Calendar of Events
Upcoming events and things to do in Asheville, NC. Below is a list of events for festivals, concerts, art exhibitions, group meetups and more.
Interested in adding an event to our calendar? Please click the green “Post Your Event” button below.
Most of what we think we know about moonshining history is wrong. That’s one of the themes of the Center for Cultural Preservation’s new documentary film on regional moonshine history, The Spirits Still Move Them. David Weintraub, award-winning director/producer of forty history films, interviewed nearly three dozen moonshiners and their families in our region to tell a story about moonshine history that’s never been relayed before. According to Weintraub, “The myth that all moonshiners are violent, lazy, drunk criminals hiding in the woods wearing long beards and longer arrest records has been recounted by the media for over 100 years. In reality, liquor production was hard, backbreaking work that only the most entrepreneurial farmers conducted which they did in order to survive difficult circumstances and put food on the table. It’s a fascinating story and far more interesting than the myths and distortions we’ve heard.”
This event airs live via Zoom. We will have time for audience questions after the approximately 1-hour film.
Most of what we think we know about moonshining history is wrong. That’s one of the themes of the Center for Cultural Preservation’s new documentary film on regional moonshine history, The Spirits Still Move Them. David Weintraub, award-winning director/producer of forty history films interviews nearly three dozen moonshiners and their families in Western North Carolina, East Tennessee and the Dark Corner of South Carolina to tell a story about moonshine history that’s never been relayed before.
According to Weintraub, “The myth that all moonshiners are violent, lazy, drunk criminals hiding in the woods wearing long beards and longer arrest records has been recounted by the media for over 100 years. In reality, liquor production was hard, backbreaking work that only the most entrepreneurial farmers conducted which they did in order to survive difficult circumstances and put food on the table. It’s a fascinating story and far more interesting than the myths and distortions we’ve heard.”
The film digs deep into Southern Appalachian history exposing the stereotypes and fabrications about mountaineers that have been fodder for movies and cable television programs for generations from the Beverly Hillbillies to the Moonshiner Show. Says Cody Bradford, fifth generation moonshiner and owner of Howling Moon Distillery in Asheville, “People think all moonshiners were outlaws but it was the federal government that enacted an excise tax after the Civil War that poor farmers had to bear. It was either starve or make liquor and it’s not difficult to understand which one they chose.”
Cody and his family are chronicled in the film as are moonshiners from Yancey County to Spartanburg County. Most surprising to many is that many moonshiners were African-Americans, women and Native Americans. And that moonshine played a central role in medicine since the Civil War.
This film is made possible by Blue Ridge National Heritage Area Partnership, the Community Foundation of Henderson County and North Carolina Humanities. The Center for Cultural Preservation is a cultural nonprofit organization dedicated to working for mountain heritage continuity through oral history, documentary film, education and public programs. For more information about the Center contact them at (828) 692-8062 or www.saveculture.org
About the Presenter:
Award-winning film director David Weintraub has been an oral historian and filmmaker for over 20 years. His films have appeared on PBS stations around the country and at film festivals around the world. His credits include Guardians of Our Troubled Waters and Come Hell or High Water: Remembering the 1916 Flood.
Classic movies at reasonable prices are only part of the experience. Decorations, introductory speakers, gala celebrations, and specialty beer make the films all the more entertaining for everyone.
TFAC Film Series Returns with classic movies you’ll want to see on the big screen!
Wednesday evenings from 6:30-8:30pm at Story Parlor
April 13, April 20, April 27, May 4, May 11, May 18*
*Final class on May 18 runs from 6:30-9:30pm
Make up class reserved for May 25
Story Parlor presents Creativity Lab: a six-week exploration of the creative process, common blocks and obstacles, and ways to kickstart and sustain creative momentum.
Focused on the process and the act of doing, opposed to product or outcome, Creativity Lab explores ways to overcome fear, embrace curiosity, and channel our muse in all creative endeavors.
