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.

Thursday, January 25, 2024
Tween Book Club
Jan 25 @ 4:00 pm – 5:00 pm
Pack Memorial Library

In celebration of the year of the dragon, let’s read and discuss The Dragon Warrior by Katie Zhao for our first Tween Book Club. Enjoy a dragon craft and sweet rice cakes! Refreshments will be served. Pick up a copy of your book at the Pack Juv desk or read or listen to it using the Libby app. Feel free to join us even if you don’t finish reading the whole book. We will vote on our book for next month on Thursday, February 29th.

Open to 4th-6th graders. Juvenile fiction chapter books or graphic novels will be the focus of this book group.

 

Qigong with Allen Horowitz
Jan 25 @ 4:30 pm – 5:30 pm
Fairview Library

Qigong is like Yoga but done standing and with more movement so it creates a flow of energy and gently increases circulation throughout your body.

The smooth flowing movements are easy to learn as each exercise is performed 8-10 times before proceeding to the next.

It is the grandfather of Tai Chi and other martial arts and is the self-help aspect of Chinese medicine.

Suitable for all fitness levels, the benefits of well-being, relaxation, calmness and improved balance are often felt often during the very first lesson.  And it can be practiced at home in only a few minutes any time you want to improve how you feel.

For information email [email protected]

Hybrid | You’ll Do: Marcia Zug in conversation with Emily Suski
Jan 25 @ 6:00 pm
Malaprop's Bookstore

This is a hybrid event with limited in-store seating and the option to attend online.

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, you may order a signed copy online below. If you would like to have your book personalized, please order online or call the store at least two hours before the start of the event. When ordering online, use the comments field to provide a name for personalization, e.g. “To Paul.” NOTE: We do our best to get books personalized when requested but personalization is not guaranteed.

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!


YOU’LL DO takes a deep dive into the unromantic, but much more common than most would like to think, reasons for marrying throughout history. Its publication date close to Valentine’s Day makes it the perfect time for the subject to be discussed and sure to attract others who are interested. Through revealing storytelling, Zug builds a compelling case that when marriage is touted as “the solution” to such problems, it absolves the government, and society, of the responsibility for directly addressing them.

Marcia Zug is a family law professor at the University of South Carolina School of Law. She is a graduate of Dartmouth College and The Yale Law School. Her previous book, Buying A Bride, explored the history of mail order marriage in the United States. She lives in Columbia, SC with her husband and two daughters.

Emily Suski is the associate dean for clinics and externships and an associate professor of law at the University of South Carolina. Her areas of expertise include education law—particularly, Title IX and civil rights in the public schools; health & poverty law; and clinical legal education. Her scholarship explores issues at the intersection of education law and civil rights as well as the role of the law in the caretaking of children. Her articles have been published in journals including the Iowa Law Review (forthcoming), Minnesota Law Review, California Law ReviewUCLA Law ReviewMaryland Law Review, and Clinical Law Review.

Black Experience Book Club
Jan 25 @ 6:30 pm – 7:30 pm
Noir Collective AVL

The Black Experience Book Club reads books by Black authors about the many facets of the Black experience. Join other book lovers to discuss this month’s pick, People Person, by Candice Carty-Williams.

WHERE TO FIND THE BOOK
PUBLIC LIBRARY
Call your local Buncombe County Public Library or visit buncombecounty.org/library to reserve your copy online.

NOIR COLLECTIVE AT THE YMICC.
Stop by the Noir Collective AVL during open hours, call 828-257-4540, or email [email protected] to check availability.

Healing Sound Bath
Jan 25 @ 7:15 pm
Happy Body

Experience the transformative power of sound, intention, and the ancient art of the Cacao Ceremony. Elevate your well-being and connect with your inner self.

Begin with a Cacao Ceremony, fostering emotional release, forgiveness, and gratitude.

Immerse yourself in a short meditation to focus your mind and set intentions for the session.

Allow the resonant frequencies to wash over and through you, bringing harmony and balance. This immersive sound experience is designed to align your energy with your intentions, fostering a deep connection with the self.

Friday, January 26, 2024
BCAlerts From CodeRED
Jan 26 all-day
online
Stay informed. Get emergency notifications and general Buncombe County information on your smartphone, telephone, or email.
Sign up for BCAlerts today

Here is what you need to know.

What is CodeRED?

Along with emergency and critical messages, the CodeRED notification system will also enhance community engagement via the release of important but non-emergency information such as vaccine site notifications, inclement weather closures and schedule changes, and other county service information.

Sign up for BC Alerts by texting BCAlert(not case sensitive) to 99411 or visit to sign up for the new system. If residents have previously signed up for Nixle BC Alerts, they will need to re-register in order to continue receiving notifications after June 30.

Alerts to choose from:

  • Emergency
  • General
    • Recreation Services
    • Election Reminders
    • Governing
  • Weather

NOTICE: For CodeRED support, please call 1-866-939-0911. For all other questions email [email protected].

Qualify Free: Vaccination and Testing, Screening Cervical Cancer
Jan 26 all-day
online

More than 14,000 women in the United States are diagnosed with invasive cervical cancer each year, but the disease is preventable with vaccination and appropriate screening.

January is Cervical Health Awareness Month, a time to learn more about cervical health and cervical cancer prevention and take steps to help eliminate this preventable cancer.

The two most important tools to remember when it comes to cervical health are vaccination and testing.

Vaccination

The HPV vaccine has been around since 2006. In that time, rates of cervical cancer incidence have dropped significantly among vaccinated women. One study from Sweden looked at 11 years (2006 through 2017) and found 90% reduction in cervical cancer incidence compared with the incidence in women who had not been vaccinated.

HPV vaccines help prevent infection from both high-risk HPV types that can lead to cervical cancer and low-risk types that cause genital warts.

The CDC recommends all boys and girls get HPV vaccine at age 11 or 12. The vaccine produces a stronger immune response when taken during the preteen years. For this reason, up until age 14, only two doses are the vaccine are required. Women and men can get the vaccine up to age 45 but for those 15 and older, a full three-dose series is needed.

You can get the vaccine at your doctor’s office or the Buncombe County Health and Human Services Department at 40 Coxe Avenue in Asheville.

Learn more about the HPV vaccine here.

Screening

The goal of cervical cancer screening—Pap tests and HPV tests—is to find problems, like cell changes, so they can be treated before they turn into cancer.

The traditional test for early detection has been the Pap test. For women aged 30 and over, an HPV test is also recommended. HPV tests can find any of the high-risk types of HPV that are commonly found in cervical cancer.

