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.

Friday, June 3, 2022
Author Reading: Meta Commerse, author of Womaning
Jun 3 @ 6:00 pm – 7:00 pm
West Asheville Library
Author Reading: Meta Commerse, author of Womaning.
Author Reading: Meta Commerse, author of Womaning.

Meta Commerse is a Blues Doula. A former professor of History and English, she’s an award-winning author. Among her works are short stories, essays, poetry, numerous newspaper articles, one stage play, her story medicine novel, The Mending Time, and memoir Womaning. She earned her MFA degree at Goddard College in Vermont. Meta is a social entrepreneur, creator of Story Medicine Worldwide, a community-based healing movement. She is a performing artist, singing jazz, blues, and gospel music. She is the mother of three adult children and grandmother to three young adult grandsons.

Saturday, June 4, 2022
Land Trust Day–June is Conservation Month
Jun 4 all-day
Various Locations in Asheville Area

Land Trust Day falls on the first Saturday in June to coincide with the annual National Trails Day.  Conservation land trusts like Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy play a critical role in helping to conserve land for public enjoyment as well as privately-owned preserves that protect viewsheds and wildlife corridors near national trails. Land trusts work to protect and manage a wide variety of important land and water resources, including habitat for rare plants and animals, farmland, and sources of drinking water for millions of people.

We are so grateful to local businesses who recognize the importance of this work and have stepped up with their support for SAHC on Land Trust Day – Saturday, June 4!

Shop and Dine to Support Conservation

Mast General Store

is donating 20% of proceeds from sales on Saturday, June 4 to support conservation. The Asheville and Waynesville stores will be supporting Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy. Stop by to stock up on gear, say ‘Hi’ to SAHC volunteers, and be sure to thank them for supporting Land Trust Day! As a general store, Mast Store offers a variety of goods from fashion to fried chicken cookbooks and toffee to tents.

Second Gear

is donating 10% of proceeds from sales on Saturday, June 4 — PLUS they have chosen Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy as the nonprofit partner for the month of June. Second Gear supports a new nonprofit each month by donating 1% of all sales! Second Gear is your source for quality, affordable outdoor gear, with an ever-changing selection of used and new equipment, apparel, footwear, & accessories.

Laughing Seed

is donating 5% of proceeds from sales on Saturday, June 4. Laughing Seed is Asheville’s iconic vegetarian restaurant located on historic Wall Street, voted #1 as best vegetarian in Asheville with a full bar and outdoor dining on their covered patio.

Jack of the Wood

is donating 5% of proceeds from sales on Saturday, June 4. Jack of the Wood is a Celtic pub in downtown Asheville! They feature classical pub dishes, 18-rotating taps of craft brew, and a wide selection of whiskeys.

Experience Outdoors

Asheville Hiking Tours

is a Western North Carolina-owned and operated outdoor tour guide, proud to be giving back to local land conservancies. They recognize and value the need to conserve the Blue Ridge Mountains, one of the most biodiverse regions in the world.

Shoji Spa

is an unpretentious and unique destination spa nestled on a mountainside minutes from the vibrancy of downtown Asheville. Along with traditional Japanese bathing and soaking, in completely private outdoor salt tubs, guests enjoy spa-style showers, first-class massage therapy, nature setting and sounds, locally sourced spa products.

For Love of Beer and Mountains

Wicked Weed Brewing

donates 10% of ALL sales of the popular “Appalachia” Session IPA to support conservation with Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy – part of their Beers that Build program. Check back for other updates on this very special partnership!

Highland Brewing Company

donates a portion of proceeds from seasonal beer release parties to Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy, and supports SAHC through the “Mountain Chaser” brew – part of their Pints with a Purpose program. Check back for more updates on our special partnership!

Details

Date:
June 4
Event Categories:
Event Tags:

 

Land Trust day sponsor logos

The Flying Squirrel Ten Miler
Jun 4 @ 7:30 am
Downtown Asheville

image

Enjoy ASHEVILLE’S ABSOLUTE BEST ROAD RUNNING. Spectators, sponsors, hype, and incredible energy along with spectacular mountain views.

WHERE: Participants will START and FINISH near downtown Asheville, but will run up and down the tree lined streets of North Asheville nearby the historic Omni Grove Park Inn and the Governor’s Western Residence. Course Description.

ABOUT US: Brought to you by the same race organizers that bring you the Asheville Turkey Trot (now in its 20+ year) and the Shut-In Ridge Trail Run (now in its 40+ year).

The Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy (SAHC) permanently protects and stewards our region’s most beloved natural areas. Since 1974, over 80,000 acres of unique plant and animal habitat, clean water sources, farmland, scenic beauty, and places for people to enjoy outdoor recreation have been permanently protected in the mountains of North Carolina and Tennessee. SAHC is committed to creating and supporting equitable, healthy and thriving communities for everyone in our region.

We value our local Western North Carolina community and are committed to giving back. A portion of our race proceeds go towards our charity partner for that year. For the inaugural Flying Squirrel Ten Miler we are proud to be supporting a Western North Carolina based non-profit who is helping to conserve the endangered Carolina Flying Squirrel. The Carolina Flying Squirrel is a subspecies of the Northern Flying Squirrel and requires high elevation habitat to thrive. Read more about the Carolina Flying Squirrel here: https://www.fws.gov/southeast/wildlife/mammals/carolina-northern-flying-squirrel/

Sunday, June 5, 2022
Women’s Paddle Fest
Jun 5 @ 12:00 am – 2:00 pm
Nantahala Outdoor Center

womens-paddlefest-group-shot

Join a group of like-minded female paddlers for a three-day paddle festival, hosted by inspirational paddler Anna Levesque! This festival is all about fostering community by connecting, sharing, paddling, and supporting each other on the river. Trips will be offered on different rivers representing a range of skill levels, and are open to all women in all watercraft!

Donations and registration fees benefit the Shannon Christy Memorial Fund, an organization that supports non-profits focused on women’s empowerment, and also benefits the Live Like Maria Fund.

2022 EVENT SCHEDULE

Schedule is subject to change and will be updated here.

Asheville Honey Festival/Black Jar International Honey Contest
Jun 5 @ 12:00 pm – 5:00 pm
Salvage Station

If you love honey, beekeeping, saving our planet, and summer fun next to the French Broad River this event is for you.
Join the Center for Honeybee Research and Shanti Elixirs for Asheville’s First Annual Honey Festival at the Salvage Station on Sunday, June 5th from 12-5pm.

During this event the Center for Honeybee Research will also hold their 11th annual Black Jar International Honey Contest, with a grand prize of $5,500.00.

This will be a family friendly event with live music, vendors, non profit booths promoting the environment, pollinators and their habitats, and other important organizations supporting the world we live in.

Festival attendees will also be able to taste honey from all over the globe and watch the judges determine the “World’s Best Tasting Honey”.

Tuesday, June 7, 2022
ONLINE- Enka-Candler Library Evening Book Club
Jun 7 @ 7:00 pm – 8:00 pm
online

ONLINE- Enka-Candler Library Evening Book Club

Chat with other book lovers about this month’s book selection.

Interested in reading ahead? Here’s what we have coming up in the next few months!
– November- “Once Upon A River” Diane Setterfield
– December- “Dutch House” Ann Patchett
– January- “Mexican Gothic” Silvia Moreno-Garcia
– February- “The Rose Code” Kate Quinn

To reserve your copy of the book, visit buncombe.nccardinal.org or swing by the library to pick one up from the book clubs holds shelf.

To join the book club email [email protected] or call us at 250-4758.

Wednesday, June 8, 2022
Discussion Bound: Chalk: The Art and Erasure of Cy Twombly by Joshua Rivkin
Jun 8 @ 12:00 pm
Asheville Art Museum

Cy Twombly was a man obsessed with myth and history—including his own. Shuttling between stunning homes in Italy and the United States where he perfected his room-size canvases, he managed his public image carefully and rarely gave interviews.

Upon first seeing Twombly’s remarkable paintings, writer Joshua Rivkin became obsessed himself with the mysterious artist, and began chasing every lead, big or small—anything that might illuminate those works, or who Twombly really was.

Now, after unprecedented archival research and years of interviews, Rivkin has reconstructed Twombly’s life, from his time at the legendary Black Mountain College to his canonization in a 1994 MoMA retrospective; from his heady explorations of Rome in the 1950s with Robert Rauschenberg to the ongoing efforts to shape his legacy after his death.

Including previously unpublished photographs, Chalk presents a more personal and searching type of biography than we’ve ever encountered, and brings to life a more complex Twombly than we’ve ever known.

