Join host and Malaprop’s Bookseller Patricia Furnish to discuss a range of books across true crime and public affairs. The club meets in Asheville and offsite, usually at a restaurant, on the first Thursday of the month at 4 p.m. Please email [email protected] for info and instructions to attend. See the list of upcoming dates above and click here to learn more about the club, view important news, and find the pick for this month!
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.
Romance Book Club is a space to celebrate love in literature. Whether it’s set in early 1800s London, a distant planet years into the future, a fantasy world of magic, or our own contemporary universe, we are here for the stories that end with a happily-ever-after (or at least a happily-for-now).
Meetings will take place at 7:00 PM ET on the last Tuesday of each month via Zoom. Please visit the Romance Bookclub page for the monthly selection, and email Samantha at [email protected] for the link to join.
Extension Master GardenerSM Volunteers of Buncombe County are happy to announce for the sixteenth year we are offering School Garden Grants to Asheville City and Buncombe County public schools, including state charter schools.

We provide a notice of the application period along with instructions to all school principals, elementary through senior high. Additional information is available on our website, buncombemastergardener.org, where you can learn more about the guidelines for receiving a grant and get online access to the 2023 School Garden Grants Application.
All applications must be completed online. Completed applications will be accepted beginning January 9, 2023, and must be submitted no later than 9 p.m. on February 3, 2023. If you have any questions, please call the Extension Office at 828-255-5522.
We are proud of our partnership with Asheville City and Buncombe County Schools. Since 2007, we have awarded 52 School Garden Grants totaling over $45,000. These grants have involved more than 16,500 students and hundreds of teachers, parents, and community volunteers.
School gardens grow more than plants. They grow imagination and creativity. They make math and science come alive, and they build community. We hope your school will join us in 2023.
Click on the link below to review the guidelines for school garden grants:
Guidelines for 2023 School Garden Grants
Join us throughout February as we celebrate Black Legacy Month with programs and events for all ages! In addition to the programs listed below, we will have special story times and exhibits at most of our libraries.
- Bright Star Touring Theatre: African Folktales – February 1 at 4pm at the Weaverville Library (for children ages 3 and up)
- Book Club: Jazz by Toni Morrison – Thursday, February 2 a 3pm at the Weaverville Library
- Book Club: The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett – Tuesday, February 7 at 6pm
- Book Club: The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict Tuesday, February 14 at 1pm at the Leicester Library
- Book Club: Life in Motion: An Unlikely Ballerina by Misty Copeland – February 16 at 2:30pm at the Skyland/South Buncombe Library
- Book Club: The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett – February 21 at 7pm at the Fairview Library
- Black Experience Book Club: The Furrows by Namwali Serpell – February 23 at 6:30pm at the Noir Collective, co-sponsored by the East Asheville library
Drop by your local library and check us out. Email or call if you have any questions.
Our librarians have also put together a Black Legacy Month reading list for all ages.
Black Legacy Month Reading List 2023
Books for Adults
Adult Fiction
- Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler
- On Girlhood: 15 Stories from the Well-Read Black Girl Library edited by Glory Edim
- What the Fireflies Knew by Kai Harries
- Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James
- The Love Songs of W.E.B. Dubois by Honoree Fannone Jeffers
- How Long ‘Til Black Future Month? by N.K. Jemison
- Deacon King Kong by James McBride
- Take My Hand by Dolen Perkins-Valdez
- Black Bottom Saints by Alice Randall
- The Violin Conspiracy by Brendan Slocumb
- Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead
- Seven Days in June by Tia Williams
- Red at the Bone by Jacqueline Woodson
Adult nonfiction
- Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man by Emmanuel Acho
- Carefree Black Girls: A Celebration of Black women in Popular Culture by Zeba Blay
- The 1619 Project edited by Nikole Hannah-Jones
- Rest is Resistance by Tricia Hersey
- Wow, No Thank You by Samantha Irby*
- The Sum of Us by Heather McGhee
- All That She Carried by Tiya Miles
- Please Don’t Sit On My Bed In Your Outside Clothes by Phoebe Robinson*
- You’ll Never Believe What Happened to Lacey by Amber Ruffin*
- Counting Descent by Clint Smith
- The Body Is Not an Apology by Sonya Renee Taylor
- Here For It by R. Eric Thomas*
- Koshersoul: the faith and food journey of an African American Jew by Michael W. Twitty
*especially good on audio because the authors read their work!
Picture books for families to share
- My Heart Flies Open by Omileye Achikeobi-Lewis
- Only the Best: The Exceptional Life and Fashion of Ann Lowe by Kate Messner
- My N.C. From A to Z by Michelle Lanier
- Shhh! The Baby’s Asleep by JaNay Brown-Wood
- Curls by Ruth Forman
- Fly by Brittany J. Thurman
- Opal Lee and What it Means to be Free: The True Story of the Grandmother of Juneteenth by Alice Faye Duncan
- Build a House by Rhiannon Giddens
- Bright Brown Baby, A Treasury by Andrea Davis Pinkney
- Born on the Water by Nikole Hannah-Jones and Renee Watson
Chapter books for older kids
- Isaiah Dunn is My Hero by Kelly J. BaptistBlended by Sharon Draper
- Ikenga by Nnedi Okorafor
- Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi
- Tristan Strong Trilogy (Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky, Tristan Strong Destroys the World, and Tristan Strong Keeps Punching) by Kwame Mbalia
- From the Desk of Zoe Washington by Janae Marks
- Black Boy Joy: 17 Stories Celebrating Black Boyhood edited by Kwame Mbalia
- Freewater by Amina Luqman-Dawson
- Operation Sisterhood by Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich
- The Door of No Return by Alexander Kwame
Books for teens
- Quincredible by Rodney Barnes
- The Legendborn Cycle (Legendborn and Bloodmarked) by Tracy Deonn
- All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson
- You Should See Me in a Crown by Leah Johnson
- Survive the Dome by Kosoko Jackson
- Revolution in Our Time: The Black Panther’s Promise to the People by Kekla Magoon
- Ain’t Burned All the Bright by Jason Reynolds
- Bitter by Akwaeke Emezi
- On the Come Up by Angie Thomas
- Okoye to the People by Ibi Zoboi

For the past 30 years, the Organic Growers School Spring Conference has served as a gathering place for growers in Appalachia to connect, learn from one another, and deepen connections to land and community. The Spring Conference began as an entirely volunteer-run and free event and has expanded to support an organization of ten staff with year-round programming. As we have grown, we have experimented with different approaches to keeping the event affordable and accessible while also working on compensation for our speakers and supporting our growing staff. We encourage you to check out our recent blog post exploring this in more depth. This year, we are excited to be experimenting with sliding scale ticket pricing for the first time, and we wanted to take some time to explain how this works and why we decided to implement it this year.
Looking beyond scholarships
Over the past several years, we have started implementing different scholarship options. We have set aside around $3000 in our internal budget for scholarships, and we have increased our outreach to other groups in the area who have funding to support individuals to attend conferences. We also offer work-trade opportunities for people who are interested in helping out with our event in exchange for attendance. We have around 100 work-traders access the conference each year through these opportunities, but we have never used up our entire scholarship fund for the event. We know that there are many individuals in our community that we are not reaching through our scholarship opportunities. We began to wonder if scholarship applications were creating a barrier to participation and started researching other options, landing eventually on sliding scale as our preferred model.
