“Shine and Dine” on the railway! We cordially invite you to hop on board The Carolina Shine, GSMR’s All-Adult First Class Moonshine Car! We will be proudly serving hand crafted, triple-distilled, craft moonshine. Some of the smoothest tasting moonshine in the Carolinas!

Offered on the Nantahala Gorge excursion, this shine and dine experience begins in a renovated First Class train fleet car, The Carolina Shine. The interior features copper lined walls filled with the history of moonshining in North Carolina. Learn about the proud tradition that the Appalachians established when bootlegging was an acceptable way of life and local home brews were the best in town. Read about Swain County’s very own Major Redmond, the most famous mountain moonshine outlaw of the 19th century.

Ms. Brandon does a combination of yoga stories, songs and rhythms with easy yoga poses for caregiver and child. Yoga will take place in Grovemont Park, unless weather precludes it. Children should be between 18 months and 3 years old. Bring your own yoga mat and/or blanket. Caregivers will sign a release before the session begins.

Contemporary art, interdisciplinary research communities, and the inspiration of Appalachia converge in Rural Avant-Garde: The Mountain Lake Experience. This exhibition showcases a selection of collaborative creative works that emerged from nearly four decades of the Mountain Lake Workshop series, a program sited in rural southwestern Virginia.

Founded by artist and scholar Ray Kass in 1980 and co-organized with influential art critics Dr. Donald B. Kuspit and Dr. Howard Risatti, as well as the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (VMFA), the Mountain Lake Workshops integrated the arts and sciences in a dynamic experimental creative process that pushed past the traditional boundaries of art, dance, and performance.

Community-centered from its inception, the Mountain Lake Workshop demonstrated the relevance of the arts across disciplines, as well as social and participatory learning. This exhibition offers a focused look at art that investigated new conceptual limits, born of the region in southwestern Virginia, just a few hundred miles north of Asheville, NC. Works range from large-scale watercolors and photographic installation to relics of performances and other experimentations in artmaking.

Highlights include composer and conceptual artist John Cage’s New River Rocks and Washes(1990). A significant late-career work by Cage, this rarely exhibited watercolor extends nearly 30 feet in length, produced using methods of chance to trace stones gathered from the workshop’s natural surroundings.

This exhibition was organized by the Longwood Center for the Visual Arts at Longwood University. Generous funding was provided in part by the National Endowment for the Arts.

Artist Walter B. Stephen (Clinton, IA 1875–1961 Asheville, NC) contributed to Western North Carolina’s identity as a flourishing site for pottery production and craftsmanship in the early 20th century. Walter B. Stephen Pottery: Cameo to Crystalline features art pottery and functional vessels from each stage of Stephen’s career, from his origins discovering the medium alongside his mother Nellie C. Randall Stephen in Shelby County, TN from 1901 through 1910 to his multi-decade production just outside of Asheville. This exhibition will be on view in the Asheville Art Museum’s Debra McClinton Gallery July 28, 2021 through January 17, 2022.

In 1926, Stephen founded his third and last pottery studio, Pisgah Forest, in Arden, NC, which he operated until his death in 1961. It was at this studio that the artist perfected the “cameo” decoration technique for which he became best known. His hand-painted images, achieved with layers of white translucent clay, often feature American folk imagery, from covered wagons and livestock to cabins and spinning wheels. A selection of works from the Museum’s Collection showcase his innovation in form and in decorative surface details, including experimentation with crystalline glazing.

Hedy Lamarr performed by Judith Kalaora

Who would have believed that “The Most Beautiful Woman in the World,” Hollywood star Hedy Lamarr, was a genuine ceiling-crasher scientist whose groundbreaking invention revolutionized modern communication, and made your cell phone, GPS, and Wi-Fi possible? But there’s no law that says an inventor can’t be beautiful.

She was the scintillating adolescent in Ekstase; the cunning wife who wrenched herself free from a dead marriage to a Nazi munitions mogul, the beautiful refugee who fled the Nazis to become a Hollywood movie siren, the Mark Zuckerburg-esque twenty-something brash enough to believe her inventions would upend the world. Perhaps the most important thing Hedy Lamarr reinvented was herself.

For all the girls, women, and anyone ever told they cannot do math, understand science, or change the universe, Hedy Lamarr will inspire you to continue your pursuit to reinvent your world.

 Rain Plan: The show will be performed live at the Transylvania Library (next to the Amphitheatera) in the Rogow Room.

Judith Kalaora is a professional educator, actress, and living historian. She graduated Magna cum Laude from Syracuse University and holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Acting, along with a Bachelor of Arts in Spanish Language and Culture. She attended the Globe Education Program of Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in London, England.

Judith founded History at Play™ in 2010 to provide educational entertainment, chronicling the lives of influential and often forgotten women. Judith researches, writes, produces and performs.

