Labor Day is almost here which means that Fall is just around the corner. As we close out this Summer of Change we are grateful to enter into a new season of LEAF and debut our new website! To many, a new website is not that exciting. But in a world where digital is the present and the future, our website is our entry point to the world, a world we hope to change for the better. This new website has been a year long process and we are still working on the kinks but the journey has been full of new discoveries, life long friendship development and new skills. As always, our goal is to expand connections, inspiration and resources.

LEAF’s mission comes to life as an agent for positive social impact in many ways and places.
The “ways” include: cultural exchanges, residencies, programs, workshops, mentoring, Easel Rider Mobile Art Lab, Learning Journeys, Signature Events and immersive experiences. “Places” include: LEAF Global Arts Center in downtown Asheville,  in communities across the world, in schools, in community centers, at event locations such as Lake Eden in Black Mountain, and downtown Asheville, and now LEAF is also Virtual.

Equity underlies everything we do. We serve immigrants, low-wealth, and disadvantaged individuals of every age. We know that literacy is the primary determinant of health, employment, income levels, and constructive self-expression. In 2017, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) found that sixty percent of children nationwide are not reading proficiently. Without intervention children who do not read proficiently become adults with low literacy and the cycle continues. Our one-on-one and small group tutoring is free and based on students’ schedules, making it accessible to those who would otherwise be unable to afford or attend traditional classroom settings.

Our Ideal Volunteer Tutor

The ideal volunteer tutor is someone seeking to make a one-year commitment of two hours per week to help someone else make the change of a lifetime. For our volunteer tutors, an education background is helpful, but not necessary. The most important qualities are patience, an open mind, and resourcefulness. Tutors also need to be non-judgmental and sensitive to cultural differences. A GED or high school diploma is required. Ideal tutors enjoy seeing concrete outcomes from their efforts and sharing in the life-changing successes of others. See our full tutor position description here.

Hey Q Nation!  Here’s a way to wear the Q logo proudly AND support local businesses!  Thanks to Dave Riddell and Big Frog Custom T-shirts for the Love Local movement!  Order your WTZQ T-Shirt (link below) and WTZQ will use 100% of the profit to purchase gift certificates and gift cards from local businesses to give away as part of our Love Hendo prize packs!  It’s a win-win-win!  Order your Q-shirt today by clicking the link below.  JUST CLICK PICK UP AT BIG FROG —  We’ll get them delivered to the radio station and let you know when you can get them her at the Q!  These are high quality, ultra-comfortable T-shirts that you are gonna LOVE!  Thanks for supporting our local businesses!

Click HERE to order my Love Local WTZQ T-shirt now!!

If you’re able to volunteer, all of us at MANNA, as well as recipients of food boxes across WNC, would be incredibly grateful for your support. If you’re unable to volunteer, we would greatly appreciate you spreading the word and letting friends, family members and neighbors know of the need for food assistance that exists right now and how they can help by volunteering with us here at MANNA. Those interested in volunteering can sign up for a shift on MANNA’s website. Volunteer shifts are Monday – Friday, 9:00 AM – 12:00 PM, and 1:00 – 3:00 PM.

MANNA NEEDS VOLUNTEERS Without Key Groups of Volunteers, MANNA is Straining to Meet the Food Needs for 100,000 People Each Month

Friday, August 21, 2020 at 12 noon WNC Communities held the 30^th Western North Carolina Agricultural Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony at the Mountain Horticulture Crops Research and Extension Center in Mills River. North Carolina Commissioner of Agriculture and Consumer Services, Steve Troxler, was inducted during a modified awards presentation. Due to current restrictions regarding public gatherings, the scaled-down ceremony was livestreamed and a limited number of attendees were present to substitute for the normal luncheon and gathering of peers, guests and friends. The ceremony can be viewed via the WNC Communities Video YouTube Channel accessible through a link at wnccommunities.org.

Pardee Hospital Foundation is pleased to honor women in our community for sharing their story of courage, determination, and will as they have faced cancer and other diseases in their lives and in the lives of their families. Each year Women of Hope are honored as part of the Foundation’s Women Helping Women annual celebration. Nominees must be local residents. Preference is given to nominees who have survived any women’s health crisis (breast cancer and other cancers, heart disease, osteoporosis, to name a few), and who have received their treatment at Pardee UNC Health Care. Nomination forms are available online or in person at: Pardee Hospital Foundation office 561 Fleming Street, Hendersonville, NC 28739 Deadline for applications is September 1, 2020. Contact the Pardee Hospital Foundation office with any questions, 828-233-2700.

