Swords and Pens

Written by: Kaytee Weidenfeld

The Asheville Mardi Gras Parade will flaunt through the streets of downtown Asheville at 3:05 p.m. Feb. 7.

Stepping off in front of the Haywood Park Hotel, flashy floats, costume enthusiasts, and live bands will waltz down Haywood Street, Page Avenue, and Wall Street.

This year is the parade’s 9^th-annual celebration and is themed “Saints vs. Sinners,” due to landing on Super Bowl Sunday.

Hobbit Hawes, chairman of the Asheville Mardi Gras and an experimental education and psychology graduate from Hampshire College, is coordinating the event alongside other AMG members.

“Asheville hardly needs an excuse to dress up in this town and people love it,” Hawes said. “The combination of having fun, throwing a party, dressing up, and goofing off is a winner for Asheville.

He said Asheville Second Line is headlining the event and other performing acts and krewes include Wicked Geisha Entertainment and Ritual Theatre, The Digs, Seduction Sideshow, Kenny the Clown, and many more.

Founding member Sara Widenhouse, a University of Rhode Island graduate, was chosen by a slice of cake to reign as queen for 2016 and picked King Robert Bone to reign alongside her.

Royalty is chosen by a King’s Cake, which is a tradition AMG adopted from Louisiana and occurs on Twelfth Night, she said.

Widenhouse said the Queen’s Ball will be held after the parade at Pack’s Tavern at 5 p.m., and there will be an award ceremony, entertainment, a photo booth, and a cake called “The Queen’s Treats.”

Both events are fun and family friendly, she said.

“I think what we’re doing is really showcasing the creativity of the movers and shakers of the funnest people in Asheville,” Widenhouse said. “Dressing to the nines and really pulling off a major spectacle that’s seen in the community with a positive light.”

Chairman Hawes said AMG is different than other Mardi Gras events around the country.

“We’re very much proud of our mountain heritage and Asheville culture,” Hawes said. “We’re not New Orleans like or New Orleans wannabes, we’re Asheville Mardi Gras. We do things in our own way.”

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Written by: Kaytee Weidenfeld

At 14 stories high with a neoclassical demeanor, the Battery Park Hotel overlooks the city of Asheville.

During the summer of 1936, the hotel cast a dark shadow over the town.

On July 17, a 19-year-old blonde New York University honor student named Helen Clevenger was found brutally murdered in her hotel room.

Clevenger was in town visiting her uncle, a professor at NC State University, according to Haunted Asheville, the oldest ghost tour in the city.

Tadd McDivitt, chief occult researcher for Haunted Asheville, says she was found with cuts and lacerations on her face, as well as a gunshot wound to the chest.

“The vivid description in the police report stated that her green and white striped flannel pajamas had been completely soaked in blood,” he says. “She was curled into a ball, as if crying or praying when she was killed.”

When police started their investigation, the only suspects they had were the elite hotel guests, who were very embarrassed being the focus of the investigation, McDivitt says.

As word got out, he says the press referred to Battery Park as the Murder Hotel, giving it something of a reputation.

In order to put an end to the black cloud looming over Asheville, McDivitt says police were under a lot of pressure from their captain, as well as the press to bring the perpetrator to justice.

Two months into the investigation, there was a confession out of nowhere, he says. Martin Moore, a 22-year-old African-American boy from South Carolina, confessed to the crime.

At the time, he worked as a bellhop at the hotel. McDivitt says Moore was going door-to-door, robbing unlocked rooms.

“They were in such a rush, his trial was fast tracked,” McDivitt says. “I kid you not, the ink was barely dry on that confession when they pushed his trial through. He was put to the gas chamber in Raleigh four days after the confession was signed.”

The Battery Park Hotel in which Clevenger was murdered is actually the reincarnated version.

According to the Joint Center for Housing Studies (JCHS) of Harvard University, Colonel Franklin Coxe, a banker and real-estate investor, erected the original gothic-styled hotel in 1886.

The hotel once stood on a 10-acre hill, the site of a former Civil War battery, bringing about its name, according to The Citizen-Times.

The article also reported legendary guests such as, George Vanderbilt and Thomas Wolfe, contributed to its famous reputation.

According to Asheville: A Postcard History, it was also the first hotel in the South to contain an electric elevator.

Years after Coxe passed, Edwin W. Grove — a pharmaceutical entrepreneur and ambitious real estate developer – purchased the property and replaced the English Baroque styled structure with a Spanish-Romanticism inspired high-rise in 1924.

Although the person responsible for Clevenger’s murder was put to justice, after surviving the Great Depression, the hotel eventually closed in 1972.

Since then, the building has experienced all kinds of abnormal activity, he says.

