Calendar of Events

We are thrilled to extend an invitation for you to join us once again for the highly anticipated Vintage Market Days® at the WNC Ag Center from

November 22-24. This is more than just an event; it’s a celebration of creativity, community, and the timeless charm of vintage treasures. Immerse yourself in a vibrant atmosphere filled with unique finds, inspiring artisans, and like-minded enthusiasts. Together, let’s create unforgettable memories and embrace the spirit of discovery that makes Vintage Market Days® a truly special experience. We can’t wait to see you there!

We will be hosting local vendors and from surrounding states who will have a variety of items including but not limited to vintage, boutique, yummy snacks and treats,handmade, repurposed items, and so much more! As we celebrate our 8th year here in the Asheville area, our event has grown over the years because of you our VMD™ supporters!

November 22 & 23 9:00am-5:00pm

November 24 10:00am-3:00pm

We all need a little seasonal pep after a hard Fall, and what better way to kick off the holidays than at Ross Farm and Appalachian Standard’s magical Holiday Farm Market? 🎅❄️
Join us Saturday, November 23, 2024, from 12:00 PM to 4:00 PM for a festive afternoon that’ll warm your holiday spirit. Shop local and support small Asheville businesses this holiday season at the Holiday Farm Market! That’s the gift that keeps giving, baby.
Get ready for a merry afternoon filled with:
✨ A delightful marketplace of local craft vendors with unique treasures
🍪 Sweet holiday treats to tempt your taste buds
🍔 Mountain Man BBQ Food Truck
🎤 Cheerful holiday caroling throughout the greenhouse
🎶 A heartwarming community sing-a-long (all voices welcome!)
⛄ The coziest winter vibes this side of the Appalachians
🪴 An abundance of gorgeous houseplants in our cozy paradise
Event Details:
Date: Saturday, November 23, 2024
Time: 12:00 PM – 4:00 PM
Location: 91 Holbrook Road, Candler, NC 28715
Escape the winter chill in our cozy greenhouses, where you’ll discover a wonderland of lush, thriving houseplants just waiting to bring life to your holiday decor. 🎄 Whether you’re a seasoned plant parent or just starting your green journey, you’ll find the perfect leafy companion to brighten your home or gift to someone special. 🎁
Bring your friends, family, and holiday cheer for an afternoon of festive fun in our warm, plant-filled haven! ❤️

We are thrilled to extend an invitation for you to join us once again for the highly anticipated Vintage Market Days® at the WNC Ag Center from

November 22-24. This is more than just an event; it’s a celebration of creativity, community, and the timeless charm of vintage treasures. Immerse yourself in a vibrant atmosphere filled with unique finds, inspiring artisans, and like-minded enthusiasts. Together, let’s create unforgettable memories and embrace the spirit of discovery that makes Vintage Market Days® a truly special experience. We can’t wait to see you there!

We will be hosting local vendors and from surrounding states who will have a variety of items including but not limited to vintage, boutique, yummy snacks and treats,handmade, repurposed items, and so much more! As we celebrate our 8th year here in the Asheville area, our event has grown over the years because of you our VMD™ supporters!

November 22 & 23 9:00am-5:00pm

November 24 10:00am-3:00pm

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.

It’s the most wonderful time of the year! Come celebrate our 10th anniversary with us and support local artists & antique vendors that have been impacted by Hurricane Helene.

The market will be held at the beautiful Haywood Park Hotel Event Space, 46 Haywood Street, from 10 am – 4 pm both days.

Admission is FREE! Park on the street or in the Harrah’s Cherokee Center or Wall Street Parking Decks.

Adoptable puppies with Mountain Pet Rescue. This is an INDOOR market and service dogs only are allowed.

Food & coffee onsite

The Big Crafty — a hand-to-heart celebration of creative exuberance — returns on Saturday and Sunday, December 7 and 8, noon-6 p.m. daily at the ExploreAsheville.com Arena in downtown Asheville. $10 entry on Saturday, free to enter on Sunday.

Now, perhaps more than ever, The Big Crafty believes in supporting creative venturers. As Western North Carolina’s creative community recovers from Hurricane Helene, The Big Crafty offers a space for makers to sell their work and for fans of unique art and craft to support those makers … while also snapping up memorable and meaningful holiday gifts.

Shop for ceramics, prints, jewelry, woodwork and more, while also celebrating the vibrant and resurgent creative community of WNC.

It’s the most wonderful time of the year! Come celebrate our 10th anniversary with us and support local artists & antique vendors that have been impacted by Hurricane Helene.