Women should start screening with the Pap test at age 21, according to current guidelines for cervical cancer screening.

Starting at age 30, women have three options available for screening:

  • A Pap test alone every three years.
  • Co-testing with a Pap and HPV test, every five years.
  • An HPV test alone, every five years.

Depending on the results of the Pap and/or HPV tests, a healthcare provider may recommend additional screening or procedures, so some women may be screened more often.

After age 65, women older than 65 who have had adequate prior screening and are not otherwise at high risk can stop screening. Women who have had a hysterectomy (with removal of the cervix) also do not need to be screened, unless they have a have a history of a high-grade precancerous lesions.

To learn more about each type of screening, click here.

Breast And Cervical Cancer Control Program (BCCCP)

The Buncombe County Health and Human Services BCCCP is a program serving women and transgender people providing free chest and cervical exams, pap smears and HPV testing, and mammograms. This program is open to those:

To learn more about eligibility or schedule an appointment, call (828) 250-6006.

Land of the Sky Association of REALTORS® Blood Drive
Jan 26 @ 10:00 am – 3:00 pm
Hilltop Event Center

Come give blood to automatically be entered for a chance to win an exciting trip for you & a guest to Super Bowl LVIII in Vegas! Includes travel, hotel, $1,000 gift card, pre-game activities & more!

 

For an appointment, please visit RedCrossBlood.org
and use the sponsor code “LandOfTheSky
Or call 1-800-RED CROSS (1-800-733-2767)

Vera B. Williams / STORIES Eight Decades of Politics and Picture Making
Jan 26 @ 11:00 am – 5:00 pm
Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center

 

Exhibition and Public Programming

Vera B. Williams, an award-winning author and illustrator of children’s books, started making pictures almost as soon as she could walk. She studied at Black Mountain College in a time where summer institutes were held with classes taught by John Cage and Merce Cunningham. Williams studied under the Bauhaus luminary Josef Albers and went on to make art for the rest of her life. At the time of her death, The New York Times wrote: “Her illustrations, known for bold colors and a style reminiscent of folk art, were praised by reviewers for their great tenderness and crackling vitality.” Despite numerous awards and recognition for her children’s books, much of her wider life and work remains unexplored. This retrospective will showcase the complete range of Williams’ life and work. It will highlight her time at Black Mountain College, her political activism, and her establishment, with Paul Williams, of an influential yet little-known artist community, in addition to her work as an author and illustrator.

Author and illustrator of 17 children’s books, including Caldecott medal winner, A Chair for My Mother, Vera B. Williams always had a passion for the arts. Williams grew up in the Bronx, NY, and in 1936, when she was nine years old, one of her paintings, called Yentas, opens a new window, was included in an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art. While Williams is widely known for her children’s books today, this exhibition’s expansive scope highlights unexplored aspects of her artistic practice and eight decades of life. From groundbreaking, powerful covers for Liberation Magazine, to Peace calendar collaborations with writer activist Grace Paley, to scenic sketches for Julian Beck and Judith Malina’s Living Theater, to hundreds of late life “Aging and Illness” cartoons sketches and doodles, Vera never sat still.

Williams arrived at Black Mountain College in 1945. While there, she embraced all aspects of living, working, and learning in the intensely creative college community. She was at BMC during a particularly fertile period, which allowed her to study with faculty members Buckminster Fuller and Josef Albers, and to participate in the famed summer sessions with John Cage, Merce Cunningham, M.C. Richards, and Robert Rauschenberg. In 1948, she graduated with Josef Albers as her advisor and sculptor Richard Lippold as her outside examiner. Forever one of the College’s shining stars, Vera graduated from BMC with just six semesters of coursework, at only twenty-one years old. She continued to visit BMC for years afterward, staying deeply involved with the artistic community that BMC incubated.

Anticipating the eventual closure of BMC, Williams, alongside her husband Paul Williams and a group of influential former BMC figures, founded The Gate Hill Cooperative Artists community located 30 miles north of NYC on the outskirts of Stony Point, NY. The Gate Hill Cooperative, also known as The Land, became an outcropping of Black Mountain College’s experimental ethos. Students and faculty including John Cage, M.C. Richards, David Tudor, Karen Karnes, David Weinrib, Stan VanDerBeek, and Patsy Lynch Wood shaped Gate Hill as founding members of the community. Vera B. Williams raised her three children at Gate Hill while continuing to make work.

The early Gate Hill era represented an especially creative phase for the BMC group. For Williams, this period saw the creation of 76 covers for Liberation Magazine, a radical, groundbreaking publication. This exhibition will feature some of Williams’ most powerful Liberation covers including a design for the June 1963 edition, which contained the first full publication of MLK’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail.” Williams’ activism work continued throughout her life. As president of PEN’s Children Committee and member of The War Resisters league, she created a wide range of political and educational posters and journal covers. Williams protested the war in Vietnam and nuclear proliferation while supporting women’s causes and racial equality. In 1981, Williams was arrested and spent a month in a federal prison on charges stemming from her political activism.

In her late 40’s, Williams embarked in earnest on her career as a children’s book author and illustrator, a career which garnered the NY Public Library’s recognition of A Chair for My Mother as one of the greatest 100 children’s books of all time. Infinitely curious and always a wanderer at heart, Williams’ personal life was as expansive as her art. In addition to her prolific picture making, Williams started and helped run a Summerhill-based alternative school, canoed the Yukon, and lived alone on a houseboat in Vancouver Harbor. She helped to organize and attended dozens of political demonstrations throughout her adult life.

Her books won many awards including the Caldecott Medal Honor Book for A Chair for My Mother in 1983, the Boston Globe–Horn Book Award– Fiction category– for Scooter in 1994, the Jane Addams Honor for Amber Was Brave, Essie Was Smart in 2002, and the NSK Neustadt Prize for Children’s Literature in 2009. Her books reflected her values, emphasizing love, compassion, kindness, joy, strength, individuality, and courage.

Images:

Cover of Vera B. Williams’ A Chair for My Mother, published in 1982.

Vera B. Williams, Cover for Liberation Magazine, November 1958.

Saturday, January 27, 2024
BCAlerts From CodeRED
Jan 27 all-day
online
Stay informed. Get emergency notifications and general Buncombe County information on your smartphone, telephone, or email.
Sign up for BCAlerts today

Here is what you need to know.

What is CodeRED?

Along with emergency and critical messages, the CodeRED notification system will also enhance community engagement via the release of important but non-emergency information such as vaccine site notifications, inclement weather closures and schedule changes, and other county service information.