Now available as Video On Demand!

All tickets are $25.00 plus taxes and fees and benefit ACT.

Asheville Community Theatre’s annual fundraiser Costume Drama: A Fashion Show is a fashion show where designers create garments from unconventional materials. Twelve designers competed in this year’s challenge, four were chosen as category winners – and one was named the Best in Show winner.

As in years past, Best in Show will receive a $500 prize, and the other 3 winners will each receive a $250 prize. Winners are revealed at the end of the broadcast!

Costume Drama: A Fashion Show originally aired on Saturday, August 8, 2020. Video On Demand of this show will be available for purchase until September 30, 2020 at 11:59 pm.

The Pandemic Arts: a series “where performing artists from various genres discuss how the global pandemic is affecting their careers, their creativity, their finances, and their plans for the future.”

The final video is live and features a candid interview with Lisa K. Bryant about the history of the Playhouse and the challenges of running a theatre during the COVID-19 pandemic. You’ll also see performances by beloved Vagabonds Matthew Glover, Bill Muñoz, and Scott Treadway.

We need your help to raise $20,000 to fully fund our Preservation Grant program for 2021.  Donate to this program before the end of August and have your gift matched by our Board of Directors up to $5850!  Over the last two years, this program has succeeded in expanding our reach in our underserved communities, but there is so much more to do.  With events like the Time Traveling Gala canceled and the impact of COVID-19 on giving, your support is more important than ever.  Now is your chance to double your impact and help us continue this work!

V-LEAF, LEAF’s 1st Virtual Festival- You can still experience!
Friday // Saturday // Sunday

Roots + Wings Creative Community

“What Motivates People from Dominant Groups to Support Social Justice” Diane J. Goodman and Lee Anne Bell

“The Costs of Racism to White People” by Paul Kivel

Seeing White Series from Scene On Radio, a 14-part documentary series exploring whiteness in America.

Slavery By Another Name, PBS Documentary

White Awake Manual — a set of educational resources for guiding white affinity processes

While the UN reported that over 1 million species around the globe are at risk of extinction, the Trump administration responded by proposing rollbacks to the Endangered Species Act. Again and again, they have shown that they value profit over planet. But hope is not lost. Here is something you can do today. When you get any item in the Save the Bees collection, you are supporting LCV’s work to stop the climate crisis and protect endangered species. 

Chef Mike McCarty, Co-owner of The Lobster Trap, fills us in on how they’ve created ways to keep guests safe while enjoying the restaurant. They are also offering “Finish at Home” meals with a curbside pick up. See the video interview here! While we’ve all had to adjust to the “new normal” (whatever that is), our local business owners and managers each have their own story to tell about how they’ve been affected and what they are doing during these unprecedented times. Dig Local is proud to partner with our friend, Ann Smith, at Leap Frog Tours to interview some of the awesome folks who make Asheville, Asheville.

Empowering Voters. Defending Democracy. The Legacy of Congressman Lewis and Voting Rights

http://participate.lwv.org/c/10065/p/dia/action4/common/public/?action_KEY=13972&utm_source=ActionAlert&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=080620

On the 55th Anniversary of the passage of the Voting Rights Act, we take this opportunity to think of the work of giants and those before us who have created the foundation on which we stand. As we commemorate this historic day for voting rights, we look back at the legacy of Congressman John Lewis, and his tireless fight and advocacy for voting rights and justice for Black people across the country. 

Congressman Lewis presided over the historic House vote in December 2019 for the Voting Rights Advancement Act. To fully honor his legacy would mean to pass the Voting Rights Advancement Act in the Senate and restore protections for voters in a critical election year.

