Generational Guardians
Historically, Asheville has presented an image of harmony and inclusivity. Historian Darin J. Waters asserts this is a "veneer" that "the city's white leaders were successful in constructing." He writes that in reality Blacks in Asheville were not able "to fully participate in the city's social, political, and economic structure after the[Civil] war.”
Early settlers in the area marveled at the beauty of the mountains, enjoyed the crisp air, and took advantage of the regional health benefits. With the completion of the Buncombe Turnpike and the Western North Carolina Railroad, Asheville was open for business and attracted people like Edwin Wiley Grove and George Vanderbilt.
But who "built" the region and helped fashion the veneer? Where did the labor for the health resorts, hotels, and railroads come from? The history of Black Asheville shows a self-determining nature worth celebrating. These citizens created their own communities, churches, schools, and businesses. In Generational Guardians, Johnny Lee Chapman, III and Anthony Otto Nelson, Jr. take viewers through Asheville’s Black history using poetry and movement.
Runtime: 10:27 Poem: Written and performed by Johnny Lee Chapman, III
Choreography: Anthony Otto Nelson, Jr. Performance coordinator: Myra Weise, Proxemic Media
Video: Filmed and edited by John Laww Director and producer: Michael S. Williams
Trailer for Generational Guardians. Video by John Laww.
"Outsiders frequently are startled to find that there are black mountaineers too, and that they have been in [Western North Carolina] as long as the Clampetts, the McCoys and the Davidsons."
— Milton Ready, Asheville Citizen-Times, 1983
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Photo by John Laww
Johnny Lee Chapman, III is a multi-disciplinary artist from Fuquay-Varina, North Carolina. Chapman started writing as a "Tumblr poet" during his first year at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In 2014, after graduating with a B.S. in Dental Hygiene, he leapt from page to the stage, beginning his career as a spoken word artist. Since then, he has performed regionally and nationally and is an active voice within his Carolina community. Over the years, his professional range of activities has grown to include spoken word and movement performances, acting and directing, workshop facilitation, event hosting, and artist mentorship. Chapman also utilizes the mediums of film and photography to convey emotion without explanation under the moniker The Golden Moment.
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Photo by John Laww
Anthony Otto Nelson, Jr. is a native of Durham, North Carolina. He brings the knowledge of connecting one's embodied experiences to one's external reality as a means for personal and relational transformation. As a dancer and organizer of healing and digital "self-work" spaces, Otto embodies the freedom of expression by trade and as a facilitator of process and execution.
Currently he serves the world by developing deeper connections through movement and voice and teaching them as modes of self-exploration, inner healing, and collective recognition. He knows that our bodies hold the keys to our collective transformation while they can also cling desperately to the behaviors, ideas, and concepts that no longer serve us well. Otto moves as a spirit of exploration.