How alternative pricing models address accessibility
The sliding scale model, which offers the opportunity for participants to select a price to pay for their ticket, meets several of the parameters we were looking for in an accessible pricing model. Most importantly, it is a seamless way for attendees to access the price that meets their needs. So many things are means-tested in our society, and it can be exhausting to justify why one needs a more affordable price point. While many of our community members need financial support, there are also members of this community who have more than enough to share and are excited about supporting their fellow co-learners. These attendees can select the higher end of the sliding scale, which will be set at a price to offset the lower price paid by other attendees. We trust our attendees to select the option that best works for them while also considering how their selection would affect the ability of other participants to access a lower price point.
Accessibility is a priority for OGS, and implementing it is a risk for us as a small non-profit, given that we rely on our large events like the Spring Conference to support our year-round programming and staff salaries. This will certainly be an experimental year, and if we are not able to secure enough income through sliding-scale registrations, we will have to rethink our approach to pricing. We trust that our community will be thoughtful in thinking about the value that this conference has to them and about what they are able to pay for at this time. Thank you for being on this journey of discovery with us!
The Malaprop’s Book Club, hosted by Jay Jacoby, explores a diverse selection of fiction and nonfiction books determined by member suggestion. Click here to see a full schedule of what the club is reading. Club attendees get 10% off the book at Malaprop’s!
The club meets the first Wednesday of every month at 7:00 PM. The club will meet virtually until further notice. To join the club, please email [email protected]
Extension Master GardenerSM Volunteers of Buncombe County are happy to announce for the sixteenth year we are offering School Garden Grants to Asheville City and Buncombe County public schools, including state charter schools.

We provide a notice of the application period along with instructions to all school principals, elementary through senior high. Additional information is available on our website, buncombemastergardener.org, where you can learn more about the guidelines for receiving a grant and get online access to the 2023 School Garden Grants Application.
All applications must be completed online. Completed applications will be accepted beginning January 9, 2023, and must be submitted no later than 9 p.m. on February 3, 2023. If you have any questions, please call the Extension Office at 828-255-5522.
We are proud of our partnership with Asheville City and Buncombe County Schools. Since 2007, we have awarded 52 School Garden Grants totaling over $45,000. These grants have involved more than 16,500 students and hundreds of teachers, parents, and community volunteers.
School gardens grow more than plants. They grow imagination and creativity. They make math and science come alive, and they build community. We hope your school will join us in 2023.
Click on the link below to review the guidelines for school garden grants:
Guidelines for 2023 School Garden Grants
Join us throughout February as we celebrate Black Legacy Month with programs and events for all ages! In addition to the programs listed below, we will have special story times and exhibits at most of our libraries.
- Bright Star Touring Theatre: African Folktales – February 1 at 4pm at the Weaverville Library (for children ages 3 and up)
- Book Club: Jazz by Toni Morrison – Thursday, February 2 a 3pm at the Weaverville Library
- Book Club: The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett – Tuesday, February 7 at 6pm
- Book Club: The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict Tuesday, February 14 at 1pm at the Leicester Library
- Book Club: Life in Motion: An Unlikely Ballerina by Misty Copeland – February 16 at 2:30pm at the Skyland/South Buncombe Library
- Book Club: The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett – February 21 at 7pm at the Fairview Library
- Black Experience Book Club: The Furrows by Namwali Serpell – February 23 at 6:30pm at the Noir Collective, co-sponsored by the East Asheville library
Drop by your local library and check us out. Email or call if you have any questions.
Our librarians have also put together a Black Legacy Month reading list for all ages.
Black Legacy Month Reading List 2023
Books for Adults
Adult Fiction
- Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler
- On Girlhood: 15 Stories from the Well-Read Black Girl Library edited by Glory Edim
- What the Fireflies Knew by Kai Harries
- Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James
- The Love Songs of W.E.B. Dubois by Honoree Fannone Jeffers
- How Long ‘Til Black Future Month? by N.K. Jemison
- Deacon King Kong by James McBride
- Take My Hand by Dolen Perkins-Valdez
- Black Bottom Saints by Alice Randall
- The Violin Conspiracy by Brendan Slocumb
- Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead
- Seven Days in June by Tia Williams
- Red at the Bone by Jacqueline Woodson
Adult nonfiction
- Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man by Emmanuel Acho
- Carefree Black Girls: A Celebration of Black women in Popular Culture by Zeba Blay
- The 1619 Project edited by Nikole Hannah-Jones
- Rest is Resistance by Tricia Hersey
- Wow, No Thank You by Samantha Irby*
- The Sum of Us by Heather McGhee
- All That She Carried by Tiya Miles
- Please Don’t Sit On My Bed In Your Outside Clothes by Phoebe Robinson*
- You’ll Never Believe What Happened to Lacey by Amber Ruffin*
- Counting Descent by Clint Smith
- The Body Is Not an Apology by Sonya Renee Taylor
- Here For It by R. Eric Thomas*
- Koshersoul: the faith and food journey of an African American Jew by Michael W. Twitty
*especially good on audio because the authors read their work!
Picture books for families to share
- My Heart Flies Open by Omileye Achikeobi-Lewis
- Only the Best: The Exceptional Life and Fashion of Ann Lowe by Kate Messner
- My N.C. From A to Z by Michelle Lanier
- Shhh! The Baby’s Asleep by JaNay Brown-Wood
- Curls by Ruth Forman
- Fly by Brittany J. Thurman
- Opal Lee and What it Means to be Free: The True Story of the Grandmother of Juneteenth by Alice Faye Duncan
- Build a House by Rhiannon Giddens
- Bright Brown Baby, A Treasury by Andrea Davis Pinkney
- Born on the Water by Nikole Hannah-Jones and Renee Watson
Chapter books for older kids
- Isaiah Dunn is My Hero by Kelly J. BaptistBlended by Sharon Draper
- Ikenga by Nnedi Okorafor
- Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi
- Tristan Strong Trilogy (Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky, Tristan Strong Destroys the World, and Tristan Strong Keeps Punching) by Kwame Mbalia
- From the Desk of Zoe Washington by Janae Marks
- Black Boy Joy: 17 Stories Celebrating Black Boyhood edited by Kwame Mbalia
- Freewater by Amina Luqman-Dawson
- Operation Sisterhood by Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich
- The Door of No Return by Alexander Kwame
Books for teens
- Quincredible by Rodney Barnes
- The Legendborn Cycle (Legendborn and Bloodmarked) by Tracy Deonn
- All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson
- You Should See Me in a Crown by Leah Johnson
- Survive the Dome by Kosoko Jackson
- Revolution in Our Time: The Black Panther’s Promise to the People by Kekla Magoon
- Ain’t Burned All the Bright by Jason Reynolds
- Bitter by Akwaeke Emezi
- On the Come Up by Angie Thomas
- Okoye to the People by Ibi Zoboi
The upcoming Journeyperson course is now available AT NO COST! Due to some timely grant funding, we can offer this in-depth farmer training for farmers in years 3-7 with no associated tuition fee! The course consists of monthly cohort meet-ups and 2-3 in-depth workshops, plus mentorship!