Sign up for BC Alerts by texting BCAlert(not case sensitive) to 99411 or visit to sign up for the new system. If residents have previously signed up for Nixle BC Alerts, they will need to re-register in order to continue receiving notifications after June 30.

Alerts to choose from:

  • Emergency
  • General
    • Recreation Services
    • Election Reminders
    • Governing
  • Weather

NOTICE: For CodeRED support, please call 1-866-939-0911. For all other questions email [email protected].

Qualify Free: Vaccination and Testing, Screening Cervical Cancer
Jan 27 all-day
online

More than 14,000 women in the United States are diagnosed with invasive cervical cancer each year, but the disease is preventable with vaccination and appropriate screening.

January is Cervical Health Awareness Month, a time to learn more about cervical health and cervical cancer prevention and take steps to help eliminate this preventable cancer.

The two most important tools to remember when it comes to cervical health are vaccination and testing.

Vaccination

The HPV vaccine has been around since 2006. In that time, rates of cervical cancer incidence have dropped significantly among vaccinated women. One study from Sweden looked at 11 years (2006 through 2017) and found 90% reduction in cervical cancer incidence compared with the incidence in women who had not been vaccinated.

HPV vaccines help prevent infection from both high-risk HPV types that can lead to cervical cancer and low-risk types that cause genital warts.

The CDC recommends all boys and girls get HPV vaccine at age 11 or 12. The vaccine produces a stronger immune response when taken during the preteen years. For this reason, up until age 14, only two doses are the vaccine are required. Women and men can get the vaccine up to age 45 but for those 15 and older, a full three-dose series is needed.

You can get the vaccine at your doctor’s office or the Buncombe County Health and Human Services Department at 40 Coxe Avenue in Asheville.

Learn more about the HPV vaccine here.

Screening

The goal of cervical cancer screening—Pap tests and HPV tests—is to find problems, like cell changes, so they can be treated before they turn into cancer.

The traditional test for early detection has been the Pap test. For women aged 30 and over, an HPV test is also recommended. HPV tests can find any of the high-risk types of HPV that are commonly found in cervical cancer.

Women should start screening with the Pap test at age 21, according to current guidelines for cervical cancer screening.

Starting at age 30, women have three options available for screening:

  • A Pap test alone every three years.
  • Co-testing with a Pap and HPV test, every five years.
  • An HPV test alone, every five years.

Depending on the results of the Pap and/or HPV tests, a healthcare provider may recommend additional screening or procedures, so some women may be screened more often.

After age 65, women older than 65 who have had adequate prior screening and are not otherwise at high risk can stop screening. Women who have had a hysterectomy (with removal of the cervix) also do not need to be screened, unless they have a have a history of a high-grade precancerous lesions.

To learn more about each type of screening, click here.

Breast And Cervical Cancer Control Program (BCCCP)

The Buncombe County Health and Human Services BCCCP is a program serving women and transgender people providing free chest and cervical exams, pap smears and HPV testing, and mammograms. This program is open to those:

To learn more about eligibility or schedule an appointment, call (828) 250-6006.

Vera B. Williams / STORIES Eight Decades of Politics and Picture Making
Jan 27 @ 11:00 am – 5:00 pm
Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center

 

Exhibition and Public Programming

Vera B. Williams, an award-winning author and illustrator of children’s books, started making pictures almost as soon as she could walk. She studied at Black Mountain College in a time where summer institutes were held with classes taught by John Cage and Merce Cunningham. Williams studied under the Bauhaus luminary Josef Albers and went on to make art for the rest of her life. At the time of her death, The New York Times wrote: “Her illustrations, known for bold colors and a style reminiscent of folk art, were praised by reviewers for their great tenderness and crackling vitality.” Despite numerous awards and recognition for her children’s books, much of her wider life and work remains unexplored. This retrospective will showcase the complete range of Williams’ life and work. It will highlight her time at Black Mountain College, her political activism, and her establishment, with Paul Williams, of an influential yet little-known artist community, in addition to her work as an author and illustrator.

Author and illustrator of 17 children’s books, including Caldecott medal winner, A Chair for My Mother, Vera B. Williams always had a passion for the arts. Williams grew up in the Bronx, NY, and in 1936, when she was nine years old, one of her paintings, called Yentas, opens a new window, was included in an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art. While Williams is widely known for her children’s books today, this exhibition’s expansive scope highlights unexplored aspects of her artistic practice and eight decades of life. From groundbreaking, powerful covers for Liberation Magazine, to Peace calendar collaborations with writer activist Grace Paley, to scenic sketches for Julian Beck and Judith Malina’s Living Theater, to hundreds of late life “Aging and Illness” cartoons sketches and doodles, Vera never sat still.

Williams arrived at Black Mountain College in 1945. While there, she embraced all aspects of living, working, and learning in the intensely creative college community. She was at BMC during a particularly fertile period, which allowed her to study with faculty members Buckminster Fuller and Josef Albers, and to participate in the famed summer sessions with John Cage, Merce Cunningham, M.C. Richards, and Robert Rauschenberg. In 1948, she graduated with Josef Albers as her advisor and sculptor Richard Lippold as her outside examiner. Forever one of the College’s shining stars, Vera graduated from BMC with just six semesters of coursework, at only twenty-one years old. She continued to visit BMC for years afterward, staying deeply involved with the artistic community that BMC incubated.

Anticipating the eventual closure of BMC, Williams, alongside her husband Paul Williams and a group of influential former BMC figures, founded The Gate Hill Cooperative Artists community located 30 miles north of NYC on the outskirts of Stony Point, NY. The Gate Hill Cooperative, also known as The Land, became an outcropping of Black Mountain College’s experimental ethos. Students and faculty including John Cage, M.C. Richards, David Tudor, Karen Karnes, David Weinrib, Stan VanDerBeek, and Patsy Lynch Wood shaped Gate Hill as founding members of the community. Vera B. Williams raised her three children at Gate Hill while continuing to make work.

The early Gate Hill era represented an especially creative phase for the BMC group. For Williams, this period saw the creation of 76 covers for Liberation Magazine, a radical, groundbreaking publication. This exhibition will feature some of Williams’ most powerful Liberation covers including a design for the June 1963 edition, which contained the first full publication of MLK’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail.” Williams’ activism work continued throughout her life. As president of PEN’s Children Committee and member of The War Resisters league, she created a wide range of political and educational posters and journal covers. Williams protested the war in Vietnam and nuclear proliferation while supporting women’s causes and racial equality. In 1981, Williams was arrested and spent a month in a federal prison on charges stemming from her political activism.

