Best Kept Secrets in Asheville: Hood Huggers International
Hood Huggers tours introduce visitors (and reintroduce locals) to an often overlooked, but powerfully prominent, community in Asheville.
DeWayne Barton, founder and CEO of Hood Huggers International, LLC, dons a pair of comically large sunglasses with a gold crown attached as he ushers tour-goers into his colorfully-painted Hood Tours bus. He is, after all, somewhat of a king in Asheville’s Burton Street community, with the bus acting as his chariot.
Barton was born in Asheville, where his mother grew up as well. He lived in Washington, D.C. in his early adulthood and moved back to Asheville in 2000. When he did, he noticed a change.
“It began with a conversation with my mother,” Barton says. “She was talking about her time growing up here in this city, and then I just started seeing a lot of historical landmarks being torn down.”
Most of the African American businesses that he used to know were closed, or completely gone. Barton saw his community’s history being overlooked and overshadowed by the growing popularity of Asheville as a tourist destination.
“I remember one day going to the Chamber of Commerce and asking, ‘Is there an African American tour company here?’” Barton says. The answer was no, because no one had shown any interest in such a venture before. So Barton took matters into his own hands, resulting in the creation of Hood Huggers International, with “The Art of Resilience” as its tagline.
Rebuilding Affrilachia
Hood Huggers International is raising funds to purchase a new bus for Hood Tours and repair our current van. We hope you’ll help us reach our goal with a contribution – be an integral part of helping us Rebuild Affrilachia!
Hood Huggers International was founded by DeWayne Barton. A native of Asheville, NC, Barton grew up in Washington, D.C. and is a Gulf War Veteran. He is the author of two books of poetry and has been involved in community improvement and youth development for over 20 years. Barton is co-founder of the Burton Street Community Peace Gardens and Green Opportunities. He is a RWJF Culture of Health Leader and serves on the Asheville-Buncombe African American Heritage Commission.
Hood Tours was launched in 2015 as the social enterprise arm of Hood Huggers International. Our critically acclaimed tours highlight the past, present, and future of African Americans in Asheville, while promoting black businesses, artists, and grassroots organizations and providing opportunities for youth. A portion of the revenue for each tour is devoted to supporting key initiatives in the very neighborhoods the tours visit!
We are proud that Hood Tours consistently receives 5-star reviews on TripAdvisor, and has been
featured in a number of media outlets including Mountain Xpress, Asheville Citizen-Times, The
Laurel of Asheville, Bold Life Magazine, Our State Magazine, Official Asheville Guide with Explore Asheville, Forbes Travel magazine and C-SPAN.
Hood Tours tells the long-overlooked stories of African Americans in Asheville. We showcase history, art, greenspaces, and current-day grassroots initiatives. We’ve given tours to numerous school groups, university students, and church groups. Approximately 3000 people have taken a Hood Tours and numerous speaking engagements. Hood Tours help build greater communication, connection, and wealth in systematically marginalized neighborhoods. Our impact includes raising awareness and involvement community-wide. It connects the dots between grassroots initiatives and policy.
With a new bus, we will be able to improve the customer comfort and experience of Hood Tours, while increasing the number of tours we are able to offer, enabling us to expand our impact. The feedback on the content of our tours is overwhelmingly positive, however, we are also told that the limitations of our current van detract from the tour. Upgrading our current van will improve the tour experience, while adding additional tour capacity.
Hood Huggers is seeking $30,000 to cover purchasing a 2007 GMC Minotour bus and upfitting it for Hood Tours, and for fixing up our current van. Help us reach our goal and deepen our impact!!!
Our Perks!
We truly appreciate your support! When you make a tax-deductible contribution to this campaign, you get the satisfaction of supporting the “Rebuilding of Affrilachia.” In addition, we are offering a number of perks:
$25 contribution............ Certificate for 10% off purchase of Hood Tour tickets!
$50 contribution ............T-Shirt or Signed Book (your choice while sizes and supplies last)!
$100 contribution...........Sweatshirt or 2 Hood Tour tickets (your choice while supplies last)!
$500 contribution........... Group Tour on current Hood Tour Van (up to 9 seats)!
$1,000 contribution...........Group Tour on New Hood Tour Bus (up to 14 seats)!
$5,000 contribution........Your name/logo posted inside the New Hood Tour Bus as a sponsor!
$10,000 contribution.............Full perk package, including all perks listed above!
To make a contribution click on the link below.
Hood Huggers, Intl. Rocks!!
A tour with ASURG (Asheville Showing Up For Racial Justice) of a very special history of black Asheville, NC...a must-do for anyone interested in social justice, equity and truth.