She also performs as Christa McAuliffe, Dolley Madison, Lucy Stone, Rachel Revere. Last winter she performed in Spartanburg as Deborah Sampson.

For more information about her company History At Play™: HistoryAtPlay.com

MARA Meetings (Medication-Assisted Recovery Anonymous)

Virtual Discussion with Ian Ruskin (Nikola Tesla)

During the History Comes Alive Festival afternoons at 2:00p from Tue Sept 7 – Sat Sept 11, you can pick the brains of the historical performers. No costumes, no script, just a chance to have some personal time and dialog with the Chautauqua performers. The Discussion Series is held virtually online.

Each Discussion features a different performer/historical figure. And if you tune into multiple Discussions, you’ll begin to see how the 2021 “Reinventing America” historical figures relate to each other.

Ian Ruskin trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and then worked for the next 15 years in England in repertory companies, London’s West End, and in television and film. Highlights included working in the Laurence Olivier “King Lear” for Granada Television and playing Jack in “Jack the Ripper” at the Players Theatre, London.

He came to Los Angeles in 1985. A pattern developed of guest star roles, usually playing the intelligent bad guy, in shows such as “Murder She Wrote”, “Scarecrow and Mrs. King”, and “MacGyver.” While this work paid the rent, it did not in any way fulfill his dream as a student at RADA – to be involved in great plays that could not only move audiences but could shine a light on their shared humanity, not happening on “MacGyver.”

In 1994 he was cast to play a real-life character by the name of Harry Bridges and his life changed. He discovered that Bridges was a man whose beliefs and values inspired him. The cast performed a reading for Bridges’ union, the ILWU, and received a ten-minute standing ovation. Ian realized that he had found a way to “shine a light” again.

So Ian wrote “From Wharf Rats to Lords of the Docks”, which had its world premieres at the University of Washington, Seattle and at the Warner Grand Theatre, San Pedro. He has since performed it over 250 times to approximately 50,000 people. This led to a film of a live performance, directed by legendary filmmaker Haskell Wexler, which aired across America on PBS for four years, making it available to 150 million Americans. Then he discovered Thomas Paine. Now, with “To Begin the World Over Again: the Life of Thomas Paine” complete, filmed and airing on public television stations, he has turned to his most challenging project to date, getting into the mind of Nikola Tesla.

To visit Ian Ruskin’s personal website, please go to: www.ianruskin.org

Small Business Center at Blue Ridge Community College offers FREE seminars/workshops to support Small Business

Speaker(s): TenBiz

Co-Sponsor(s): Henderson County Chamber of Commerce, Brevard/Transylvania Chamber of Commerce

Webinar info will be emailed after registration

Peer Support

OAKS Afterschool Program
Pre-registration required. FREE for the 2021-2022 school year
September 7-December 17, 2021 | Monday-Friday | 2:30-5:30pm
An inclusive recreation program designed to support rising 1st5th graders and their families. OAKS will provide homework
assistance and opportunities to play through a variety of activities
and field trips. Participants will benefit from lower child to
staff ratios, continuation of scholastic goals (as applicable),
and individualized treatment plans (facilitated by LRT/CTRS
and program staff). Participants who cannot meet eligibility
requirements may attend with a 1:1 worker.
Location: Oakley

Pre-registration required. FREE for the 2021-2022 school year
August 23, 2021-June 3, 2022 | Monday-Friday | 2:45-6pm
K-6th graders.
Does your child enjoy having fun and making new friends? Offering
arts, crafts, special events, homework assistance and more!
Families currently enrolled in the school system’s reduced or free
meal program, please contact your recreation center for discount
fee information.
Locations: Burton, Grant, Montford, Shiloh, Stephens-Lee

Montford Pre-Teen Afterschool Program
Pre-registration required. FREE for the 2021-2022 school year
August 23, 2021 – June 3, 2022 | Monday-Friday | 3:30-6pm
5th-6th graders.
New program designed to meet the needs of your pre-teen.
Providing time dedicated to school assignments, life skills, arts,
communication, leadership, fitness, nutrition, and loads of fun.
Location: Montford

Teen Leadership Program
Pre-registration required. FREE for the 2021-2022 school year
August 23, 2021-June 3, 2022 | Monday-Friday | 3:30-6pm
6th-9th graders.
Looking for a cool and enriching alternative for your Teen to attend
this school year? We offer creative activities, diverse projects,
field trips, and more.
Locations: Grant, Shiloh, Stephens-Lee

Tech Week (Group 1): Nov 1-4 | Monday through Thursday | 4:30-6:30 PM
Tech Week (Group 2): Nov 8-11 | Monday through Thursday | 4:30-6:30 PM
Tech Week (Group 3): Nov 8-11 | Monday through Thursday | 6:30-8:30 PM

