joining our Patreon campaign! Advertise your event on The Overlook. Instagram: AVLoverlook | Facebook: AVLoverlook | Twitter: AVLoverlook Listen and Subscribe: All episodes of The Overlook The Overlook theme song, "Maker's Song," comes courtesy of the Asheville band The Resonant Rogues. Podcast Asheville © 2023

LISTENERS: Have thoughts about this episode? Send them my way! Downtown business owners, workers and residents spent a lot of 2023 imploring Asheville officials to get a handle on crime, trash and vagrancy. All along, many were pressing to take matters into their own hands by working with city leaders to form what’s called a business improvement district. A business improvement district—or BID—is a tax assessment that pays for services on top of what cities and counties already provide. Talk of a BID has been in the Asheville air for decades, but could well soon become reality. There’s a vital public hearing at city council set for April 23 and potential council votes in May and June that could launch the BID with the next fiscal year. My guests today are Zach Wallace, vice president of public policy with the Asheville Area Chamber of Commerce; Hayden Plemmons, executive director of the Asheville Downtown Association; and Dana Frankel, downtown projects manager with the City of Asheville. We talk through all the inner workings of the BID process, explore the history of these discussions and how a BID would work day-to-day on downtown’s streets. SPONSOR: Asheville City Soccer Club home games run through June 29 for the women's team and July 13 for the men's team at Greenwood Field on the UNC-Asheville campus. Support the Show. Support The Overlook by joining our Patreon campaign! Advertise your event on The Overlook. Instagram: AVLoverlook | Facebook: AVLoverlook | Twitter: AVLoverlook Listen and Subscribe: All episodes of The Overlook The Overlook theme song, "Maker's Song," comes courtesy of the Asheville band The Resonant Rogues. Podcast Asheville © 2023

LISTENERS: Have thoughts about this episode? Send them my way! D. Tyrell McGirt says his career path was blazed as a 10-year-old in Greensboro, when his mother signed him up for a lifeguarding class. He ran parks and recreation departments in Alabama, Arizona and Alaska before moving two years ago to lead the department in Asheville. In this conversation, McGirt talks through his department's recent decision to keep Malvern Hills Park Pool closed this year and balancing the needs of pickleballers and tennis players. We also talk equity, tracking park usage and his call for the public’s voice in shaping a comprehensive plan that will guide his department's decisions for the next 10 to 15 years. SPONSOR: Asheville City Soccer Club home games run through June 29 for the women's team and July 13 for the men's team at Greenwood Field on the UNC-Asheville campus. Support the Show. Support The Overlook by joining our Patreon campaign! Advertise your event on The Overlook. Instagram: AVLoverlook | Facebook: AVLoverlook | Twitter: AVLoverlook Listen and Subscribe: All episodes of The Overlook The Overlook theme song, "Maker's Song," comes courtesy of the Asheville band The Resonant Rogues. Podcast Asheville © 2023

LISTENERS: Have thoughts about this episode? Send them my way! Seventy years ago, Black Mountain College was a petri dish for experimental art, sound and performance. It was also the birthplace of so-called “happenings”—events where practitioners strived to transcend the bounds of existence and expression. Today, the Black Mountain College Museum and Arts Center throws an annual “(Re)Happening.” The 12th (Re)Happening is April 20. Artists who embody the ethos of old are descending on the former college campus at Lake Eden for a day and night of hard-to-define experiences. Today, we preview (Re)Happening with separate conversations with two Asheville artists—Claire Elizabeth Barratt and Madalyn Wofford, a founder of a Swannanoa-centered creative collective Swannatopia. We’ll talk about what they’re bringing to Lake Eden for (Re)Happening and how they’ve built lives and communities in the arts. SPONSOR: Asheville City Soccer Club home games run through June 29 for the women's team and July 13 for the men's team at Greenwood Field on the UNC-Asheville campus. Support the Show. Support The Overlook by joining our Patreon campaign! Advertise your event on The Overlook. Instagram: AVLoverlook | Facebook: AVLoverlook | Twitter: AVLoverlook Listen and Subscribe: All episodes of The Overlook The Overlook theme song, "Maker's Song," comes courtesy of the Asheville band The Resonant Rogues. Podcast Asheville © 2023