In addition, a select number of participants will also receive matched FUNDS for your farm savings account (Savings Incentive Program) and money to spend on a professional development opportunity of your choosing! Want to attend a workshop on livestock management? OGS will contribute towards that fee! Are you saving money for a farm asset? OGS will contribute up to a certain amount to that investment.
The Journeyperson Program is for farmers who have been independently farming for three or more years and are serious about operating farm businesses in the Southern Appalachian region.
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For the past 30 years, the Organic Growers School Spring Conference has served as a gathering place for growers in Appalachia to connect, learn from one another, and deepen connections to land and community. The Spring Conference began as an entirely volunteer-run and free event and has expanded to support an organization of ten staff with year-round programming. As we have grown, we have experimented with different approaches to keeping the event affordable and accessible while also working on compensation for our speakers and supporting our growing staff. We encourage you to check out our recent blog post exploring this in more depth. This year, we are excited to be experimenting with sliding scale ticket pricing for the first time, and we wanted to take some time to explain how this works and why we decided to implement it this year.
Looking beyond scholarships
Over the past several years, we have started implementing different scholarship options. We have set aside around $3000 in our internal budget for scholarships, and we have increased our outreach to other groups in the area who have funding to support individuals to attend conferences. We also offer work-trade opportunities for people who are interested in helping out with our event in exchange for attendance. We have around 100 work-traders access the conference each year through these opportunities, but we have never used up our entire scholarship fund for the event. We know that there are many individuals in our community that we are not reaching through our scholarship opportunities. We began to wonder if scholarship applications were creating a barrier to participation and started researching other options, landing eventually on sliding scale as our preferred model.
How alternative pricing models address accessibility
The sliding scale model, which offers the opportunity for participants to select a price to pay for their ticket, meets several of the parameters we were looking for in an accessible pricing model. Most importantly, it is a seamless way for attendees to access the price that meets their needs. So many things are means-tested in our society, and it can be exhausting to justify why one needs a more affordable price point. While many of our community members need financial support, there are also members of this community who have more than enough to share and are excited about supporting their fellow co-learners. These attendees can select the higher end of the sliding scale, which will be set at a price to offset the lower price paid by other attendees. We trust our attendees to select the option that best works for them while also considering how their selection would affect the ability of other participants to access a lower price point.
Accessibility is a priority for OGS, and implementing it is a risk for us as a small non-profit, given that we rely on our large events like the Spring Conference to support our year-round programming and staff salaries. This will certainly be an experimental year, and if we are not able to secure enough income through sliding-scale registrations, we will have to rethink our approach to pricing. We trust that our community will be thoughtful in thinking about the value that this conference has to them and about what they are able to pay for at this time. Thank you for being on this journey of discovery with us!
Connect to the liberating power of rest, daydreaming, and naps as a foundation for healing and justice. Tricia Hersey, aka The Nap Bishop, asks what it would be like to live in a well-rested world. Hersey casts an illuminating light on our troubled relationship with rest and how to imagine and dream our way to a future where rest is exalted and our worth does not reside in how much we produce. Informed by her deep experience in theology, activism, and performance art, Rest Is Resistance is a call to action, a battle cry, a field guide, and a manifesto for all of us who are sleep-deprived, searching for justice, and longing to be liberated from the oppressive grip of Grind Culture.
Crime and Politics Book Club
This virtual event is free but registration is required. Click here to register. The link required to attend will be emailed to registrants prior to the event.
If you decide to attend and to purchase books, we ask that you purchase from Malaprop’s. When you do this you make it possible for us to continue hosting author events and you keep more dollars in our community. You may also support our work by purchasing a gift card or making a donation of any amount below. Thank you!
A novel inspired by true events. The coming-of-age story of Philbet, a gay, physically-misshapen boy in rural Georgia, who battles bullying, ignorance, and disdain as he makes his way in life as an outsider–before finding acceptance in unlikely places. Fueled by tomato sandwiches and green milkshakes, and obsessed with cars, Philbet struggles with life and love as a gay boy in rural Georgia. He’s happiest when helping Grandaddy dig potatoes from the vegetable garden that connects their houses. But Philbet’s world is shattered and his resilience shaken by events that crush his innocence and sense of security; expose his misshapen chest skillfully hidden behind shirts Mama makes at home; and convince him that he’s not fit to be loved by Knox, the older boy he idolizes to distraction. Over time, Philbet finds refuge in unexpected places and inner strength in unexpected ways, leading to a resolution in the form of a letter from beyond the grave.
Jeffrey Dale Lofton hails from Warm Springs, Georgia, best known as the home of Roosevelt’s Little White House. He calls the nation’s capital home now and has for over three decades. During those early years he spent many a night trodding the boards of the DC’s theaters and performing arts centers, including the Kennedy Center, Signature Theatre, Woolly Mammoth, and Studio Theatre. He even scored a few television screen appearances, including a residuals-rich Super Bowl halftime commercial, which his accountant wisecracked “is the finest work of your career.” Ultimately he stepped away from acting, much to his parents’ relief, to pursue other, more traditional work, including providing communications counsel to landscape architects and helping war veterans tell their stories to add richness and nuance to historical accounts. At the same time, he focused on pursuing post-graduate work, ultimately being awarded Master’s degrees in both Public Administration and Library and Information Science. Today, he is a senior advisor at the Library of Congress, surrounded by books and people who love books—in short, paradise. Red Clay Suzie is his first work of fiction, written through his personal lens growing up an outsider—he is gay and was born with a physical deformity—figuring out life and love in a conservative family and community in the Deep South.
Neema Avashia was born and raised in southern West Virginia to parents who immigrated to the United States. She has been a middle school teacher in the Boston Public Schools since 2003. Her essays have appeared in the Bitter Southerner, Catapult, Kenyon Review Online, and elsewhere.
2.2. 23 The Orange Peel’s Comedy Basement PULP
What: Stand up Comedy at The Orange Peel’s Pulp Lounge
When: Thursday 2.2.2023. 8p-11p, doors at 7:30p
Where: The Orange Peel’s Comedy Basement, Pulp Lounge103 Hilliard Ave, Downtown Asheville
Tickets: $14 (available at door or The Orange Peel website)
Cocktails available while you laugh the night away to some of the area’s best Stand Up Comics in a ridiculously fun adult environment!! .
Open mic comics signup at door get 3-5m. [Free entry for performing comics, free snacks at comics table]
Stand up comedy featuring Roman Fraden. Hosted by Cody Hughes
FB Event: https://fb.me/e/5QB8e3jo7
For more info about this show contact Michele Scheve, [email protected]
Roman Fraden: Romanis a Los Angeles-based comedian and a regular performer at classic Hollywood venues including The Comedy Store, The Laugh Factory, and The Hollywood Improv. He has trained with Upright Citizens Brigade (UCB) Theatre, performed in various ensemble casts in film and on stage, and has opened for Mark Normand, Margaret Cho, and Patton Oswald. His one man show ‘Back In The Closet’ made it’s world premiere at Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2018. He currently is living in Asheville while still performing everywhere.
Host Cody Hughes: Cody is a comedian who cut his teeth in Chicago and Atlanta. He is now based out of West North Carolina and tours the Southeast. He has opened for Lewis Black, John Oliver and Maria Bamford among others and hosts the regular Slice of Life Comedy shows at The Orange Peel’s Pulp Lounge.
