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.

Sunday, May 2, 2021
Asheville Art Museum Exhibition Featuring Paintings by Beauford Delaney
May 2 @ 11:00 am – 6:00 pm
Asheville Art Museum

Featuring more than 40 paintings and works on paper, Beauford Delaney’s Metamorphosis into Freedom examines the career evolution of modern painter Beauford Delaney (Knoxville, TN 1901–1979 Paris, France) within the context of his 38-year friendship with writer James Baldwin (New York 1924-1987 Saint-Paul-de-Vence, France). The exhibition will be on view in the Asheville Art Museum’s Explore Asheville Exhibition Hall April 2 through June 21, 2021.

The works in this exhibition bring into special focus Delaney’s experiments with abstraction sparked by the artist’s 1955 move to the Paris suburb of Clamart, as well as the ways that the artist and Baldwin’s ongoing intellectual exchange shaped one another’s creative output and worldview from their first meeting in 1940 until Delaney’s death in 1979.

Asheville Art Museum Presents Huffman Gifts of Contemporary Southern Folk Art
May 2 @ 11:00 am – 6:00 pm
Asheville Art Museum
Addie James, Big Mama Demp, 2002, acrylic and pen on foamcore, 20 × 16 inches. Asheville Art Museum. © Estate of Addie James.
Asheville, N.C.Huffman Gifts of Contemporary Southern Folk Art features gifts of contemporary southern folk art including paintings, ceramics, and more from the collection of Allen and Barry Huffman. The exhibition will be on view in the Asheville Art Museum’s Judith S. Moore Gallery from April 7 through September 13, 2021.

Allen and Barry Huffman have been collecting contemporary southern folk art for the past 40 years. Both collectors are originally from the South, and their journey together has led them around the southeastern United States, from Florida to Alabama to their hometown of Hickory, NC. In each place, they formed bonds with regional artists and learned first-hand the narratives of each artwork. Within their collection are subsets of folk art, including self-taught artists driven to share their messages, crafts for the tourist market, and southern pottery. The guiding principle evident throughout their collection and the generous donation of contemporary southern folk art that they have gifted to the Asheville Art Museum is the story told by each of these artists through their artworks.

“The Asheville Art Museum is fortunate to have friends like the Huffmans; not only are they prolific collectors who have generously shared gifts with the Museum, but their knowledge about southern contemporary folk art and its artists enriches the region,” says Whitney Richardson, associate curator. “I have such respect for the curious nature with which Allen and Barry have approached adding each artwork to their collection. They formed a friendship with almost every artist they bought from and have a genuine interest in the stories being told by the art and its artist.”

Artists featured include Barry Gurley Huffman (GA, 1943–Present Hickory, NC), James Cook (Glen Alpine, NC 1934–1984 Lawndale, NC), Albert Hodge (Vale, NC 1941—Present Vale, NC), Howard Finster (Valley Mead, AL 1916–2001 Rome, GA), Addie James (SC 1943–2011 Statesville, NC), James Harold Jennings (Pinnacle, NC 1931–1999 Pinnacle, NC), LaVon Van Williams Jr. (Lakeland, FL 1958–Present Lexington, KY), and more.

This exhibition is organized by the Asheville Art Museum and curated by Whitney Richardson, associate curator. For more information, visit ashevilleart.org/exhibitions/huffman-gifts-of-contemporary-southern-folk-art.

Asheville Art Museum: New Exhibition— Meeting the Moon
May 2 @ 11:00 am – 6:00 pm
Asheville Art Museum

The Asheville Art Museum announces Meeting the Moon, an exhibition featuring prints, photographs, ceramics, sculptures, and more from the Museum’s Collection. This exhibition will be on view in the Asheville Art Museum’s McClinton Gallery February 3 through July 26, 2021.

2021 marks the 60th anniversary of the beginning of the Apollo space program at NASA, but its inception was hardly the beginning of humankind’s fascination with Earth’s only moon. Before space travel existed, the moon—its shape, its mystery, and the face we see in it—inspired countless artists. Once astronauts landed on the moon and we saw our world from a new perspective, a surge of creativity flooded the American art scene, in paintings, prints, sculpture, music, crafts, film, and poetry.

This exhibition, whose title is taken from a 1913 Robert Frost poem, examines artwork in the Asheville Art Museum’s Collection of artists who were inspired by the unknown, then increasingly familiar moon. Meeting the Moon includes works by nationally renowned artists Newcomb Pottery, James Rosenquist, Maltby Sykes, Paul Soldner, John Lewis, Richard Ritter (Bakersville, NC), and Mark Peiser (Penland, NC). Western North Carolina artists include Jane Peiser (Penland, NC), Jak Brewer (Zionville, NC), Dirck Cruser (Asheville, NC), George Peterson (Lake Toxaway, NC), John B. Neff (NC), and Maud Gatewood (Yanceyville, NC).

Meeting the Moon offers the opportunity to combine science and popular culture with works of art in the Museum’s Collection,” says Whitney Richardson, associate curator. “I think all visitors will find something that draws them into this exhibition, whether it’s the artwork, poetry, music, or science of space travel. It’s such an affirmation of humanity to find these mysteries, like the moon, which enchant us all.”

This exhibition is organized by the Asheville Art Museum and curated by Whitney Richardson, associate curator. Visit ashevilleart.org for more information about this and other exhibitions.

Connecting Legacies: A First Look at the Dreier Black Mountain College Archive
May 2 @ 11:00 am – 6:00 pm
Asheville Art Museum

This exhibition features archival objects from the Theodore Dreier Sr. Document Collection presented alongside artworks from the Museum’s Black Mountain College Collection to explore the connections between artworks and ephemera. This exhibition is organized by the Asheville Art Museum and curated by lydia see, fall 2020 curatorial fellow, with support from a Digitizing Hidden Collections grant through the Council on Library and Information Resources.

Bluegrass Brunch
May 2 @ 12:00 pm – 3:00 pm
Jack of the Wood

Jack’s Bluegrass Brunch is every Sunday! Our menu kicks off at 12Noon with live tunes by Supper Break from 1-3pm. Try our $6 Bloody Mary or Mimosa, or grab a $15 Bottles of Champagne & OJ! Try one of our tasty brunch specials or order from our artisanal sandwich menu. Sláinte Y’all!

Free Admission Western North Carolina Air Museum
May 2 @ 12:00 pm – 5:00 pm
Western North Carolina Air Museum

The Western North Carolina Air Museum is a center of living history in the popular Hendersonville – Flat Rock region of the state. Don’t miss this unique opportunity to remember flying the way it used to be. Bring your kids, your camera, and your leather jacket. You can view the airplanes in an hour or so, or spend the afternoon hanger-flying with our friendly, informative staff. We can’t guarantee fine weather, but our hangar doors are open rain and shine. And we can’t guarantee that we’ll be flying on the day you visit, but we do promise to propel your imagination back to the golden age of general aviation. Come for the airplanes. Stay for the memories. There’s plenty of both right here at the Western North Carolina Air Museum.

Preserving & Promoting

Our

Carolina Flying Heritage

Rocky Cove Railroad Exhibit
May 2 @ 12:00 pm – 4:00 pm
NC Arboretum

On exhibit Saturdays and Sundays through October from 12 to 4 p.m. (weather permitting), Rocky Cove Railroad is a G-Scale (garden scale) model train that demonstrates the coming of trains to western North Carolina at the turn of the 20th century. The exhibit is located below the Grand Garden Promenade.

Sundays on the Island, Marshall
May 2 @ 12:00 pm – 4:00 pm
Sundays on the Island
Tip-Based Walking Tour
May 2 @ 12:00 pm – 4:30 pm
Pack Square

This insider excursion provides you with tips and local secrets about the best way to do Asheville on a budget! You will have a better understanding of how Asheville became the unique, quirky city you see now and learn everything we are doing to “Keep Asheville Weird.” This is the only walking tour provided that allows you to choose how much you think a walking tour is worth and pay whatever you like. We will follow the urban trail, stop along the way for some free honey tastings and finish the tour with some special beer tastings at one of the best local breweries in South Slope! At the brewery, you will also be able to participate in a free raffle where you receive gifts donated from local businesses like free salsa classes, local theatre performances, books and more! I want you to know and love my city as much as I do and I am excited to share this experience with you!

