Calendar of Events

TFAC invites all artists: painters, sculptors, writers, performers & more — to a casual weekly drop-in gathering on Saturday mornings at 9 AM to share your works in progress, alert others, and chat about art and what’s happening in your community. The first weekly Coffee is Saturday, August 20 at 9 am. No RSVP needed, just drop by! Free parking available on Melrose Avenue, behind and alongside TFAC.

Recommended for ages 12+ (adult content).

Truly a one-of-a-kind dance theater spectacle, Heather Maloy’s ‘Cleopatra’ is the crowning jewel of Terpsicorps Theatre of Dance’s 20th Anniversary Season. Featuring a cast of critically acclaimed dancers from ballet and contemporary companies across the US and abroad, the story of history’s first sex symbol is filled with intrigue, violence, splendor, love and tragedy.

The innovative dance theater’s most lavish production to date, ‘Cleopatra’ embodies the opulence and wonder of Cleopatra’s Alexandria, a city whose riches and scientific innovations were centuries ahead of their time. Runway worthy costumes with a contemporary flair inspired by ancient Greece, Rome and Egypt, plus a two story set, multiple projection screens and the incomparable Terpsicorps dancers bring to life a true story more exciting than any piece of fiction.

Originally intending to title the work Antony & Cleopatra, Maloy’s research into the history of Egypt’s last Pharaoh introduced her to a woman much too complex, powerful and brilliant to share a title with any man. A scholar and scientist, diplomat and single mother, lover and calculating strategist… Cleopatra seduced the most powerful men in the world with her wit, intellect and sexuality. Let yourself be seduced. We dare you!

Terpsicorps Theatre of Dance has been producing cutting edge, world class dance in Asheville since 2003. Utilizing hand picked professional dancers in the summers when they are off contract from critically acclaimed dance companies, has given the dance lovers in our community the opportunity to enjoy performances of a caliber seldom seen outside of major metropolitan cities.

Get ready for another epic night of dancing, witchy wonders, mystic vibes, and eclectic energy under the stars at Foundy Street’s next Full Moon Party!

Great news for poets and poetry lovers: Dark City Poet’s Society is returning to the Black Mountain Library. DCPS is a completely free poetry group that is open to poets of all ages and experience levels. Join us at the Black Mountain Library from 6-7:30 p.m. on the first Tuesday of every month for our (respectful) critique group. DCPS will meet at BAD Craft from 6-7 p.m. on the third Tuesday for our monthly open mic Poetry Night. Find out more on Instagram @darkcitypoetssociety or contact the Black Mountain Library.

TFAC invites all artists: painters, sculptors, writers, performers & more — to a casual weekly drop-in gathering on Saturday mornings at 9 AM to share your works in progress, alert others, and chat about art and what’s happening in your community. The first weekly Coffee is Saturday, August 20 at 9 am. No RSVP needed, just drop by! Free parking available on Melrose Avenue, behind and alongside TFAC.

11am roundtable conversation | 7pm performances

This event brings together accomplished dance artists Eleanor Hullihan, Rashaun Mitchell, Silas Riener and Mina Nishimura for a series of performances and conversations that examine Black Mountain College’s continuing influence on the world of dance. Join us for a roundtable conversation at 11am and dance performances beginning at 7pm.

BMC Dance is curated by Eleanor Hullihan.

Performances:

Rashaun Mitchell + Silas Riener
Performed by Mitchell and Riener, this performance draws from their embodied “Desire Lines” practice that combines movement, vocalization, and object manipulation into site-responsive, community-oriented performance installations. A desire line in landscape architecture refers to an unofficial route or social trail that breaks protocol with prescribed pathways, sometimes the shortest distance between two points, sometimes simply a good way to follow one’s curiosity. Desire lines represent an accumulated record of transformation in public space, a model for a permissive dance-making process that invites us to reimagine the self and its environment.

Rashaun Mitchell + Silas Riener are New York-based dance artists who create collaborative performance installations using improvisational techniques, digital technologies, audio scores, and material construction. They use movement to build speculative worlds which expose and reconcile the unfamiliar. Their physical practice synthesizes improvisation, formal dance training, athletic sports, building and construction. Their collaborative process involves the blurring of a professional and romantic relationship. Two very different sensibilities and experiences of race and culture synthesize and clash in ways that suggest comparative models for how to co-exist, assimilate, or reimagine society.

