Calendar of Events
Upcoming events and things to do in Asheville, NC. Below is a list of events for festivals, concerts, art exhibitions, group meetups and more.
Interested in adding an event to our calendar? Please click the green “Post Your Event” button below.
Start off Poetry Month at the Library with a celebration of Dolly Parton’s lyrics at the Fairview Library.
What could the songs of legendary singer-songwriter Dolly Parton teach us about writing, craft, and perspectives in poetry? In this in-person workshop, poet Dustin Brookshire guides participants through exploring the discography and cultural impact of Dolly Parton. We’ll use this as inspiration for writing new poems via thematic prompts.
This free workshop will be Tuesday, April 30 at 6:30 p.m. at the Fairview Library.
Our facilitator, Dustin Brookshire is the recipient of the 2024 Jon Tribble Editors Fellowship awarded by Poetry at the Sea and is the co-editor of Let Me Say This: A Dolly Parton Poetry Anthology (Madville Publishing, 2023), which was named to the 2024 Books All Georgians Should Read list by the Georgia Center for the Book.
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Mindfulness is paying attention in the present moment, on purpose, without judgment, as if our life depends on it. This Art of Living course series offers skills and tools for cultivating well-being by strengthening awareness of body, mind and emotions. Participants should dress comfortably and bring a towel or yoga mat. A limited number of yoga mats are available for those that need one. Dr. Mattie Decker teaches Mindfulness Meditation and Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction (MBSR). She is a certified Nature and Forest Therapy Guide and guides walks with Conserving Carolina. To contact Mattie for more information on Mindfulness: [email protected] or call 828-333-3508. |
Saturdays from 10:30 AM – 12 PM
Democrats need to be more actively messaging and to overcome the makers of fake news with the truth! Join this ongoing group of writers working together on Letters to the Editor and Opinion Editorials. We’ll discuss the issues we care about most deeply and craft a plan to respond to events as they occur in real time.
The group meets the first and third Monday of each month for writing, responding to one another’s work, scheduling submissions, and exploring media outlets across the state.
“Rant with purpose. Support with facts. Propel action.” – Myra Schoen
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!
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Mindfulness is paying attention in the present moment, on purpose, without judgment, as if our life depends on it. This Art of Living course series offers skills and tools for cultivating well-being by strengthening awareness of body, mind and emotions. Participants should dress comfortably and bring a towel or yoga mat. A limited number of yoga mats are available for those that need one. Dr. Mattie Decker teaches Mindfulness Meditation and Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction (MBSR). She is a certified Nature and Forest Therapy Guide and guides walks with Conserving Carolina. To contact Mattie for more information on Mindfulness: [email protected] or call 828-333-3508. |
Saturdays from 10:30 AM – 12 PM
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Mindfulness is paying attention in the present moment, on purpose, without judgment, as if our life depends on it. This Art of Living course series offers skills and tools for cultivating well-being by strengthening awareness of body, mind and emotions. Participants should dress comfortably and bring a towel or yoga mat. A limited number of yoga mats are available for those that need one. Dr. Mattie Decker teaches Mindfulness Meditation and Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction (MBSR). She is a certified Nature and Forest Therapy Guide and guides walks with Conserving Carolina. To contact Mattie for more information on Mindfulness: [email protected] or call 828-333-3508. |
Saturdays from 10:30 AM – 12 PM
Democrats need to be more actively messaging and to overcome the makers of fake news with the truth! Join this ongoing group of writers working together on Letters to the Editor and Opinion Editorials. We’ll discuss the issues we care about most deeply and craft a plan to respond to events as they occur in real time.
The group meets the first and third Monday of each month for writing, responding to one another’s work, scheduling submissions, and exploring media outlets across the state.
“Rant with purpose. Support with facts. Propel action.” – Myra Schoen
4/15, 4/22, 4/29, 5/6, 5/13, 5/20
Student showcase reserved for 6/3
No class 5/27
Greg Lobas will lead a virtual writer’s workshop titled: “Writing Your Life into Poetry.”
“Write what you know” is one of the first and best maxims for the aspiring writer. But what if “what you know” is ordinary, even mundane? This workshop will look at ways to mine the gold that is in everyone’s life and turn it into poetry. It may take some digging. It may take a little change in perspective. But it is there, and it is material only you can use. We will focus on the narrative poem as a means of story-telling but will consider the lyric poem as well.
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 Zoom for the virtual connection. Sign up to attend the workshop at workshop here:
Greg Lobas has been published extensively as both an outdoor writer and a poet. His debut book, Left of Center, won the 2022 Dogfish Head Poetry Prize, and placed second in the Delaware State Press Association awards. The book deals with his real life experiences as a fire captain and paramedic. His poems have been published in many journals. He is an experienced poetry workshop facilitator at Isothermal Community College.
