Calendar of Events

Winter Lights is a spectacular open-air walk-through light show made from over one million lights! Located at the North Carolina Arboretum in Asheville, North Carolina, this year’s event features favorites like the famously tall 50-foot lighted tree and the Quilt Garden, along with enchanting new details designed to delight and surprise. All prices are per vehicle. No pets allowed.

Winter Lights features live entertainment nightly and food and beverages from the Bent Creek Bistro, the Cocoa Shack and the Cocoa Cabin! Open nightly from 6:00 – 10:00 p.m.

Winter Lights is a spectacular open-air walk-through light show made from over one million lights! Located at the North Carolina Arboretum in Asheville, North Carolina, this year’s event features favorites like the famously tall 50-foot lighted tree and the Quilt Garden, along with enchanting new details designed to delight and surprise. All prices are per vehicle. No pets allowed.

Winter Lights features live entertainment nightly and food and beverages from the Bent Creek Bistro, the Cocoa Shack and the Cocoa Cabin! Open nightly from 6:00 – 10:00 p.m.

Join us every Thursday from 6:30pm – 8:30pm for music, poetry, comedy and stories performed by our favorite local artists! Feel free to bring your own food/drinks or anything you’d like to share!

Sign up begins at 6pm, show begins at 6:30pm. Each performer will have twelve minutes, and the show is always livestreamed on our Facebook account.

Every Monday, Ivy Rozen, Senior Editor of The Black Mountain Press, will host a poetry-specific open mic from 6:30pm-9pm. Each poet will be able to share 2-3 poems, and occasionally we will have local celebrity poets close out our night with a featured reading (email Ivy at [email protected] if you’d like to be a featured poet)!

The Grey Eagle and Worthwhile Sounds Present THE MOTH Presents: Asheville StorySLAM – “RESET”. All Ages. Doors: 6:30pm // Show: 7:30pm. $18.45.

The Moth StorySLAM is an open-mic storytelling competition in which anyone can share a true, personal, 5-minute story on the night’s theme. Sign up for a chance to tell a story or sit back and enjoy the show! Tonight’s theme is…

RESET:   Prepare a five-minute story about a fresh start. Clean slates and wet paint. When the tide came in and the sandcastle returned to sand. Expunging your past reputation and going back to square one. Cutting bangs after the big breakup. Whether you changed your zip code, career, or outlook on life, tell us about a time you felt new. Tomorrow is another day.

Seating is not guaranteed and is available on a first-come, first-served basis. Please be sure to arrive at least 10 minutes before the show. Admission is not guaranteed for late arrivals. All sales final. As many as 10 tickets may be available at the door for all of our StorySLAMs on a first-come, first-served basis.

Queer Girls Literary Reading Series Celebrates its Fifteenth Anniversary

Asheville, NC—On Sunday, January 26th at 6:00 PM, Eulogy at Burial Beer Company (10 Buxton Avenue in Asheville’s South Slope) will host the Fifteenth Annual Queer Girls Literary Reading, a celebration of Asheville’s queer literary women. This year’s lineup includes local and regional writers, UNCA students, and community members.

Admission to the event is by donation, with a $5-10 suggested donation (more if you can, less if you can’t). Doors will open at 5:30 PM.

Led by a certified Inward & Artward Creative Facilitator, Tikva Kingrea, this second annual, pre-Valentine’s Day workshop offers space to connect + craft a love letter from the heart. We’ll talk about the history of love letters complete with examples, what elements go into its writing, how to find and capture meaningful moments, and provide the needed materials to complete a written letter. This is a multi-disciplinary workshop focused around writing. Playful. Meaningful. Connective. Open to lovers of all types! Participants will walk away with:
– creative letter-writing
– a wax-sealed envelope and letter
– meaningful connection exercises
– a shared experience
– snacks

Ross Gay is interested in joy.
Ross Gay wants to understand joy.
Ross Gay is curious about joy.
Ross Gay studies joy.
Something like that.

Ross Gay — Poet, Essayist, & National Book Critics Circle Award Winner — will visit ACS with a profound mission: to explore and understand joy.

Ross Gay is the author of four books of poetry: Against Which; Bringing the Shovel Down; Be Holding, winner of the PEN American Literary Jean Stein Award; and Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude, winner of the 2015 National Book Critics Circle Award and the 2016 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award. In addition to his poetry, Ross has released three collections of essays— The Book of Delights was released in 2019 and was a New York Times bestseller; Inciting Joy was released in 2022, and his newest collection, The Book of (More) Delights was released in September of 2023.

Held at the Black Mountain Center for the Arts | Purchase tickets online or at BMCA

April 11 at 7:00 p.m. Tickets are $10 and a portion of sales will be donated to the Friends of the Black Mountain Library!