Pay what you want at the end!

Downtown Tour
We will meet at Pack Square where the road cuts through the park! I will be wearing a free walking tour Tshirt
My parking recommendations are either street parking in the square or the Aloft parking deck on Biltmore Ave. If it’s a weekend, there should be free parking on the streets but be sure to check the meter! Feel free to ask any other questions you may have! 
River Arts Tour 
We will meet outside of the Magentic Theatre and your guide will be wearing a blue T-shirt !
 
I recommend parking in the public parking lot directly beside the theatre for free parking close to the meeting spot! 
Mean Girls
May 2 @ 1:00 pm – 3:30 pm
Peace Center

show

Direct from Broadway, Mean Girls is the hilarious hit musical from an award-winning creative team, including book writer Tina Fey (30 Rock), composer Jeff Richmond (Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt), lyricist Nell Benjamin (Legally Blonde), and director Casey Nicholaw (The Book of Mormon).

Cady Heron may have grown up on an African savanna, but nothing prepared her for the vicious ways of her strange new home: suburban Illinois. Soon, this naïve newbie falls prey to a trio of lionized frenemies led by the charming but ruthless Regina George. But when Cady devises a plan to end Regina’s reign, she learns the hard way that you can’t cross a Queen Bee without getting stung.

New York Magazine cheers, “Mean Girls delivers with immense energy, a wicked sense of humor and joyful inside-jokery.” USA Today says, “We’ll let you in on a little secret, because we’re such good friends: GET YOUR TICKETS NOW!”

JAZZ BRUNCH Free · One World West
May 2 @ 1:30 pm – 4:00 pm
One World West Brewing

JAZZ BRUNCH @ ONE WORLD WEST
EVERY SUNDAY FROM 1:30-4PM
FIRST SET BY THE HOUSE BAND & SECOND SET IS A JAZZ JAM
WEEKLY BRUNCH MENU FROM UMAMI MAMI
“Paws + Pints” Adoption Day Free ·
May 2 @ 2:00 pm – 5:00 pm
Hillman Beer - Asheville/Biltmore Village

Stop by on the first Sunday of the month 2-5pm to grab a beer, have a bite to eat and possibly meet your new best friend from Charlie’s Angels Animal Rescue.

Outdoor Mainstage: In The Middle of Nowhere
May 2 @ 2:00 pm
The Magnetic Theatre

MAINSTAGE OUTDOORS

IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE

By Bret Murphy
Directed by Katie Jones

Cynthia Scott is a retired art professor who escapes to the Black Mountains of North Carolina after a harrowing experience in her “previous” life. Despite her fiercely independent nature, she eventually forms a relationship with Del, a young man who has recently been released from prison. They challenge each other in unexpected ways… but the question remains, will either of them accept forgiveness?

May 1-16, 2021
Saturdays at 2pm and 6pm
Sundays at 2pm

The A.R.M.E.S. Dance Concert 2021
May 2 @ 2:00 pm
Gunter Theatre FINE ARTS CENTER

The A.R.M.E.S. Dance Concert 2021 is a showcase of our afterschool dance program at the Fine Arts Center.  Dance 1 our youngest group and Dance 2 our intermediate group, will both perform ballet and modern dance pieces. Dance 3, is our oldest group that will be showcasing their ballet and modern pieces along with the classic “Farewell” piece.

Food Truck Sundays
May 2 @ 3:00 pm – 6:00 pm
Archetype Brewing

In conjunction with Sunday Sessions Live (and virtual) music: Food Truck Sundays will bring a new or rotating “staff favorite” cuisine each week to the Beechams Curve offerings.
Gan Shan West, our main culinary provider 6 days a week, is closed on Sundays. Enjoy the convenience, delicious variety and the music – all in one Sunday Funday stop!

Jack of the Wood : Sunday-Irish Session
May 2 @ 3:00 pm
Jack of the Wood

 

Jack of the Wood : Sunday-Irish Session 

Sundays

1 till who knows when?

Traditional Irish music is kept alive at Jack of the Wood with our unplugged Sunday session.