The six-week workshop is experiential, hands-on, and tactile. The Lab will utilize exercises to help cultivate imagination, innovation, and creativity. Each class will focus on a different part of the creativity process all while building a tool kit for dealing with obstacles in our way, creating positive habits for growth, and investigating the ways our personal narratives intersect with our work.
Registration Includes:
A guidebook with supplementary readings, exercises, and activities
A custom Story Parlor notebook
Access to Creativity Mixers
Who Should Attend:
Anyone looking to kickstart or follow-through with a creative project
Anyone wanting to discover more about their habits and approach to creativity
Anyone hoping to learn more about the process of being creative
Anyone wishing to make creativity a part of their daily life
Anyone looking to explore the intersection of art and the human condition
Anyone interested in identifying their core values’ intersection with creative goals and aspirations
Anyone wanting a creative community in which to play, explore, and experiment
Families and people of all ages are invited to come and enjoy community, earth-friendly crafts, environmental education, and more!
Join Conserving Carolina and our partnering organizations as we share our knowledge and passion for the preservation of this amazing planet!
The event features educational activities, crafts, and hands on learning. Subjects include river restoration, water quality and monitoring, non-native and invasive species, climate change and action, the history of Harmon Field, American Chestnut restoration, folk medicine, bee keeping, and more!
In partnership with Parsec Financial, there will be a special showing of NOVA’s Polar Extremes at the Tryon Depot, 22 Depot St, Tryon, NC, at 6:30 pm. Click here for more information. Space is limited and pre-registration required at this link.
Organizations and presenters at the event include: MountainTrue, Foothills Equestrian Nature Center (FENCE), Polk County Soil and Water, Drunken Root Apothecary, NC Department of Environment and Natural Resources, NC Forest Service, Polk County Agricultural Economic Development, Trout Unlimited, Polk County Appearance Commission, the Henderson Polk County Chapter of Citizens Climate Lobby, Quible & Associates, P.C., Foothills Humane Society, Unity in the Community, Polk County Library, NC Cooperative Extension Polk County Center 4-H Youth Development, Girl and Boy Scouts, National Centers for Environmental Information, American Chestnut Foundation, Housing Assistance, Big Brothers Big Sisters, Polk County Health and Wellness, NC State Parks, Steps to Hope, Polk County Parks and Recreation, Tryon Arts and Crafts, North Carolina Bluebird Society, Tryon Garden Club, nature and forest therapy, and an expert bee keeper!
Music by Blue Wall, Phil and Gaye Johnson, and the PacJAM Clover Pickers!
Manzolina’s Eatery will provide food for purchase: hotdogs, hamburgers, chips, nachos, drinks, etc.
History of Earth Day:
Earth Day was a unified response to an environment in crisis — oil spills, smog, rivers so polluted they literally caught fire.
On April 22, 1970, 20 million Americans — 10% of the U.S. population at the time — took to the streets, college campuses, and hundreds of cities to protest environmental ignorance and demand a new way forward for our planet.
The first Earth Day is credited with launching the modern environmental movement, and is now recognizes as the planet’s largest civic event.
Theme in 2022:
The theme for Earth Day 2022 is Invest in Our Planet. “This is the moment to change it all — the business climate, the political climate, and how we take action on climate. Now is the time for the unstoppable courage to preserve and protect our health, our families, our livelihoods… together, we must Invest In Our Planet.“ Click here for more information.
Climate change represents the biggest challenge to the future of humanity and the life-support systems that make our world habitable.
On April 19th from 5:30 – 7:00 pm, join us at Mountain Child Advocacy Center’s downtown office at 124 College Street, Third Floor, for a film showing of “Spare the Child”, a local film production from the Justice Film Collective. The short documentary explores the childhoods and subsequent adulthoods of three diverse survivors of childhood abuse and the lifelong impact on the human body, heart, and psyche. This event is open to the community and free of charge. There will be an expert panel of community professionals and filmmakers for a Talk-Back and Q/A session following the screening.