Since 2010 they have created over 25 multidisciplinary dance works including site-responsive installations, concert dances, gallery performances and dances for film. They have been artists-in-residence at Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Mt Tremper Arts, pieter, Jacob’s Pillow, New York City Center, The Watermill Center, MANCC, Headlands Center for the Arts, BOFFO, Center for Ballet and the Arts, Petronio Residency Center, and Baryshnikov Arts Center. Their work has been commissioned by BAM/Next Wave, The Barbican, REDCAT, EMPAC, The Walker Art Center, MCA Chicago, The Wexner, On The Boards, Danspace Project, Madison Square Park Conservancy, The Joyce Theater, The LAB, Marfa Sounding, Gagosian Premieres, SFMOMA, and MoMA PS1. Mitchell and Riener are currently Caroline Hearst Artists in Residence, and inaugural members of NCC Akron’s multi-year Creative Administration Residency.

Photos of Rashaun Mitchell + Silas Riener by Paula Lobo and Alex John Beck.

Mina Nishimura
Untitled (confined madness / glorious zombie/ colored lines) is a practice of becoming a glorious zombie. No will power. No tangling thoughts. Supported by astral projection practice, peripherals of a performance site and images of marginalized beings, a body will keep being moved around without establishing anything. The work may incorporate colored line drawing in order to dig a well while flying high.

Mina Nishimura is a dance artist originally from Tokyo. Buddhism-influenced philosophical concepts are reflected across her somatic, performance and choreographic practices. She has been performing and collaborating with a number of groundbreaking artists, most recently including John Jasperse, Kota Yamazaki, Dean Moss, Yasuko Yokoshi and Rashaun Mitchell + Silas Riener. Nishimura is a recipient of Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grants to Artists Award 2019, and was the 2021-22 Renewal Residency Artist at Danspace Project in NY, where she premiered Mapping a Forest while Searching for an Opposite Term of Exorcist in 2022. She currently teaches at Bennington College where she completed her MFA fellowship in 2021.

Photos of Mina Nishimura by Shane Prudente.

Eleanor Hullihan + Zach Cooper
miniatures 2023
A series of miniature studies performed by Eleanor Hullihan and Zach Cooper.

Eleanor Hullihan is a movement artist living in Asheville after many years dancing, teaching and creating performances in NYC. Her work is a journey of uncovering and physicalizing the delicate and magical internal world. She has performed with John Jasperse, Beth Gill, Andrew Ondrejcak, Sufjan Stevens, Jessica Dessner, Sarah Michelson, Miguel Gutierrez,  Jennifer Monson, Tere O’Connor, The Merce Cunningham Trust and Rashaun Mitchell + Silas Riener among others. Eleanor makes performances with Katy Pyle, Asli Bulbul, Emma Judkins, Adam Schatz, Zach Cooper and Jimmy Jolliff. She has been a contributing writer and curator for Movement Research. She is a movement coach for musicians and actors and maintains a pilates-based teaching practice for professional dancers and non dancers alike who seek deep and subtle support. Eleanor owned and operated two pilates studios in NYC and was on faculty at the American Ballet Theatre’s Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School and Sarah Lawrence College. Eleanor attended UNCSA as a high school student and has a BFA from NYU Tisch Dance.

Zach Cooper is a Grammy award winning composer, producer and songwriter based in Black Mountain, North Carolina. He has contributed to works by Leon Bridges, Jazmine Sullivan, Jon Batiste, Moses Sumney, Billy Porter, and Ellie Goulding, among others. Zach is also a founding member of experimental soul group King Garbage. His work has been featured in Pitchfork, The Fader, Rolling Stone, and Guitar World magazine, and he’s released records with RVNG Int’l, Styles Upon Styles and Mike Patton’s Ipecac Recordings.

Great news for poets and poetry lovers: Dark City Poet’s Society is returning to the Black Mountain Library. DCPS is a completely free poetry group that is open to poets of all ages and experience levels. Join us at the Black Mountain Library from 6-7:30 p.m. on the first Tuesday of every month for our (respectful) critique group. DCPS will meet at BAD Craft from 6-7 p.m. on the third Tuesday for our monthly open mic Poetry Night. Find out more on Instagram @darkcitypoetssociety or contact the Black Mountain Library.

