Arts
Lexi DeYeso remembers the pride and passion she felt early this summer as Black Lives Matter protests unfolded in downtown Asheville. "I do stand with the movement and peaceful protesting," DeYeso said. But when people disrupted the protests by smashing store windows, DeYeso's boutique, Hazel Twenty, was among the first hit. "I was screaming, I was shaking," she recalled. "I was powerless and angry, really." Amid continuing protests, dozens of downtown businesses boarded up their windows, and several artists approached DeYeso and other store owners about dressing those boards with murals. The paintings are homages to George Floyd, the Black Lives Matter movement and to larger issues of racial justice and equity, and they document a moment in this city's and country's history. Blue Ridge Public Radio commissioned Asheville artist Joseph Pearson to make art on the plywood that covered our offices. But as the protests quieted, all but a few of the murals have come down. The question now: