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Of course, we always like to get a
little bit culture here on the Carolina
outdoors,
It's not hard to appreciate culture and art
whenever you're outside in
able to take a break and a deep
breath. Welcome everyone to the Carolina Outdoors. I'm
your host, Bill Bart t from our sponsor
Jesse Brown's,
Charlotte local gift and adventure outdoor store located
in the shopping district of Charlotte over in
the Shared corner shopping center,
and always
online at shop dot jesse browns dot com.
A person that we seek out when we're
talking about art,
It's 1 of our resident artist here on
the Carolina outdoors program.
He's a man that was raised in boone
fly fishing and refreshing in the Creek and
rivers
of Western North Carolina. He's also
been a 30 year. Is that right? 30
year visual arts teacher in the Cms system,
his name?
Brian He.
Brian, welcome to the Carolina outdoors.
Hey, Bill. Thank you for having me again.
I'm I'm grateful. That's.
Man, listen, Brian, as we're speaking. We have
2 different types of listeners here. We've got
people who are waking up early to the
Carolina outdoors
via the airways of W t early on
a Saturday morning, we have other people that
are joining us whenever they want to via
podcast
highlights to the Carolina Outdoors. They can go
in here our previous
conversations
here on the program.
Right there. Because last we spoke, you were
still teaching still designing, still sculpting, still
being an artist.
You were also at the fly fishing film
tour are helping raise money for cold water
conservation with the Rocky river trout unlimited crowd.
But you were also
working on a book. She talks to fish.
We wanted to kinda take a little
Take a little update moment to find out,
here we are mid summer or so to
find out from Brian He how that
particular project is going in any other updates
that you have in the art and culture
world for us here on the program. Awesome.
Awesome. Awesome. Thank, bill.
Just
just to kinda cap off the the 30
year comment. Yeah. I have
I'm I'm dipping back into next year, I'll
be
pretty much wrapping up my
30 years
in January,
20 25.
So that will be it. I'll be able
to step away from the classroom
and hopefully focus on
on my painting as well as the book
the novel What been released. Well, that's been
a part of your program a little bit
is this transition from 1 career
of course, this has always been a passion.
I wanna talk you a little bit about
that. Though, I mean, Art has not just
been a career for you and and in
sharing that, But
that from an educational part, but it's been
a part of your core and how you,
in my words,
refresh and stay fresh. And
you also use the sport of fly fishing
for your soul
to refresh and
and and, you know, that's important to,
work from a blank slate if you will,
when you're creating art to be refreshed and
and then have these outlets? How important has
the outdoors
generally been to Brian He in being,
being
staying fresh and relevant as an educator, but
also
as an artist over the past 30 plus
years.
Well, you... I think that you you hit
the nail on the head right there, bill
because
fly fishing
has been the common thread for me. For
absolutely everything that I've done with my invention
with the magnetic Fly box with Mo bear
2
my paintings that I've done. And then
using
that, well the inspiration of the the flat
fishing club that I had at, Myers Park
high school, which ultimately became that springboard that
inspiration for,
the novel that I just finished,
that was 7 and a half years in
the making. So
pretty much...
Just like I said, the the common thread
is is fly fishing, and it's not necessarily
consume my life, but it's
Well, I get... I take that back. Maybe
it has consumed my life.
You're not the only 1. It's a very
important part of my life.
Brian, you were you grew up, of course,
doing this stuff, doing the outdoor thing, fly
fishing
as a number 1, but you were also
you know,
a recognized athlete growing up, and you were
a tennis player. You went to college playing
tennis. You've been a tennis coach.
As well as a fly fishing mentor and
coach.
Talk to us about that parallel if you
will. Is there a similarity when you're
beginning a fly fishing or an an club
in a high school like Myers Park like
you did.
What about your background as an athlete
and your background as a coach when you
are starting a new club?
Like the fly fishing club or the an
club if you will.
Well, the it's
the biggest part of
starting the club, the organization like the Anger
Club that I have
Myers Park High school was is just the
leadership and being able to establish
basically you end up being
the supervisor, the super superintendent
that that
organization, and you wanna make sure that you're
guiding these young people. I have to correct
you, Bill,
I I coach tenants in in high school
way back in the day when I was
at independent high school, a long time ago,
but I swam and college.
Yeah. And they're... That's the funny story, and
and I'll I'll hit on this just really,
really quick. It
growing up in Boone.
At at the age of 8 9 right
in that that that 8 9 year old
time frame.
I'll never forget it. I I started
competitive swimming. And
when my mom felt as though that she
could kinda cut me loose,
Right. Then she would drive me to, like
Wink Creek or Howard Creek. And I I
was I was on the river by myself
at the age of 09:10.