Jack of the Wood

95 Patton ave

Asheville, NC 28801

(828) 252.5445

http://www.jackofthewood.com/

Poetrio: Fleda Brown, Rita Quillen, Gretchen Primack
May 2 @ 3:00 pm
Online w/ Malaprop's

Join us for our monthly poetry event featuring three poets. This month, we welcome Fleda Brown, Rita Quillen, and Gretchen Primack. Click here to RSVP for this event. On the day of the event, we will send a reminder email with the link required to attend.

Like most of our events, this event is free. If you decide to attend and to purchase the authors’ 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!


Fleda Brown’s tenth collection of poems, Flying Through a Hole in the Storm (2021) won the Hollis Summers Prize from Ohio University Press. Earlier poems can be found in The Woods Are On Fire: New & Selected Poems, chosen by Ted Kooser for the University of Nebraska poetry series, 2017. Her work has appeared three times in The Best American Poetry and has won a Pushcart Prize, the Felix Pollak Prize, the Philip Levine Prize, and the Great Lakes Colleges New Writer’s Award, and has twice been a finalist for the National Poetry Series. Her new memoir, Mortality, with Friends will be out from Wayne State University Press Fall 2021. She is professor emerita at the University of Delaware and was poet laureate of Delaware from 2001-07. Read more at: https://www.fledabrown.com

Golda Meir once said, “Old age is like a plane flying through a storm. Once you’re aboard, there’s nothing you can do.” The poems in Fleda Brown’s brave collection, her thirteenth, take readers on a journey through the fury of this storm. There are plenty of tragedies to weather here, both personal and universal: the death of a father, a child’s terminal cancer, the extinction of bees, and environmental degradation. Brown’s poems are wise, honest, and deeply observant meditations on contemporary science, physics, family, politics, and aging. With tributes to visionary artists, including Frida Kahlo, Pablo Picasso, and Grandma Moses, as well as to life’s terrors, sadnesses, and joys, these works are beautiful dispatches from a renowned poet who sees the shadows lengthening and imagines what they might look like from the other side.

Rita Quillen’s poetry book, Some Notes You Hold was published by Madville in 2020. She’s also author of the novel Wayland, Iris Press (2019), a full-length poetry collection, The Mad Farmer’s Wife, Texas Review Press, (2016), and was a finalist for the Weatherford Award in Appalachian Literature from Berea College. Her novel Hiding Ezra, released by Little Creek Books, was a finalist for the 2005 DANA Awards. One of six semi-finalists for the 2012-14 Poet Laureate of Virginia, she received three Pushcart nominations and a Best of the Net nomination in 2012. She lives, farms, writes songs, and takes photographs at Early Autumn Farm in southwestern Virginia. Read more at www.ritasimsquillen.com.

Some Notes You Hold is about surviving what life throws at us as we age. The so-called “golden years” are so named because of the high admission price—the tremendous losses, disappointments, illnesses, and failures we all experience if we live long enough. The first part of the book, called “Letting Go,” focuses on surviving deep grief. The middle section is a musical interlude, exploring the tremendous power of music to heal us mentally, physically, and spiritually and to reorder our thinking and our emotions. The last section, “Holding On,” explores the roads leading to survival: prayer and meditation, communion with the natural world, and writing.

Gretchen Primack is the author of Kind, republished by Lantern Books in 2021; Visiting Days (Willow Books Editors Select Series); and Doris’ Red Spaces (Mayapple Press). She also co-wrote, with Jenny Brown, the memoir The Lucky Ones: My Passionate Fight for Farm Animals (Penguin Avery).  Her poems have appeared in The Paris Review, Prairie Schooner, FIELD, Ploughshares, Poet Lore, and other journals and anthologies. Primack has administrated and taught with college programs and poetry workshops in prison for many years, and she moonlights at The Golden Notebook Bookstore in Woodstock, NY. Read more at http://www.gretchenprimack.com/bio.php

Kind is the kind of poetry book that makes you think differently about our world and the beings that inhabit it. Primack explores all facets of our lives with other beings—the beauty, the tragedy, and the absurdity that surrounds her existence. Kind cuts to one’s emotional core to make us think and feel. “It is this poet’s calling to hold kindness and its opposite in tension. What is that opposite? The poems in this volume offer unsettling answers. With Gretchen Primack’s poems, the absence of kindness causes a quaking in our bodies. A lyrical language of the present tense evokes a fierce and tender impatience with what should never have been settled for.”

Skateville Meetup
May 2 @ 3:00 pm – 5:00 pm
Carrier Park

Come skate with us every Sunday at the Skateville Sundays meetup.
This is a casual weekly event for Asheville Roller Skaters to make friends, practice skills and get inspired on your #skatejourney.
Roller blades welcome!
Mean Girls
May 2 @ 6:30 pm – 9:00 pm
Peace Center

show

Direct from Broadway, Mean Girls is the hilarious hit musical from an award-winning creative team, including book writer Tina Fey (30 Rock), composer Jeff Richmond (Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt), lyricist Nell Benjamin (Legally Blonde), and director Casey Nicholaw (The Book of Mormon).

Cady Heron may have grown up on an African savanna, but nothing prepared her for the vicious ways of her strange new home: suburban Illinois. Soon, this naïve newbie falls prey to a trio of lionized frenemies led by the charming but ruthless Regina George. But when Cady devises a plan to end Regina’s reign, she learns the hard way that you can’t cross a Queen Bee without getting stung.

New York Magazine cheers, “Mean Girls delivers with immense energy, a wicked sense of humor and joyful inside-jokery.” USA Today says, “We’ll let you in on a little secret, because we’re such good friends: GET YOUR TICKETS NOW!”

Mary Fahl (of October Project)
May 2 @ 7:00 pm
The Grey Eagle

Mary Fahl is an expressive, emotional singer/songwriter who first achieved fame as lead singer and co-founder of the mid-1990s NYC- based Folk-Chamber Pop group October Project.  The hallmark of their sound was Mary Fahl’s awe-inspiring power vocals over gorgeous melodies played with passion and sophistication.

As a solo artist, she’s had more freedom to pursue her own muse, whether that means writing and recording songs for movies (including the theme for the Civil War epic “Gods and Generals”), singing arias and medieval Spanish songs for Sony Classical or releasing a unique album-length take on Dark Side of the Moon. As befits a former Catholic schoolgirl who went on to major in medieval studies and develop a lifelong interest in Hermeticism, Mary Fahl makes music that feels timeless, esoteric and ecumenical. Her elegant, cinematic songs draw on classical and world music sources, American art song, as well as thinking man’s folk-pop which she performs with an earthy, viscerally powerful contralto that bridges the generational gap between Fairport Convention’s Sandy Denny and London Grammar’s Hanna Reid. Fahl’s sound has a hauntingly gothic romanticism that inspired Anne Rice to portray it emanating from a dead woman’s room in her 2013 novel The Wolves of Midwinter.

Over the past few years she’s been touring and recording on her own label, Rimar Records and her recent releases are garnering awards including an Indie Acoustic Award for Best Live Album for “Live at the Mauch Chunk Opera House” (filmed for PBS) and an Independent Music Award for her recent holiday album, “Winter Songs and Carols” – “Winter Songs and Carols transports the listener to another time, another place. It is a wonderful experience”–Aaron Badgley SPILL MAGAZINE

Her latest release, a Blu-ray 5.1 surround DVD, “From the Dark Side of the Moon“, brilliantly mixed by Bob Clearmountain, has been called “Immersive Album of the Year” by Life in Surround.

The Magnetic Theatre Speakeasy Improv classes
May 2 @ 7:00 pm
tbd

The Speakeasy is designed to use improv for positive change through fast-paced play and collaboration. Through teaching the deeper nature of improv, The Speakeasy aims to inspire Artists to stay actively engaged in their craft, grow as individuals, and contribute to the growth of their artistic community. We want our community to have a blast, grow as people, and feel comfortable doing exactly what our name says… speak easy! Instructor Tim Hearn’s approach to both the arts as well as the craft of teaching prioritizes the process of play over the final result. He implements the rules of improv as a philosophy for living and as an indispensable tool for performance.

The first course offered will be “The Fellowship,” Sundays or Mondays at 7:00pm, beginning March 7th and running for 10 weeks. With specific learning targets addressed through a focus on process over product, this course is suited to new students who have never before taken an improv class as well as to seasoned improvisers looking for a new take on familiar techniques.  Each week offers a distinct lesson designed to ensure students learn through group experience and active play. Classes will be in-person with enrollment limited to ten students, and all COVID precautions will be observed.  Location is TBD.

More information about Speakeasy Improv, the curriculum, and enrollment can be found at: https://themagnetictheatre.org/speakeasy-improv

For questions, please contact Artistic Director

Charlotte Hornets vs. Miami Heat
May 2 @ 8:00 pm
Spectrum Center

Logo for Charlotte Hornets vs.Logo for Miami Heat

WATCH ON BALLY SPORTS SOUTHEAST – CHARLOTTE
LISTEN ON WFNZ 610 AM/102.5 FM
Monday, May 3, 2021
2021 City Nature Challenge
May 3 all-day
Online w/ NC Arboretum

Ready, set, snap! Connect with fellow nature lovers from around the world in the 2021 City Nature Challenge, a worldwide bioblitz held April 30 – May 3 that encourages participants to get outside and celebrate their region’s biodiversity by taking photos of the plants and animals found in their communities and uploading them to iNaturalist. The Arboretum will be serving as the lead institution for the Western North Carolina region and will be offering a variety of online programming for adults and youth in conjunction with this collaborative citizen-science initiative that helps scientists across the globe gather valuable data about the organisms around us.

How to Participate

1) Download iNaturalist, a free mobile application on your iPhone or Android device.

2) From April 30 – May 3, get outside in your backyard or a nearby natural area (while practicing social distancing) and take pictures of wildlife, including plants and animals (no pets, please!).

3) Upload your photos to iNaturalist and tell your friends to join in on the fun! **Children 12 & under can submit their photos via ecoexplore.net.

4) BONUS: Help identify organisms on iNaturalist during the Challenge’s “identifying” stage from May 4 – 9.

Earn Badges

Get to know the nature near you! This year, as part of the City Nature Challenge, the Arboretum’s ecoEXPLORE program will once again offer a special BioBlitz Bonus Badge to children in grades K-8 who complete the necessary “challenges.”

SIGN UP FOR ECOEXPLORE

For adults looking for an extra challenge this spring, the Arboretum is offering the North Carolina BioBlitz patch. To earn the patch, participants will need to create a free iNaturalist account; attend the free Intro to City Nature Challenge & iNaturalist course or stream it after the fact; make at least 40 nature observations during the City Nature Challenge; and help identify 10 or more observations made by others during the Challenge’s “identifying” stage (May 4 – 9). Students in the Arboretum’s Blue Ridge Naturalist and Blue Ridge Eco-Gardener certificate programs can earn 4 credit hours towards their Criteria 2 requirements by completing the steps necessary to earn their patch and will be asked to provide documentation of their observations and identifications in the form of screenshots. Candidates pursuing a North Carolina Environmental Education Certification can also receive these credits. Please contact Michelle Pearce, Teacher Education Coordinator, at [email protected] with any questions.

ASAP’s 2021 Local Food Guide Is Out Now
May 3 all-day
Online w/ ASAP (Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project)

he 2021 Local Food Guide, ASAP’s annual free publication for finding local food and farms, hits newsstands this week. This definitive resource lists Appalachian GrownTM certified farms, farmers tailgate markets, restaurants, and travel destinations throughout Western North Carolina and surrounding counties in Virginia, Tennessee, Georgia, and South Carolina. You can also view a digital version of the print Guide at asapconnections.org/guide.

The 2021 print edition of the Local Food Guide includes:

  • 200+ Appalachian Grown farms, plus charts to easily locate farms offering u-pick, farm stands, lodging, visitor activities, and CSAs;

  • 80+ farmers tailgate markets, plus information about holiday markets and a list of markets that operate in the winter;

  • 80+ partner businesses, including restaurants, groceries, wholesalers, artisan producers, and travel destinations.