About Pulp: The speakeasy inspired hideaway offers a cozy space for show-goers to relax and enjoy a beverage during the concert. Boasting over 200 different Bourbons and Whiskeys, alongside a myriad of other spirits, it is a must-visit for cocktail lovers and Bourbon sippers alike. Pulp will also open various other nights to feature local artists and “Slice of Life” open-mic comedy nights. To stay informed with the happenings at Pulp, visit the Orange Peel’s website, and follow @pulp_avl on Instagram.
About Slice of Life Comedy: Slice of Life Comedy is owned and run by long standing Ashevillian Michele Scheve. Michele was the Founder and Publisher of the hit satire newspaper “The Asheville Disclaimer” in 2002 (till 2015). She also Hosts one of 103.3 Asheville FM’ longest running and most popular shows, “Slumber Party AVL”, which began in 2011. In addition to these established platforms, Michele also Co-Founded and Co-Owns Buzz Radio Asheville, which features only local music and comedy 24/7. Slice of Life Comedy began as a partnership, between Michele and comedian Kelly Rowe, doing live shows at Pulp Lounge in 2010, highlighting local up-and-coming comics through Open Mic events. From there, Slice of Life Comedy began booking feature shows, After-Party shows for national headline acts and collaboration with more and more venues and producers in the scene. Today, Slice of Life Comedy is the Premiere Partner for shows at some of Asheville’s most well-known and beloved venues.
Extension Master GardenerSM Volunteers of Buncombe County are happy to announce for the sixteenth year we are offering School Garden Grants to Asheville City and Buncombe County public schools, including state charter schools.

We provide a notice of the application period along with instructions to all school principals, elementary through senior high. Additional information is available on our website, buncombemastergardener.org, where you can learn more about the guidelines for receiving a grant and get online access to the 2023 School Garden Grants Application.
All applications must be completed online. Completed applications will be accepted beginning January 9, 2023, and must be submitted no later than 9 p.m. on February 3, 2023. If you have any questions, please call the Extension Office at 828-255-5522.
We are proud of our partnership with Asheville City and Buncombe County Schools. Since 2007, we have awarded 52 School Garden Grants totaling over $45,000. These grants have involved more than 16,500 students and hundreds of teachers, parents, and community volunteers.
School gardens grow more than plants. They grow imagination and creativity. They make math and science come alive, and they build community. We hope your school will join us in 2023.
Click on the link below to review the guidelines for school garden grants:
Guidelines for 2023 School Garden Grants
Join us throughout February as we celebrate Black Legacy Month with programs and events for all ages! In addition to the programs listed below, we will have special story times and exhibits at most of our libraries.
- Bright Star Touring Theatre: African Folktales – February 1 at 4pm at the Weaverville Library (for children ages 3 and up)
- Book Club: Jazz by Toni Morrison – Thursday, February 2 a 3pm at the Weaverville Library
- Book Club: The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett – Tuesday, February 7 at 6pm
- Book Club: The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict Tuesday, February 14 at 1pm at the Leicester Library
- Book Club: Life in Motion: An Unlikely Ballerina by Misty Copeland – February 16 at 2:30pm at the Skyland/South Buncombe Library
- Book Club: The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett – February 21 at 7pm at the Fairview Library
- Black Experience Book Club: The Furrows by Namwali Serpell – February 23 at 6:30pm at the Noir Collective, co-sponsored by the East Asheville library
Drop by your local library and check us out. Email or call if you have any questions.
Our librarians have also put together a Black Legacy Month reading list for all ages.
Black Legacy Month Reading List 2023
Books for Adults
Adult Fiction
- Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler
- On Girlhood: 15 Stories from the Well-Read Black Girl Library edited by Glory Edim
- What the Fireflies Knew by Kai Harries
- Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James
- The Love Songs of W.E.B. Dubois by Honoree Fannone Jeffers
- How Long ‘Til Black Future Month? by N.K. Jemison
- Deacon King Kong by James McBride
- Take My Hand by Dolen Perkins-Valdez
- Black Bottom Saints by Alice Randall
- The Violin Conspiracy by Brendan Slocumb
- Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead
- Seven Days in June by Tia Williams
- Red at the Bone by Jacqueline Woodson
Adult nonfiction
- Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man by Emmanuel Acho
- Carefree Black Girls: A Celebration of Black women in Popular Culture by Zeba Blay
- The 1619 Project edited by Nikole Hannah-Jones
- Rest is Resistance by Tricia Hersey
- Wow, No Thank You by Samantha Irby*
- The Sum of Us by Heather McGhee
- All That She Carried by Tiya Miles
- Please Don’t Sit On My Bed In Your Outside Clothes by Phoebe Robinson*
- You’ll Never Believe What Happened to Lacey by Amber Ruffin*
- Counting Descent by Clint Smith
- The Body Is Not an Apology by Sonya Renee Taylor
- Here For It by R. Eric Thomas*
- Koshersoul: the faith and food journey of an African American Jew by Michael W. Twitty
*especially good on audio because the authors read their work!
Picture books for families to share
- My Heart Flies Open by Omileye Achikeobi-Lewis
- Only the Best: The Exceptional Life and Fashion of Ann Lowe by Kate Messner
- My N.C. From A to Z by Michelle Lanier
- Shhh! The Baby’s Asleep by JaNay Brown-Wood
- Curls by Ruth Forman
- Fly by Brittany J. Thurman
- Opal Lee and What it Means to be Free: The True Story of the Grandmother of Juneteenth by Alice Faye Duncan
- Build a House by Rhiannon Giddens
- Bright Brown Baby, A Treasury by Andrea Davis Pinkney
- Born on the Water by Nikole Hannah-Jones and Renee Watson
Chapter books for older kids
- Isaiah Dunn is My Hero by Kelly J. BaptistBlended by Sharon Draper
- Ikenga by Nnedi Okorafor
- Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi
- Tristan Strong Trilogy (Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky, Tristan Strong Destroys the World, and Tristan Strong Keeps Punching) by Kwame Mbalia
- From the Desk of Zoe Washington by Janae Marks
- Black Boy Joy: 17 Stories Celebrating Black Boyhood edited by Kwame Mbalia
- Freewater by Amina Luqman-Dawson
- Operation Sisterhood by Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich
- The Door of No Return by Alexander Kwame
Books for teens
- Quincredible by Rodney Barnes
- The Legendborn Cycle (Legendborn and Bloodmarked) by Tracy Deonn
- All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson
- You Should See Me in a Crown by Leah Johnson
- Survive the Dome by Kosoko Jackson
- Revolution in Our Time: The Black Panther’s Promise to the People by Kekla Magoon
- Ain’t Burned All the Bright by Jason Reynolds
- Bitter by Akwaeke Emezi
- On the Come Up by Angie Thomas
- Okoye to the People by Ibi Zoboi

For the past 30 years, the Organic Growers School Spring Conference has served as a gathering place for growers in Appalachia to connect, learn from one another, and deepen connections to land and community. The Spring Conference began as an entirely volunteer-run and free event and has expanded to support an organization of ten staff with year-round programming. As we have grown, we have experimented with different approaches to keeping the event affordable and accessible while also working on compensation for our speakers and supporting our growing staff. We encourage you to check out our recent blog post exploring this in more depth. This year, we are excited to be experimenting with sliding scale ticket pricing for the first time, and we wanted to take some time to explain how this works and why we decided to implement it this year.