DISCUSSION BOUND

This monthly discussion is a place to exchange ideas about readings that relate to artworks and the art world, and to learn from and about each other. Books are available at Malaprop’s Bookstore/Café for a 10% discount. To add your name to our Discuss

Thursday, June 9, 2022
Meet the Author- Talk and Q+A with Jonathan Baurer
Jun 9 @ 6:00 pm – 7:00 pm
Enka-Candler Library

Join us in the Library community room for an informational session and Q&A with author, Jonathan Baurer.

He’ll be answering your questions and discussing his new book, Positive Parenting Solutions to Raise Highly Sensitive Children: Understanding Your Child’s Emotions and How to Respond with Radical Compassion, Love, and Confidence. Books will be available for purchase.

Bio:
Jonathan Baurer, author, certified life coach, and entrepreneur based out of Asheville, North Carolina, is the co-founder of Exploring Changes, a mindset life-coaching program and blended-publishing house. Jonathan helps clients achieve their highest goals and live the life of their dreams by bridging the gap between where they are, and where they want to be. Jonathan is the author of two bestselling non-fiction books, helping people live more fully in happiness and love. Jonathan is inspired by his passion of continued learning, living a life of adventure, and creating authentic connections with others.

This program is sponsored by the Friends of the Enka-Candler Library. All library programs are free and everyone is welcome. We hope you’ll join us

Saturday, June 11, 2022
Friends of the East Asheville Library Bag O’ Books Sale
Jun 11 @ 10:00 am – 3:00 pm
East Asheville Library

Join us for a used book sale on Saturday, June 11 from 10am to 3pm. Proceeds from the sale will benefit future programs and other assistance to the East Asheville Public Library.

Questions? E-mail [email protected].

Sunday, June 12, 2022
A Benefit Concert for Hawthorn+Fox Flower Montessori School
Jun 12 @ 6:00 pm
The Grey Eagle

A Benefit Concert for Hawthorn+Fox Flower

Hawthorn+Fox Flower Montessori School is a non-profit, community-based school that serves children 3-12 in Woodfin, NC. Being a teacher-led program, the teachers are also the administration and work hard to blur the lines of home and school and foster deep relationships with the children and their families. Hathorn + Fox Flower is proud to serve a wide variety of socio-economic groups while constantly working towards an anti-racist and anti-bias community.

JUAN HOLLADAY

Hailing from the desert southwest, Juan Holladay writes songs in the tradition of three chords and the truth, but with more chords and more truth. In 2001, he came to Western North Carolina to attend Warren Wilson College, and he stayed in the Asheville area, after graduation, to become a father, and form a much loved local band, the Secret B-Sides. In addition to working as a sideman for family entertainers Billy Jonas and Secret Agent 23 Skidoo, Juan has also been working on beat-driven, down-tempo, solo material. His latest solo album, ‘Beauty Sleep’ is available on most digital platforms, as well as Bandcamp.

HUSTLE SOULS

Hustle Souls is an Asheville, NC-based soul band who blend dust-covered-vinyl nostalgia with modern sensibility; recently named a Music Connection Magazine Hot 100 Live Unsigned Artists & Bands. Hustle Souls music has been called a “generation-jumping mashup of new school second line funk with old school vintage soul.” American Blues Scene and “intimate soul… with a Curtis Mayfield like warmth.” Bluestown Music. Roaring B3 organ, jubilant brass and ripping electric guitar are balanced with 3-part vocal harmony and a lust for songwriting that earned them spot in the 2020 International Songwriting Competition semi-finals and has been praised as “worthy of being included in that brilliant soul music canon, a heritage that features some of the greatest performers and writers that have ever graced this earth…” Aldora Britian Records. With relentless touring, sold out shows and major festival appearances it is no wonder why the band has earned a reputation as one of the East Coast’s most promising acts.

MANAS

MANAS is a duo comprised of guitarist Tashi Dorji and drummer Thom Nguyen. “As a duo, MANAS explores lots of improvisational ground, ranging from extreme sideways expansions of sonics texture — with Tashi’s guitar moving decisively outward while Thom’s drums explode in a mostly (but not entirely) parallel plane — to repetative reflecto passages that curl up into a tight ball before achieving escape velocity. The record is a blast, with deceptively arch liner notes by none other than Ben Chasny, who has been one of Tashi’s loudest cheerleaders for many a moon.” – Byron Coley

MIN XIAO-FEN

Few artists have done more to both honor and reinvent the 2000-year history of the pipa than renowned soloist, vocalist and composer Min Xiao-Fen. Classically trained in her native China, Min was an in-demand interpreter of traditional music before relocating to the United States and forging a new path for her instrument alongside many of the leading lights in modern jazz, free improvisation, experimental and contemporary classical music. The Village Voice has lauded her as an artist who “has taken her ancient Chinese string instrument into the future,” while the New York Times has raved that her singular work “has traversed a sweeping musical odyssey.”