“The locals told me there is a service elevator that runs off its own volition, up and down all night long,” Tadd McDivitt says. “It just keeps going by itself, making the clatter wake everybody up.”

McDivitt says that very elevator also served as Martin Moore’s station as a bellhop.

He also says during the ‘70s and ‘80s, many locals have witnessed a red glow coming from the room she was murdered in.

McDivitt says the once posh hotel is currently run by National Church Residences, and serves as section eight housing for low-income, disabled senior citizens.

Some say the floor Helen Clevenger died on stays cold.

“They all say that the second story stays freezing cold no matter what season it is, or what they do to the thermostat,” he says. “It just stays completely frigid.”

Still, McDivitt says the residents absolutely love talking about the eeriness of the building.

Donna Nawrocki, services coordinator at Battery Park Apartments, says she hasn’t witnessed anything abnormal, however, she knows plenty of tenants who have.

Gail O’Brien, a current resident of Battery Park Apartments, has lived there for 23 years.

O’Brien says she has never witnessed anything abnormal, however, she gets an antsy feeling while on the roof garden, which is the 13^thfloor.

She believes that antsy feeling is restless energy from the people who have passed.

“Sometimes you get that creepy feeling on the back of your neck,” O’Brien said. “I think it stands to reason that a lot of people have died here.”

She says she loves the experiences and stories she’s heard over the years, and doesn’t plan on moving any time soon.

“It’s a terrific building,” she says. “I’ve known people who have had their prom here, have gotten married here. Lots of spirits in this place.”

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Written By: Kaytee Weidenfeld

Computer-mediated communication is negatively transforming American society.

Social media sites and Internet communication is rapidly replacing face-to-face communication due to technology and convenience.

“Computer communication allows you to not be there, it allows you to be doing business elsewhere,” said Paul Metcalf, a University of Georgia graduate of broadcast news and journalism ethics, from Buffalo, New York. “I think the disadvantage of computer communication and social media is that it seems to have zapped our complete society.”

According to the Pro Con website, people who use social networking sites tend to have lower grades in school.

“I was recently talking to my cousin, who is a recent college graduate, and I said something to her about her spelling,” Metcalf said. “She said, spelling doesn’t matter because the computer does it for me. And I was alarmed.”

Metcalf also said he feels computer-mediated communication is negatively affecting grammar skills, due to shorthand text messages. Since people are not looking at the big picture, grammar is being forgotten about.

Social media has linked people to spending less time interacting face to face, according to the Academia website.

Bethany Walker, a Lenoir-Rhyne University nursing major, from Boiling Springs said computer-mediated communication is less personal than interpersonal communication.

“Would you call someone whose mother just died and be like, ‘I’m really sorry, here’s an emoji pat on the back,’” Walker said, as she sarcastically patted the air.

In the south, Walker said, people would bring that person a casserole, give them a hug, and share some sweet tea.

Walker said, those who are more involved in computer-mediated communication than interpersonal communication are going to lack empathy and sympathy skills. She also said, It is great people know how to play Candy Crush, but where is that really going to get people in life?

According to The Capacity to Delineate and Interpret Emotion in Text Messages, a thesis published on Digital Commons through Liberty University’s website, miscommunication through computer-mediated communication is very common.

“Although many perceive text messaging as convenient and affective method of communication, it may have some overlooked drawbacks and limitations,” said Liberty University’s website. “Because text messaging does not contain nonverbal cues that are often essential in interpreting emotion, many text message users may fail to completely communicate their intended feelings and emotion causing miscommunication between sender and receiver.”

Ronald Andronov, a Blue Ridge Community College biblical studies and religion major, from Arden, said 50 percent of all communication resides in body language.

He said, seeing people’s facial expressions, gestures, and hearing that person’s tone of voice helps one to understand that person much better, rather than computer-mediated communication.

Both the Pro Con and Academia websites report that Internet communication causes individuals to become socially isolated and lack every day social skills. They recommend forming genuine social relationships through interpersonal communication.

SIDEBAR:

Bethany Walker often experiences miscommunication from technology and face-to-face communication due to growing up partially deaf.

She said, “With sign language, the first thing you learn is that 50 percent of it is facial expression.”

One can read someone’s facial expression before that person hears what he or she has to say, she said. She also said, one can almost sense how that person feels.

Through a text message, one cannot hear that persons tone of voice, therefore it’s open to interpretation, she said.

Walker said, “It’s almost like there are these waves of emotion passing from one person to another, just by what you grasp from the environment you’re in and how they are reacting.”

Bethany Walker has worked in several nursing homes and always experiences the same technological challenge.

She said, patients always ask why they have to use the phone, rather than seeing their family and loved ones in person.

You cannot experience a hug, kiss or smile over the phone, she said, and unfortunately in America we’re all about ease.

