In this episode, we talk with - - Dr. David Ellis, the chief medical officer for Pardee Hospital in Hendersonville, where the first COVID-19 vaccines were administered in Western North Carolina this week. - Irene Smoker-Jackson, a Cherokee language translator for New Kituwah Academy Elementary in Cherokee. She's one of just a few hundred fluent Cherokee speakers in the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. She lost her mother to COVID-19 this year. - Tamiko Ambrose Murray and Marisol Jiminez, who've...
Dec 17, 2020•59 min
In this episode, we talk with - - Dr. Chris Cooper of Western Carolina University, about why partisanship was the biggest winner in this week's elections in North Carolina - Raul Saldana, the founding director of the new PEAK Academy charter school in Asheville - Peter Lewis, reporter for AVL Watchdog, who wrote two extensive stories about the sale of Mission Health to HCA, with more planned in the near future The BPR News Presents theme song is The Vibes by Audiobinger. Other music featured in ...
Nov 05, 2020•59 min
The sale of Mission Health to HCA made be concluded as a financial transaction, but the details of how it was reached are few and far between. Peter Lewis of AVL Watchdog wrote two stories last month ( here and here ) examining what details about how Mission reached its agreement with HCA, and whether the then non-profit health system sold for far less than it was worth. He spoke with BPR's Matt Bush for the second episode of BPR News Presents: The Porch. You can listen to the interview above.
Nov 05, 2020•20 min
What is the future of live performance in Asheville? BPR's Matt Peiken checks in with local performers working in contemporary and classical music, along with managers of the venues that stage them, about how they're strategizing and meeting challenges about performing in front of in-person audiences in a socially distanced reality. This is a condensed version of a Facebook Live broadcast from October 21st, which can be viewed here . Guests include the musicians Mike Martinez (Natural Born Leade...
Oct 29, 2020•59 min
BPR News Presents: 2020 Local Election Special, is a production of the Blue Ridge Public Radio news team. It's three segments include an interview with Buncombe County elections director Corinne Duncan , and portions of two candidate forums done on the BPR Facebook page - for Asheville City Council , and for North Carolina State House District 119 . (The BPR News Presents theme song is The Vibes by Audiobinger. Other music featured includes FAWM9 by Damon Boucher)
Oct 15, 2020•59 min
Early voting in North Carolina runs from Thursday October 15th to Saturday October 31st ahead of the November 3rd general election.
Oct 13, 2020•22 min
On September 4 th and 5 th Blue Ridge Public Radio in partnership with Smoky Mountain News and Mountain Xpress held two forums with the major party candidates for the currently vacant seat in North Carolina's 11th Congressional district. Republican Madison Cawthorn and Democrat Moe Davis faced each other at Western Carolina University's Biltmore Park campus, and then again at the school's main campus in Cullowhee. Cory Vaillancourt of Smoky Mountain News and BPR moderated. Below is a condensed o...
Sep 17, 2020•59 min
For the superintendent of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, the killing of George Floyd over the summer hit especially hard.
Sep 04, 2020•18 min
At this particular moment in history, we think it's vital that we give ourselves more time to listen to what's happening in Western North Carolina and Southern Appalachia. To do that, Blue Ridge Public Radio is launching a new program from its news department - BPR News Presents: The Porch . In our debut episode, we speak with Buncombe County elections director Corinne Duncan , Great Smoky Mountains National Park superintendent Cassius Cash , and the first Black principal in Macon County schools...
Sep 03, 2020•59 min
North Carolina will be one of the state's that decides this fall's presidential election, plus which party controls the U.S. Senate. It also has one of the most watched gubernatorial elections in the U.S. this fall, plus every seat in the North Carolina General Assembly is on the ballot, all of the council state, seats on county commissions, city councils, town aldermen...you get the point. North Carolina is first in the country in this respect - it's the first state to mail out mail-in ballots ...