TFAC invites all artists: painters, sculptors, writers, performers & more — to a casual weekly drop-in gathering on Saturday mornings at 9 AM to share your works in progress, alert others, and chat about art and what’s happening in your community. The first weekly Coffee is Saturday, August 20 at 9 am. No RSVP needed, just drop by! Free parking available on Melrose Avenue, behind and alongside TFAC.

Great news for poets and poetry lovers: Dark City Poet’s Society is returning to the Black Mountain Library. DCPS is a completely free poetry group that is open to poets of all ages and experience levels. Join us at the Black Mountain Library from 6-7:30 p.m. on the first Tuesday of every month for our (respectful) critique group. DCPS will meet at BAD Craft from 6-7 p.m. on the third Tuesday for our monthly open mic Poetry Night. Find out more on Instagram @darkcitypoetssociety or contact the Black Mountain Library.

Black Box Dance Theatre’s PATRIOT returns to the Diana Wortham Theatre at the Wortham Center for the Performing Arts with Asheville’s Brothers and Sisters Like These and local veterans for an encore performance of an evening length work of multimedia dance, theatre and story-telling that examines the service and sacrifice of veterans, active-duty military, their families and those they serve.

TFAC invites all artists: painters, sculptors, writers, performers & more — to a casual weekly drop-in gathering on Saturday mornings at 9 AM to share your works in progress, alert others, and chat about art and what’s happening in your community. The first weekly Coffee is Saturday, August 20 at 9 am. No RSVP needed, just drop by! Free parking available on Melrose Avenue, behind and alongside TFAC.

The last of our 3 Fringe Summer Nights will have pop up performances, Asheville Fringe announcements, cold beverages and weirdo camaraderie. Join us!
Featuring:
Strange Daughters Butoh
The Accidentals
Justin Evans

Donations go to artists. Donate to Asheville Fringe at https://app.arts-people.com/index.php?donation=afs

Great news for poets and poetry lovers: Dark City Poet’s Society is returning to the Black Mountain Library. DCPS is a completely free poetry group that is open to poets of all ages and experience levels. Join us at the Black Mountain Library from 6-7:30 p.m. on the first Tuesday of every month for our (respectful) critique group. DCPS will meet at BAD Craft from 6-7 p.m. on the third Tuesday for our monthly open mic Poetry Night. Find out more on Instagram @darkcitypoetssociety or contact the Black Mountain Library.

Beginner’s workshop lesson at 7:30 P.M., then 8-11 P.M. Contra Dance with Country Waltzing at the break and the final dance. This is a partner dance but it’s not necessary to come with a partner. We have different live bands and callers.

Shrek Rave Tickets | Asheville, NC | The Orange Peel (etix.com)

Ages 18+

IT’S DUMB JUST COME HAVE FUN. WHO CARES. COOL IS DEAD.

TFAC invites all artists: painters, sculptors, writers, performers & more — to a casual weekly drop-in gathering on Saturday mornings at 9 AM to share your works in progress, alert others, and chat about art and what’s happening in your community. The first weekly Coffee is Saturday, August 20 at 9 am. No RSVP needed, just drop by! Free parking available on Melrose Avenue, behind and alongside TFAC.

It’s time to raise the barn roof, shake the tailfeathers and Boogi! We welcome for the first time BOOGI THERAPI to the Big Barn here at Hickory Nut Gap Farm in gorgeous Fairview, NC! Come out from 6pm-9pm to to enjoy some R&B, Funk & More from one of Asheville’s best funk party bands in the area, fronted by Ryan ‘R&B’ Barber this group of talented entertainers will keep y’all

You’re gonna need fuel to get down- we have ROOT DOWN FARM food truck! Headed by Ben Holt out of Yancey County and his family, this food truck will be slinging some truly fabulous farm-to-table fare featuring all local and seasonal delights from the area.