Wednesday evenings from 6:30-8:30pm at Story Parlor
April 13, April 20, April 27, May 4, May 11, May 18*
*Final class on May 18 runs from 6:30-9:30pm
Make up class reserved for May 25
Story Parlor presents Creativity Lab: a six-week exploration of the creative process, common blocks and obstacles, and ways to kickstart and sustain creative momentum.
Focused on the process and the act of doing, opposed to product or outcome, Creativity Lab explores ways to overcome fear, embrace curiosity, and channel our muse in all creative endeavors.
The six-week workshop is experiential, hands-on, and tactile. The Lab will utilize exercises to help cultivate imagination, innovation, and creativity. Each class will focus on a different part of the creativity process all while building a tool kit for dealing with obstacles in our way, creating positive habits for growth, and investigating the ways our personal narratives intersect with our work.
Registration Includes:
A guidebook with supplementary readings, exercises, and activities
A custom Story Parlor notebook
Access to Creativity Mixers
Who Should Attend:
Anyone looking to kickstart or follow-through with a creative project
Anyone wanting to discover more about their habits and approach to creativity
Anyone hoping to learn more about the process of being creative
Anyone wishing to make creativity a part of their daily life
Anyone looking to explore the intersection of art and the human condition
Anyone interested in identifying their core values’ intersection with creative goals and aspirations
Anyone wanting a creative community in which to play, explore, and experiment
“The Office’s” mockumentary style used for Blue
Ridge CC Theatre Department’s spring film
production of “Medea”
Get ready to laugh at a tragedy as the Blue Ridge Community College Theatre
Department premieres its spring production of “The Making of Medea: The
Musical? The Movie!” on Friday, April 22 via YouTube.
Produced as a “mockumentary” filmed in a fashion similar to NBC’s “The
Office,” this pre-recorded production turns the classic Greek tragedy of
“Medea” into a comical affair.
According to Theatre Department faculty Jennifer Treadway, the continuous
presence of COVID-19 made switching their usual live, onstage production to a
film all the more simple.
“Live theatre is still taking a huge hit, because if even one of our cast – of an
onstage production – gets COVID, countless others will have to quarantine and
it just puts the entire production on hold,” Treadway stated.
Contrary to a live production, a video has multiple benefits, Treadway said,
including the flexibility of time schedules for actors. Also, since each scene can
be filmed in any order, there’s never a time when the entire cast has to be
present at once.
The classic Greek tragedy “Medea” centers around the titular character as the
wife of Jason, of “Jason and the Argonauts.” When Jason leaves Medea for
another woman, Medea kills his new wife and her own two sons as revenge.
The College’s “Medea” plot will center around a college theatre department
attempting to put on the traditional onstage “Medea” play.
“Since it’s a mockumentary, viewers will get to see all the wild antics that
happen when a theatre department tries to put on a play,” Treadway said. “So
it’s more about the people putting it on rather than the play ‘Medea’ itself.”
To maintain the semblance of a mockumentary and to collect b-roll footage,
the auditions and rehearsals were filmed and will be included in a portion of the
final version. The first rehearsal took place on Feb. 7, and there are now more
than 30 cast and crew members.
Filming will take one month of work, with a shorter turnaround time to edit. The
runtime will be approximately 30 minutes long.
Join Conserving Carolina and Parsec Financial for a screening of NOVA’s new special, Polar Extremes, hosted by paleontologist and Sant Director of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History, Kirk Johnson. Using the fossil record, Johnson takes viewers on an amazing adventure through time, exposing the numerous polar extremes our planet has experienced over thousands of years.
Johnson uses the evidence of the past to help reveal our planet’s climate today and shares what may be in store for the future.
While visiting Downtown Tryon for the film, be sure to enjoy 4th Friday! A monthly event where businesses in Town extend their hours, staying open until at least 7 pm! There will be live music, dinner specials, refreshments, and more!