Ms. Min’s expressive approach to the four-stringed lute has led to collaborations with such inventive luminaries as Wadada Leo Smith, Derek Bailey, Randy Weston, John Zorn, Christian Marclay, DJ Spooky and Björk. Her Blue Pipa Trio commingles legendary trumpeter Buck Clayton’s Kansas City swing with the music of Li Jinhui, the “Father of Chinese popular music,” in a project titled “From Harlem to Shanghai and Back.” Min’s 2012 album Dim Sum spotlighted the stunning scope of her original compositions, while her latest release, Mao, Monk and Me, is a deeply personal exploration of the music of Thelonious Monk combined with Chinese folk tunes and children’s songs remembered from her childhood in the ancient capital of Nanjing.

In May 2016, Min was the principal soloist with Washington D.C.’s PostClassical Ensemble for the world premiere of Daniel Schnyder’s “Concerto for Pipa & Orchestra,” written expressly for Min by the Swiss-American composer. Still a revered performer of traditional Chinese repertoire, she has been a featured soloist with a number of leading symphony orchestras.

In February 2018, Min premiered her original score, a duo with acclaimed guitarist Rez Abbasi, for the long-lost 1934 Chinese silent film The Goddess. In August, she premiered Alan Chan’s “Moon Walk” for pipa and Jazz Orchestra. That major event follows a fruitful 2017, when Min served as artist-in-residence with the Sound of Dragon Society at the Vancouver International Jazz Festival, and was a guiding artists for the Creative Music Studio in New York, performing with founder Karl Berger and his CMS Improvisers Orchestra in the fall. She is the founder of Blue Pipa Inc. and currently lives in New York.

Thursday, June 16, 2022
Preservation Through Art – Art Auction and Benefit
Jun 16 @ 5:30 pm – 9:00 pm
Brunk Auctions

Spring Art Auction and Benefit

These artworks will be featured in the Spring 2022 Art Auction & Benefit, hosted by Brunk Auctions.

Exquisite works of art by celebrated local artists will be on the auction block to support local organizations and their conservation efforts along the French Broad River.

This is a unique opportunity to purchase some wonderful art, support the artists who have contributed their work, and contribute to the protection of natural landmarks in the beautiful mountains we call home!

 

For each piece sold, the artist will receive 50% of the sale, and a designated organization will receive 50%. Organizations who will benefit:
Tickets to the event also include a drawing for over $1000 worth of prizes:
Preserving a Picturesque America Art Auction + Benefit
Jun 16 @ 5:30 pm – 9:00 pm
Brunk Auctions

 

Beverages, hors d’oeuvres, and bidding card are included in the price.

 

This is a unique opportunity to purchase original works of art by celebrated local artists. The auction will benefit local organizations and their conservation efforts along the French Broad River, including GreenWorks. Thanks to PAPA for hosting an event to contribute to community-wide efforts to protect natural landmarks in the beautiful mountains we call home!

REPRODUCTIVE FREEDOM JAM: Benefit for Planned Parenthood Votes!
Jun 16 @ 7:00 pm
The Grey Eagle

REPRODUCTIVE FREEDOM JAM: Benefit for Planned Parenthood Votes! S. Atlantic

 

All proceeds from Reproductive Freedom Jam 2022 directly fund the NC ACTION PAC. This PAC supports the advocacy and voter contact work by endorsing NC candidates who advocate for accessible reproductive healthcare, protect access to abortion, support LGBTQ+ rights, and work for equity of people and their families.

Hosted by Barbie Angell, the event will feature performances from Ken Kahn, Melissa Hyman and Dulci Ellenberger, Daniel Shearin (of River Whyless), Lo Wolf, Life Like Water, Kendra Penland and Friends, Greg Cartwright (of Reigning Sound), The Smoky Mountain Sirens, and more!

