Plus, a new cafe and a new market open their doors.
 
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Cultivating community and breaking barriers

Cultivating community at the inaugural Asheville Asian Culture Festival
Shunyu Huang on stage at Story Parlor
Several of the festival’s events will be held on the Story Parlor stage. | Photo via WNC AAPI
The Asheville Asian Culture Festival was born, in part, from stories. Back in July, Shunyu Huang was in the midst of her month-long artist residency at Story Parlor, exploring sensory memories with audiences of all different cultures and backgrounds. “I see the people collected there,” says Huang, “And, you know, it looks like a festival.”

That idea blossomed fairly quickly (after a grant from CoThinkk in November and less than two months of intense planning), and now the inaugural festival will take place in venues all over the city from Friday, Jan. 12 through Sunday, Jan. 21. Helmed by Huang, Heena Patel, and Mike Talyad and with the support of other community members, the WNC Asian American Pacific Islander (WNC AAPI) has planned 10 days of 15 events — from ceremony to film, cooking to conversations, performances to panels — that celebrate the wide array of cultures under the broad umbrella of “Asian.”

The artist residency was the spark, but the inspiration was much more panoptic. “While it isn’t very visibly obvious,” says Patel, “there is a great diversity within the Asian community here in WNC.”

“That being said, there is a good deal of isolation because we are such a minority within the larger community,” adds Talyad. “The intention of the festival, first and foremost, is to nurture ties within the community. When Shunyu presented the idea to the WNC AAPI community, it was with the intention that the festival be for us, by us and for each of us to be seen by each other.”

The team also hopes that this event will allow the Asian community to represent themselves to and be seen, too, by the larger community of Asheville.

“No one of us in the festival represents all of our country or even our region,” says Patel. “The hope is that through each of our personal stories, which are informed by a myriad of factors beyond where our ancestry comes from in Asia, artists and audience alike are able to find points of connection with each other and collectively celebrate the richness of culture that can be found here.”
A look at the lineup
 
