Exactly one year after Helene swamped the River Arts District with lethal floods, librarian Erin Parcels stood on the Craven Street Bridge with a red megaphone.
More than 70 people, old and young, joined her on the bridge’s skinny sidewalk, which overlooks the French Broad River, ready to let it all out.
“So the plan is that we're going to scream and just let it rip,” Parcels said, beaming. “Let all of your feelings out, everybody. The trauma that we've had, the sadness, the joy of coming together.”
And scream they did. At all different octaves. For several, ten-second-long rounds.
“You feel much lighter after,” said Samantha Kelgren, a first-time screamer. “And light headed.”
“I felt like a warrior,” added Erin Cotter.
For Francie Genz, who wore a black t-shirt with the catchphrase “In the Flerd, We all Fam,” the scream was a meaningful way to commemorate all that Asheville has been through in the last year.
“I could scream on a regular basis. But I think particularly today, we need to get it out and we need to feel it and we need to be together and know that we're all feeling this,” she said. “A year ago, this bridge was underwater. Everything here was underwater.”
Friday’s event was the inaugural meeting of the Primal Scream Club, a program from the West Asheville Library. The idea was inspired by Scream Club Chicago, a group that beckons residents to scream every Sunday evening.
Parcels said she was “very happy” with the turnout in Asheville and that now she hopes to make it a monthly event.
“If we can gather like this and just let out everything,” she said. “I don't know why we wouldn't.”