Sunday, June 19, 2022
ReadWNC Series – Guests on Earth
Jun 19 @ 6:00 pm – 7:00 pm
online w/ Western North Carolina Historical Association

ReadWNC Series - Guests on Earth

Join the Western North Carolina Historical Association (WNCHA) for the second of three events in our ReadWNC series! With authors and historians, we will explore the facts behind the fiction in these books centered in WNC. In this series, authors and historians explore the facts behind the fiction in books centered in WNC. We encourage you to read the books in advance and bring your own questions to the discussion. You can find all three books at Malaprop’s Bookstore here in Asheville. This event airs live via Zoom, Tuesday, July 19 from 6:00-7pm.

Our series continues with Lee Smith’s novel Guests on Earth, set at Asheville’s Highland Hospital during the period when Zelda Fitzgerald resided there, before she and eight other women perished in a terrible fire in 1948. Smith says: “In this novel I offer a solution for the unsolved mystery of that fire, along with a group of characters both imagined and real, and a series of events leading up to the tragedy. My narrator is a younger patient named Evalina Toussaint, daughter of a New Orleans exotic dancer. Evalina is a talented pianist who connects to Zelda on many levels as she plays accompaniment for the many concerts, theatricals, and dances constantly being held at Highland Hospital.”

 

About the Presenters:

Dr. Alaina Doten is the executive director of the Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald Museum in Montgomery, Alabama. She has a PhD in history and art history from the University of Melbourne.

Wednesday, June 22, 2022
Valerie Nieman presents In the Lonely Backwater in conversation with Jamie Mason
Jun 22 @ 6:00 pm
online w/ Malaprops
Valerie Nieman presents In the Lonely Backwater in conversation with Jamie Mason. VIRTUAL. Wednesday, June 22, 2022 at 6pm ET. Next to the text are photos of the participants and the cover of the featured book.

UPDATE: This will be a fully virtual event. Please click here to register for the VIRTUAL event. The link required to attend will be emailed to registrants prior to the event.

If you decide to attend and purchase the authors’ 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!


All seventeen-year-old Maggie Warshauer wants is to leave her stifled life in Filliyaw Creek behind and head to college. An outsider at school and uncertain of her own sexual identity, Maggie longs to start again somewhere new. Inspired by a long-dead biologist’s journals, scientific-minded Maggie spends her days sailing, exploring, and categorizing life around her. But when her beautiful cousin Charisse disappears on prom night and is found dead at the marina where Maggie lives, Maggie’s plans begin to unravel. A mysterious stranger begins stalking her and a local detective on the case leaves her struggling to hold on to her secrets—her father’s alcoholism, her mother’s abandonment, a boyfriend who may or may not exist, and her own actions on prom night. As the detective gets closer to finding the truth, and Maggie’s stalker is closing in, she is forced to come to terms with the one person who might hold the answers—herself.

A former farmer, sailor, and journalist, Valerie Nieman is the author of five novels, one short story collection, three collections of poetry, and two poetry chapbooks. To the Bones, her genre-bending novel about Appalachia published by West Virginia University Press in 2019, was a finalist for the Manly Wade Wellman Award and the Killer Nashville Award. Her work has appeared in dozens of journals including MonkeybicycleStorySouth, and The Georgia Review and received fellowships from the North Carolina Arts Council and the NEA, among others. Nieman recently retired from teaching at North Carolina A&T. Learn more at valnieman.com.

Jamie Mason was born in Oklahoma City and grew up in Washington, DC. She’s most often reading and writing, but in the life left over, she enjoys films, Formula 1 racing, football, traveling, and, conversely, staying at home. Jamie lives with her husband and two daughters in the mountains of western North Carolina. She is the author of Three Graves FullMonday’s Lie, and The Hidden Things.

Notorious HBC (History Book Club)
Jun 22 @ 7:00 pm
online

This club meets in-person and virtually. If you are interested in attending, please email [email protected] for more info and instructions! 

Join host and Malaprop’s bookseller Patricia Furnish to discuss a range of books across different periods of history. The club tackles challenging subjects, hence “NOTORIOUS.”  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 at Malaprop’s on the 3rd Thursday of every month at 7:00 pm.

Thursday, June 23, 2022
A Day with Brie Arthur and Carolina Native Nursery’s Founder Bill Jones: Nursery tour and Presentation
Jun 23 @ 10:00 am
Carolina Native Nursery

Picture

DescriptionKnown for her leadership with the national Foodscape movement and her lively, information packed presentations, Brie Arthur is a celebrated speaker and bestselling author. With two decades of experience as a professional horticulturist, propagator, and communicator Brie shares her expertise with audiences around the country and is a correspondent on the Emmy award winning PBS Television show “Growing a Greener World”. Follow Brie’s gardening journey through her YouTube channel, Brie the Plant Lady. One garden at a time, every little bit of habitat makes our world a better place.

A Day with Brie Arthur Nursery tour and Presentation
Jun 23 @ 2:00 pm
The Butler Room at the Botanical Gardens of Asheville

Picture

DescriptionKnown for her leadership with the national Foodscape movement and her lively, information packed presentations, Brie Arthur is a celebrated speaker and bestselling author. With two decades of experience as a professional horticulturist, propagator, and communicator Brie shares her expertise with audiences around the country and is a correspondent on the Emmy award winning PBS Television show “Growing a Greener World”. Follow Brie’s gardening journey through her YouTube channel, Brie the Plant Lady. One garden at a time, every little bit of habitat makes our world a better place.

Monday, June 27, 2022
Science Fiction Book Club
Jun 27 @ 7:00 pm
online

Join host and Malaprop’s Bookseller Allison to dive into the wreck of the wily and wonderful world of science fiction, fantasy, weird fiction, speculative fiction, and literary horror with a healthy mix of underappreciated classic and contemporary books. Meets the last Monday of every month at 7 pm on Zoom. Also meets on the second Monday of every month at 7 pm to discuss the film adaptations of the books we read.  Click here to see a full schedule of what the club is reading and contact the club host to join. Club attendees get 10% off the book at Malaprop’s!

Tuesday, June 28, 2022
Romance Book Club
Jun 28 @ 7:00 pm
zoom

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.

Wednesday, June 29, 2022
Hybrid event: Brent Martin presents George Masa’s Wild Vision
Jun 29 @ 6:00 pm – 7:00 pm
Malaprops Bookstore and online
Image contains the text: Brent Martin presents George Masa's Wild Vision. Hybrid. Wednesday, June 29, 2022 at 6pm ET. Next to the text are photos of the author and the cover of the featured book.

This is a hybrid event, meaning there is an option to attend virtually and a limited amount of seats available to attend the event in-store. 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.

If you decide to attend and purchase the authors’ 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!


Self-taught photographer George Masa (born Masahara Iizuka in Osaka, Japan), arrived in Asheville, North Carolina at the turn of the twentieth century amid a period of great transition in the southern Appalachians.
Masa’s photographs from the 1920s and early 1930s are stunning windows into an era where railroads hauled out the remaining old-growth timber with impunity, new roads were blasted into hillsides, and an activist community emerged to fight for a new national park. Masa began photographing the nearby mountains and helping to map the Appalachian Trail, capturing this transition like no other photographer of his time. His images, along with his knowledge of the landscape, became a critical piece of the argument for the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, compelling John D. Rockefeller to donate $5 million for initial land purchases. Despite being hailed as the “Ansel Adams of the Smokies,” Masa died, destitute and unknown, in 1933.
In George Masa’s Wild Vision: A Japanese Immigrant Imagines Western North Carolina, poet and environmental organizer Brent Martin explores the locations Masa visited, using first-person narratives to contrast, lament, and exalt the condition of the landscape the photographer so loved and worked to interpret and protect. The book includes seventy-five of Masa’s photographs, accompanied by Martin’s reflections on Masa’s life and work.

Brent Martin is the author of three chapbook collections of poetry and of The Changing Blue Ridge Mountains: Essays on Journeys Past and Present. His poetry and essays have been published in the North Carolina Literary Review, Pisgah Review, Tar River Poetry, Chattahoochee Review, Eno Journal, New Southerner, Kudzu Literary Journal, Smoky Mountain News and elsewhere. He lives in the Cowee community in Western North Carolina, where he and his wife, Angela Faye Martin, run Alarka Institute.

Foodie Book Club
Jun 29 @ 7:00 pm
online

The Foodie Book Club is a club about food writing. The club meets on the last Wednesday of every month at 7:00 PM.  Click here for details and monthly picks!