DeWayne Barton - Hood Huggers - It's About You Asheville, host Rainer Doost 4 - Zamani Productions
Where the past and the present come together for a brighter future.
A great show for children and families. Clap, sing and dance along with us as we explore sound.
Thanks to all who made this production possible through Zamani Refuge African Culture Center a 501(c)3 non-profit, incorporated in 2000.
The State of Black Asheville, A Documentary
Special Report: Artist Empowers Neighborhood Kid
West Asheville's Burton Street community is a different neighborhood today.
It wasn't a place that was safe for me, my family, and my mom so what can you do about it? says Dewayne Barton, who's also known as B-Love.
He's taken on part of the responsibility of making his neighborhood and the world a better place with a mountain of trash inspired by his concern and creativity. Take trash and bring in back to life with a message that effects people all over the world, B-Love explains.
He calls on local kids to learn from his garden. What always catches them is the people along the fence, do you know who that person is? he says, referring to paintings of people like Martin Luther King, Jr. This space is supposed to talk about the environment and social justice all in the same breath.
Donovan Spencer says it all make sense. He collected all this stuff to teach us about our heritage, Spencer tells us.
B-Love mentors young people to care about the environment. He co-founded Green Opportunities to give them job training. That's why we started Hood Huggers International so that we can teach them the opportunities that exist in their own communities, he says.
I think it's better for not only the neighborhood, but the whole world. We wanna go global, Donovan says.
The Gulf War veteran hopes they'll grow to know their own strength.
Do you know your power, do you know who you are? B-Love wonders.
He hopes some of that knowledge is cultivated in this garden.
The Burton Street neighborhood is celebrating 100 years of community. If you're interested in helping with trash pick up or garden maintenance click here.
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WLOS ABC 13 News serves the Asheville, NC area and the rest of western North Carolina and Upstate South Carolina. We keep our audience informed through local news, weather forecasts, traffic updates, notices of community events, sports and entertainment programming since 1954.
America's First Forest: Carl Schenck & the Asheville Experiment Trailer
America's First Forest: Carl Schenck & the Asheville Experiment - the new documentary film from the Forest History Society - tells the story of how a German forester and his small forestry school in western North Carolina helped launch the American conservation movement in the early 20th century. To learn more, visit
Best Kept Secrets in Asheville: No Taste Like Home Wild Food Adventures
Asheville is known for its eclectic downtown, its vibrant music scene, its plentiful breweries, and, of course, its award-winning restaurants. Chefs all over the city are curating their menus around what is seasonally available in Buncombe County and its surrounding areas, focusing on what grows natively or locally. The result? Fresh, exciting dishes that are ever changing; never boring.
But what if you could bring your own bounty of fresh ingredients, ones that you foraged yourself — herbs, greens, wild mushrooms, and more — to a local Asheville restaurant, to be prepared especially for you?
With the expert guidance of No Taste Like Home Wild Food Adventures, you can do exactly that: gather an array of native-growing edible plants around Asheville, then take your findings to a participating restaurant such as Rhubarb, Nightbell, or The Market Place. There, the chefs will incorporate your fresh ingredients into a unique, complimentary dish to start off your meal.
Art, culture and epic landscapes: Asheville is North Carolina’s creative haven
French singer-songwriter Laetitia Sheriff is travelling around the US on the trail of music, history and culture. For the next leg of her journey, she visited the “Land of the Sky”, Asheville, North Carolina.…
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Beneath The Veneer: Where Are The Black People In Asheville?
Where Are The Black People In Asheville?
Darin Waters, Ph.D. answers the question, Where are the black people in Asheville?
Darin Waters has made regional African-American history a prime subject of his own research, and organized the African-Americans in WNC conference in order to share recent contributions to the historical record by area scholars, alongside the first-person stories of those involved in key events. In an effort to fill the gap in regional history — the missing story of African-Americans in Western North Carolina — the conference seeks to: dismantle the longstanding myth that there was no African-American presence in this region, provide educators with a way to integrate this work into the larger narrative of the region, the state and the nation, and demonstrate to a largely neglected group of the Asheville population that one of the leading institutes of higher education in this region, which UNCA is, takes their presence, their history and their contributions to this region very seriously.
Beneath The Veneer: History of Black People in Asheville
Darin Waters, Ph.D.answers the question, Why does the history of black people in Asheville matter today?
Darin Waters has made regional African-American history a prime subject of his own research, and organized the African-Americans in WNC conference in order to share recent contributions to the historical record by area scholars, alongside the first-person stories of those involved in key events. In an effort to fill the gap in regional history — the missing story of African-Americans in Western North Carolina — the conference seeks to: dismantle the longstanding myth that there was no African-American presence in this region, provide educators with a way to integrate this work into the larger narrative of the region, the state and the nation, and demonstrate to a largely neglected group of the Asheville population that one of the leading institutes of higher education in this region, which UNCA is, takes their presence, their history and their contributions to this region very seriously.
