Calendar of Events

• The Voice in Isabel Fleiss’s Office by Jim Haverkamp
• Creel by A. Eithne Hamilton / Pipsissewa Movement Project
• Upside Down Plain Face by Evening Squire Productions
• The Secret History of Tardigrades in Early Soviet Cinema by Jeffrey Turboff
• GUYS: JAKE  by Greg Smith
• The King in Yellow by Cole Frederick
• Formaldehyde by Oğuz Yenen

Raymond McAnally will lead a virtual writing workshop titled “Using Acting Techniques to Write Clear Characters.”

Have you ever had trouble differentiating one character’s voice or reactions from another on the page? Do characters with strong or surprising points of view seem to evade you? Then spend a workshop with writer/actor Raymond McAnally to learn how he uses his experience as an actor to write new characters and find the decisions and actions that draw us to them.

This workshop is open to writers of all skill levels and is a fun way to find inspiration from a new prompt or revise current work. It is hosted by the Friends of Carl Sandburg at Connemara and will use Microsoft Teams for the virtual connection. A link will be emailed to participants the day before the workshop.

Raymond McAnally is an award-winning actor, a produced writer, and university lecturer.  Television acting credits include a supporting lead role in Black Mirror: San Junipero, winner of the 2017 Emmy for Best TV Movie; Guest starring roles on Better Call Saul, Modern Family, Chicago Fire, Rizzoli & Isles, Law & Order SVU, Royal Pains, and 30 Rock; as well as roles on Boardwalk Empire, Nurse Jackie, Mozart in the Jungle, among others.  He has film credits too numerous to mention here.

As a playwright, Raymond’s full-length solo-play, “Size Matters,” received its world premiere at Ensemble Theatre Cincinnati in May of 2014.  Directed by Tony Award-winning former Cincinnati Playhouse Artistic Director Ed Stern, the show ran for three weeks; garnering outstanding reviews, standing ovations, and sold-out performances.  The show was filmed before a live audience in 2015 and is now a comedy special available for streaming on Amazon Prime.  Raymond’s short plays, “The Odd Ball” and “Homeland”, have been produced at festivals on both coasts and his short play, “The Next”, will be published the Winter of 2019 in an anthology by New World Theatre.  In 2018, Raymond completed a playwriting fellowship with New World Theatre in Concord, New Hampshire.  In 2019, Raymond’s full-length play “The Cruelty of Children” was a semi-finalist at the O’Neill Center.  From 2010 to 2014, Raymond was the head content writer for the online production company Daily Fiber Films, which produced and distributed over sixty online comedy shorts, written by Raymond, and featured by FunnyOrDie.com, Fullscreen, CNN, New Media Rockstars, and The Food Network.  His short comedies also screened at festivals from coast to coast and earned “Best of the Fest” awards at L.A. Comedy Shorts Film Festival and the New York Friar’s Club.  In 2017, Raymond’s independent pilot “DPW” was filmed on location in Tupelo, Mississippi.

Raymond is currently a part-time lecturer for the Rutgers Arts Online department, Mason Gross School of the Arts.  He has been a lecturer at universities and guest artist at professional training programs since 2005.  He holds an MFA in Acting from MGSA, Rutgers University and a BA in Philosophy from Sewanee.

• Opprobrium by Mouse House Productions
• The Primordial Impasse by Marco Joubert
• A Flame in Our Midst by Elvert Bañares
• Voyager Birdman by Gerald Habarth
• Moth by Kate Weare & Jack Flame Sorokin
• That Which Fades by Leah Moth
• Cook With the Heart by Evening Squire Productions

Great news for poets and poetry lovers: Dark City Poet’s Society is returning to the Black Mountain Library. DCPS is a completely free poetry group that is open to poets of all ages and experience levels. Join us at the Black Mountain Library from 6-7:30 p.m. on the first Tuesday of every month for our (respectful) critique group. DCPS will meet at BAD Craft from 6-7 p.m. on the third Tuesday for our monthly open mic Poetry Night. Find out more on Instagram @darkcitypoetssociety or contact the Black Mountain Library.