Sep 03, 2020•19 min
Students started back to school last month amidst the uncertain world of COVID-19 and a racial justice movement across America. Franklin resident Shirley Parks remembers her own uncertain days as a student during integration in Macon County and much later in 2011 as the first Black principal in the county since integration. Parks worked in the Macon County School System for 33 years . She says its hard to watch children and parents struggling with the current COVID-19 pandemic. "No one is winnin...
Sep 03, 2020•18 min
On Thursday July 23rd, Blue Ridge Public Radio hosted a live Zoom panel to discuss police funding in Asheville. BPR News Presents: A Conversation On Policing In Asheville, is hosted by BPR's Matt Peiken. His guests discussing the call to defund the Asheville police department include Robert Thomas of the Racial Justice Coalition, Zaria Abdulkarim of Democracy NC, retired UNC Asheville professor and founder of The State of Black Asheville report Dr. Dwight Mullen, local Fraternal Order of Police ...
Jul 30, 2020•59 min
On February 6th, Blue Ridge Public Radio held a forum with four candidates running for the Democratic nomination for North Carolina's 11th Congressional District, which encompasses all of Western North Carolina. The forum includes Moe Davis, Gina Collias, Michael O'Shea, and Phillip Price. Steve Woodsmall is also running for the Democratic nomination, but was unable to attend the forum. Those who have not registered to vote yet will only be able to do so during the early voting period. The deadl...
Feb 18, 2020•55 min
On February 7th, Blue Ridge Public Radio held a forum with two candidates running for the Republican nomination for North Carolina's 11th Congressional District, which encompasses all of Western North Carolina. All told, 11 candidates are running in the GOP primary. Each were invited to participate in two forums BPR held. This forum features two of them - Lynda Bennett and Joey Osborne. Early voting for the primary election in North Carolina runs until February 29th. Those who have not registere...
Feb 17, 2020•25 min
On February 7 th Blue Ridge Public Radio held a forum with three candidates running for the Republican nomination for North Carolina's 11 th Congressional District, which encompasses all of Western North Carolina. All told, 11 candidates are running in the GOP primary. Each were invited to participate in two forums BPR held. This forum features three of them - Wayne King, Vance Patterson, and Albert Wiley. Early voting for the primary election in North Carolina runs until February 29 th . Those ...
Feb 17, 2020•43 min
On February 5 th, Blue Ridge Public Radio held a forum in its studios with the candidates running for the Democratic nomination for the North Carolina state senate seat for district 49, which covers central and western Buncombe County. Democrat Terry Van Duyn currently holds the seat, but is vacating it to run for lieutenant governor in 2020. Republican Bob Penland is running for his party's nomination unopposed. His opponent in the fall will be either Julie Mayfield, Ben Scales, or Travis Smith...
Feb 14, 2020•45 min
Early voting is underway in North Carolina for the March 3 rd primary. Voters in Western North Carolina will have plenty of candidates from the major parties to choose from for the 11 th Congressional District seat - 16 of them to be exact, 11 Republicans and 5 Democrats.
Feb 13, 2020•15 min
Early voting in North Carolina starts on February 13th and runs until Feburary 29th. Same day voter registration is available each day of early voting. Photo ID is not required to vote during the primary election. The deadline to register to vote in order to cast a ballot on primary day March 3rd has already passed, so those who have yet to register will only be able to vote during the early voting period.
Feb 12, 2020•22 min
Asheville city council members meet for the final time in 2019 Tuesday evening, and lawmakers will take up a resolution that calls for a climate emergency to be declared by the city. While the resolution calls for action but offers no policy, a set of wide-ranging legislative proposals around climate change could be in front of lawmakers early next year. Their sponsor refers to them as a local 'Green New Deal', patterned after the similarly-named plan introduced in Congress this year two Democra...
Dec 10, 2019•18 min
Blue Ridge Public Radio's Lilly Knoepp sat down with North Carolina's Poet Laureate Jaki Shelton Green after she visited Western Carolina University writing students . Shelton Green talked about how she views her work as a part of Southern Literature, why poetry is important and where real change happens. Here are some key parts of the conversation. How people should be introduced: "I believe in the philosophy that what we keep, keeps us. So I ask people to introduce themselves by way of an obje...