For 5 and a half hours pop. That
that... Those were amazing days, but it it
was my ability to to swim that got
me an opportunity in college, but it was
also... It got me my opportunity to be
alone in the woods.
I guess,
at the age of 09:10,
and and Boone we'll be back in the
day.
How forward doing the math correctly? That would
have been
79 80.
Wow.
Brian, how important was that. I mean,
that allowance of Freedom, if you will to
to
explore
adventure,
Creek walk, but also,
trick a fish into taking your lure,
all on your own? How important that was
that as you as
you developed as a child and then into
young adulthood,
how how important was that? Oh, it it
it was... Absolutely everything. So I was self
thought. And I remember
being at Price park, and I remember why
watching,
an older gentleman catch,
a native brook. And I'll never forget just
how incredibly gorgeous that dish was.
And I remember going home because my dad
had won a,
a shakespeare
fly rod combo set.
At the the local b
as a
like a system.
I I don't know. It was just a
gift that he had won, like a door
prod
and it had been sitting in the basement
forever.
And finally, I was like, after I saw
that gentleman catch that fish, catch that brook.
I went home and started trying to figure
out how to cast like he was casting.
And it just became an obsession, and it...
And I had enough steps and enough takes
and enough look at the flies that I
was posing for probably, I guess the next
4 or 5 years
of t and up and down all the
different
in Boone,
which will remain nameless because I don't want
anybody going back to my spot on my
home turf. But
yeah, it it it created this it it
this boiling in me to to to just
figure things out. And I, you know, I
was a little bit of a loner, but
that that was good for me because I
really learned a lot about myself early on
and what it took to kind of stay
in the game of fly fishing because it's
it's not like a walk in the park
if you don't have any instruction. Brian. And
I'll talk to you all day here on
the Carolina outdoors.
Because it's you're like the most interesting,
man in the world
as we speak. But I have to stay
on task. Tj j. You're supposed to keep
me on task over there.
Because as interesting as you are, Brian, let's
go back to the an club at the
high school,
because it was through that that you were
inspired if you will to help develop
a character, Maya,
who is the
the
lead character in the book? She talks to
fish. Can you talk to, us about your
your expansion
of your students in the An england club,
and I think the way it starts is
you had a a bunch of guys. Who
were signing up who wanted to be in
the an club.
And and not so many
girls.
And so that...
You know, we have been through. We get
these reports coming in to the Carolina outdoors.
About who is fishing. And fortunately,
there is growth in females
fly fishing and fishing in general. There's, growth
in persons of color. There's growth in the
Hispanic community. There's growth in all these communities
as people come on board
into the sport of fishing.
Brian tell us what you saw as you
started that club and how that evolved into
recruiting new students into the club
who who, you know, looked
maybe we're culturally different all these differences that
you brought into club and how that transitioned
into you,
7 and a half years, 8 years later,
having this book and where the book stands
now?
Right on. Well,
it was...
I've been at Myers park for the last
10 years, and that's when I initiated
the the club and
from that, that that was the springboard, and
I said that, you know, I I wanna
do this, and I the the only students
that signed up.
Were
very young white guys.
White men and
after that, it was probably about 2, 3
years into my charge
where I was like, you know what this
has always been a thing with me even
growing up and fly fishing because I always
thought this is for everyone. Everybody needs to
experience this. So I my charge then became
getting a lot more young women involved. And
then from that,
my my
my diehard focus was young women of color.
And
I thought about this for a long time
that it
if you can...
Get young women
to get a fly rod and get things
going and they absolutely develop that hunger,
that, you know, you can't live without this
slot fishing thing, then then they get to
pass it forward. And and young women have
a,
are really
I... I'm looking for the words right now.
If they have a an ability.
To talk within other young women and more
so once you have young women of color
talking with other young women of color, and
people can say, oh, like, this is doable.
This is the thing that I can go
do then then all of a sudden,
the reform starts, there's a landscape change. And
this... The the book,
the the premise of the book by is
a, you know, young African American female that
grows up in Boone and unconventional,
discover slot fishing, and it becomes her obsession,
and it takes her through... I mean, there
it's a walk through all gamut some of
her life
and the struggles that she endure
because, you know, slot fishing is a
it's it's like I said before, it's not
a walk in the park. If you don't
have someone kind of help expose you
and give you instruction. There's a lot of
stuff that you have to figure out on
your own, and she she figures out a
lot of stuff on her own, and then
she runs into a lot of
barriers and and she defied stereotypes
and and it it's about empowerment and encouragement
in being in that space. You belong you
should be in that space.
Now you might look a lot different and
there might be a lot more melanin than
your skin, but that doesn't matter. It's never
mattered. So
why not... Let's let's talk about this out
loud, and let's get something done about it.