Read to Succeed, UNC Asheville Edu Department, and Literacy Together are presenting three free screenings of the documentary “The Right to Read” with the sponsorship of Mosaic Realty. The Right to Read is directed by Jenny Mackenzie and produced by Sabi Habib-Lowder, Kareem Jabbar Weaver, and Jenny Mackenzie. The movie shares the stories of an activist, a teacher, and two American families who fight to provide our youngest generation with the most foundational indicator of life-long success: the ability to read.

TFAC invites all artists: painters, sculptors, writers, performers & more — to a casual weekly drop-in gathering on Saturday mornings at 9 AM to share your works in progress, alert others, and chat about art and what’s happening in your community. The first weekly Coffee is Saturday, August 20 at 9 am. No RSVP needed, just drop by! Free parking available on Melrose Avenue, behind and alongside TFAC.

Special screening and moderated discussion hosted by Bill Kopp, followed by a screening of the film and then a moderated discussion about what we’ve just seen and heard.

“Riff Randell, rock ‘n’ roller.”

That’s how P.J. Soles introduces her character in Rock N Roll High School, the cult film that built upon a foundation of B-movies and served it up to a generation raised on a diet of second-wave rebellious rock ‘n’ roll, aka punk. Allan Arkush’s film starred The Ramones, non actors all, alongside Warhol denizens Paul Bartel and Mary Woronov. The clash of (sub)cultural icons makes for a rousing, fun and unashamedly of-its-time movie.

Rock N Roll High School spawned a cult following, writ small. You may recall that the underground success of The Rocky Horror Picture Show manifested in fans attending the movie in theaters dressed in costumes that copied (or at least followed on from) those on the screen, and rather than remaining seated in the darkened movie house, they jumped up and participated in the film.

Well, in the very late ‘70s, fans of Rock N Roll High School often did the same thing. They were inspired by the silly antics, the self-consciously cliché plot line, and the great music. And while we won’t actively encourage similar behavior at the Grail Moviehouse in Asheville on March 27, neither will we prohibit it. So come join us for a screening of the cult classic Rock N Roll High School, followed by an interactive discussion to follow. It’s the latest in our ongoing series of Music Movie Mondays, hosted by Bill Kopp (that’s me).

Great news for poets and poetry lovers: Dark City Poet’s Society is returning to the Black Mountain Library. DCPS is a completely free poetry group that is open to poets of all ages and experience levels. Join us at the Black Mountain Library from 6-7:30 p.m. on the first Tuesday of every month for our (respectful) critique group. DCPS will meet at BAD Craft from 6-7 p.m. on the third Tuesday for our monthly open mic Poetry Night. Find out more on Instagram @darkcitypoetssociety or contact the Black Mountain Library.

TFAC invites all artists: painters, sculptors, writers, performers & more — to a casual weekly drop-in gathering on Saturday mornings at 9 AM to share your works in progress, alert others, and chat about art and what’s happening in your community. The first weekly Coffee is Saturday, August 20 at 9 am. No RSVP needed, just drop by! Free parking available on Melrose Avenue, behind and alongside TFAC.

We’ve heard your valuable feedback, and now you don’t have to hear us! Beginning May 4, 2021, the period between 8 and 10 a.m. on the first Tuesday morning of every month will be reserved for “Meditative Mornings,” a pause for quiet time in our gardens and on our trails. During this time, our working garden crew will abstain from using leaf blowers, mowers and other equipment so you can be sure to enjoy the sounds of birds and the wind in the trees.

Take advantage of half-price parking on the first Tuesday of every month and come out to the Arboretum to enjoy a Meditative Morning!