 The protections outlined in the Voting Rights Advancement Act will: 

• Re-establish preclearance coverage for states and localities with a history and pattern of discrimination in voting
• Provide preclearance nationwide for states and localities with substantial minority populations to enact voting changes that have historically contributed to voter suppression, such as changes in methods of election and cuts in polling locations
• Create greater transparency and public notice for last-minute voting information changes, such as polling location changes and ballot information

Our Recording Journey brought us this time to the Moroccan Highlands where we had the chance to record 2 songs with “Tasuta N-Imal”

Thanks to a generous donation from our friends at fellow local business, Image 420 Screenprinting, we are proud to introduce a special, super limited edition t-shirt and sticker merch bundle ready for purchase today! These awesome shirts, which come in unisex sizes S through XXL, plus the matching sticker, are available for a $50 bundle price which will include one of each. The full price of your purchase will benefit our campaign to keep the Orange Peel alive and well until it is safe for us to all be together enjoying shows again in person. There are only 100 of these bundles available, and the designer, Brent Baldwin, did an amazing job with the art, so you are going to want to show off your proud support of keeping the music alive when you wear your shirt or display your new sticker. Every penny will bring us closer to hosting your favorite artist on our stage in the coming months when we can gather safely, and we will be SO thankful to all those who choose to demonstrate their support this way. We can’t wait to see you around town in your gear that helped save the music. Thank you all for your love and support.  Don’t forget, another amazing way to help us that costs nothing is to contact our elected representatives and let them know that you want congress to act and sign aid legislation now, including support for the SOS Act.  This bipartisan act will help independent music businesses recover from our devastating losses of nearly 100% of revenue this year. Click here to send a letter to your rep.  Even if you don’t have financial means to support us right now, sending a letter is a MAJOR contribution that we appreciate just as much. We wouldn’t have become the club we are without all of you, and with your help, we will be around for decades to come.

Call United Way’s 2-1-1 if you have questions about general community support services (24 hours a day/7 days a week) and please encourage others to call as well.

City of Asheville provides virtual presentation about completion of the North Fork Dam Improvement Project

Caldwell Arts Council announces its “Western NC Regional Online Poetry Competition,” featuring Final Judge Kari Gunter-Seymour, Poet Laureate of the state of Ohio and $1200 in total cash awards! Click here for a printable pdf of these guidelines.

Eligibility and Guidelines:

• Residents of the following 31 counties in western North Carolina are eligible to enter:  Alexander,
  Alleghany, Ashe, Avery, Buncombe, Burke, Caldwell, Catawba, Cherokee, Clay, Davie, Forsyth, Graham, Haywood, Henderson, Iredell, Jackson, Macon, Madison, McDowell, Mitchell, Polk, Rutherford, Stokes, Surry, Swain, Transylvania, Watauga, Wilkes, Yadkin, and Yancey.
• The deadline for entry is midnight, September 15, 2020.
• Entrants must be at least 18 years of age at time of submission.
• Each entrant may submit up to two original poems.
• Cost to enter is $10 for up to two poems.
• All entries AND entry fees must be submitted electronically. See below for submission and payment details. No U.S.P.S. mailed entries, checks or cash will be accepted.
• Poems must not have been written before January 1, 2019.
• Previously published poems are not eligible for submission.
• Poems can be of any subject matter or style; however the Caldwell Arts Council reserves the right to decline the written or audible posting/performance of any entered poem to its website, or other Arts Council platform due to its unsuitability for wide audiences as determined solely by the Caldwell Arts Council.
• Poems must be submitted electronically as a WORD document using .doc or .docx as your file
  extension.
• Poems cannot exceed 100 lines.
• All poems must be single spaced, in Times New Roman font, and be 12pt. type.
• Winning entrants must agree to allow their poems to be posted on the Caldwell Arts Council’s website and/or to be used in subsequent marketing/promotional materials by the Caldwell Arts Council.
• Entrants reserve/keep all other publication rights.
• Caldwell Arts Council staff, board members and their immediate family members are ineligible to
  enter.

Winter Lights at The N.C. Arboretum

November 20, 2020 – January 10, 2021

5:30 – 10:30 p.m. Nightly

Experience Asheville’s BRIGHTEST holiday tradition at Winter Lights at The North Carolina Arboretum. This year, guests are invited to take a dreamy ride through the Arboretum’s enchanted forest and attend Winter Lights safely within their own vehicles. In light of COVID-19, the Arboretum has converted its popular event into a drive-thru show, allowing guests to navigate through a one-mile stretch of the Arboretum’s campus and see unique exhibits covered in thousands of holiday lights. As the Arboretum’s largest fundraising event of the year, proceeds generated from Winter Lights will directly support the Arboretum’s mission-driven programming.

***Tickets go on sale September 1***

Fit Tribe athletes get unlimited access to outdoor groups and virtual sessions. All you have to do is show up and we will help you show out! Pick your workout schedule and reach your goals.

Workout Times