Collaboration with Black Mountain Library, Friends of the Library, Dark City Poets Society
​
This big night of poetry features three published poets, Glenis Redmond, Lee Stockdale, and Ugandan poet Mildred Barya joined by poets from the Dark City Poets Society. The evening culminates with a Q&A with our featured poets.

Buy tickets online HERE (Here’s the link: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-dark-city-speaks-tickets-1254687958459?aff=oddtdtcreator)

Join us in-person at Malaprop’s or live online when NC-based author Kayla E. presents her debut graphic memoir, Precious Rubbish, in conversation with local author Tessa Fontaine.

A landmark graphic novel debut and groundbreaking work of trauma recollection told in the style of post-war children’s comics. “If an exorcism can ever be slow and quiet, then every panel I’ve finished has felt something like an exorcism. The gutters give me space to make sense of things: to connect dots and close gaps. To remember.” Kayla E.’s Precious Rubbish is an experimental graphic memoir drawn in a style that references the aesthetics of mid-century children’s comics and tells the story of a childhood shaped by maternal emotional dysregulation, rural poverty, and incest. The author’s childhood is portrayed as a collection of short-form comics and gag panels punctuated by interactive elements like paper dolls, satirical advertisements, games, and puzzles.

The Grey Eagle and Worthwhile Sounds Present: THE MOTH Presents: Asheville StorySLAM – “BLOOM”

All Ages

Doors: 6:30pm // Show: 7:30pm

Grey Eagle Music Hall

The Moth StorySLAM is an open-mic storytelling competition in which anyone can share a true, personal, 5-minute story on the night’s theme. Sign up for a chance to tell a story or sit back and enjoy the show! Tonight’s theme is…

BLOOM:  Prepare a five-minute story about growth. Rising from the concrete or blossoming late in life tell us about the journey to reach your full potential. From peaking early to flourishing after years of careful nurturing, bring us stories of new beginnings, perseverance, and those moments when everything finally came to fruition. April showers bring May flowers, but the path to blooming is rarely straightforward.

Doors Open: 6:30 PM

Show Starts: 7:30 PM

Everyone is welcome to share a few poems (3-5 min. each), or just sit back and have a drink for a good cause.

$1 from every classic cocktail will be donated to the Friends of the Black Mountain Library!

The North Carolina Writers Network-West and The Brandy Bar + Cocktails presents H.R. (RANDY) SPENCER &
RICHARD ALLEN TAYLOR
as next in their series
“In the Company of Writers.”

The program offers a series of personal and conversational dialogues featuring guest writers/poets followed by an open mic forum. These inspirational gatherings will elucidate and entertain those attending. The guest author speaks from 7-8 PM with an open mic from 8 -9 PM. Sign-ups for the open mic will be located at the entrance to the reading.

For more info visit: https://www.facebook.com/TheBrandyBar/events

The North Carolina Writers Network and The Brandy Bar + Cocktails present
JENNIFER McGAHA as next in their series “In the Company of Writers”
The program offers a series of personal and conversational dialogues featuring guest writers/poets, followed by an open-mic forum. These inspirational gatherings will both enlighten and entertain those in attendance. The guest author speaks from 7-8 PM with an open mic from 8 -9 PM. The original music of John Longbottom welcomes you, continues during intermission, and closes the evening. Sign-up for the open mic sheet is posted at the entry.
Jennifer McGaha is the author of three works of creative nonfiction, including The Joy Document, a collection of fifty essays celebrating midlife, Flat Broke with Two Goats, a 2018 OverDrive Big Library Read, and Bushwhacking: How to Get Lost in the Woods and Write Your Way Out, a Thomas Wolfe Memorial Literary Award finalist. Her work has also appeared in many magazines and literary journals including Image, The Huffington Post, The New Pioneer, Lumina, PANK, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Brevity, Bitter Southerner, Crab Creek Review, River Teeth, and others. An Appalachian native, Jennifer lives in a wooded North Carolina hollow with her husband, two cats, four unruly dogs, eight relatively tame dairy goats, and an ever-changing number of chickens

Co-sponsored by the North Carolina Writers Network and The Brandy Bar + Cocktails, the program, “In the Company of Writers” is featured the 2nd Wednesday of each month. https://www.facebook.com/events/581466841671943

Join writers and storytellers from Western North Carolina to celebrate, cry, and connect through stories about bodily autonomy. Think stories of birth, abortion, miscarriage, transition, gender identity, race, and all their intersections—stories that center the essential nature of bodily autonomy to our humanity.

The North Carolina Writers Network and The Brandy Bar + Cocktails present VIVIAN I BIKULEDGE & MICHAEL HETTICH as next in their series “In the Company of Writers”
The program offers a series of personal and conversational dialogues featuring guest writers/poets followed by an open mic forum. These inspirational gatherings will elucidate and entertain those attending. The guest authors speak from 7-8 PM with an open mic from 8 -9 PM. The original music of Bob Sherrill welcomes you, continues during intermission, and closes the evening. Sign-ups for the open mic sheet are posted at the entry.
Vivian I. Bikulege is a poet and essayist. Her work has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and has appeared in the North Carolina Literary Review, The Fourth River, and Broad River Review. A semi-finalist for the 2023 James Applewhite Prize, she also earned honorable mention in the 2022 Randall Jarrell Poetry Competition. Vivian was the 2022 Gilbert-Chappell emerging adult poet for western North Carolina under the mentorship of Ken Chamlee.