Events
Tuesday, Jan. 9
  • Read to a Dog! | Tuesday, Jan. 9, Tuesday, Jan. 23 | 3-4 p.m. | East Asheville Library, 3 Avon Rd., Asheville | Free | Let the little ones practice their reading skills with the help of Rascal the King Charles Spaniel — registration is required.
  • Fiber Arts Club | Tuesday, Jan. 9 | 6:30-8 p.m. | Fairview Library, 1 Taylor Rd., Fairview | Free | Craft your way into a community during this monthly gathering of knitters and crocheters.
Wednesday, Jan. 10
  • 1 Million Cups | Wednesday, Jan. 10 | 9-10 a.m. | Hatch Innovation Hub, 45 S. French Broad Ave., #180, Asheville | Free | Network with a cup of Dynamite Roasting coffee in hand before a quick presentation and Q+A from a local startup or group.
  • Off-the-Grid Storytelling | Wednesday, Jan. 10 | 6:30-8:30 p.m. | Leveller Brewing Co., 25 N. Main St., Weaverville | Free | Spend a cozy winter night listening to local musician Greg Candle’s stories — from the unlikely founding of Weaverville to the changing borders of “Bunkombe” county.
Thursday, Jan. 11
  • Forbidden Brunch | Thursday, Jan. 11 | 7:30 p.m. | Fleetwood’s, 496 Haywood Rd., Asheville | $16 | Join the deliciously dramatic debauchery with Anam Cara Theatre Company’s experimental ensemble Accordion Time Machine.
  • The Campfireball: First Timer’s Club | Thursday, Jan. 11 | 7:30-9:30 p.m. | Story Parlor, 227 Haywood Rd., Asheville | $10-$15 | Explore your life’s firsts (first loves, first tries, first failures, and more) during this storytelling show about the audience.
Friday, Jan. 12
  • Skate Jam Clinic | Friday, Jan. 12 | 5-8 p.m. | Linwood Crump Shiloh Community Center, 121 Shiloh Rd., Asheville | Free | Get in a workout and a little fun while instructors spread the love of rollerskating.
Events calendar here
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News Notes
Weather
  • The National Weather Service has issued hazardous weather condition warnings for Buncombe and surrounding counties. A wind advisory and a flood watch are in effect until tonight, Tuesday, Jan. 9, at 7 p.m.
Open
  • Chef Jacob Sessoms’ after/glow is now open at The Radical to serve coffee by day and cocktails by night. In the morning, guests can sip on coffee + specialty drinks and snack on pastries. After 3 p.m., the spot will dish out craft cocktails and a live DJ three nights a week.
Shop
  • Lee’s Asian Market has expanded to become Asiana Market, now open at 1968 Hendersonville Rd. The store offers fresh seafood, produce, sake, soju, and shelves full of ingredients from all across Asia. Plus, the family-owned grocery plans to open a hot bar of prepared foods inside the market in the coming weeks.
Eat
  • Take a seat and a sip. Sage + Spice Market is hosting a private dinner — featuring an array of French wines and a four-course menu inspired by La République — on Wednesday, Jan. 31 at 7 p.m. Get your fill of lobster bisque, beef bourguignon, and pot de crème. Email to reserve your spot.
Environment
  • Reduce, reuse, recycle, reeducate. Brendan Roberts, new managing partner at Curbie (which does residential recycling collection for four Buncombe County municipalities), will join the WNC Sierra Club to talk about improving your recycling practice. Register for the free program on Wednesday, Feb. 7 at 7 p.m.
Cause
  • The City of Asheville is encouraging eligible nonprofits to apply for the fourth round of Strategic Partnership Grants. The grants, for organizations supporting school-aged children from low- to moderate-income households, range from $35,000 to $75,000. Applications are due by Friday, Feb. 2.
Outdoors
  • West Asheville is about to look as fresh as a daisy. The West Asheville Garden Stroll is accepting Community Seed Grant applications for projects that beautify West Asheville’s public spaces, like traffic islands, storefronts, and schools, as well as environmental awareness and education projects. Applications are due Sunday, Feb. 18.
Fun Fact
  • Did you know 53,000 of you welcome us into your inbox every morning? We’re asking you to take two minutes to tell us more about yourself so we can continue to write about things you find interesting. One lucky AVL survey participant will win $500. Take the survey.
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Civic

Share your thoughts on local government

The City of Asheville wants your thoughts on local government
exterior of the City of Asheville administrative building
The City’s last resident survey took place in 2021. | Photo by AVLtoday
Have opinions on local government and want your voice to be heard? Well, you’ve got a new chance to speak out. The City of Asheville is working with Polco/National Research Center to see what residents think about its work.

The National Community Survey asks questions about your local activities, quality of life, transportation, wellness, recreation, arts + culture, and community — among many other topics. Most of the 34 questions are multiple choice, rating quality, importance, or your support for various civic areas or City of Asheville initiatives and programs. It should only take about 18 minutes to complete. Once the survey closes, the City will share the results online and will use them to inform planning and budgeting.

A few residents were randomly selected back in December to complete the survey and were notified by mail — if you were one of them, you shouldn’t fill out the online version.

The survey is open now through Monday, Jan. 22. You can complete it in English, Spanish, or Russian.
The Buy

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The Wrap
 
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Today’s edition by:
Molly
From the editor
Writing a novel has long been a goal of mine (which, admittedly, I entirely failed during last year’s National Novel Writing Month, despite pledging to all of you that I’d do it) — but if seeing your work on the silver screen feels more your style, then now’s the time to sign up for Asheville School of Film’s Writing for the Screen course, which starts on Thursday, Jan. 18. If shorts are your forte instead, mark your calendar for the start of The Art of Writing Shorts on Saturday, Feb. 17.
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