"Technology is taking away just as much as it is giving us," she said. "It’s taking away something that’s not worth being taken away just to be advance."

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Written By: Kaytee Weidenfeld

As a young child, the Rev. Angel Sparks would have “girl time” and play dress up in her sister’s clothes and play with her toys.

She said she labeled herself as a drag queen until she turned 17 and realized she was more than that.

“I wasn’t performing for anyone when I would put on a dress and sit around and watch The Golden Girls,” Sparks said. “I was just trying to be me.”

The only time she felt happy was when she was wearing a dress, she said.

Sparks said she was well aware of her sexuality before she was aware of her gender identity as a transgendered female.

There are two parts to transitioning, mental and physical, she said, and the mental transition is the harder of the two.

Sparks said she started the mental transition at 17 and the physical transition at 19 years old.

“Not only do you see yourself change, but the people around you have to change,” Sparks said. “It can be a very painful process for you and for them. It’s a slow journey.”

Her siblings were accepting of her transition, however, her parents were not, she said.

Sparks was born in Atlanta and raised in Marietta, Georgia, a small town an hour north from there, she said.

She said being from a small town she has experienced inequality many times, even within her own community of lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ).

By being transgender, she is a subset within the LGBTQ community, a minority within a minority, Sparks said. She said a lot of LGBQ feel transgender individuals are the clowns of the community and distract from the cause.

“I’m used to walking through the grocery store hearing ‘faggot’ being hollered over the aisles, having my tires cut, or having my car spray painted,” Sparks said. “My own father took a Sharpie and drew all over my car. It’s pretty normal where I grew up.”

One of the biggest issues for the transgender community is not being able to have the basic human right to use the restroom in the gender they prefer to live their lives, she said. In most states transgender individuals have to legally use the restroom in the gender they were born labeled, Sparks said.

Sparks said one time she was harassed and accosted by a group of lesbians for using the female restroom at a public restaurant, in which she worked as a young adult and knew to be a single-stalled restroom.

She said they must have seen her head toward the restroom, because before she knew it they were trying to break down the stall door.

“The police ended up being called and I nearly got my butt kicked for using the women’s room by a group of lesbians who looked more manly than I did,” Sparks said.

She said a lot of things people take for granted are a lot more difficult for transgender individuals.

Sparks said things like going to the airport, getting X-rayed, and going to the doctor are much harder for trans-identified people.

It is especially difficult when a transgendered person is arrested and could potentially be put in a harmful situation if not segregated, she said.

Being transgender is much different than being gay or lesbian, she said.

Sparks said gays and lesbians could easily pretend to be straight long enough to get themselves out of a scary situation, and transgender individuals cannot.

“If we live our life this way the world is going to see us, and that can put us in danger,” Sparks said. “We get a lot of inequality from that because a lot of people don’t want us around.”

Sparks has a combination faith; she said she grew up Southern Baptist, but found a more accepting home in the pagan community.

Now 30 years old, she is a legally ordained minister in the pagan and Christian faith, she said, making her a practicing witch and practicing Christian. Sparks said she likes to put her own spin on things.

Her siblings didn’t understand her belief system, so they called her intertwined faith “Angelism.”

When Sparks isn’t working she enjoys making wine and spending time with her two furry babies, Tucker, a black Labrador, and Tiger, a gray and white feline, she said.

Sparks said she also loves going to the shooting range, as she runs and grabs her “zombie killer,” a Hi-Point 45 caliber Carbine.

Sparks is also active in the community.

She was part of Pink Pistols for a long time, an LGBT pro-gun organization with the motto “armed gays don’t get bashed.” She said the organization would help LGBT people purchase firearms, and teach them how to safely and legally use it.

Sparks is also a part of the welcoming committee at the Southern Comfort Conference, a transgender conference featuring events and seminars, she said.

She met her current boyfriend at the Southern Comfort Conference, Ryan Scott, who identifies as a transgender male, she said.

She said it was his first time there, and he was very shy and pre-transitioned at the time. Over the course of three days she proceeded to run him down in her jazzy wheelchair and hit on him to the max, she said.

“I took flirting to a whole new level,” Sparks said, as she giggled. “I wasn’t very sincere about it at first, it was kind of a way to get him out of his shell and get him to laugh.”

They have been together for five years, she said.

Scott, a UNC Asheville sociology major, from Wilmington, said he wouldn’t have started his transition without her.

“She’s the one who gave me the drive to finish community college and come up here and get hormones through the transgender program,” he said. “Without her, I would of never met great transgender people and been on my journey.”

Sparks and Scott both love Asheville, they said.

Sparks said she has never felt more loved and accepted anywhere else, and finds more of a home here than back in Georgia.