Wednesday, October 26, 2022 – 7:00pm
Wednesday, November 30, 2022 – 7:00pm
Wednesday, December 28, 2022 – 7:00pm
Thursday, June 30, 2022
Live Stream: UNC Press Presents Rebecca Sharpless, author of Grain and Fire
Jun 30 @ 6:00 pm
Live Stream

Image contains the text: UNC Press Presents Rebecca Sharpless, Thursday, June 30, 2022 at 6pm ET. Next to the text are photos of the participant and the cover of the featured book.

Malaprop’s is pleased to partner with UNC Press to present this event with Rebecca Sharpless. Kirk Brown will moderate.

 

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!

While a luscious layer cake may exemplify the towering glory of southern baking, like everything about the American South, baking is far more complicated than it seems. Rebecca Sharpless here weaves a brilliant chronicle, vast in perspective and entertaining in detail, revealing how three global food traditions—Indigenous American, European, and African—collided with and merged in the economies, cultures, and foodways of the South to create what we know as the southern baking tradition.

Recognizing that sentiments around southern baking run deep, Sharpless takes delight in deflating stereotypes as she delves into the surprising realities underlying the creation and consumption of baked goods. People who controlled the food supply in the South used baking to reinforce their power and make social distinctions. Who used white cornmeal and who used yellow, who put sugar in their cornbread and who did not had traditional meanings for southerners, as did the proportions of flour, fat, and liquid in biscuits. By the twentieth century, however, the popularity of convenience foods and mixes exploded in the region, as it did nationwide. Still, while some regional distinctions have waned, baking in the South continues to be a remarkable, and remarkably tasty, source of identity and entrepreneurship.

Rebecca Sharpless is professor of history at Texas Christian University. Her most recent book is Cooking in Other Women’s Kitchens: Domestic Workers in the South, 1865–1960.

The Rev. David C. (Kirk) Brown is the recently retired chaplain of Christ School. Kirk received his A.B. from Davidson College, his M.A. from the University of Virginia (Germanic Studies), and his M.Div. from Virginia Theological Seminary.  Kirk is a member of the UNC Press Advancement Council and lives with his wife, Shelley, on a farm in Fletcher.

Tuesday, July 5, 2022
WILD (Women in Lively Discussion) Book Club
Jul 5 @ 6:30 pm
Battery Park Book Exchange

Join former Malaprop’s General Manager Linda-Marie Barrett for this woman-only book club that seeks to have fun by reading books (fiction & non) by women writers. 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 at 6:30 P.M. on the first Tuesday of the month at the Battery Park Book Exchange. It will be held virtually during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Enka Evening Book Club- in person: Fuzz by Mary Roach
Jul 5 @ 7:00 pm – 8:00 pm
Enka-Candler Library

Enka Evening Book Club- in person

In July, we’ll be reading and discussing Fuzz by Mary Roach.

Books are available to be picked up from the holds shelf. No registration required for this in person meeting. We’ll be gathering in the community room.

Enka Evening Book Club is every first Tuesday of the month from 7-8 PM. Everyone is welcome.

ONLINE- Enka-Candler Library Evening Book Club
Jul 5 @ 7:00 pm – 8:00 pm
online

ONLINE- Enka-Candler Library Evening Book Club

Chat with other book lovers about this month’s book selection.

Interested in reading ahead? Here’s what we have coming up in the next few months!
– November- “Once Upon A River” Diane Setterfield
– December- “Dutch House” Ann Patchett
– January- “Mexican Gothic” Silvia Moreno-Garcia
– February- “The Rose Code” Kate Quinn

To reserve your copy of the book, visit buncombe.nccardinal.org or swing by the library to pick one up from the book clubs holds shelf.

To join the book club email [email protected] or call us at 250-4758.

Thursday, July 7, 2022
East Asheville Library Book Club: The Code Girls, by Liza Mundy
Jul 7 @ 6:30 pm – 7:30 pm
East Asheville Public Library
Crime and Politics Book Club
Jul 7 @ 7:00 pm
online

Join host and Malaprop’s Bookseller Patricia Furnish to discuss a range of books across true crime and public affairs. The club meets the first Thursday of the month at 7 p.m. Click here to learn more about the club, view important news, and find the pick for this month.

Sunday, July 10, 2022
Hybrid Poetrio: Marlanda Dekine, Hilda Downer, and Ann Shurgin
Jul 10 @ 4:30 pm
Malaprops Bookstore and online

 

Image contains the text: Hybrid. POETRIO: Marlanda Dekine, Hilda Downer, Ann Shurgin. Sunday July 10, 2022 at 4:30 pm ET. Next to the text are photos of the participants and the covers of the featured books.