In her late 40’s, Williams embarked in earnest on her career as a children’s book author and illustrator, a career which garnered the NY Public Library’s recognition of A Chair for My Mother as one of the greatest 100 children’s books of all time. Infinitely curious and always a wanderer at heart, Williams’ personal life was as expansive as her art. In addition to her prolific picture making, Williams started and helped run a Summerhill-based alternative school, canoed the Yukon, and lived alone on a houseboat in Vancouver Harbor. She helped to organize and attended dozens of political demonstrations throughout her adult life.

Her books won many awards including the Caldecott Medal Honor Book for A Chair for My Mother in 1983, the Boston Globe–Horn Book Award– Fiction category– for Scooter in 1994, the Jane Addams Honor for Amber Was Brave, Essie Was Smart in 2002, and the NSK Neustadt Prize for Children’s Literature in 2009. Her books reflected her values, emphasizing love, compassion, kindness, joy, strength, individuality, and courage.

Images:

Cover of Vera B. Williams’ A Chair for My Mother, published in 1982.

Vera B. Williams, Cover for Liberation Magazine, November 1958.

MARCH 10th Anniversary – Co-Author Andrew Aydin in Conversation with Fletcher Mayor Preston Blakely
Jan 27 @ 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm
East Asheville Library

Join us to celebrate the 10th Anniversary of John Lewis’s MARCH Trilogy with co-author Andrew Aydin and Preston Blakely, mayor of Fletcher, NC!

The event is free and open to the public. No registration is required.

Written in collaboration with co-writer Andrew Aydin and New York Times best-selling artist Nate Powell (winner of the Eisner Award and LA Times Book Prize finalist for Swallow Me Whole), March is a vivid first-hand account of John Lewis’ lifelong struggle for civil and human rights, meditating in the modern age on the distance traveled since the days of Jim Crow and segregation. Rooted in Lewis’ personal story, it also reflects on the highs and lows of the broader civil rights movement.

Andrew Aydin is an award-winning comics writer. He was the Digital Director and Policy Advisor to the late Georgia congressman John Lewis, and his coauthor for March. He splits his time between Washington, D.C., and Hendersonville, NC.

Preston Blakely, a lifelong Fletcher resident, currently serves as mayor of the Town of Fletcher and is the youngest sitting mayor in North Carolina at 28-years-old. Prior to serving as mayor, Preston was a Fletcher Town Council member. Preston is an advocate for rural communities, equity, and supporting families. In addition to serving as mayor, Preston works for his family business, Quality Janitorial Group and serves on several boards and commissions including Thrive in Henderson County, Big Brothers Big Sisters of WNC, Land of Sky Regional Council, the Governor’s Task Force for Racial Equity in Criminal Justice, and the Commission on the the Future of NC Elections. He is steadfast and committed to his community and North Carolina.

10th Anniversary of MARCH: Andrew Aydin in conversation with Preston Blakely
Jan 27 @ 3:00 pm
East Asheville Public Library

Join us in person at East Asheville Library to celebrate the 10th Anniversary of John Lewis’s MARCH Trilogy with co-author Andrew Aydin and Preston Blakely, mayor of Fletcher, NC!

The event is free and open to the public. No registration is required.


Written in collaboration with co-writer Andrew Aydin and New York Times best-selling artist Nate Powell (winner of the Eisner Award and LA Times Book Prize finalist for Swallow Me Whole), March is a vivid first-hand account of John Lewis’ lifelong struggle for civil and human rights, meditating in the modern age on the distance traveled since the days of Jim Crow and segregation. Rooted in Lewis’ personal story, it also reflects on the highs and lows of the broader civil rights movement.

Andrew Aydin is an award-winning comics writer. He was the Digital Director and Policy Advisor to the late Georgia congressman John Lewis, and his coauthor for March. He splits his time between Washington, D.C., and Hendersonville, NC.

Preston Blakely, a lifelong Fletcher resident, currently serves as mayor of the Town of Fletcher and is the youngest sitting mayor in North Carolina at 28-years-old. Prior to serving as mayor,  Preston was a Fletcher Town Council member. Preston is an advocate for rural communities,  equity, and supporting families. In addition to serving as mayor, Preston works for his family business, Quality Janitorial Group and serves on several boards and commissions including Thrive in Henderson County, Big  Brothers Big Sisters of WNC, Land of Sky Regional Council, the Governor’s Task Force for Racial  Equity in Criminal Justice, and the Commission on the the Future of NC Elections. He is steadfast and committed to his community and North Carolina.

World Harvest Presents The Commissioning
Jan 27 @ 6:30 pm
Spartanburg Memorial Auditorium

“The Commissioning” featuring

Christian Hip Hop Artist KB “Kevin Burgess”

This. Will. Be. Transformative! Come and experience a Jesus Movement that will impact the upstate in a historic way. This event exists to gather, mobilize, and empower our generation into their purpose! We believe this monumental event coming Jan 27th of 2024 will be a catalyst to reach not only the upstate but the world with the gospel. No matter where you’re in life, we want you here!

If you’re reading this, we want you to know that this event is not just a one-night moment. We’re inviting your generation into an extraordinary journey that we think will surprise you and compel you. People from all around the upstate and the world will be attending this night for many reasons.

– KB, Evangelist Jacob Ebersole, World Harvest Inc, Jesus Youth, and many other ministries, churches, missions organizations will be represented here. This is a collaboration and a gathering to respond to the need of the Upstate, the Nation, and the World.

– We believe thousands will literally be set on mission right there at the Spartanburg Memorial Auditorium. Not simply because this will be an amazing event, but because of what we will be offering you after. Young people and old will have an opportunity to partner with us on a global scale. Get your tickets fast!

– After the event in the lobby, you will have an opportunity to meet the leaders of this initiative. More importantly there will be a team present to greet you, speak with you about details, what your heart cry is, and to pray with you. Right there in the lobby you will have the opportunity to partner with World Harvest initiatives going on not just in the Upstate, but globally.

About World Harvest Inc.

World Harvest is a global missions movement set to reach every continent with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Founded by Evangelist Jacob Ebersole, who is actually from the upstate of SC – World Harvest has witnessed hundreds of thousands attend their crusades around the world. A few years ago the Herald Journey did a full story on Ebersole’s ministry which ended up on the front page of Sunday’s paper. This year, due to the impact of their campaigns, the story continues and his crusades have went viral on CBN, Christian Post, Charisma, and many more. Jacob’s heart cry has never been about social media, but about global impact. With that said, people are beginning to hear and wonder how they can be a part of this Jesus Movement as this is just the beginning.