SIDEBAR:

The Rev. Angel Sparks, an ordained minister in both the pagan and Christian faith, met the love of her life at the Southern Comfort Conference in Atlanta.

Sparks is a part of the welcoming committee at the Southern Comfort Conference, and she said it’s her job to assist the newcomers and put them into groups. She said her chosen father would point them out.

She said thousands of people attend this event every year, and her power wheelchair gets a lot of attention and she loves that.

“With Ryan it was instantly magnetic; I was pulled to him,” Sparks said. “I just kept hitting on him and playing with him, and making him laugh.”

Ryan Scott said Sparks followed him around for three days.

He said she would run him down in the lobby in her electric chair, as he firmly points to the chair across the room, a bald doll’s head over the control lever. He said she was literally running his ankles over and grabbing his crotch.

She said on the last night of the conference that year there was a ventriloquist show.

She said they were sitting in the back of this beautiful ballroom and she kept seeing him laugh.

“I thought to myself,” Sparks said. “If I could at least have him as my best friend for the rest of my life I would die happy.”

After the conference they parted ways, she said, but still kept in contact through Facebook.

The more they talked the more they realized they were supposed to be together, she said. She said by Valentine’s Day the following year she started looking for a place in Wilmington.

“I had never really been anywhere other than Georgia,” Sparks said. “But I left everyone I cared and loved behind in order to follow love.”

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Written By: Kaytee Weidenfeld

Many people are discriminated against globally for the art in which they choose to adorn their bodies with.

Not long ago, body modifications were reserved only for sailors, soldiers, inmates and carnies.

However, with the turn of the 21^st century, the art of tattooing has gone from subculture to pop culture.

According to VU Trailblazer, the earliest record of a tattooed individual dates back to 2000 B.C.

Since tattoos are as old as time, why is body art still being discriminated against in modern culture?

John Slater, tattoo artist and shop owner of Tattoo Revival, from Madison, believes tattoos are an easy target for discrimination.

“They’re out there for everybody to see and it’s an acceptable target,” said Slater, a UNC Greensboro (UNCG) graduate of fine arts. “It’s way more acceptable to say, ‘I don’t like that guy because he has tattoos,’ than to say, ‘I don’t like that guy because he’s black.’ It’s a more acceptable way to discriminate someone.”

According to Debate, 77 percent believe tattoos are negatively stereotyped in the United States.

Slater said the idea of being stereotyped with “drunks and whores” is what leads to discrimination in the first place, especially at work.

According to Project Censored, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 bans employers from discriminating against potential and existing employees based on race, sex, disability and religion.

But the website also reported there are no state or federal laws protecting modified persons unless it’s affiliated with their religion.

Pancho Mendez, vocalist of death-metal band Butcher of Rostov, from Mooresville, said his tattoos have hindered his job opportunities.

Mendez, a student of graphic design at Independence University, said after returning home from his first semester of college, he sought employment.

However, each establishment said he would have to shave, remove his body jewelry, and cover his tattoos, Mendez said.

After many interviews, he finally found a company who accepted him the way he was.

“All the other places only looked at how I represented their company and how interacting with customers would make them look,” he said. “Which again I understand, but I do not agree with. That’s judging a book by its cover and we’ve been taught since children not to do that.”

Mendez said his current employer, Cardinal Glass, has no problem with his appearance. He feels his work ethic speaks for itself.

“You give me a guy who looks like the biggest run-down bum with all of the tattoos all over his face,” he said. “It doesn’t matter. If he does a better job than the girl who was raised in the suburbs, I’ll take him over her.”

Mendez also gets discriminated outside of the work place. He believes a big part of it comes from living in the Bible Belt.

He said he’s never experienced southern hospitality, maybe because of his tattoos, as he sighed recalling a particular incident at a local Chick-fil-A.

Mendez said he was asked to leave the establishment because of the goat-headed priest tattoo on the back of his calf.

He wasn’t causing a distraction or harming anyone. He said he was patiently waiting for his order.

“I was really confused and not to be a child about it, but my feelings were kind of hurt,” he said. “Somewhere I’ve gone multiple times and have never been treated differently, and the one time you see something that is a part of me forever and you might not understand, you automatically write me off and treat me as a second-class citizen.”

Mendez said people don’t care that he has a 4.0 GPA and owns a sweet black cat named Jinx. All people care about is what they see.

Courtney Peters, a UNCG student of social work and public health, said she has never let her tattoos hinder her career opportunities.

Peters said employers always ask her to cover her tattoos, but she doesn’t mind. She said she knew what she was getting into when she started getting inked.

“I have a lot of friends who are getting their master’s and Ph.D. and doing a lot of impressive things, and they’re covered in tattoos,” she said. “I can’t imagine a world where they’re turned down because of something that is on their skin. I’m pretty positive for the future.”

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