The voice you hear there, Brian He long
time.
Educator in the Cms system as well as
artist, sculpt, and inventor,
and author
She talks to fish is the book. Brian,
where do we stand with this book? It's
not out yet. We're just getting an update
from you so we can have a little
a culture here on the program,
what station of development is the book in
right now? The It...
I'm I'm glad. Asked. Because,
2 days ago,
my c author and I Barbara Beam, who
is my cousin.
We hit we hit send to the
final
continuity
editor.
And
I'm I'm absolutely. That was the most massive
xl that I have ever
let out after 7 and a half years
of the trial and tribulation, all the research
and building a fiction novel but this fiction
novel, I will say is
it it's
darn near real.
And
and it's believable and
it's right and the climate is right, the
timing is right. And
once we hear back
in about 2 weeks,
then we'll be checking off on that continuity
edit it, making sure that everything is lined
up.
To
little edd bitty formatting
tweaks. Yes. That will be doing. And then,
pre sales will actually start at the top
of September right around Labor day, go for
about 2 and half weeks, 3 weeks. And
then we are wide open with our launch
on October the fourth, which will be at
Am,
which is Appalachian Mountain Brewery in Boone from
4 to 6. And then
on
October the fifth will be at legion brewery
from 10 to 12 and then
angry that afternoon for the app state away
football game against Marshall. And then
on Sunday will be in Shelby where both
of our families
will be.
Got I have so many questions about this.
And and first, when you just hit it
right there. It sounds like all of this
is coming
to fruition in the fall.
Yeah. We did not mention this, Of course,
a native of Boone North Carolina. It's not
hard to figure out. Appalachian State University,
that work gold runs through the bloodstream of
Brian He, our guest here on the Carolina
outdoors. Does this book get in the way
of Apple appalachian State football for Brian He?
No. Not at all. But I will tell
you it's actually... It it it again, it's
a it's a
assigned parallel.
So when I'm in,
there there are opportunities that I'm looking for
right now to to to be able to
go back to my old stop and grounds.
We'll talk to high school to be able
to do a read
and
sell some books
And then
as we as things start to materialize, hopefully
we'll be able to be on campus at
App state
to do some readings, maybe talk to some
classes.
And then once we actually move in through
October and into November,
November the 20 first, I will be
where.
Oh, yeah. Our sponsor. That's Jesse Browns. That's
I hang my hat through the week. Brian,
we're gonna get you to do a author
statement. We're gonna get you to do a
reading. We're gonna get you to do a
book signing.
Over at Jesse Brown's on that November 20
first,
so it's exciting. And Brian, we're gonna have
to talk about this more
as those dates that you just mentioned,
approach. But before you leave us on this
1 as we run short on time, Tj
bow over their flashing is his looks like
gang signs, but it means that I'm coming
up on the... It is,
Brian. You mentioned this. You have a c
author, Barbara Brain.
Bing. Barbara Barbara Brain Barbara Bain.
Is your c author. This has been an
8 year,
you know, passion of yours, Your character, your
development, you've taught in schools you've dealt with
alt... Types of people
of all shapes and sizes,
and skin tones and cultures, you Mh.
How hard is it to share when you
bring in a c author for help, is
that
difficult
to make sure that they see your development,
the way you see your development?
We
we had a really, really special scenario.
First of all, my my cousin, my c
author, Barbara,
she's a she's a published author.
She actually graduated for Apple appalachian state as
well, English degree. And
she's a music writer. She's a play right.
And we... This all started bill with the
the the actual script to the movie. I
wrote the story, she took the story and
put it in the script for the movie.
And basically, as the as everything started to
materialize with getting script in front of
different production companies as well as entertainment companies,
studios,
then it became apparent that we needed to
build
the finish building the book.
So basically, in a nutshell, Barbara ended up
she built the... Help build the foundation
outside of this movie script as well as
the story. Basically, the tree put limbs on
the trees, and then I was able come
in and put
the leaves on the tree
and and the ornaments on the tree. Do
you know what? You sound like an artist.
A little bit. If
fantastic. We look forward to meeting Maya
and the book she talks to fish. You
can go to she talks to fish dot
com to learn more to subscribe to help
get maya story to the world.
Brian He.
It's always great to talk to you here
on the Caroline outdoors.
Bill, I am beyond appreciative. Thank you so
very much. And
again,
get out there, subscribe on the website. And
then I will be letting everybody know when
this drops,
basically,
right around Labor day, and then it's on
like gang busters. Oh like Donkey khan, Brian
He. Thanks for jumping on. Off he goes
and off I go, but don't worry I'm
gonna be back on the other side, you're
listening to the Carolina outdoors.