About KB

KB for His Glory Alone! “To me, resistance carries with it a certain posture,” KB says. “The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion.”Three studio releases in and KB is at his creative zenith. For years, the Tampa native has been something of an outlier in hip-hop, firmly placing a thumb print on the game while invoking the power of spiritual conviction. His lyricism is impassioned and astute, and he won’t be bent against his will. Given his commanding presence and consistent output, it comes as no surprise that the world has taken notice. The track “100” from the EP of the same name, took home the Dove Award for Rap/Hip-Hop Song of the Year in 2014. And his last LP, 2015’s Tomorrow We Live, garnered both critical and commercial acclaim, earning a Stellar Award nomination for Rap/Hip-Hop Gospel CD of the Year and debuting on the Billboard charts as the No.1 Christian Album and the No. 4 Rap Album overall.

Now — with the world in a social and political frenzy—KB is redefining what rebellion truly means. Today We Rebel, his third full-length album with Reach Records, is an exercise in zeal and imagination. No-frills, no filler. Just raw, uncut transparency through and through. KB follows his artistic impulses to great effect, lending his take on terms that are dominating the cultural conversation.

About Jesus Youth

From small beginnings, Jesus Youth has been focused on building an army! Established in 2022, many of the youth in Spartanburg came together to be the youth of this generation! Joining forces, putting aside differences, and uniting  under the name of Jesus, with strategic development, counsel, and leadership, what has been built up, will forever continue to affect the youth and generations to come!! What we see here is a move of God that cannot be stopped, the transformation of lives that cannot be denied, and the call to Christ that sounds to every age, race, and ethnicity. With Love in the center, Jesus Youth is pressing forward to win many souls for the kingdom of God! Not only do we focus on saving the lost, a revival is needed for the saved! Come join us for this night of being commissioned into the harvest that has been worked on for so long!

For more information and all other general inquiries about this event, please follow the link below to contact a member of World Harvest Inc.

WORLD HARVEST

World Harvest Global Jesus Night In Spartanburg
Jan 27 @ 7:00 pm
Spartanburg Memorial Auditorium

World Harvest Global Inc. is an international Christian mission organization focused on fulfilling the Great Commission. We do this through large scale, city wide Gospel campaigns that have resulted in hundreds of thousands of people responding to Jesus Christ.

We are embarking on something important, historic, and thrilling – and you are seeing it right from the beginning. God is transforming the lives of people across the globe and entire city populations are encountering the Gospel through our events. Right now, the Holy Spirit has revealed a plan and infrastructure to take the gospel to every continent at large scale.

Sunday, January 28, 2024
BCAlerts From CodeRED
Jan 28 all-day
online
Stay informed. Get emergency notifications and general Buncombe County information on your smartphone, telephone, or email.
Sign up for BCAlerts today

Here is what you need to know.

What is CodeRED?

Along with emergency and critical messages, the CodeRED notification system will also enhance community engagement via the release of important but non-emergency information such as vaccine site notifications, inclement weather closures and schedule changes, and other county service information.

Sign up for BC Alerts by texting BCAlert(not case sensitive) to 99411 or visit to sign up for the new system. If residents have previously signed up for Nixle BC Alerts, they will need to re-register in order to continue receiving notifications after June 30.

Alerts to choose from:

  • Emergency
  • General
    • Recreation Services
    • Election Reminders
    • Governing
  • Weather

NOTICE: For CodeRED support, please call 1-866-939-0911. For all other questions email [email protected].

Pilates Reformer Class
Jan 28 all-day
Happy Body

Our Reformer classes are perfect for all students, but geared toward those who want a beginner to intermediate level class. Enjoy a moderate pacing of exercises to help you practice choreography and work at your own pace. We will layer difficulty levels throughout the class to help meet the needs of beginners and challenge students who are progressing into an intermediate skill level. If you have movement limitations or injuries, instructors will work with these needs.

Qualify Free: Vaccination and Testing, Screening Cervical Cancer
Jan 28 all-day
online

More than 14,000 women in the United States are diagnosed with invasive cervical cancer each year, but the disease is preventable with vaccination and appropriate screening.

January is Cervical Health Awareness Month, a time to learn more about cervical health and cervical cancer prevention and take steps to help eliminate this preventable cancer.

The two most important tools to remember when it comes to cervical health are vaccination and testing.

Vaccination

The HPV vaccine has been around since 2006. In that time, rates of cervical cancer incidence have dropped significantly among vaccinated women. One study from Sweden looked at 11 years (2006 through 2017) and found 90% reduction in cervical cancer incidence compared with the incidence in women who had not been vaccinated.

HPV vaccines help prevent infection from both high-risk HPV types that can lead to cervical cancer and low-risk types that cause genital warts.

The CDC recommends all boys and girls get HPV vaccine at age 11 or 12. The vaccine produces a stronger immune response when taken during the preteen years. For this reason, up until age 14, only two doses are the vaccine are required. Women and men can get the vaccine up to age 45 but for those 15 and older, a full three-dose series is needed.

You can get the vaccine at your doctor’s office or the Buncombe County Health and Human Services Department at 40 Coxe Avenue in Asheville.

Learn more about the HPV vaccine here.

Screening

The goal of cervical cancer screening—Pap tests and HPV tests—is to find problems, like cell changes, so they can be treated before they turn into cancer.

The traditional test for early detection has been the Pap test. For women aged 30 and over, an HPV test is also recommended. HPV tests can find any of the high-risk types of HPV that are commonly found in cervical cancer.

Women should start screening with the Pap test at age 21, according to current guidelines for cervical cancer screening.

Starting at age 30, women have three options available for screening:

  • A Pap test alone every three years.
  • Co-testing with a Pap and HPV test, every five years.
  • An HPV test alone, every five years.

Depending on the results of the Pap and/or HPV tests, a healthcare provider may recommend additional screening or procedures, so some women may be screened more often.

After age 65, women older than 65 who have had adequate prior screening and are not otherwise at high risk can stop screening. Women who have had a hysterectomy (with removal of the cervix) also do not need to be screened, unless they have a have a history of a high-grade precancerous lesions.

To learn more about each type of screening, click here.

Breast And Cervical Cancer Control Program (BCCCP)

The Buncombe County Health and Human Services BCCCP is a program serving women and transgender people providing free chest and cervical exams, pap smears and HPV testing, and mammograms. This program is open to those:

To learn more about eligibility or schedule an appointment, call (828) 250-6006.

Pilates Reformer Class
Jan 28 @ 9:00 am
Happy Body

Our Reformer classes are perfect for all students, but geared toward those who want a beginner to intermediate level class. Enjoy a moderate pacing of exercises to help you practice choreography and work at your own pace. We will layer difficulty levels throughout the class to help meet the needs of beginners and challenge students who are progressing into an intermediate skill level. If you have movement limitations or injuries, instructors will work with these needs.