Great news for poets and poetry lovers: Dark City Poet’s Society is returning to the Black Mountain Library. DCPS is a completely free poetry group that is open to poets of all ages and experience levels. Join us at the Black Mountain Library from 6-7:30 p.m. on the first Tuesday of every month for our (respectful) critique group. DCPS will meet at BAD Craft from 6-7 p.m. on the third Tuesday for our monthly open mic Poetry Night. Find out more on Instagram @darkcitypoetssociety or contact the Black Mountain Library.

UNC Asheville is proud to host a screening of the documentary Black in Asheville with Filmmaker Todd Gragg, co-sponsored by Africana Studies, the Center for Teaching and Learning, the Department of Health and Wellness, the Humanities Program, the Office of Multicultural Affairs, the Sara and Joseph Breman Professorship & the Roy Carroll Distinguished Professorship:

• “Black In Asheville is a documentary that brings together Asheville residents and historians to recount Asheville’s Black history. A story that has to be preserved for generations yet to come. This film takes us back to the Antebellum Period and demonstrates in accurate fashion what life was like for slaves in Asheville. Further the film will explore the deplorable conditions of slaves during the Civil War and their transition to the Postbellum Period of Reconstruction, Jim Crow and Black Code Laws. As slaves transitioned to freedmen after the Civil War, they continued to live a segregated existence filled with the violent threats designed to control free people assuring that they were kept controlled. This film shows how the establishment of churches and schools was vital to the progression of Black life. It is important to tell these stories that history intentionally omitted, so that future generations are made aware of the many important contributions. This film raises the question, ‘How much better off are Blacks today in a supposedly non-segregated Asheville and seeks to define where do we go from here?’” (Source: blackinasheville.com)

This event is open to the entire campus community of students, faculty, and staff, as well as the general public. Popcorn, sweets, and beverages will be served.

The screening will begin at 6pm in the Mullen & James Humanities Hall on UNC Asheville campus, and will be followed by a Talkback with the Filmmaker, Todd Gragg.

Award-winning author Jamel Brinkley will present a reading at 7 p.m. on Thurday, April 6 in UNC Asheville’s Sherrill Center, Mountain View Room.

Jamel Brinkley is the author of A Lucky Man, a finalist for the National Book Award, the Story Prize, the John Leonard Prize, the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize, and the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, and winner of a PEN Oakland Award and the Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence.

This is the fourth of five events in the 2022-23 Visiting Writers Series presented by the UNC Asheville English Department.

TFAC invites all artists: painters, sculptors, writers, performers & more — to a casual weekly drop-in gathering on Saturday mornings at 9 AM to share your works in progress, alert others, and chat about art and what’s happening in your community. The first weekly Coffee is Saturday, August 20 at 9 am. No RSVP needed, just drop by! Free parking available on Melrose Avenue, behind and alongside TFAC.

Great news for poets and poetry lovers: Dark City Poet’s Society is returning to the Black Mountain Library. DCPS is a completely free poetry group that is open to poets of all ages and experience levels. Join us at the Black Mountain Library from 6-7:30 p.m. on the first Tuesday of every month for our (respectful) critique group. DCPS will meet at BAD Craft from 6-7 p.m. on the third Tuesday for our monthly open mic Poetry Night. Find out more on Instagram @darkcitypoetssociety or contact the Black Mountain Library.

Join us at TFAC for the 2022/23 Capers & Heists Series, kicking off in October with The Sting. Doors open at 6:15 p.m. for fun and mingling.

The film starts at 7:00 p.m. Tickets will be available to purchase online or at the door and concessions will be available.

Tickets are $8/person per film or $58/Season Ticket.

Join this new group of supportive local writers for fiction writing practice, sharing & feedback.

This group will meet the 2nd and 4th Thursday of the month 1-3 PM beginning January 26th- April 13th. 

Each session will include readings, critique, and creative writing prompts as time allows. This is a new group for all, and no pre-registration is necessary.  Light refreshments will be served.  Email [email protected] with questions.