Greg lives with his wife Meg and his dog Sophie in Polk County North Carolina.
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Mindfulness is paying attention in the present moment, on purpose, without judgment, as if our life depends on it. This Art of Living course series offers skills and tools for cultivating well-being by strengthening awareness of body, mind and emotions. Participants should dress comfortably and bring a towel or yoga mat. A limited number of yoga mats are available for those that need one. Dr. Mattie Decker teaches Mindfulness Meditation and Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction (MBSR). She is a certified Nature and Forest Therapy Guide and guides walks with Conserving Carolina. To contact Mattie for more information on Mindfulness: [email protected] or call 828-333-3508. |
Saturdays from 10:30 AM – 12 PM
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Mindfulness is paying attention in the present moment, on purpose, without judgment, as if our life depends on it. This Art of Living course series offers skills and tools for cultivating well-being by strengthening awareness of body, mind and emotions. Participants should dress comfortably and bring a towel or yoga mat. A limited number of yoga mats are available for those that need one. Dr. Mattie Decker teaches Mindfulness Meditation and Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction (MBSR). She is a certified Nature and Forest Therapy Guide and guides walks with Conserving Carolina. To contact Mattie for more information on Mindfulness: [email protected] or call 828-333-3508. |
Saturdays from 10:30 AM – 12 PM
Democrats need to be more actively messaging and to overcome the makers of fake news with the truth! Join this ongoing group of writers working together on Letters to the Editor and Opinion Editorials. We’ll discuss the issues we care about most deeply and craft a plan to respond to events as they occur in real time.
The group meets the first and third Monday of each month for writing, responding to one another’s work, scheduling submissions, and exploring media outlets across the state.
“Rant with purpose. Support with facts. Propel action.” – Myra Schoen
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!
Dark City Poets Society is a completely free poetry group that is open to writers of all ages and experience levels.
Join us at the Black Mountain Library from 6:00-7:30 pm on the first Tuesday of every month for our (respectful) feedback group.
FREE. Meets in the garden weather permitting.
Saturdays from 10:30 AM – 12 PM
GREAT OPPORTUNITY to have an in-person healing session in ASHEVILLE by Chloe Kemp, award-winning best-selling author, seer, medium, and intuitive shamanic energy healer. Sessions available MAY 23 – JUNE 8 at location 2 blocks from Malvern Hills Park. Chloe utilizes her past life memories of ancient healing techniques, working with her Spirit guides to provide energetic emotional, physical, mental and spiritual healing. If Spirit has information about a client’s past life, Chloe receives sensations and visions, allowing her to see people, places and experiences from the past life. Frequently, stuck energy that causes problems in this lifetime involves a person’s trauma in a past life. Chloe will re-experience the trauma for you, clearing and releasing all energy that no longer serves you if her Spirit Guides determine it is necessary to clear a past life. She also balances your chakras and performs extra work on any physical, emotional, or spiritual areas her Spirit Guides deem necessary. Afterward Chloe assists her clients with processing the experience. For more information about Chloe, her spiritual memoir, and her healing work, visit https://www.chloekempwisdomkeeper.com
In 2014, a group of Vietnam combat veterans began meeting at the Charles George VA Hospital in Asheville to participate in a unique creative writing program. The focus was capturing their stories through essays and poetry to find the voices war had taken from them. The hope was to reclaim a sense of their shared humanity, build camaraderie and find some degree of healing.
To continue this work, the NC Veterans Writing Alliance Foundation will be offering free creative writing classes at the East Asheville Library in June and July. The goal is to provide healing through the art of creative writing to all veterans in our community.
Join other veterans for this series of classes on Tuesdays at 4:30 p.m. from June 11-July 30 at the East Asheville library. To sign up, please e-mail Ron Toler at [email protected].
Celebrate the ephemeral beauty of flowers during this immersive morning nature retreat! In Japan, the birthplace of forest bathing (Shinrin Yoku), they celebrate the annual cherry blossom bloom (Sakura) with a practice known as Hanami, which translates to “contemplate the flowers.” This experience gently invites us to cultivate our attention and sensory awareness, while noticing the evanescent nature of flowering, both within and around us. Together, we will explore our relationships with native wildflowers, ourselves, each-other, and the more-than-human-world.
Saturdays from 10:30 AM – 12 PM
Democrats need to be more actively messaging and to overcome the makers of fake news with the truth! Join this ongoing group of writers working together on Letters to the Editor and Opinion Editorials. We’ll discuss the issues we care about most deeply and craft a plan to respond to events as they occur in real time.
The group meets the first and third Monday of each month for writing, responding to one another’s work, scheduling submissions, and exploring media outlets across the state.
“Rant with purpose. Support with facts. Propel action.” – Myra Schoen
In 2014, a group of Vietnam combat veterans began meeting at the Charles George VA Hospital in Asheville to participate in a unique creative writing program. The focus was capturing their stories through essays and poetry to find the voices war had taken from them. The hope was to reclaim a sense of their shared humanity, build camaraderie and find some degree of healing.
To continue this work, the NC Veterans Writing Alliance Foundation will be offering free creative writing classes at the East Asheville Library in June and July. The goal is to provide healing through the art of creative writing to all veterans in our community.
Join other veterans for this series of classes on Tuesdays at 4:30 p.m. from June 11-July 30 at the East Asheville library. To sign up, please e-mail Ron Toler at [email protected].
Celebrate the light of Summer with a one hour Summer Solstice Sound Bath! A sound bath can cleanse your soul, restore your balance, surround you with peace and tranquility and stimulate healing.
For the meditation, we will feel the warmth of the sun on your skin as you bask in the suns gentle rays imagining the light penetrating your body with healing energy.
Note: Please bring a mat/blankets/pillow since you will be lying on the floor.
Wear comfortable and flexible clothing.
Choose your space starting at 6:15 pm, doors close promptly at 6:30 pm.
NOTE: Accessible parking is available in the Center for Spiritual Living Asheville upper parking lot. The entrance to the upper parking lot is off of S. Bear Creek Rd between Science of Mind Way and Sand Hill Rd. (see map in comments).
There is a boardwalk walk way from the upper parking lot to the building entrance.
Embark on a transformative journey of self-discovery and inner healing through our groundbreaking Breathwork Meditation Workshop including 2 Sound Baths! During this immersive experience you will be guided through a powerful Breathwork practice to help you massively release stress, heal past wounds and traumas, access deeper levels of awareness, and connect more profoundly to Source.
Led by two professional highly experienced facilitators with over 50 years experience between them, this workshop will
deepen your connection with your breath and unlock its incredible potential for physical, mental, and emotional well-being.
Join a group of like-minded individuals on the path to self-discovery in a supportive nurturing environment on the beautiful island in Marshall on one of the world’s oldest rivers.
You may come to the full day (10am-4.30pm, $120 ) which includes two Breathwork Meditation Sessions with sound baths and a session of Self-discovery. You may also come to the first Breathwork Meditation Session with sound bath only (10am-1pm, $60) or the second Breathwork Session with sound bath only (1.30pm-4.30pm, $60).
Register at www.breakthroughbreathwork.com/events
Saturdays from 10:30 AM – 12 PM
The stories we tell to, and about, ourselves determine how we experience life.Our stories impact our relationships with Self, others, and the beyond-human world.
Do you find yourself stuck in the same old movie? Going around and around with the same problems, getting the same results. Old stories impact all areas of life – work, relationships, spirituality, our sense of belonging in the world, and our emotional and physical health.
Our inner stories maybe repeated often but rarely examined and revised with an eye to our soul’s evolution. When we take the time to work with these essential life narratives we can change how we perceive and participate in the world.
Is it time for a new story?
This one-day, outdoor, program is a chance to step out of time, out of the continual narrative of your life, into a securely held circle designed for deep transformation.
Here you can let your guard down, fall apart, melt into the forest, and release back to the earth those loyal-soldier stories that may have protected you well but you no longer need and are only serving to shield you from life’s vibrant beauty.
In this magical space we will work with your story, ancient medicine stories from the Celtic lands, the nature and elemental beings to help you forge your new story. One that wings strong enough to carry you, radiant, into this next chapter of life.
About Your Guide: Kat Houghton PhD
Kat is a native British storyteller who has been guiding transformational experiences for over 25 years.
After a devastating loss, Kat descended into Grief, eventually learning how to apprentice herself to her sorrow with support from some wise Elders. Now, she walks with others as they dance with life’s initiations in all their guises.
Kat is a psychologist and wilderness rites of passage guide. She holds certificates in Eco-Therapy, Transpersonal Hypnotherapy and Transformational Coaching.
Kat thrives in the liminal spaces where the known brushes up against the unknown, always peering deeper into the darkness for guidance on life’s eternal questions. She creates safe spaces for people to explore parts of themselves that are hiding or ignored, bringing wonder to the process of inner growth.
Raised on farms in Northern England and Southern Scotland she now is rooting on a forest farm in the Southern Appalachian mountains growing mushrooms and guiding retreats.
The Logistics
This program is held by the 30-acre forest farm, The Forest Farmacy, Kat and her partner Chris, steward in Madison County, NC. There is plenty of space to roam in the forest. The farm backs up onto hundreds of acres of more forest.
Please bring your own lunch, a water bottle, journal and pen.
The Forest Farmacy holds a no alcohol and no illegal drug policy. They find inspiration through connection with the natural world.