ASHEVILLE, N.C. (828newsNOW) — A crowd of University of North Carolina Asheville students, Asheville community members and local leaders attended a walkout today in front of the Highsmith Student Union on UNC Asheville campus. The protest was organized in support of “Save the Woods,” a local rallying cry for the preservation of 45 acres of nearby urban forest.
The walkout officially began at noon on Friday, Jan. 16, but students and other attendees amassed even earlier than that, carrying handmade paintings of woodland creatures and holding banners with slogans like “AXing a FOREST is OPPOSITE RESILIENCE” and “LIVE IN HARMONY WITH NATURE.”
The rally was led by local artist and “Save the Woods” advocate Spencer Beals. Beals has been a publicly outspoken supporter of the conservation movement, especially through arts-oriented projects like “Batland,” an art installation Beals created in collaboration with over 25 Asheville artists.
Read more about Batland in our story here.
At the walkout, Beals stood on a step stool facing the crowd. The artist wore a hat shaped like the head of a woodland creature, a fashion statement echoed by several other protestors. Without the use of a loudspeaker, Beals was losing his voice as he led the crowd in a series of chants.
“I said, ‘Could I please have an amplified speaker?’ They said no. I said, ‘I’m gonna have to scream really loud, and it’s gonna be perceived more aggressively,'” Beals told the group. “They said no. Whatever! We’ll do it without it. We are in the allotted area. Let’s give a round of applause for the fact that we can gather.”
Beals was not the only speaker at the rally. Beals began the protest by calling up a young artist to the front of the crowd.
“Can you tell us about your little art project?” Beals asked Aaliyah, the 10-year-old protestor.
“This is the opossum sketch I did and they put it on wood to put in the woods,” Aaliyah said, gesturing to a painting of several cartoon opossums she carried.
After the crowd’s cheering subsided, Aaliyah detailed the meaning behind her opossum painting.
“This is obviously like the mother opossum, and I’m gonna explain what’s happening here,” Aaliyah said. “So, the main idea is that she’s bugged because her children won’t stop nagging her while she just wants to eat her beetle, and it’s called ‘Stop the Bus. Mom Needs a Snack!’ But I wanna explain all of the individual opossums. So, this one’s going, ‘I hate soccer! I want woods!'”
With that, the crowd exploded with cheering and laughter.
One of the projects UNC Asheville has in mind for the forest acreage is the construction of a new soccer stadium.
“We need that chant,” Beals declared. “I hate soccer. I want woods!”
The protestors followed suit.
One of the more prominent community members at the walkout was Asheville City Council member Kim Roney, who carried a drum to accompany the cheering. Next to Roney in the crowd was the most eye-catching piece of protest art, a more than 7-foot-tall puppet shaped like a forest spirit and piloted by three different women.
According to a post Beals made on Instagram, UNC Asheville Chancellor Kimberly van Noort was invited to attend the walkout.
Beals wrote:
Hello,
I would like to formally invite the Chancellor to the ‘UNCA WALKOUT- SAVE OUR WOODS’ registered protest. I will insure non-violence and have already spoken to the Chief of Police on your campus to ensure safety is on both of our minds.
I think it’s important that she listens to the community.
Cheers,
Spencer Beals
Artist
Check out more photos from the walkout below:
