Calendar of Events

Ready for a change of scene, but not ready to travel in the age of COVID-19? The library has just what you need. Check out Passport Around the World. Call BCPL’s Ask a Librarian line (828) 250-4700, email [email protected], or call or email your local library, and tell us where you would like to virtually visit. Your librarian will select 5-10 items about your destination of choice, anything from documentaries, folktales, and cookbooks to travel guides, poetry, and children’s books. We will notify you when your items are ready. Pick up your Passport bundle at the curbside pickup location of your choice. Bon Voyage!

Ready for a change of scene, but not ready to travel in the age of COVID-19? The library has just what you need. Check out Passport Around the World. Call BCPL’s Ask a Librarian line (828) 250-4700, email [email protected], or call or email your local library, and tell us where you would like to virtually visit. Your librarian will select 5-10 items about your destination of choice, anything from documentaries, folktales, and cookbooks to travel guides, poetry, and children’s books. We will notify you when your items are ready. Pick up your Passport bundle at the curbside pickup location of your choice. Bon Voyage!

Readings by Great Smokies Writing Program faculty. Registration required. Free.

Sebastian Matthews
Vicki Lane
Scott Branson
Luke Hankins
Annie Frazier Crandell
Rebecca Petruck

This event is free to attend, but registration is required. Click here to register. If you elect to attend, we will email you on the day of the event with the link and password required to attend on Zoom. If you decide to attend and to purchase the authors’ books, we ask that you purchase from Malaprop’s. When you do this you are supporting our work and keeping more dollars in our community. If you would like to support us without purchasing a book, you may purchase a gift card or make a donation of any amount. Thank you!

This event is free but registration is required. Please click here to register. You will then receive an email on the day of the event with URL and password you’ll need to attend.

If you decide to attend and to purchase the authors’ books, we ask that you purchase from Malaprop’s. When you do this you are supporting our work and keeping more dollars in our community. If you would like to support us without purchasing a book, you may purchase a gift card or make a donation of any amount. Thank you!

America is at war with itself over the right to vote, or, more precisely, over the question of who gets to exercise that right and under what circumstances. Conservatives speak in ominous tones of voter fraud so widespread that it threatens public trust in elected government. Progressives counter that fraud is rare and that calls for reforms such as voter ID are part of a campaign to shrink the electorate and exclude some citizens from the political life of the nation.

North Carolina is a battleground for this debate, and its history can help us understand why–a century and a half after ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment–we remain a nation divided over the right to vote. In Fragile Democracy, James L. Leloudis and Robert R. Korstad tell the story of race and voting rights, from the end of the Civil War until the present day. They show that battles over the franchise have played out through cycles of emancipatory politics and conservative retrenchment. When race has been used as an instrument of exclusion from political life, the result has been a society in which vast numbers of Americans are denied the elements of meaningful freedom: a good job, a good education, good health, and a good home. That history points to the need for a bold new vision of what democracy looks like.

James L. Leloudis is professor of history, Peter T. Grauer Associate Dean for Honors Carolina, and director of the James M. Johnston Center for Undergraduate Excellence at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is also co-chair of the UNC Commission on History, Race, and a Way Forward.

Robert R. Korstad is professor emeritus of public policy and history at Duke University’s Terry Sanford School of Public Policy.

Ready for a change of scene, but not ready to travel in the age of COVID-19? The library has just what you need. Check out Passport Around the World. Call BCPL’s Ask a Librarian line (828) 250-4700, email [email protected], or call or email your local library, and tell us where you would like to virtually visit. Your librarian will select 5-10 items about your destination of choice, anything from documentaries, folktales, and cookbooks to travel guides, poetry, and children’s books. We will notify you when your items are ready. Pick up your Passport bundle at the curbside pickup location of your choice. Bon Voyage!

Come join us for a fun afternoon (most likely on Zoom) sampling some wine(s) and talking about books. As always, the book can be fiction or non-fiction ….. whatever……just so that it somehow involves whatever topic we’ve chosen for the month. For September we will be discussing Women Who Have Influenced or Changed Things. And if you just want to join us to hear about the books we’ve read but haven’t read any yet yourself, come along anyhow. You’ll have a chance then to suggest a topic for us to read books on next time.

GHOSTED: COMEDY WALKING TOUR

COVID has postponed our bus tours, but it won’t stop us from laughing! Our brand new experience is an up tempo theatrical walking tour of haunted Asheville. You and 13 others will depart from the LaZoom Room and follow an undead guide through Asheville’s creepy streets in search of window into the past. Along the way, we’ll encounter real ghosts that will have you jumping out of your skin. Not really! Or really? Take the tour and find out!

Meander through this historic part of town encircling the old Railroad Depot. When the first steam locomotive arrived in Hendersonville on July 4, 1879, crammed with tourists and visitors from the low country of South Carolina, it was the beginning of an exciting era of big-band music, dancing, numerous inns and hotels, much real estate trading, and huge agricultural growth. Money was made and lost, famous musicians and sports figures came calling, delicious food was enjoyed at every inn and boarding house … Hendersonville was in its hey-day from that moment until the financial crash of 1929. This neighborhood boasted many businesses run by Black and white owners. Let’s hear about it. The walk will start at 10 a.m. at the front steps of City Hall, corner of Fifth Avenue E. and King St. . Due to COVID-19 restrictions, space is limited and reservations are required. Participants should wear a cloth face covering. Phone history walk leader Mary Jo Padgett at 828-545-3179 to make a reservation. Private tours for small groups can be arranged anytime.

Ready for a change of scene, but not ready to travel in the age of COVID-19? The library has just what you need. Check out Passport Around the World. Call BCPL’s Ask a Librarian line (828) 250-4700, email [email protected], or call or email your local library, and tell us where you would like to virtually visit. Your librarian will select 5-10 items about your destination of choice, anything from documentaries, folktales, and cookbooks to travel guides, poetry, and children’s books. We will notify you when your items are ready. Pick up your Passport bundle at the curbside pickup location of your choice. Bon Voyage!

GHOSTED: COMEDY WALKING TOUR

COVID has postponed our bus tours, but it won’t stop us from laughing! Our brand new experience is an up tempo theatrical walking tour of haunted Asheville. You and 13 others will depart from the LaZoom Room and follow an undead guide through Asheville’s creepy streets in search of window into the past. Along the way, we’ll encounter real ghosts that will have you jumping out of your skin. Not really! Or really? Take the tour and find out!

• Sandburg Home Free Tour Days and National Park Fee Free Days (when noted)
  Visitors can enjoy free tours of the Sandburg Home on 10 days in 2020. Five days are also fee free days at all national parks.
• April 11, 2020 (first Saturday of local school spring break)
• April 18, 2020 – First Day of National Park Week (national fee free day)
• June 13, 2020 (Sandburgs’ wedding anniversary)
• August 25, 2020 – National Park Service Birthday (national fee free day)
• September 26, 2020 – National Public Lands Day (national fee free day)
• October 17, 2020 (Park Anniversary)
• November 11, 2020 – Veterans Day
• December 26, 2020 (Saturday after Christmas)

Last year, our own Chris Joyell, Director of the Asheville Design Center guided us on a walking tour of downtown Asheville. This year, we’re touring Asheville on bikes. We’re teaming up with The Flying Bike Tours to take out a fleet of electric bikes. We will still pass through downtown, where Chris will share his extensive knowledge about Asheville’s urban core, including stories of how redlining has shaped our city and what the future could hold for Asheville. With the bikes, we will expand our range, pedaling through the River Arts District and the Southside, experiencing the highlights (and lowlights) of Asheville’s bike infrastructure. We will stop frequently to hear from Chris about the history of development in these areas and what the future might look like in these places.