The market will be held at the beautiful Haywood Park Hotel Event Space, 46 Haywood Street, from 10 am – 4 pm both days.

Admission is FREE! Park on the street or in the Harrah’s Cherokee Center or Wall Street Parking Decks.

Adoptable puppies with Mountain Pet Rescue. This is an INDOOR market and service dogs only are allowed.

Food & coffee onsite

The Big Crafty — a hand-to-heart celebration of creative exuberance — returns on Saturday and Sunday, December 7 and 8, noon-6 p.m. daily at the ExploreAsheville.com Arena in downtown Asheville. $10 entry on Saturday, free to enter on Sunday.

Now, perhaps more than ever, The Big Crafty believes in supporting creative venturers. As Western North Carolina’s creative community recovers from Hurricane Helene, The Big Crafty offers a space for makers to sell their work and for fans of unique art and craft to support those makers … while also snapping up memorable and meaningful holiday gifts.

Shop for ceramics, prints, jewelry, woodwork and more, while also celebrating the vibrant and resurgent creative community of WNC.

Join Dark City Poets Society at Oak and Grist Distilling Company for a night of spoken word. Everyone is welcome to share a few poems or just sit back and drink for a good cause. The event is free and $1 from every classic cocktail will be donated to Friends of the Black Mountain Library.
Sign-ups to share will begin 15 minutes prior to the start of the event. We look forward to seeing you there!

Come on by for night of spoken word presented by Dark City Poets Society at Oak and Grist Distilling Company. Everyone is welcome to share a few poems or just sit back and drink for a good cause.

The event is free and $1 from every classic cocktail will be donated to Friends of the Black Mountain Library.

gn-ups to share will begin 15 minutes prior to the start of the event. We look forward to seeing you there!

Can’t make it to this one? This event happens the third tuesday of every month!

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

The 22nd annual Business of Farming Conference, presented by ASAP (Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project), will be held Feb. 22 from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. The conference will take place at Blue Ridge Community College in Flat Rock, Henderson County, NC—which is a location change from A-B Tech, as originally announced. The A-B Tech Conference Center is undergoing repairs after serving as a disaster relief location during Hurricane Helene.

The conference focuses on the business side of farming, offering beginning and established farmers financial, legal, operational, and marketing tools to improve farm businesses and make professional connections. This year’s conference will also have a strong emphasis on resilience planning and resources for post-Helene recovery. More than a dozen workshops will be led by innovative farmers and specialists, including You Can’t Do It All: Hiring and Keeping a Productive Team and Planning for Farm Resiliency. A full list of workshops is at asapconnections.org.

Registration is now open at asapconnections.org. The cost is $75 by Feb. 1 and $95 after, with a discount for farm partners registering together. Scholarships are available for limited-resource and BIPOC farmers. The registration price includes a locally sourced breakfast and lunch. Lunch is sponsored by Farm Burger.

Support for the conference is provided in part by Dogwood Health Trust, NC Tobacco Trust Fund Commission, Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE), U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) National Institute of Food and Agriculture.

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

Discover the Hendersonville Farmers Market, Locally Grown, Community Strong

A vibrant weekly gathering at the Historic Train Depot in downtown Hendersonville. Running every Saturday from May 3rd to October 25th, rain or shine, the market showcases over 30 local vendors within a 60-mile radius. From farm-fresh produce and meats to baked goods, crafts, and live entertainment, there’s something for everyone. Join us from 8:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. for a celebration of food, farms, and family in a lively community atmosphere.

The plantings in our Heritage Garden represent the rich history of crafts in the Appalachian region. Join us for demonstrations in paper making, broom-making, quilting, woodworking, natural dyes and more. Purchases crafts from local artists and enjoy a drink from the Gardener’s Shed.

Interested in selling your work or doing a demonstration? Contact [email protected] for more info!

The Hendersonville Farmers Market, Locally Grown, Community Strong,

Located at the Historic Train Depot in the heart of downtown Hendersonville’s Seventh Avenue District. Opening its doors every Saturday from May 3rd to October 25th, this market is a testament to local community support and sustainable living. Running from 8:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., rain or shine, the market boasts over 30 vendors within a 60-mile radius. Explore a diverse array of offerings, including farm-fresh produce, meats, eggs, dairy, honey, baked goods, crafts, and beverages. The lively atmosphere is enhanced by live music every Saturday, creating a festive backdrop for your market adventure. Don’t miss special events like Tomato Day, Wellness Day, and Juneteenth Celebration, offering unique experiences throughout the season. With ample free parking available, the Hendersonville Farmers Market is your go-to destination for a weekly outing celebrating local producers, growers, and the community spirit.