The Adventures of Amazing Grace with Erika Ferrari Lopez
Jan 28 @ 5:00 pm
Malaprop's Bookstore

This in-person only event will be held at Malaprop’s. Attendance is free but please click here to RSVP.

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!


Grace is an ordinary nine-year-old going into 3rd grade when she discovers she’s anything but ordinary. Grace can fly! And when her best friend, Adrian, and the new student, Mia, find out, adventure follows.

Grace, Mia, and Adrian learn about family bonds, friendship, and facing their fears together when their class goes on a field trip to the swimming quarry. But will Grace’s secret be safe or will she risk it all to save a friend?

The Adventures of Amazing Grace includes multi-generational family dynamics, Spanish customs and vocabulary with an accompanying glossary, and a dash of magical realism. The book is the first in a planned series and is written in dyslexic-friendly fonts for accessibility.

Themes include overcoming fear and anxiety to listen to your heart, the importance of parental support of children’s gifts, positive friendships, all with multicultural family customs and dynamics.

Erika Ferrari Lopez was raised in the Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C. by her mother, an immigrant from Guatemala. She attended schools in Northern Virginia and college at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. She started her career in finance in Washington D.C. but realized the thing she liked discussing most with her clients was their philanthropic planning. She left finance to work in the non-profit industry for the next twelve years. Erika married her wonderful husband, Len, and together they welcomed a son and then a daughter. The family moved to Charlotte, North Carolina eight years ago. About five years ago, Erika began writing memoir and essays based on her childhood experiences and began sharing her writings on a blog she named Landings. This year, she released her first book, The Adventures of Amazing Grace a children’s chapter book she created with her daughter.  She is thrilled to be living a creative life and encourages everyone to use their gifts in their own way to make an impact in this world.

Monday, January 29, 2024
BCAlerts From CodeRED
Jan 29 all-day
online
Stay informed. Get emergency notifications and general Buncombe County information on your smartphone, telephone, or email.
Sign up for BCAlerts today

Here is what you need to know.

What is CodeRED?

Along with emergency and critical messages, the CodeRED notification system will also enhance community engagement via the release of important but non-emergency information such as vaccine site notifications, inclement weather closures and schedule changes, and other county service information.

Sign up for BC Alerts by texting BCAlert(not case sensitive) to 99411 or visit to sign up for the new system. If residents have previously signed up for Nixle BC Alerts, they will need to re-register in order to continue receiving notifications after June 30.

Alerts to choose from:

  • Emergency
  • General
    • Recreation Services
    • Election Reminders
    • Governing
  • Weather

NOTICE: For CodeRED support, please call 1-866-939-0911. For all other questions email [email protected].

Qualify Free: Vaccination and Testing, Screening Cervical Cancer
Jan 29 all-day
online

More than 14,000 women in the United States are diagnosed with invasive cervical cancer each year, but the disease is preventable with vaccination and appropriate screening.

January is Cervical Health Awareness Month, a time to learn more about cervical health and cervical cancer prevention and take steps to help eliminate this preventable cancer.

The two most important tools to remember when it comes to cervical health are vaccination and testing.

Vaccination

The HPV vaccine has been around since 2006. In that time, rates of cervical cancer incidence have dropped significantly among vaccinated women. One study from Sweden looked at 11 years (2006 through 2017) and found 90% reduction in cervical cancer incidence compared with the incidence in women who had not been vaccinated.

HPV vaccines help prevent infection from both high-risk HPV types that can lead to cervical cancer and low-risk types that cause genital warts.

The CDC recommends all boys and girls get HPV vaccine at age 11 or 12. The vaccine produces a stronger immune response when taken during the preteen years. For this reason, up until age 14, only two doses are the vaccine are required. Women and men can get the vaccine up to age 45 but for those 15 and older, a full three-dose series is needed.

You can get the vaccine at your doctor’s office or the Buncombe County Health and Human Services Department at 40 Coxe Avenue in Asheville.

Learn more about the HPV vaccine here.

Screening

The goal of cervical cancer screening—Pap tests and HPV tests—is to find problems, like cell changes, so they can be treated before they turn into cancer.

The traditional test for early detection has been the Pap test. For women aged 30 and over, an HPV test is also recommended. HPV tests can find any of the high-risk types of HPV that are commonly found in cervical cancer.

Women should start screening with the Pap test at age 21, according to current guidelines for cervical cancer screening.

Starting at age 30, women have three options available for screening:

  • A Pap test alone every three years.
  • Co-testing with a Pap and HPV test, every five years.
  • An HPV test alone, every five years.

Depending on the results of the Pap and/or HPV tests, a healthcare provider may recommend additional screening or procedures, so some women may be screened more often.

After age 65, women older than 65 who have had adequate prior screening and are not otherwise at high risk can stop screening. Women who have had a hysterectomy (with removal of the cervix) also do not need to be screened, unless they have a have a history of a high-grade precancerous lesions.

To learn more about each type of screening, click here.

Breast And Cervical Cancer Control Program (BCCCP)

The Buncombe County Health and Human Services BCCCP is a program serving women and transgender people providing free chest and cervical exams, pap smears and HPV testing, and mammograms. This program is open to those:

To learn more about eligibility or schedule an appointment, call (828) 250-6006.

Vera B. Williams / STORIES Eight Decades of Politics and Picture Making
Jan 29 @ 11:00 am – 5:00 pm
Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center

 

Exhibition and Public Programming

Vera B. Williams, an award-winning author and illustrator of children’s books, started making pictures almost as soon as she could walk. She studied at Black Mountain College in a time where summer institutes were held with classes taught by John Cage and Merce Cunningham. Williams studied under the Bauhaus luminary Josef Albers and went on to make art for the rest of her life. At the time of her death, The New York Times wrote: “Her illustrations, known for bold colors and a style reminiscent of folk art, were praised by reviewers for their great tenderness and crackling vitality.” Despite numerous awards and recognition for her children’s books, much of her wider life and work remains unexplored. This retrospective will showcase the complete range of Williams’ life and work. It will highlight her time at Black Mountain College, her political activism, and her establishment, with Paul Williams, of an influential yet little-known artist community, in addition to her work as an author and illustrator.