Looking beyond scholarships
Over the past several years, we have started implementing different scholarship options. We have set aside around $3000 in our internal budget for scholarships, and we have increased our outreach to other groups in the area who have funding to support individuals to attend conferences. We also offer work-trade opportunities for people who are interested in helping out with our event in exchange for attendance. We have around 100 work-traders access the conference each year through these opportunities, but we have never used up our entire scholarship fund for the event. We know that there are many individuals in our community that we are not reaching through our scholarship opportunities. We began to wonder if scholarship applications were creating a barrier to participation and started researching other options, landing eventually on sliding scale as our preferred model.
How alternative pricing models address accessibility
The sliding scale model, which offers the opportunity for participants to select a price to pay for their ticket, meets several of the parameters we were looking for in an accessible pricing model. Most importantly, it is a seamless way for attendees to access the price that meets their needs. So many things are means-tested in our society, and it can be exhausting to justify why one needs a more affordable price point. While many of our community members need financial support, there are also members of this community who have more than enough to share and are excited about supporting their fellow co-learners. These attendees can select the higher end of the sliding scale, which will be set at a price to offset the lower price paid by other attendees. We trust our attendees to select the option that best works for them while also considering how their selection would affect the ability of other participants to access a lower price point.
Accessibility is a priority for OGS, and implementing it is a risk for us as a small non-profit, given that we rely on our large events like the Spring Conference to support our year-round programming and staff salaries. This will certainly be an experimental year, and if we are not able to secure enough income through sliding-scale registrations, we will have to rethink our approach to pricing. We trust that our community will be thoughtful in thinking about the value that this conference has to them and about what they are able to pay for at this time. Thank you for being on this journey of discovery with us!
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The Friends of the South Buncombe Library are pleased to announce their first live, in-person book sale of 2023! We will have thousands of books in fiction and non-fiction at bargain prices, in every genre and for every age group. Prices have changed since our last sale, but are still a bargain: most adult hardbacks are $2.00 and paperbacks are $1.00. Children’s items are still just $1.00 & 50¢! And all movies and music are $1.00. Proceeds benefit your library in so many ways: purchasing library supplies and equipment, newspapers, and large print books; providing children’s programs; and improving the grounds. Sale Hours: 10am-4pm Friday and Saturday, with 10am-12pm on Friday reserved for Friends of the Library members. Not a member? We’re happy to sign you up at the door; the minimum donation is just $10.00. AV material and children’s book bag sale on the last hour of business Saturday, if supplies allow! |
Join us throughout February as we celebrate Black Legacy Month with programs and events for all ages! In addition to the programs listed below, we will have special story times and exhibits at most of our libraries.
- Bright Star Touring Theatre: African Folktales – February 1 at 4pm at the Weaverville Library (for children ages 3 and up)
- Book Club: Jazz by Toni Morrison – Thursday, February 2 a 3pm at the Weaverville Library
- Book Club: The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett – Tuesday, February 7 at 6pm
- Book Club: The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict Tuesday, February 14 at 1pm at the Leicester Library
- Book Club: Life in Motion: An Unlikely Ballerina by Misty Copeland – February 16 at 2:30pm at the Skyland/South Buncombe Library
- Book Club: The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett – February 21 at 7pm at the Fairview Library
- Black Experience Book Club: The Furrows by Namwali Serpell – February 23 at 6:30pm at the Noir Collective, co-sponsored by the East Asheville library
Drop by your local library and check us out. Email or call if you have any questions.
Our librarians have also put together a Black Legacy Month reading list for all ages.
Black Legacy Month Reading List 2023
Books for Adults
Adult Fiction
- Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler
- On Girlhood: 15 Stories from the Well-Read Black Girl Library edited by Glory Edim
- What the Fireflies Knew by Kai Harries
- Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James
- The Love Songs of W.E.B. Dubois by Honoree Fannone Jeffers
- How Long ‘Til Black Future Month? by N.K. Jemison
- Deacon King Kong by James McBride
- Take My Hand by Dolen Perkins-Valdez
- Black Bottom Saints by Alice Randall
- The Violin Conspiracy by Brendan Slocumb
- Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead
- Seven Days in June by Tia Williams
- Red at the Bone by Jacqueline Woodson
Adult nonfiction
- Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man by Emmanuel Acho
- Carefree Black Girls: A Celebration of Black women in Popular Culture by Zeba Blay
- The 1619 Project edited by Nikole Hannah-Jones
- Rest is Resistance by Tricia Hersey
- Wow, No Thank You by Samantha Irby*
- The Sum of Us by Heather McGhee
- All That She Carried by Tiya Miles
- Please Don’t Sit On My Bed In Your Outside Clothes by Phoebe Robinson*
- You’ll Never Believe What Happened to Lacey by Amber Ruffin*
- Counting Descent by Clint Smith
- The Body Is Not an Apology by Sonya Renee Taylor
- Here For It by R. Eric Thomas*
- Koshersoul: the faith and food journey of an African American Jew by Michael W. Twitty
*especially good on audio because the authors read their work!
Picture books for families to share
- My Heart Flies Open by Omileye Achikeobi-Lewis
- Only the Best: The Exceptional Life and Fashion of Ann Lowe by Kate Messner
- My N.C. From A to Z by Michelle Lanier
- Shhh! The Baby’s Asleep by JaNay Brown-Wood
- Curls by Ruth Forman
- Fly by Brittany J. Thurman
- Opal Lee and What it Means to be Free: The True Story of the Grandmother of Juneteenth by Alice Faye Duncan
- Build a House by Rhiannon Giddens
- Bright Brown Baby, A Treasury by Andrea Davis Pinkney
- Born on the Water by Nikole Hannah-Jones and Renee Watson
Chapter books for older kids
- Isaiah Dunn is My Hero by Kelly J. BaptistBlended by Sharon Draper
- Ikenga by Nnedi Okorafor
- Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi
- Tristan Strong Trilogy (Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky, Tristan Strong Destroys the World, and Tristan Strong Keeps Punching) by Kwame Mbalia
- From the Desk of Zoe Washington by Janae Marks
- Black Boy Joy: 17 Stories Celebrating Black Boyhood edited by Kwame Mbalia
- Freewater by Amina Luqman-Dawson
- Operation Sisterhood by Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich
- The Door of No Return by Alexander Kwame
Books for teens
- Quincredible by Rodney Barnes
- The Legendborn Cycle (Legendborn and Bloodmarked) by Tracy Deonn
- All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson
- You Should See Me in a Crown by Leah Johnson
- Survive the Dome by Kosoko Jackson
- Revolution in Our Time: The Black Panther’s Promise to the People by Kekla Magoon
- Ain’t Burned All the Bright by Jason Reynolds
- Bitter by Akwaeke Emezi
- On the Come Up by Angie Thomas
- Okoye to the People by Ibi Zoboi
The upcoming Journeyperson course is now available AT NO COST! Due to some timely grant funding, we can offer this in-depth farmer training for farmers in years 3-7 with no associated tuition fee! The course consists of monthly cohort meet-ups and 2-3 in-depth workshops, plus mentorship!
