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 Serpent
Child Ensemble, a Swannanoa arts group, will present portions of its
documentary film, about the rise and fall of the Beacon Blanket Mill
at the Bee Tree Fire Station Community Room on Sunday, February 20,
from 2 til 4pm. The film's working title is "Blanket Town: Weaving the
Threads of Community." Dr Roxanne Newton will also give a
short talk on the history of textile mills in North Carolina. This
event is free and open to the public.
Serpent Child Ensemble, which produced the popular Way Back When
series of plays at the Black Mountain Center for the Arts, is led by
Jerry Pope and Rebecca Williams. "We've been collecting
stories in the Swannanoa Valley for a long time," Williams said.
"After the fire destroyed the plant, we were struck by how emotional
people were about it - how attached they were to the mill as a symbol
of the heart of this community. As we started hearing their
stories, we realized that it was so much more than a place to work, it
was a way of life." "We're interested in discovering how
the changes in our small community reflect changes on a national and
global scale," says Pope. "How does a town make the transition from a
thriving mill town to what is basically a bedroom community for
Asheville? How do people cope with job loss, and how do they
maintain that healthy communal bond that the Beacon factory gave them?"
While
the film is not completed, the filmmakers wanted to show the
community what they've done so far and get some feedback.
Additionally, Dr Newton, director of the Humanities and Fine Arts
Division at Mitchell Community College, will give a multimedia
presentation on mills and mill workers.
This
project is made possible in part by a grant from the North Carolina
Humanities Council, a statewide nonprofit and affiliate of the National
Endowment for the Humanities. It is also made possible in part by a
grant from the North Carolina Arts Council. It receives technical
support from URTV, Woodland Productions, and bclip Productions. Partners
in this project include the Swannanoa Valley Museum, Swannanoa Pride
Community Coalition, The University of North Carolina, and Warren
Wilson College. For more information about the project
or to contribute photos or footage of the Beacon Mill or mill village
call Serpent Child Ensemble at (828) 686-3922. In case of snow, the
event will be postponed to Saturday, February 26, 2PM, at the same
location.
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Our Sponsor
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Since
the days when the buffalo and elk roamed the age-old migration routes
between the piedmont and mountains of North Carolina, our Valley has
been celebrated for its broad, fertile river plain, incredible
geographic beauty and yes, a rich history of wildlife. In fact, before
our earliest settlers crossed the Eastern Continental Divide in the
1780s, the Swannanoa Valley with its abundant wildlife was a prized
hunting ground used by the Cherokees and neighboring Catawba tribes.
Later, near the end of the eighteenth century, many of the world′s
leading botanists and geographers traveled to our Valley and surrounding
mountains. They declared the environment to be home to the most unique
and diverse flora and fauna that they had ever studied.
Well,
today those of us who reside here can easily understand what was in the
hearts and minds of those earliest inhabitants, explorers, and pioneers.
We are so fortunate to call the upper Swannanoa Valley and the
encircling Swannanoa Rim our home.
As Black Mountain′s oldest
continuing business (since 1908) and its only locally owned community
bank, we are very proud to be the sponsor of the Swannanoa Valley
Museum′s e-newsletter.
Cheers! M. Wendell Begley, President Black Mountain Savings Bank
"The upper Swannanoa Valley as seen from Craggy Knob on the Great Craggy Range"
Black Mountain Savings Bank, 200 E. State Street, Black Mountain,
NC 28711/Phone (828) 669-7991/Fax (828) 669-6974, Email:
mwb_bmsb@bellsouth.net
Our Board of Directors, who all live and work in the Swannanoa Valley:
M. Wendell Begley, William H. "Bill" Christy, James E. "Ed" Neves, C.T.
"Tom" Sobol, Jr., Joseph M. "Joe" Tyson, David D. Duncan and C. Roger
Hibbard
Equal Housing Lender/Member FDIC |
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The
mission of the Swannanoa Valley Museum is to preserve and interpret the
social, cultural and natural history of the Swannanoa Valley, a pathway
to Western North Carolina, by developing dynamic programs and engaging
exhibitions for the education and enrichment of the community, its
children and future generations.
P.O. Box 306, Black Mountain, NC 28711 • 828-669-9566
www.swannanoavalleymuseum.org • swannanoavalleym@bellsouth.net |
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