The Black Mountain Library is excited to welcome Redhawk Publications to the Community Room on Wednesday, October 29th, from 6:00-7:30 p.m. for an evening of poetry readings from their new anthology “Had I a Dove: Appalachian Poets On The Helene Flood”

This anthology features over eighty poets from our region who contributed poems on their perspectives of Helene. Several poets from the anthology will be reading their works at this free event.

Redhawk Publications will be selling copies of the anthology for $20 each.

Signup begins 6pm / Perform 6:30-8:30.
Everyone is welcome! Any genre…song, music, spoken word, poetry, storytelling, comedy, short films, demos, etc. Supportive listening room in an art gallery setting. Each performer gets up to 12 minutes each. All performances will be livecast.

Everyone is welcome! Any genre…song, music, spoken word, poetry, storytelling, comedy, short films, demos, etc. Supportive listening room in an art gallery setting. Each performer gets up to 12 minutes each. All performances will be livecast.

Signup begins 6pm / Perform 6:30-8:30.
Everyone is welcome! Any genre…song, music, spoken word, poetry, storytelling, comedy, short films, demos, etc. Supportive listening room in an art gallery setting. Each performer gets up to 12 minutes each. All performances will be livecast.

Join Levi & Marian for a Friendsgiving Potluck, a free community event where we come together to celebrate connection, gratitude, and delicious food!

Bring your favorite dish to share and enjoy an evening of laughter, friendship, and unity.

We kindly ask that you bring a note listing the ingredients of your dish to help those with food sensitivities, allergies, or preferences.

Whether you’re bringing a homemade recipe or just coming to enjoy the company, all are welcome. Let’s create beautiful memories and give thanks as a community!

Blue Ridge Mall is thrilled to bring back Jingle Jamboree; a festive day filled with holiday cheer and community spirit! This December, we’re inviting local choirs, musicians, dance teams, karate groups, and community organizations to take the stage and help make this celebration one to remember.
Get ready to shine at the Jingle Jamboree ! Enjoy a day of live entertainment, festive performances, and plenty of holiday magic for the whole family. Come be part of the joy as we kick off the most wonderful time of the year together!

🎉 Calling All Young Entrepreneurs! 🍅
We’re thrilled to join with the Winter Wonder Walk for a one-of-a-kind Children’s Entrepreneur Market!
🌟 Got a kid with a big idea? Whether it’s homemade crafts, baked goods, lemonade stands, or creative services—this is their chance to shine!

🍅 Visit kids markets.com

Sign up your child’s booth 🌽
Explore upcoming children’s markets 🎨
Support young local entrepreneurs 💼

Join us at the Winter Wonder Walk where the season is brought to life like never before. Wander an outdoor trail and literally step inside the pages of a magical winter story. It’s a one-of-a-kind winter adventure you won’t want to miss being a part of.

Join us for the Woven Word Retreat – a cozy bohemian winter writing retreat for women nestled in the tranquil beauty of House Boheme. This is a transformative, creative, all-inclusive gathering designed to awaken your inner storyteller.

This 4-day, 3-night experience weaves poetry, movement, ritual, nourishment, and embodied storytelling to stir the creatrix within.

Guided by skilled and popular local facilitators who will help you explore your voice and connect deeply with yourself and others, you’ll have the space to write, reflect, and express your truth in a supportive, welcoming space.

Expect soul-nourishing practices like Yoga Nidra, writing workshops, yoga, and more, plus time to ground into nature and connect with a community of women.

Whether you’re new to writing or a seasoned storyteller, you’ll leave feeling inspired, empowered, and more aligned with your creative spirit.

Learn more and secure your spot at www.wovenwordretreat.com

So excited for Asheville Phoenix Fire Nonprofit’s 1st Annual – YULE TIDE PRIDE – Holiday Market Convention! We are bringing Pride into the festive season! Come get your holiday gifts, enjoy some local live music, coffee shop treats, connect with resources, take a holiday photo, sink in with community and more!

Jim Brickman’s distinctive piano style and captivating live performances have revolutionized the popularity of instrumental music, making him a driving force behind modern American music. The hit-making songwriter is the best-selling solo pianist of our time, earning 22 Number One albums and 32 Top 20 Radio Singles. He’s garnered two Grammy nominations, Gospel Music’s Dove Award, two SESAC Songwriter of the Year Awards, a Canadian Country Music Award, and is a member of Pandora’s “2 Billion Streams” Club.