In addition, a select number of participants will also receive matched FUNDS for your farm savings account (Savings Incentive Program) and money to spend on a professional development opportunity of your choosing! Want to attend a workshop on livestock management? OGS will contribute towards that fee! Are you saving money for a farm asset? OGS will contribute up to a certain amount to that investment.
The Journeyperson Program is for farmers who have been independently farming for three or more years and are serious about operating farm businesses in the Southern Appalachian region.
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For the past 30 years, the Organic Growers School Spring Conference has served as a gathering place for growers in Appalachia to connect, learn from one another, and deepen connections to land and community. The Spring Conference began as an entirely volunteer-run and free event and has expanded to support an organization of ten staff with year-round programming. As we have grown, we have experimented with different approaches to keeping the event affordable and accessible while also working on compensation for our speakers and supporting our growing staff. We encourage you to check out our recent blog post exploring this in more depth. This year, we are excited to be experimenting with sliding scale ticket pricing for the first time, and we wanted to take some time to explain how this works and why we decided to implement it this year.
Looking beyond scholarships
Over the past several years, we have started implementing different scholarship options. We have set aside around $3000 in our internal budget for scholarships, and we have increased our outreach to other groups in the area who have funding to support individuals to attend conferences. We also offer work-trade opportunities for people who are interested in helping out with our event in exchange for attendance. We have around 100 work-traders access the conference each year through these opportunities, but we have never used up our entire scholarship fund for the event. We know that there are many individuals in our community that we are not reaching through our scholarship opportunities. We began to wonder if scholarship applications were creating a barrier to participation and started researching other options, landing eventually on sliding scale as our preferred model.
How alternative pricing models address accessibility
The sliding scale model, which offers the opportunity for participants to select a price to pay for their ticket, meets several of the parameters we were looking for in an accessible pricing model. Most importantly, it is a seamless way for attendees to access the price that meets their needs. So many things are means-tested in our society, and it can be exhausting to justify why one needs a more affordable price point. While many of our community members need financial support, there are also members of this community who have more than enough to share and are excited about supporting their fellow co-learners. These attendees can select the higher end of the sliding scale, which will be set at a price to offset the lower price paid by other attendees. We trust our attendees to select the option that best works for them while also considering how their selection would affect the ability of other participants to access a lower price point.
Accessibility is a priority for OGS, and implementing it is a risk for us as a small non-profit, given that we rely on our large events like the Spring Conference to support our year-round programming and staff salaries. This will certainly be an experimental year, and if we are not able to secure enough income through sliding-scale registrations, we will have to rethink our approach to pricing. We trust that our community will be thoughtful in thinking about the value that this conference has to them and about what they are able to pay for at this time. Thank you for being on this journey of discovery with us!
|
The Friends of the South Buncombe Library are pleased to announce their first live, in-person book sale of 2023! We will have thousands of books in fiction and non-fiction at bargain prices, in every genre and for every age group. Prices have changed since our last sale, but are still a bargain: most adult hardbacks are $2.00 and paperbacks are $1.00. Children’s items are still just $1.00 & 50¢! And all movies and music are $1.00. Proceeds benefit your library in so many ways: purchasing library supplies and equipment, newspapers, and large print books; providing children’s programs; and improving the grounds. Sale Hours: 10am-4pm Friday and Saturday, with 10am-12pm on Friday reserved for Friends of the Library members. Not a member? We’re happy to sign you up at the door; the minimum donation is just $10.00. AV material and children’s book bag sale on the last hour of business Saturday, if supplies allow! |
*Assembly Required is the premiere destination for independent designer, bootleg and art toy artists and collectors.
Refining inspiration from a variety of underground and subcultural elements, *Assembly Required honors this turn of the century pop surrealistic art movement, as the melting pot of artistic expression.
2023 will be *Assembly Required’s 5th year running celebrating this avant-garde culture, at The Grey Eagle in the River Arts District.
Saturday, February 4, 2023: 11a-5p
Sunday, February 5, 2023: 11a-4p
More information can be found at www.assembly-required.net
The upcoming Journeyperson course is now available AT NO COST! Due to some timely grant funding, we can offer this in-depth farmer training for farmers in years 3-7 with no associated tuition fee! The course consists of monthly cohort meet-ups and 2-3 in-depth workshops, plus mentorship!
In addition, a select number of participants will also receive matched FUNDS for your farm savings account (Savings Incentive Program) and money to spend on a professional development opportunity of your choosing! Want to attend a workshop on livestock management? OGS will contribute towards that fee! Are you saving money for a farm asset? OGS will contribute up to a certain amount to that investment.
The Journeyperson Program is for farmers who have been independently farming for three or more years and are serious about operating farm businesses in the Southern Appalachian region.
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For the past 30 years, the Organic Growers School Spring Conference has served as a gathering place for growers in Appalachia to connect, learn from one another, and deepen connections to land and community. The Spring Conference began as an entirely volunteer-run and free event and has expanded to support an organization of ten staff with year-round programming. As we have grown, we have experimented with different approaches to keeping the event affordable and accessible while also working on compensation for our speakers and supporting our growing staff. We encourage you to check out our recent blog post exploring this in more depth. This year, we are excited to be experimenting with sliding scale ticket pricing for the first time, and we wanted to take some time to explain how this works and why we decided to implement it this year.
Looking beyond scholarships
Over the past several years, we have started implementing different scholarship options. We have set aside around $3000 in our internal budget for scholarships, and we have increased our outreach to other groups in the area who have funding to support individuals to attend conferences. We also offer work-trade opportunities for people who are interested in helping out with our event in exchange for attendance. We have around 100 work-traders access the conference each year through these opportunities, but we have never used up our entire scholarship fund for the event. We know that there are many individuals in our community that we are not reaching through our scholarship opportunities. We began to wonder if scholarship applications were creating a barrier to participation and started researching other options, landing eventually on sliding scale as our preferred model.
How alternative pricing models address accessibility
The sliding scale model, which offers the opportunity for participants to select a price to pay for their ticket, meets several of the parameters we were looking for in an accessible pricing model. Most importantly, it is a seamless way for attendees to access the price that meets their needs. So many things are means-tested in our society, and it can be exhausting to justify why one needs a more affordable price point. While many of our community members need financial support, there are also members of this community who have more than enough to share and are excited about supporting their fellow co-learners. These attendees can select the higher end of the sliding scale, which will be set at a price to offset the lower price paid by other attendees. We trust our attendees to select the option that best works for them while also considering how their selection would affect the ability of other participants to access a lower price point.
Accessibility is a priority for OGS, and implementing it is a risk for us as a small non-profit, given that we rely on our large events like the Spring Conference to support our year-round programming and staff salaries. This will certainly be an experimental year, and if we are not able to secure enough income through sliding-scale registrations, we will have to rethink our approach to pricing. We trust that our community will be thoughtful in thinking about the value that this conference has to them and about what they are able to pay for at this time. Thank you for being on this journey of discovery with us!
*Assembly Required is the premiere destination for independent designer, bootleg and art toy artists and collectors.
Refining inspiration from a variety of underground and subcultural elements, *Assembly Required honors this turn of the century pop surrealistic art movement, as the melting pot of artistic expression.