Author and illustrator of 17 children’s books, including Caldecott medal winner, A Chair for My Mother, Vera B. Williams always had a passion for the arts. Williams grew up in the Bronx, NY, and in 1936, when she was nine years old, one of her paintings, called Yentas, opens a new window, was included in an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art. While Williams is widely known for her children’s books today, this exhibition’s expansive scope highlights unexplored aspects of her artistic practice and eight decades of life. From groundbreaking, powerful covers for Liberation Magazine, to Peace calendar collaborations with writer activist Grace Paley, to scenic sketches for Julian Beck and Judith Malina’s Living Theater, to hundreds of late life “Aging and Illness” cartoons sketches and doodles, Vera never sat still.

Williams arrived at Black Mountain College in 1945. While there, she embraced all aspects of living, working, and learning in the intensely creative college community. She was at BMC during a particularly fertile period, which allowed her to study with faculty members Buckminster Fuller and Josef Albers, and to participate in the famed summer sessions with John Cage, Merce Cunningham, M.C. Richards, and Robert Rauschenberg. In 1948, she graduated with Josef Albers as her advisor and sculptor Richard Lippold as her outside examiner. Forever one of the College’s shining stars, Vera graduated from BMC with just six semesters of coursework, at only twenty-one years old. She continued to visit BMC for years afterward, staying deeply involved with the artistic community that BMC incubated.

Anticipating the eventual closure of BMC, Williams, alongside her husband Paul Williams and a group of influential former BMC figures, founded The Gate Hill Cooperative Artists community located 30 miles north of NYC on the outskirts of Stony Point, NY. The Gate Hill Cooperative, also known as The Land, became an outcropping of Black Mountain College’s experimental ethos. Students and faculty including John Cage, M.C. Richards, David Tudor, Karen Karnes, David Weinrib, Stan VanDerBeek, and Patsy Lynch Wood shaped Gate Hill as founding members of the community. Vera B. Williams raised her three children at Gate Hill while continuing to make work.

The early Gate Hill era represented an especially creative phase for the BMC group. For Williams, this period saw the creation of 76 covers for Liberation Magazine, a radical, groundbreaking publication. This exhibition will feature some of Williams’ most powerful Liberation covers including a design for the June 1963 edition, which contained the first full publication of MLK’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail.” Williams’ activism work continued throughout her life. As president of PEN’s Children Committee and member of The War Resisters league, she created a wide range of political and educational posters and journal covers. Williams protested the war in Vietnam and nuclear proliferation while supporting women’s causes and racial equality. In 1981, Williams was arrested and spent a month in a federal prison on charges stemming from her political activism.

In her late 40’s, Williams embarked in earnest on her career as a children’s book author and illustrator, a career which garnered the NY Public Library’s recognition of A Chair for My Mother as one of the greatest 100 children’s books of all time. Infinitely curious and always a wanderer at heart, Williams’ personal life was as expansive as her art. In addition to her prolific picture making, Williams started and helped run a Summerhill-based alternative school, canoed the Yukon, and lived alone on a houseboat in Vancouver Harbor. She helped to organize and attended dozens of political demonstrations throughout her adult life.

Her books won many awards including the Caldecott Medal Honor Book for A Chair for My Mother in 1983, the Boston Globe–Horn Book Award– Fiction category– for Scooter in 1994, the Jane Addams Honor for Amber Was Brave, Essie Was Smart in 2002, and the NSK Neustadt Prize for Children’s Literature in 2009. Her books reflected her values, emphasizing love, compassion, kindness, joy, strength, individuality, and courage.

Images:

Cover of Vera B. Williams’ A Chair for My Mother, published in 1982.

Vera B. Williams, Cover for Liberation Magazine, November 1958.

Tuesday, January 30, 2024
BCAlerts From CodeRED
Jan 30 all-day
online
Stay informed. Get emergency notifications and general Buncombe County information on your smartphone, telephone, or email.
Sign up for BCAlerts today

Here is what you need to know.

What is CodeRED?

Along with emergency and critical messages, the CodeRED notification system will also enhance community engagement via the release of important but non-emergency information such as vaccine site notifications, inclement weather closures and schedule changes, and other county service information.

Sign up for BC Alerts by texting BCAlert(not case sensitive) to 99411 or visit to sign up for the new system. If residents have previously signed up for Nixle BC Alerts, they will need to re-register in order to continue receiving notifications after June 30.

Alerts to choose from:

  • Emergency
  • General
    • Recreation Services
    • Election Reminders
    • Governing
  • Weather

NOTICE: For CodeRED support, please call 1-866-939-0911. For all other questions email [email protected].

Qualify Free: Vaccination and Testing, Screening Cervical Cancer
Jan 30 all-day
online

More than 14,000 women in the United States are diagnosed with invasive cervical cancer each year, but the disease is preventable with vaccination and appropriate screening.

January is Cervical Health Awareness Month, a time to learn more about cervical health and cervical cancer prevention and take steps to help eliminate this preventable cancer.

The two most important tools to remember when it comes to cervical health are vaccination and testing.

Vaccination

The HPV vaccine has been around since 2006. In that time, rates of cervical cancer incidence have dropped significantly among vaccinated women. One study from Sweden looked at 11 years (2006 through 2017) and found 90% reduction in cervical cancer incidence compared with the incidence in women who had not been vaccinated.

HPV vaccines help prevent infection from both high-risk HPV types that can lead to cervical cancer and low-risk types that cause genital warts.

The CDC recommends all boys and girls get HPV vaccine at age 11 or 12. The vaccine produces a stronger immune response when taken during the preteen years. For this reason, up until age 14, only two doses are the vaccine are required. Women and men can get the vaccine up to age 45 but for those 15 and older, a full three-dose series is needed.

You can get the vaccine at your doctor’s office or the Buncombe County Health and Human Services Department at 40 Coxe Avenue in Asheville.

Learn more about the HPV vaccine here.

Screening

The goal of cervical cancer screening—Pap tests and HPV tests—is to find problems, like cell changes, so they can be treated before they turn into cancer.

The traditional test for early detection has been the Pap test. For women aged 30 and over, an HPV test is also recommended. HPV tests can find any of the high-risk types of HPV that are commonly found in cervical cancer.

Women should start screening with the Pap test at age 21, according to current guidelines for cervical cancer screening.

Starting at age 30, women have three options available for screening:

  • A Pap test alone every three years.
  • Co-testing with a Pap and HPV test, every five years.
  • An HPV test alone, every five years.

Depending on the results of the Pap and/or HPV tests, a healthcare provider may recommend additional screening or procedures, so some women may be screened more often.

After age 65, women older than 65 who have had adequate prior screening and are not otherwise at high risk can stop screening. Women who have had a hysterectomy (with removal of the cervix) also do not need to be screened, unless they have a have a history of a high-grade precancerous lesions.