Performances (Group 1): Saturday, Nov 6 at 2:30 PM and Sunday, Nov 7 at 6:30 PM
Performances (Group 2): Saturday, Nov 13 at 2:30 PM and Sunday, Nov 14 at 2:30 PM
Performances (Group 3): Saturday, Nov 13 at 5:30 PM and Sunday, Nov 14 at 5:30 PM

What goes on behind the curtains? In this course students learn the ins and outs of technical theatre and backstage work, including safety, basic light and sound board operation, and stage management. Students will then put their skills to practice by covering all technical and backstage roles during the Youth Clue performances. Students will split tech and performance dates so some scheduling conflicts may be accommodated.

CLICK HERE TO APPLY FOR A SCHOLARSHIP

Please do not purchase registration prior to applying for a scholarship. Applications must be received by 2:00pm on Wednesday, September 1st for consideration.

Join us EVERY Wednesday night for Kid’s Night! Children receive a free four-count kid’s meal with the purchase of an adult meal. See you on Wednesdays!

**Seventh Grade and Up**

Rehearsals: Mondays & Wednesdays, 5:30pm – 7:00pm (classes begin after Labor Day)

Show: December 3-5, 2021

Everyone loves in’s, Ricky, E.J. And Gina… but where did it all begin?

Disney Channel’s smash hit movie musical comes to life on your stage in Disney’s High School Musical. Troy, Gabriella and the students of East High must deal with issues of love, friends and family while balancing their classes and extra curricular activities. The show’s infectious songs will keep us “all in this together” until the last bow!

A casual 4-mile or 2.5-mile jog through West Asheville. Route is similar to last year’s with minor modifications. Visit our Pub Run Facebook page.

**Weather related cancellations will be posted by 3pm the day of the ride**

Wednesday evenings there will be a Beginner oriented trail ride in Bent Creek at the Rice Pinnacle parking area that leaves at 6:00PM. This ride provides a welcoming environment for anyone who might be uncomfortable on intermediate or advanced rides. IF YOU’VE NEVER RIDDEN A TRAIL, THIS IS ABSOLUTELY THE RIDE FOR YOU!! While we’ll use gravel roads to connect trails, our focus will be on learning to have fun and improve skills on singletrack. While this is beginner focused, it will also be a fun social ride for those with more experience. *THIS IS MOUNTAIN BIKING ON MOUNTAIN BIKE TRAILS*

Where we ride and what we do will be determined by who shows up, and what we want to learn and explore. Questions from “How do I change a flat tire?” to “How do I ride over a log?” are encouraged and impromptu mini-clinics at trail features might happen.

Details:

• A mountain bike is required – This is critical as bikes with skinny tires are dangerous on trails. NO SKINNY TIRE BIKES.

• Helmets are REQUIRED(!) and biking gloves and eye protection are highly recommended.

• Please bring your own water, snacks, and a spare inner tube.

• If bad weather is predicted we’ll post a cancellation by 3:00PM.

• We’ll leave the lot at 6:00PM: If you can, be there by 5:45PM.

• We’ll try to time our rides to end just before it gets too dark to ride.

• Parking is limited. Arriving early and carpooling are recommended!

• Ride is entirely at your own risk. You assume all responsibility for your own well-being. *THIS IS MOUNTAIN BIKING ON MOUNTAIN BIKE TRAILS*. We cannot make the trails easier, but we will tailor the pace to Beginners.

Looking to get involved, stay active, and meet some new friends? Sand Hill Community Garden workdays take place on Wednesdays (6-8 p.m.) and Saturdays (10 a.m.-noon) from Feb. 27-Oct. 30, 2021, at Buncombe County Sports Park. The garden is located on 16 Apac Dr. in West Asheville/Enka-Candler.

Join friends and neighbors as they come together on common ground to raise fresh, organic vegetables and fruits for the Enka community.

Expect to wear a mask and maintain social distance throughout. Tools and hand sanitizer are available, but any gloves, loppers, pruners, or gardening tools you can bring will decrease the amount of contact between volunteers. Please wear work clothes to get dirty and closed-toe shoes. Sunscreen, water, and a hat are also handy items to have on hand.

Sand Hill Community Garden has been growing fresh produce since 2011 and raised over 1,200 lbs. of organic produce last year.

NOTE: Community workdays are weather dependent. Please join the community garden email list (send your info to [email protected]) to stay up on workday tasks and other garden news.

To receive the I Heart Parks monthly newsletter, sign up online. Follow Buncombe County Recreation on Facebook and Instagram for the latest updates.

Dust off your thinking caps, grab your friends, and join us for Trivia Night at the taproom every Wednesday at 6pm!