Join us for our monthly poetry event featuring three poets and coordinated by Mildred Barya. This month, we welcome Marlanda Dekine, Hilda Downer, and Ann Shurgin.

This is a hybrid event, meaning there is an option to attend virtually and a limited amount of seats available to attend the event in-store. 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.

If you decide to attend and purchase the author’s 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!

Feel free to email [email protected] with questions. We look forward to seeing you, whether in-person or online!


Marlanda Dekine is the winner of the 2021 New Southern Voices Poetry Prize. Concerned with ancestry, memory, and the process of staying within one’s own body, their work leaves spells and incantations for others to follow for themselves. Dekine is a Tin House Own Path Scholar and author of the self-published collection and mixtape, i am from a punch & a kiss (2017). Their poems have been published or are forthcoming in the Poetry Out Loud Anthology, POETRY Magazine, Emergence Magazine, Southern Humanities Review, Oxford American, and elsewhere. They live in South Carolina with their dog Malachi. For more, visit  https://sapientsoul.square.site

Marlanda Dekine’s debut collection, Thresh & Hold is a holy, radical unlearning and reclamation of self. What does it mean to be a Gullah-Geechee descendant from a rural place where a third of the nation’s founding wealth was harvested by trafficked West and Central Africans? Dekine’s poems travel across age and time, signaling that both the past and future exist in the present. Through erasure and persona, Dekine reimagines intergenerational traumas and calls to task narratives of modern-day museums and the Works Progress Administration. Beyond gospel music, fear, and previous generation stories, Thresh & Hold offers magic, healing, and innovative pathways to manifest intimacy.


Hilda Downer, a long term member of the Southern Appalachian Writers Cooperative and North Carolina Writers Conference, has an MA in English from Appalachian State University and an MFA in Poetry from Vermont College. Retired from teaching English, she also worked as a psychiatric nurse for over 38 years. Her first book of poetry, Bandana Creek, was published by Red Clay Press. Her second book, Sky Under the Roof, by Bottom Dog Press was a Nautilus Golden Winner. She has published essays and poetry in numerous journals and anthologies. She lives in Sugar Grove, NC.
For more, visit [email protected]

We must “relearn ourselves / with what we have now,” Hilda Downer says in her new collection When Light Waits for Us. Time—in all its countless iterations and absences—bears in on her from every side, all of life an excavation site, a record of who she became and, more hauntingly, who she did not. Even so, Downer recognizes that we live in a “delicate microcosm” where “orchids [are] so specialized / their pollination requires / one particular species of insects.” Her poems assert that we are no different, our souls intersecting, thereby giving us all these ways—music, photography, even poems—to “invent an art to make it worth starting over.”


Ann Shurgin grew up in Elizabethton, Tennessee, and holds a degree in English and journalism from East Tennessee State University. After a career in journalism and communications in Texas, she moved back home to the Appalachian Mountains. She is a member of the Southern Appalachian Writers Cooperative and the Appalachian Studies Association. While the Whippoorwill Called is her first book of poetry.

While the Whippoorwill Called is a sensual delight rooted in laurel thicket and balsam ridge, in the amber glow of home left and returned to, a voice sometimes alone in the mountains nonetheless singing free. Ann Shurgin’s debut poetry collection is also a heart tugger, wishing for love once tasted then flowing past. Both poet and photographer, Shurgin centers us in her lens of wishing and independence, on the Tennessee/Carolina border, knowing that “a stone from Appalachia / is lost without the hollows / and the whippoorwills.” Wrap yourself in evanescent memory and life’s great unfurling, in the quiet woods of what was and is yet to be.

Mildred Kiconco Barya is a writer and poet. She has written short-stories and essays for various publications, features and travel articles for newspapers. Her first collection of poetry titled: Men Love Chocolates But They Don’t Say won the National Award for poetry publication 2002. She is also the author of the poetry collections The Price of Memory and Give Me Room to Move My Feet. Barya is Assistant professor of Creative Writing and World Literature at University of North Carolina-Asheville. Learn more at http://mildredbarya.com/.

Event date:
Monday, July 11, 2022
Mystery Book Club
Jul 11 @ 7:00 pm
Malaprops Bookstore

 

Join host Tena Frank for Malaprop’s Mystery Book Club! 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 at Malaprop’s on the second Monday of every month at 7:00 pm.