More than 700 people filled the Cherokee High School basketball arena to celebrate the inauguration of new tribal leaders Monday, Oct. 2. 

Photojournalist Jeffrey Delannoy spent four days on assignment for The Smoky Mountain News in Washington, D.C. both before and after the Jan. 20, 2021 inauguration. Without credentials, Delannoy had to work to get the story in the streets – out on the fenced-in fringe of what barely resembled the National Mall.

Wednesday was a day women have been waiting for, working for, speaking out of turn for, making trouble for — for hundreds of years now. 

A little over two years ago, I woke up in Alexandria, Virginia, less than 24 hours after the inauguration of the nation’s 45th president. 

Savannah, Georgia-based artist Scott “Panhandle Slim” Stanton was born in Maryland and raised in Pensacola, Florida, but he has been known to pop up in all quarters of these United States, including Asheville — owing to his family’s vacation cabin in Swannanoa.

“Care more, judge less,” “Love trumps hate” and “Rise up” were just a few of the battle cries heard in downtown Asheville last Saturday as an estimated 10,000 people marched to protect women’s rights.

By rain-slicked granite sidewalks they came, early that morning. 

In rubber boots, sneakers and sandals they came, not knowing exactly where bound but following — only following — in the footsteps of those who’d come earlier. 

Although Rep. Mark Meadows, R-Asheville, has been Western North Carolina’s Congressman for only two terms, constituents in his heavily Republican district have watched his stock skyrocket nationally. He’s become a conservative media darling while at the same time rising to become chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, a powerful and influential Tea Party-leaning group of Republican lawmakers advocating for smaller, more responsive, more fiscally responsible government.

Inaugurations make for early mornings. Getting into or out of the tangle of security and Humvees blocking the streets of Washington, D.C., requires an early-to-bed, early-to-rise mentality that quickly acquaints one with the deep blue hues of dawn punctuated only by the phosphorescent orange glow of municipal street lighting.

Starting this week, The Smoky Mountain News will begin issuing a steady stream of coverage from the nation’s capital as the world awaits the swearing in of the United States’ 45th President, Republican Donald J. Trump.