Nov 01, 2019•25 min
Bears have become a very big deal in Asheville. Pictures of them at least. As their natural habitat is being encroached on by increasing development, snapping photos of bears in the urban environment of the city has become quite popular on social media. But pictures of a certain kind of bear have been popping up a lot in recent months.
Sep 21, 2019•14 min
Asheville city council will hold a work session Tuesday evening on whether to take legal action stop the imposition of electoral districts for future city council elections. Council members appear split on whether to sue the state in an attempt to stop districts, which were created after the Republican-controlled General Assembly approved a measure creating districts last year.
Jul 01, 2019•21 min
Friendship is the driving force behind a new organization that aims to improve racial equity in Asheville schools -- starting with classroom bookshelves.
May 29, 2019•14 min
The installation ceremony for Dr. Nancy Cable as UNC Asheville chancellor takes place this Friday April 26 on the Quad on campus. Cable began her tenure as the school's 8th chancellor began last August, and her first school year at UNC Asheville has seen challenges. In the first days of her tenure, the school's new residence halls had to be closed to students over fire safety concerns. Asheville firefighters lived at the dorms for weeks after. Then in the spring, Eblen Charities CEO Bill Murdock...
Apr 24, 2019•18 min
UPDATE: Friday 3:00 p.m. - The board of directors for Eblen Charities announced Friday morning that Bill Murdock will retire from his position as CEO. Later Friday afternoon, Murdock also resigned his seat on the board of trustees for A-B Tech. The decisions come just days after a CNN report that featured the first interview with victim of sexual abuse that Murdock plead guilty to in 1988.
Mar 21, 2019•20 min
This week the Asheville Citizen-Times published a study showing Asheville police were disproportionately charging African-Americans with resisting arrest. The study, which looked at the last five year, found that 35-percent of resisting arrest charges filed by Asheville police were against African-Americans. The city's black population is only 12-percent. The study also found a sizable number of those arrests for resisting an officer included no other charges. Joel Burgess of the Citizen-Times s...
Jan 24, 2019•19 min
The percentage of black students at four of Western North Carolina's universities is low, and so is the number of faculty members at each schools that could mentors for those students. This week, BPR has been talking with students from UNC Asheville who presented at this fall's African-Americans in Western North Carolina and Southern Appalachia conference. In our final interview, BPR's Matt Bush speaks with Jeremy James, who graduated from the school this month. He looked at the lack of African-...
Dec 20, 2018•14 min
The Shiloh Elementary school served Asheville's African-American community from the 1920's until it graduated its last class in 1969. Shiloh was one of the more than 45-hundred Rosenwald Schools, which were built in the early 20th century to serve African-American students in rural parts of the Southern U.S. There were also Rosenwald Schools in Brevard and Mars Hill. They were created through a partnership of Julius Rosenwald, a white Jewish businessman and philanthropist, and Booker T. Washingt...
Dec 19, 2018•13 min
The 5th annual African-Americans in WNC and Southern Appalachia Conference was held at the end of October on the campus of UNC Asheville. The theme of this year's conference was 'Making The Invisible Visible'. Four students gave presentations at the conference on research projects they were doing for the fall semester. BPR will feature three of those students on-air during Morning Edition this week as they completed their research this month. First up is junior Flo Jacques, who researched the hi...
Dec 18, 2018•23 min
Asheville police chief Tammy Hooper says the department is in a better place than it was three years ago when she arrived. It's one of many reasons why Hooper gave her resignation this week. Hooper intended to resign earlier this year, going so far as give notice in February to then Asheville city manager Gary Jackson. It was at the end of that month that video was leaked to and then published by the Asheville Citizen-Times showing then-Asheville police officer Chris Hickman beating and choking ...
Nov 08, 2018•22 min