The bike rental includes a helmet and the bikes have a basket with a waterproof cover to store your belongings while riding. We encourage folks to bring water and snacks, wear close-toed shoes, and dress appropriately for the weather (sunscreen, raincoat, sunglasses/hat etc.). We do recommend that folks have prior experience riding a bike, the transition from a normal bike to an electric one is easy, but they do require some knowledge of how to ride. If you’re not in professional biker shape, don’t worry! The electric bikes are much easier to ride than a normal bike. Uphills are a breeze.

All participants will be required to agree to our COVID-19 event guidelines listed below and again agree to comply with the policies on the day of the event in addition to signing our standard wavier.

Ready for a change of scene, but not ready to travel in the age of COVID-19? The library has just what you need. Check out Passport Around the World. Call BCPL’s Ask a Librarian line (828) 250-4700, email [email protected], or call or email your local library, and tell us where you would like to virtually visit. Your librarian will select 5-10 items about your destination of choice, anything from documentaries, folktales, and cookbooks to travel guides, poetry, and children’s books. We will notify you when your items are ready. Pick up your Passport bundle at the curbside pickup location of your choice. Bon Voyage!

We will discuss our feelings about the book, what we learned along with pre-made discussion questions.

GHOSTED: COMEDY WALKING TOUR

COVID has postponed our bus tours, but it won’t stop us from laughing! Our brand new experience is an up tempo theatrical walking tour of haunted Asheville. You and 13 others will depart from the LaZoom Room and follow an undead guide through Asheville’s creepy streets in search of window into the past. Along the way, we’ll encounter real ghosts that will have you jumping out of your skin. Not really! Or really? Take the tour and find out!

Ready for a change of scene, but not ready to travel in the age of COVID-19? The library has just what you need. Check out Passport Around the World. Call BCPL’s Ask a Librarian line (828) 250-4700, email [email protected], or call or email your local library, and tell us where you would like to virtually visit. Your librarian will select 5-10 items about your destination of choice, anything from documentaries, folktales, and cookbooks to travel guides, poetry, and children’s books. We will notify you when your items are ready. Pick up your Passport bundle at the curbside pickup location of your choice. Bon Voyage!

Era of Ignition by Amber Tamblyn. Free.

Hello Queer Loves!

Welcome to our first queer book club with the book Belonging by Toko-pa Turner.

We’ll begin with introductions and shared group agreements, and then move into a discussion on on the first five chapters with a focus on chapters 4 (False Belonging) and 5 (The Inner Marriage).

The group will be facilitated by Stacia Thompson and Jodi McLaren. Stacia is a psychotherapist who loves spirituality and earth magick. Jodi McLaren is a singer-songwriter and music therapist who dance and express big feelings.

We welcome all queer-identified folks to join for a meaningful inviting conversation at Woodfin Riverside Park at the octagon tables. If it rains we will meet under the open shelter.

We will be spaced appropriately, please bring/wear masks and do not come if you’ve been exposed to covid-19.

GHOSTED: COMEDY WALKING TOUR

COVID has postponed our bus tours, but it won’t stop us from laughing! Our brand new experience is an up tempo theatrical walking tour of haunted Asheville. You and 13 others will depart from the LaZoom Room and follow an undead guide through Asheville’s creepy streets in search of window into the past. Along the way, we’ll encounter real ghosts that will have you jumping out of your skin. Not really! Or really? Take the tour and find out!

GHOSTED: COMEDY WALKING TOUR

COVID has postponed our bus tours, but it won’t stop us from laughing! Our brand new experience is an up tempo theatrical walking tour of haunted Asheville. You and 13 others will depart from the LaZoom Room and follow an undead guide through Asheville’s creepy streets in search of window into the past. Along the way, we’ll encounter real ghosts that will have you jumping out of your skin. Not really! Or really? Take the tour and find out!