Hickory Nut Gap will have a bar serving local beers, ciders, seltzers and non-alcoholic beverages to slake your thirst between bumps. We cannot wait to get down and have some Boogi Therapi at the farm, it’s gonna be a booty-ful night…

PET POLICY: While we normally allow leashed pets on the grounds, we ask you leave your furry friends at home for the Barn Dances.

Learn more about the Band & their music HERE

Learn more about the Food Truck & their food HERE

SILENT DISCO: HEY YA! OUTKAST DANCE PARTY

DJ CAMARO & DJ SPENCE

Ages 18+ (under 18 must be accompanied by a parent)

Great news for poets and poetry lovers: Dark City Poet’s Society is returning to the Black Mountain Library. DCPS is a completely free poetry group that is open to poets of all ages and experience levels. Join us at the Black Mountain Library from 6-7:30 p.m. on the first Tuesday of every month for our (respectful) critique group. DCPS will meet at BAD Craft from 6-7 p.m. on the third Tuesday for our monthly open mic Poetry Night. Find out more on Instagram @darkcitypoetssociety or contact the Black Mountain Library.

Join us for the final installment of our summertime series, the History of WNC/Appalachian Music with Buncombe County Special Collections.

We’ll have two dance classes at Pack Memorial Library to teach you how to Appalachian clog/flat foot dance. Learn from one of the best instructors in the area, Linda Block, from the Green Grass Cloggers.

Classes are free to attend, but registration is required. Adults and families are welcome.

The programs are held in the Pack Memorial Library auditorium on Tuesday, August 8 from 6-7 PM and Tuesday, August 29 from 6-7 PM.

Please wear comfortable clothing, water bottles with lids are welcome.

TFAC invites all artists: painters, sculptors, writers, performers & more — to a casual weekly drop-in gathering on Saturday mornings at 9 AM to share your works in progress, alert others, and chat about art and what’s happening in your community. The first weekly Coffee is Saturday, August 20 at 9 am. No RSVP needed, just drop by! Free parking available on Melrose Avenue, behind and alongside TFAC.

DJ ERIK MATTOX

Ages 18+ (under 18 must be accompanied by a parent)

Great news for poets and poetry lovers: Dark City Poet’s Society is returning to the Black Mountain Library. DCPS is a completely free poetry group that is open to poets of all ages and experience levels. Join us at the Black Mountain Library from 6-7:30 p.m. on the first Tuesday of every month for our (respectful) critique group. DCPS will meet at BAD Craft from 6-7 p.m. on the third Tuesday for our monthly open mic Poetry Night. Find out more on Instagram @darkcitypoetssociety or contact the Black Mountain Library.

Our mission is to bring together, in small, intimate settings, authors, readers of all ages, novice writers, listeners, and learners. We are a festival of readers who appreciate discussing the ideas in literature.

We do not see ourselves as an academic festival, thou

Telling Our Own Story: Cherokee Self-Representation in Contemporary Media

Historically in film, literature, galleries, and textbooks, Native stories have been told by non-Native voices. In this panel, we’ll hear from citizens of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI), North Carolina’s only federally recognized tribe, who are contributing to the international movement for Indigenous self-representation in media through writing, podcasting, visual art, and cultural perpetuation.

Annette Saunooke Clapsaddle (Eastern Band Cherokee)

Award-winning Author of Even as We Breathe

Annette Saunooke Clapsaddle (Eastern Band Cherokee) lives in Qualla, NC and is the author of Even As We Breathe. She sits on the Board of Directors for the Museum of the Cherokee Indian and is President of the North Carolina Writers Network. She is also an Appalachian Futures Series editor for the University Press of Kentucky.

Shana Bushyhead Condill (Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians)

Museum of the Cherokee Indian Executive Director

Shana Bushyhead Condill (Eastern Band of Cherokee) has worked in the museum and cultural field for over twenty years. As Executive Director of the Museum of the Cherokee Indian, Condill furthers a career-spanning commitment to cultivating Native representation and self-representation in public spaces, advocating for the intentional combining of mainstream best practices with Native best practices in cultural preservation.

Nola Pina (Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians)

Museum of the Cherokee Indian Lead Cultural Specialist

Nola Pina (Eastern Band Cherokee) grew up and still currently resides in the on the Qualla Boundary. As a Lead Cultural Specialist at the Museum of the Cherokee Indian, Nola enjoys demonstrating and teaching finger-weaving (she is a first-generation finger weaver herself), as well as storytelling and leading tours through the permanent exhibit.

Rhiannon ‘Skye’ Tafoya (Eastern Band Cherokee and Santa Clara Pueblo)

Visual artist

Rhiannon ‘Skye’ Tafoya (Eastern Band Cherokee and Santa Clara Pueblo) employs printmaking, digital design, and basketry techniques in creating her artist’s books, prints, and paper weavings. Both of her Tribal heritages, cultures, and lineages are manifested in her two- and three-dimensional artworks that range in size from a few inches to a few feet.

Sheyahshe Littledave (Eastern Band Cherokee)

Writer/podcaster

Sheyahshe Littledave (Eastern Band Cherokee) is passionate about storytelling and writing to highlight the Indigenous experience. Her work includes publication in National Geographic, NPR, and writing children’s books. In 2021, she became the co-host of “We are Resilient: An MMIW True Crime Podcast,” dedicated to telling the untold stories of Missing & Murdered Indigenous Women.gh we seek to advance authors of literary quality.  Nor are we a book fair in which the primary objective is to sell books.

One of our goals is to raise awareness of works of literary significance from smaller presses.  We do focus on regional writers, though not exclusively.  But overall, our aspiration is to create a little literary community which is in dialog with readers, aspiring writers, and established authors about craft and ideas of sustaining merit.

Another goal is to make sure our authors are having good time.  In the best scenario, authors leave the festival feeling renewed and rededicated to their work.  So frequently when an author writes in isolation, it is hard to believe that his/her work is making an impact on people and society.  But situating authors and readers together in close quarters, as our festival does, it is possible for authors to hear stories of how their work has influenced people.  It’s not just signing a book, it’s making a human connection.

We hope the Carolina Mountains Literary Festival inspires people to read more, write more, and contribute positively to society through the literary arts.

Our Pecularities

No outside vendors have booths at our festival.  In fact, we don’t even sell any litfest paraphernalia. In an attempt to support our quaint downtown, attendees are encouraged to buy souvenirs at the many local shops that host readings. Authors are not tied down to a table all day, but are free to roam the town, attend other sessions, or gab with other authors in more sequestered areas.  Some authors spend a full two days attending others’ readings.  As festival planners, we thoroughly enjoy this contribution.  However, some chose to leave after their sessions, which is equally acceptable.
Our events are spread all over our small town— in galleries, small stores, the Town Center, library, nearby churches, and other various venues.  Only a few used primarily for workshops are not within walking distance.
Events are scheduled simultaneously.  As many as five different events may be occurring at any one time.  (We know that it can be difficult to choose, but we make every attempt to have each author present at least twice during the weekend.) We have a festival bookseller (Malaprop’s) who sells all festival author books – authors do not sell their books on their own.  (Therefore, if book sales are high on your list of priorities or you enjoy pitching your books, you may not find this event to your liking—and vice versa.)
Authors gather for morning and afternoon-session book-signings as a group.  No individual authors will have their own signings. Author presentations are limited to two consecutive years.  Exceptions may be made if an author has a new, significant work.  At the same time, we welcome past participants as attendees, or to assist us as session moderators or introducers if they wish.

FOR WORKSHOPS: 2023 Schedule – cmlitfest.org

Our mission is to bring together, in small, intimate settings, authors, readers of all ages, novice writers, listeners, and learners. We are a festival of readers who appreciate discussing the ideas in literature.

We do not see ourselves as an academic festival, thou

Telling Our Own Story: Cherokee Self-Representation in Contemporary Media

Historically in film, literature, galleries, and textbooks, Native stories have been told by non-Native voices. In this panel, we’ll hear from citizens of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI), North Carolina’s only federally recognized tribe, who are contributing to the international movement for Indigenous self-representation in media through writing, podcasting, visual art, and cultural perpetuation.

Annette Saunooke Clapsaddle (Eastern Band Cherokee)

Award-winning Author of Even as We Breathe

Annette Saunooke Clapsaddle (Eastern Band Cherokee) lives in Qualla, NC and is the author of Even As We Breathe. She sits on the Board of Directors for the Museum of the Cherokee Indian and is President of the North Carolina Writers Network. She is also an Appalachian Futures Series editor for the University Press of Kentucky.

