Booming Times, Busted Budgets

Place

Booming Times, Busted Budgets

Great Smoky Mountains National Park has seen a boom in visitors—14 million last year alone. It’s put a strain on the resources in and around the park’s 500,000 acres.

BY Holly KaysAugust 11, 2022

Trending Topics

Media

Below the Fold

Below the Fold

Religion

Schism in the Body

Schism in the Body

Books

A Wild Vision

A Wild Vision

Environment

The Forest for the Trees

The Forest for the Trees

Politics

Hurricane Sandy

Hurricane Sandy

Short Form

A Wild Vision

Books

A Wild Vision

In George Masa’s Wild Vision, Brent Martin explores the artistry and adversity of a photographer who made a life capturing western North Carolina’s most challenging landscapes.

BY Wiley CashJuly 31, 2022
A Conversation with Brent Martin

Books

A Conversation with Brent Martin

The author of George Masa’s Wild Vision: A Japanese Immigrant Imagines Western North Carolina talks to Assembly books editor Wiley Cash.

BY Wiley CashJuly 31, 2022

Long Form

Below the Fold

Media

Below the Fold

North Carolina’s third-largest city, Greensboro, once had a thriving newspaper in the News & Record. What’s left after years of media-conglomerate cuts is a shell of the paper’s former self.

BY Margaret MoffettAugust 09, 2022
Schism in the Body

Religion

Schism in the Body

After years of acrimonious debate, the United Methodist Church has started to rupture. One church—with members ranging from 'flaming progressive to dang near fundamentalist'—tries to reconcile an increasingly unavoidable divide. // Photos by Julia Wall

BY Barry YeomanAugust 02, 2022
Hurricane Sandy

Politics

Hurricane Sandy

Sandy Smith—MAGA champion, culture warrior, conspiracy theorist, alleged domestic abuser—could become the first Republican to represent northeastern North Carolina in Congress in 140 years. Her own party isn’t sure what to do with her.

BY Jeffrey BillmanJuly 21, 2022
Cast In a New Light

Culture

Cast In a New Light

The Lost Colony, a play about North Carolina’s first English settlers, is in its 85th year. Can it be modernized to reflect a more contemporary perspective on race, history, art, and colonization? // Illustrations by Abraham Matias

BY Chris KammererJuly 12, 2022