2023 will be *Assembly Required’s 5th year running celebrating this avant-garde culture, at The Grey Eagle in the River Arts District.
Saturday, February 4, 2023: 11a-5p
Sunday, February 5, 2023: 11a-4p
More information can be found at www.assembly-required.net
This is a hybrid event, meaning there is an option to attend virtually and a limited number of seats are available to attend the event in-store.
The event is free but registration is required for both in-person and virtual attendance.
Please click here to register for the VIRTUAL event. The link required to attend will be emailed to registrants prior to the event.
Please click here to register for the IN-PERSON event. Note the important event details on the RSVP form.
This event includes a book signing. If you would like a signed book but can’t attend in person, use the order comments field when you order below to request a signed copy and tell us to whom the book should be personalized.
If you decide to attend and to purchase books, we ask that you purchase from Malaprop’s. When you do this you make it possible for us to continue hosting author events and you keep more dollars in our community. You may also support our work by purchasing a gift card or making a donation of any amount below. Thank you!
Glenis Redmond is the First Poet Laureate of Greenville, South Carolina. She is a Kennedy Center Teaching Artist, and a Cave Canem alumni. The Listening Skin (Four Way Books) is her sixth poetry book. She is presently working on a seventh collection, Port Cities: Portals of the Second (Domestic) Middle Passage. She received the highest arts award in South Carolina—the Governor’s Award—and was inducted into the South Carolina Academy of Authors. Redmond received her MFA in Poetry from Warren Wilson College. For more, visit http://www.glenisredmond.com
In The Listening Skin, Glenis Redmond returns to the ancestors and the deep knowing that comes from being ever ready to receive the wisdom they give us. She plants us again in the South Carolinian soil and reaches across decades and continents back to the motherland for historical context, for truth, and for healing. She does not flinch from racism nor the complexities of what it means to carry trauma inside the Black body. These poems are beautifully rendered but don’t shrink. I am grateful for the depth and breadth of the music and the keen use of the line in this collection, but mostly I’m taken by the way Glenis holds us up to the light. In her sure hands we shine!
—
Molly Rice has held several residencies teaching poetry, storytelling, theatre, film, and English as a Second Language in hundreds of schools, colleges, and organizations in North Carolina, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Russia, and Hungary. She has taught for seventeen years at St. Stephens High School where she is director of the Tractor Shed Theatre. She’s published in magazines including Fortnight Magazine, The Stinging Fly, and Iodine Poetry Journal. She resides with her husband and son in Hickory, North Carolina. For more, visit https://www.mollyrice.com
In Molly Rice’s Forever Eighty-Eights, there are “no crystal stairs” in her southern mill hill childhood. Yet, the poet pushes onward following an urgent pulse, while unflinchingly calling forth ghosts, wounds, and secrets of the past. She bids them to come out of their hiding places, while she battles both hardships and heartbreaks. In this work, Molly reckons, but she also fathoms beauty and pays homage by uplifting people, places, and moments deeply rooted in North Carolina. With her forging she creates a throughway—each poem a stair to “reach landings and turn corners.”
What: Asheville’s Premier Standup Feature & Open Mic comedy
When: Sunday, February 5, 6:30pm (Come early to get your food and drinks!)
Where: Asheville Pizza & Brewing Co., Theater 2
675 Merrimon Avenue in North Asheville (onsite parking)
Tickets: $14
Comedy open mic. [signup at the door to get 3-5m. Free entry for performing comics, free pizza at comics table]
Hosted by Morgan Bost featuring Allison Shelnut, Jess Cooley and Larry Griffin
FB: https://fb.me/e/3Yb5s4IfD
Join us throughout February as we celebrate Black Legacy Month with programs and events for all ages! In addition to the programs listed below, we will have special story times and exhibits at most of our libraries.
- Bright Star Touring Theatre: African Folktales – February 1 at 4pm at the Weaverville Library (for children ages 3 and up)
- Book Club: Jazz by Toni Morrison – Thursday, February 2 a 3pm at the Weaverville Library
- Book Club: The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett – Tuesday, February 7 at 6pm
- Book Club: The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict Tuesday, February 14 at 1pm at the Leicester Library
- Book Club: Life in Motion: An Unlikely Ballerina by Misty Copeland – February 16 at 2:30pm at the Skyland/South Buncombe Library
- Book Club: The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett – February 21 at 7pm at the Fairview Library
- Black Experience Book Club: The Furrows by Namwali Serpell – February 23 at 6:30pm at the Noir Collective, co-sponsored by the East Asheville library
Drop by your local library and check us out. Email or call if you have any questions.
Our librarians have also put together a Black Legacy Month reading list for all ages.
Black Legacy Month Reading List 2023
Books for Adults
Adult Fiction
- Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler
- On Girlhood: 15 Stories from the Well-Read Black Girl Library edited by Glory Edim
- What the Fireflies Knew by Kai Harries
- Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James
- The Love Songs of W.E.B. Dubois by Honoree Fannone Jeffers
- How Long ‘Til Black Future Month? by N.K. Jemison
- Deacon King Kong by James McBride
- Take My Hand by Dolen Perkins-Valdez
- Black Bottom Saints by Alice Randall
- The Violin Conspiracy by Brendan Slocumb
- Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead
- Seven Days in June by Tia Williams
- Red at the Bone by Jacqueline Woodson
Adult nonfiction
- Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man by Emmanuel Acho
- Carefree Black Girls: A Celebration of Black women in Popular Culture by Zeba Blay
- The 1619 Project edited by Nikole Hannah-Jones
- Rest is Resistance by Tricia Hersey
- Wow, No Thank You by Samantha Irby*
- The Sum of Us by Heather McGhee
- All That She Carried by Tiya Miles
- Please Don’t Sit On My Bed In Your Outside Clothes by Phoebe Robinson*
- You’ll Never Believe What Happened to Lacey by Amber Ruffin*
- Counting Descent by Clint Smith
- The Body Is Not an Apology by Sonya Renee Taylor
- Here For It by R. Eric Thomas*
- Koshersoul: the faith and food journey of an African American Jew by Michael W. Twitty
*especially good on audio because the authors read their work!