Shana Bushyhead Condill (Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians)

Museum of the Cherokee Indian Executive Director

Shana Bushyhead Condill (Eastern Band of Cherokee) has worked in the museum and cultural field for over twenty years. As Executive Director of the Museum of the Cherokee Indian, Condill furthers a career-spanning commitment to cultivating Native representation and self-representation in public spaces, advocating for the intentional combining of mainstream best practices with Native best practices in cultural preservation.

Nola Pina (Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians)

Museum of the Cherokee Indian Lead Cultural Specialist

Nola Pina (Eastern Band Cherokee) grew up and still currently resides in the on the Qualla Boundary. As a Lead Cultural Specialist at the Museum of the Cherokee Indian, Nola enjoys demonstrating and teaching finger-weaving (she is a first-generation finger weaver herself), as well as storytelling and leading tours through the permanent exhibit.

Rhiannon ‘Skye’ Tafoya (Eastern Band Cherokee and Santa Clara Pueblo)

Visual artist

Rhiannon ‘Skye’ Tafoya (Eastern Band Cherokee and Santa Clara Pueblo) employs printmaking, digital design, and basketry techniques in creating her artist’s books, prints, and paper weavings. Both of her Tribal heritages, cultures, and lineages are manifested in her two- and three-dimensional artworks that range in size from a few inches to a few feet.

Sheyahshe Littledave (Eastern Band Cherokee)

Writer/podcaster

Sheyahshe Littledave (Eastern Band Cherokee) is passionate about storytelling and writing to highlight the Indigenous experience. Her work includes publication in National Geographic, NPR, and writing children’s books. In 2021, she became the co-host of “We are Resilient: An MMIW True Crime Podcast,” dedicated to telling the untold stories of Missing & Murdered Indigenous Women.gh we seek to advance authors of literary quality.  Nor are we a book fair in which the primary objective is to sell books.

One of our goals is to raise awareness of works of literary significance from smaller presses.  We do focus on regional writers, though not exclusively.  But overall, our aspiration is to create a little literary community which is in dialog with readers, aspiring writers, and established authors about craft and ideas of sustaining merit.

Another goal is to make sure our authors are having good time.  In the best scenario, authors leave the festival feeling renewed and rededicated to their work.  So frequently when an author writes in isolation, it is hard to believe that his/her work is making an impact on people and society.  But situating authors and readers together in close quarters, as our festival does, it is possible for authors to hear stories of how their work has influenced people.  It’s not just signing a book, it’s making a human connection.

We hope the Carolina Mountains Literary Festival inspires people to read more, write more, and contribute positively to society through the literary arts.

Our Pecularities

No outside vendors have booths at our festival.  In fact, we don’t even sell any litfest paraphernalia. In an attempt to support our quaint downtown, attendees are encouraged to buy souvenirs at the many local shops that host readings. Authors are not tied down to a table all day, but are free to roam the town, attend other sessions, or gab with other authors in more sequestered areas.  Some authors spend a full two days attending others’ readings.  As festival planners, we thoroughly enjoy this contribution.  However, some chose to leave after their sessions, which is equally acceptable.
Our events are spread all over our small town— in galleries, small stores, the Town Center, library, nearby churches, and other various venues.  Only a few used primarily for workshops are not within walking distance.
Events are scheduled simultaneously.  As many as five different events may be occurring at any one time.  (We know that it can be difficult to choose, but we make every attempt to have each author present at least twice during the weekend.) We have a festival bookseller (Malaprop’s) who sells all festival author books – authors do not sell their books on their own.  (Therefore, if book sales are high on your list of priorities or you enjoy pitching your books, you may not find this event to your liking—and vice versa.)
Authors gather for morning and afternoon-session book-signings as a group.  No individual authors will have their own signings. Author presentations are limited to two consecutive years.  Exceptions may be made if an author has a new, significant work.  At the same time, we welcome past participants as attendees, or to assist us as session moderators or introducers if they wish.

FOR WORKSHOPS: 2023 Schedule – cmlitfest.org