To learn more about each type of screening, click here.

Breast And Cervical Cancer Control Program (BCCCP)

The Buncombe County Health and Human Services BCCCP is a program serving women and transgender people providing free chest and cervical exams, pap smears and HPV testing, and mammograms. This program is open to those:

To learn more about eligibility or schedule an appointment, call (828) 250-6006.

Vera B. Williams / STORIES Eight Decades of Politics and Picture Making
Jan 30 @ 11:00 am – 5:00 pm
Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center

 

Exhibition and Public Programming

Vera B. Williams, an award-winning author and illustrator of children’s books, started making pictures almost as soon as she could walk. She studied at Black Mountain College in a time where summer institutes were held with classes taught by John Cage and Merce Cunningham. Williams studied under the Bauhaus luminary Josef Albers and went on to make art for the rest of her life. At the time of her death, The New York Times wrote: “Her illustrations, known for bold colors and a style reminiscent of folk art, were praised by reviewers for their great tenderness and crackling vitality.” Despite numerous awards and recognition for her children’s books, much of her wider life and work remains unexplored. This retrospective will showcase the complete range of Williams’ life and work. It will highlight her time at Black Mountain College, her political activism, and her establishment, with Paul Williams, of an influential yet little-known artist community, in addition to her work as an author and illustrator.

Author and illustrator of 17 children’s books, including Caldecott medal winner, A Chair for My Mother, Vera B. Williams always had a passion for the arts. Williams grew up in the Bronx, NY, and in 1936, when she was nine years old, one of her paintings, called Yentas, opens a new window, was included in an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art. While Williams is widely known for her children’s books today, this exhibition’s expansive scope highlights unexplored aspects of her artistic practice and eight decades of life. From groundbreaking, powerful covers for Liberation Magazine, to Peace calendar collaborations with writer activist Grace Paley, to scenic sketches for Julian Beck and Judith Malina’s Living Theater, to hundreds of late life “Aging and Illness” cartoons sketches and doodles, Vera never sat still.

Williams arrived at Black Mountain College in 1945. While there, she embraced all aspects of living, working, and learning in the intensely creative college community. She was at BMC during a particularly fertile period, which allowed her to study with faculty members Buckminster Fuller and Josef Albers, and to participate in the famed summer sessions with John Cage, Merce Cunningham, M.C. Richards, and Robert Rauschenberg. In 1948, she graduated with Josef Albers as her advisor and sculptor Richard Lippold as her outside examiner. Forever one of the College’s shining stars, Vera graduated from BMC with just six semesters of coursework, at only twenty-one years old. She continued to visit BMC for years afterward, staying deeply involved with the artistic community that BMC incubated.

Anticipating the eventual closure of BMC, Williams, alongside her husband Paul Williams and a group of influential former BMC figures, founded The Gate Hill Cooperative Artists community located 30 miles north of NYC on the outskirts of Stony Point, NY. The Gate Hill Cooperative, also known as The Land, became an outcropping of Black Mountain College’s experimental ethos. Students and faculty including John Cage, M.C. Richards, David Tudor, Karen Karnes, David Weinrib, Stan VanDerBeek, and Patsy Lynch Wood shaped Gate Hill as founding members of the community. Vera B. Williams raised her three children at Gate Hill while continuing to make work.

The early Gate Hill era represented an especially creative phase for the BMC group. For Williams, this period saw the creation of 76 covers for Liberation Magazine, a radical, groundbreaking publication. This exhibition will feature some of Williams’ most powerful Liberation covers including a design for the June 1963 edition, which contained the first full publication of MLK’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail.” Williams’ activism work continued throughout her life. As president of PEN’s Children Committee and member of The War Resisters league, she created a wide range of political and educational posters and journal covers. Williams protested the war in Vietnam and nuclear proliferation while supporting women’s causes and racial equality. In 1981, Williams was arrested and spent a month in a federal prison on charges stemming from her political activism.

In her late 40’s, Williams embarked in earnest on her career as a children’s book author and illustrator, a career which garnered the NY Public Library’s recognition of A Chair for My Mother as one of the greatest 100 children’s books of all time. Infinitely curious and always a wanderer at heart, Williams’ personal life was as expansive as her art. In addition to her prolific picture making, Williams started and helped run a Summerhill-based alternative school, canoed the Yukon, and lived alone on a houseboat in Vancouver Harbor. She helped to organize and attended dozens of political demonstrations throughout her adult life.

Her books won many awards including the Caldecott Medal Honor Book for A Chair for My Mother in 1983, the Boston Globe–Horn Book Award– Fiction category– for Scooter in 1994, the Jane Addams Honor for Amber Was Brave, Essie Was Smart in 2002, and the NSK Neustadt Prize for Children’s Literature in 2009. Her books reflected her values, emphasizing love, compassion, kindness, joy, strength, individuality, and courage.

Images:

Cover of Vera B. Williams’ A Chair for My Mother, published in 1982.

Vera B. Williams, Cover for Liberation Magazine, November 1958.

Online Zoom: West Asheville Library Book Discussion. Travels With Charley by John Steinbeck
Jan 30 @ 4:30 pm – 5:30 pm
online

West Asheville Library Book Discussion group will discuss Travels With Charley  by John Steinbeck. This is an online Zoom event. Please join us! Email [email protected] for the Zoom information.

 

Consent Book Club
Jan 30 @ 5:30 pm – 7:00 pm
TBA

Register so we can reach out and contact you as we prepare for our first meeting! Books will be distributed at the first meeting. This book club is for adults 18+.

Meetings will be on Tuesday evenings from 5:30-7pm (meeting location will be emailed once attendance is finalized)

Below are all the meeting dates:
December 5th
December 12th
December 19th
Skipping December 26th
January 2nd
January 9th
January 16th
Skipping January 22nd
January 30th

December – January Consent Book Club
Jan 30 @ 5:30 pm – 7:30 pm
tba

Our VOICE will be hosting a book club beginning this winter! Fill out the form to sign up as we have a limited amount of space!. Our first book selection will be Creating Consent Culture by Erica Scott and Marcia Baczynski. Books will be distributed at the first meeting and bus passes will be provided. This club will be offered in English, but we are looking to provide more opportunities in the future!

Books will be distributed at the first meeting. This book club is for adults 18+.

Meetings will be on Tuesday evenings from 5:30-7pm (meeting location will be emailed once attendance is finalized)

Below are all the meeting dates:
December 5th
December 12th
December 19th
Skipping December 26th
January 2nd
January 9th
January 16th
Skipping January 22nd
January 30th