Picture books for families to share
- My Heart Flies Open by Omileye Achikeobi-Lewis
- Only the Best: The Exceptional Life and Fashion of Ann Lowe by Kate Messner
- My N.C. From A to Z by Michelle Lanier
- Shhh! The Baby’s Asleep by JaNay Brown-Wood
- Curls by Ruth Forman
- Fly by Brittany J. Thurman
- Opal Lee and What it Means to be Free: The True Story of the Grandmother of Juneteenth by Alice Faye Duncan
- Build a House by Rhiannon Giddens
- Bright Brown Baby, A Treasury by Andrea Davis Pinkney
- Born on the Water by Nikole Hannah-Jones and Renee Watson
Chapter books for older kids
- Isaiah Dunn is My Hero by Kelly J. BaptistBlended by Sharon Draper
- Ikenga by Nnedi Okorafor
- Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi
- Tristan Strong Trilogy (Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky, Tristan Strong Destroys the World, and Tristan Strong Keeps Punching) by Kwame Mbalia
- From the Desk of Zoe Washington by Janae Marks
- Black Boy Joy: 17 Stories Celebrating Black Boyhood edited by Kwame Mbalia
- Freewater by Amina Luqman-Dawson
- Operation Sisterhood by Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich
- The Door of No Return by Alexander Kwame
Books for teens
- Quincredible by Rodney Barnes
- The Legendborn Cycle (Legendborn and Bloodmarked) by Tracy Deonn
- All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson
- You Should See Me in a Crown by Leah Johnson
- Survive the Dome by Kosoko Jackson
- Revolution in Our Time: The Black Panther’s Promise to the People by Kekla Magoon
- Ain’t Burned All the Bright by Jason Reynolds
- Bitter by Akwaeke Emezi
- On the Come Up by Angie Thomas
- Okoye to the People by Ibi Zoboi

For the past 30 years, the Organic Growers School Spring Conference has served as a gathering place for growers in Appalachia to connect, learn from one another, and deepen connections to land and community. The Spring Conference began as an entirely volunteer-run and free event and has expanded to support an organization of ten staff with year-round programming. As we have grown, we have experimented with different approaches to keeping the event affordable and accessible while also working on compensation for our speakers and supporting our growing staff. We encourage you to check out our recent blog post exploring this in more depth. This year, we are excited to be experimenting with sliding scale ticket pricing for the first time, and we wanted to take some time to explain how this works and why we decided to implement it this year.
Looking beyond scholarships
Over the past several years, we have started implementing different scholarship options. We have set aside around $3000 in our internal budget for scholarships, and we have increased our outreach to other groups in the area who have funding to support individuals to attend conferences. We also offer work-trade opportunities for people who are interested in helping out with our event in exchange for attendance. We have around 100 work-traders access the conference each year through these opportunities, but we have never used up our entire scholarship fund for the event. We know that there are many individuals in our community that we are not reaching through our scholarship opportunities. We began to wonder if scholarship applications were creating a barrier to participation and started researching other options, landing eventually on sliding scale as our preferred model.
How alternative pricing models address accessibility
The sliding scale model, which offers the opportunity for participants to select a price to pay for their ticket, meets several of the parameters we were looking for in an accessible pricing model. Most importantly, it is a seamless way for attendees to access the price that meets their needs. So many things are means-tested in our society, and it can be exhausting to justify why one needs a more affordable price point. While many of our community members need financial support, there are also members of this community who have more than enough to share and are excited about supporting their fellow co-learners. These attendees can select the higher end of the sliding scale, which will be set at a price to offset the lower price paid by other attendees. We trust our attendees to select the option that best works for them while also considering how their selection would affect the ability of other participants to access a lower price point.
Accessibility is a priority for OGS, and implementing it is a risk for us as a small non-profit, given that we rely on our large events like the Spring Conference to support our year-round programming and staff salaries. This will certainly be an experimental year, and if we are not able to secure enough income through sliding-scale registrations, we will have to rethink our approach to pricing. We trust that our community will be thoughtful in thinking about the value that this conference has to them and about what they are able to pay for at this time. Thank you for being on this journey of discovery with us!
Join us throughout February as we celebrate Black Legacy Month with programs and events for all ages! In addition to the programs listed below, we will have special story times and exhibits at most of our libraries.
- Bright Star Touring Theatre: African Folktales – February 1 at 4pm at the Weaverville Library (for children ages 3 and up)
- Book Club: Jazz by Toni Morrison – Thursday, February 2 a 3pm at the Weaverville Library
- Book Club: The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett – Tuesday, February 7 at 6pm
- Book Club: The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict Tuesday, February 14 at 1pm at the Leicester Library
- Book Club: Life in Motion: An Unlikely Ballerina by Misty Copeland – February 16 at 2:30pm at the Skyland/South Buncombe Library
- Book Club: The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett – February 21 at 7pm at the Fairview Library
- Black Experience Book Club: The Furrows by Namwali Serpell – February 23 at 6:30pm at the Noir Collective, co-sponsored by the East Asheville library
Drop by your local library and check us out. Email or call if you have any questions.
Our librarians have also put together a Black Legacy Month reading list for all ages.
Black Legacy Month Reading List 2023
Books for Adults
Adult Fiction
- Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler
- On Girlhood: 15 Stories from the Well-Read Black Girl Library edited by Glory Edim
- What the Fireflies Knew by Kai Harries
- Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James
- The Love Songs of W.E.B. Dubois by Honoree Fannone Jeffers
- How Long ‘Til Black Future Month? by N.K. Jemison
- Deacon King Kong by James McBride
- Take My Hand by Dolen Perkins-Valdez
- Black Bottom Saints by Alice Randall
- The Violin Conspiracy by Brendan Slocumb
- Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead
- Seven Days in June by Tia Williams
- Red at the Bone by Jacqueline Woodson
Adult nonfiction
- Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man by Emmanuel Acho
- Carefree Black Girls: A Celebration of Black women in Popular Culture by Zeba Blay
- The 1619 Project edited by Nikole Hannah-Jones
- Rest is Resistance by Tricia Hersey
- Wow, No Thank You by Samantha Irby*
- The Sum of Us by Heather McGhee
- All That She Carried by Tiya Miles
- Please Don’t Sit On My Bed In Your Outside Clothes by Phoebe Robinson*
- You’ll Never Believe What Happened to Lacey by Amber Ruffin*
- Counting Descent by Clint Smith
- The Body Is Not an Apology by Sonya Renee Taylor
- Here For It by R. Eric Thomas*
- Koshersoul: the faith and food journey of an African American Jew by Michael W. Twitty
*especially good on audio because the authors read their work!
Picture books for families to share
- My Heart Flies Open by Omileye Achikeobi-Lewis
- Only the Best: The Exceptional Life and Fashion of Ann Lowe by Kate Messner
- My N.C. From A to Z by Michelle Lanier
- Shhh! The Baby’s Asleep by JaNay Brown-Wood
- Curls by Ruth Forman
- Fly by Brittany J. Thurman
- Opal Lee and What it Means to be Free: The True Story of the Grandmother of Juneteenth by Alice Faye Duncan
- Build a House by Rhiannon Giddens
- Bright Brown Baby, A Treasury by Andrea Davis Pinkney
- Born on the Water by Nikole Hannah-Jones and Renee Watson
Chapter books for older kids
- Isaiah Dunn is My Hero by Kelly J. BaptistBlended by Sharon Draper
- Ikenga by Nnedi Okorafor
- Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi
- Tristan Strong Trilogy (Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky, Tristan Strong Destroys the World, and Tristan Strong Keeps Punching) by Kwame Mbalia
- From the Desk of Zoe Washington by Janae Marks
- Black Boy Joy: 17 Stories Celebrating Black Boyhood edited by Kwame Mbalia
- Freewater by Amina Luqman-Dawson
- Operation Sisterhood by Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich
- The Door of No Return by Alexander Kwame
Books for teens
- Quincredible by Rodney Barnes
- The Legendborn Cycle (Legendborn and Bloodmarked) by Tracy Deonn
- All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson
- You Should See Me in a Crown by Leah Johnson
- Survive the Dome by Kosoko Jackson
- Revolution in Our Time: The Black Panther’s Promise to the People by Kekla Magoon
- Ain’t Burned All the Bright by Jason Reynolds
- Bitter by Akwaeke Emezi
- On the Come Up by Angie Thomas
- Okoye to the People by Ibi Zoboi