ASHEVILLE THROUGH BROWN EYES ART EXHIBITION
Joseph Pearson curated the Asheville Through Brown Eyes and he speaks about Black Art in Asheville, Black People in Asheville and how the history has been suppressed over decades. This coming together of Black Artists is a major step in the evolution of Black folks in Asheville.
#TakeDownVance
Members of BeLoved Asheville and Asheville Showing Up for Racial Justice gather downtown on the 48th anniversary of the death of Dr. Martin Luther King to hear Amy Cantrell speak and read a speech by Dr. King's called A Time to Break the Silence delivered a year to the day before his assassination.
The History of African American Education in Asheville | Dr. Darin Waters (Full)
History provides the grounding for our individual and collective identities by giving both context and meaning to the lives we make and the lives we live... In my opinion, when you don't know history, it's essentially waking up with amnesia. - Dr. Darin Waters
Buncombe County Health and Human Services is sponsoring a Lunch & Learn series that focuses on the history of African Americans in Buncombe County. This developed from a community request to help preserve this information. The purpose is two-fold: 1) to capture the historical perspectives of older African Americans in our community & 2) to use that perspective to help inform and inspire current efforts to revitalize the Black community.
Dr. Darin Waters is an Assistant Professor of History & Special Assistant to the Chancellor at UNC-Asheville where he teaches courses in American history, North Carolina History, Appalachian History, African American and Brazilian History. He also specializes in the history of race relations in both the United States and Latin America.
Buncombe County is excited to present a new video in the BCtalks series. Filmed around Buncombe County, BCtalks intends to bring you knowledge worth sharing.
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Cemetery with creepy building Asheville N.C.
I created this video with the YouTube Video Editor (
BREW-ed Brewery & History Tours of Asheville
Brewery Tours of Asheville led by a Certified Beer Expert. Discover Beer, Discover Asheville!
Dozens of Photos of Asheville in the 1900s D
ASHEVILLE, N.C. -- A glimpse of Asheville's past has come to light in a new display at Pack Memorial Library.
Our partners at Carolina Public Press found the turn-of-the-century photos of Asheville that were discovered at a New York yard sale.
The stunning pictures of Asheville's past are now exactly where they belong -- in a display case.
Beyond the pink polka dots, the book is a more than century-old look at the city in black and white.
Zoe Rhine is the North Carolina collection librarian.
I mean the town looks very active, Rhine said. There's people in trolleys and horse drawn wagons. And a lot are taken from a street view.
The 34 photos take us back to 1904. The photographer captured Asheville's familiar locales, like city hall. There are also landmarks many historians have never seen.
There was also a photograph of an African-American school called Hill School that we did not have any images of, Rhine said. It burned shortly after this photo was taken.
Several children were killed in that fire. Rhine says the pictures take you on a journey.
Just page after page after page I went 'Wow! Wow! Wow!' I didn't want it to end
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Watch our live newscasts and other live video at
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Call the Newsroom: 828.684.1340
WLOS ABC 13 News serves the Asheville, NC area and the rest of western North Carolina and Upstate South Carolina. We keep our audience informed through local news, weather forecasts, traffic updates, notices of community events, sports and entertainment programming since 1954.
Barn Yard Ash - West Asheville, NC
Three door yellow car tour with the Vivs in Asheville.
music by
G YAMAZAWA - NORTH CACK (feat. Joshua Gunn, Kane Smego)
2017
Asheville Native Helps Remake History
The much anticipated Oscar nominations came out Thursday morning with Lincoln leading the pack with 12 nominations.
24-year-old Chelsea Madison is an Asheville native and resident who was there in the middle of it all. She'd just finished work on the Hunger Games and drove straight from one move shoot in North Carolina to another in Virginia.
The special effects buyer helped bring Lincholn's fight for the 13th amendment to the screen. She says it was thrilling as the nominations were announced.
Chelsea worked with atmospherics, which included everything from smoke to blood spatter on the action side of the film.
Click here to watch Chelsea's entire interview.
By Russ Bowen
Follow Russ on Twitter @RussBowenNews13
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Watch our live newscasts and other live video at
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Email us: news@wlos.com
Call the Newsroom: 828.684.1340
WLOS ABC 13 News serves the Asheville, NC area and the rest of western North Carolina and Upstate South Carolina. We keep our audience informed through local news, weather forecasts, traffic updates, notices of community events, sports and entertainment programming since 1954.
blove book, Return to Burton Street.
Blove, aka, DeWayne Barton will publish Return to Burton Street, this spring with the Black Mountain Press