Articles and photography throughout the Guide highlight the unique farm stories and beauty of the region. This year’s Guide features The AppaLatin Farmstead, Colfax Creek Farm, Headwaters Market Garden, Kituwah Farm, New Roots Market Garden, and TK Family Farm. A primer on eating seasonally includes simple, vegetable-focused recipes.

As part of ASAP’s Appalachian Grown program, staff connects with markets, farms, and businesses to update listings each year. The Local Food Guide offers the most accurate, up-to-date information for consumers. ASAP also maintains the online Local Food Guide at appalachiangrown.org throughout the year. This database, including 1,350 listings, is searchable by products, locations, activities, and more.

Find Local Food Guide copies at farmers markets, visitors centers, libraries, community centers, groceries, restaurants, and other partner businesses throughout the region. They are also available to pick up in the lobby of ASAP’s office in Asheville at 306 W. Haywood St., Monday to Thursday, noon to 4 p.m. Contact ASAP if you need help locating a copy in your area.

The 2021 Local Food Guide is made possible with support from the USDA, Buncombe County Strategic Partnership fund, The Community Foundation of Western North Carolina, Pisgah Health Foundation, and Asheville Regional Airport.

ABOUT ASAP (APPALACHIAN SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE PROJECT)

ASAP’s mission is to help local farms thrive, link farmers to markets and supporters, and build healthy communities through connections to local food. To learn more, visit asapconnections.org.

Auditions for Macbeth/Pericles
May 3 all-day
Online w/ The Montford Park Players

The Montford Park Players announces open auditions for two shows that will be performed in repertory, Shakespeare’s Macbeth and Pericles, both to be directed by Jason Williams. Rehearsals will begin in July, and the shows will run from Friday, September 3rd through to Saturday, October 9th.
All parts are open to any actor 18 and up, all experience levels, ethnic backgrounds, and gender identities. Individuals/families/couples/friends who are quarantining together are encouraged to audition. The same cast will perform both plays on alternating nights.
Prospective actors and technicians should review the COVID-19 protocols which can be found at https://www.montfordparkplayers.org/…/MPP-ACTOR-SAFETY…. Actors and technicians recruited for this production will be required to abide by all safety protocols as contained in the document. Protocols are, of course, subject to change.
To audition:
1) fill out and submit the audition form located at https://forms.gle/36VBKUfD1vEfvF5w6. Headshots and resumes are appreciated, but not required.
2) Record an audition video of a 1-2 min. video of any Shakespeare of their choosing. It can be a soliloquy, monologue, sonnet or scene. It doesn’t have to be memorized.
Upload the video here: https://driveuploader.com/upload/6XaW3rROQN/ (Be sure and name the video with your name and the word “PericlesMacbeth”).
3) Virtual Auditions will be accepted until midnight May 30th.
Callbacks will be by invitation and will take place at a time to be determined. If an actor has already submitted a resume and Shakespeare video, they do not need to resubmit to be considered.
We’re also looking for stage managers for both shows, and a costume designer for MacBeth. Interested persons should email the director, Jason Williams, at [email protected].
Auditions for The Sword in the Stone
May 3 all-day
Online w/ Montford Park Players
We sent out out this notice with the incorrect subject name. Please accept our apologies for the inbox clog.
The Montford Park Players announces open auditions for the family show “The Sword in the Stone,” by Shaan Sharma, to be directed by Kristi DeVille. Rehearsal will begin in late May, and the show will run Friday, July 30 to Saturday, August 28.
The director is seeking actors, dancers, and singers ages 13 and up, all experience levels, ethnic backgrounds, and gender identities.
Individuals/families/couples/friends who are quarantining together are encouraged to audition.
Prospective actors and technicians should review the COVID-19 protocols which can be found at https://www.montfordparkplayers.org/…/MPP-ACTOR-SAFETY…. Actors and technicians recruited for this production will be required to abide by all safety protocols as contained in the document.
In addition, the following director-mandated safety protocols will be included for this production:
– Masks will be used sometimes onstage in character. Mask use will be blocked and choreographed in a way that makes sense within the world of the play and keeps the performers as safe as possible
– Actor call time will be staggered for performances and rehearsals.
To audition:
1) fill out and submit the audition form located at https://forms.gle/36VBKUfD1vEfvF5w6. Headshots and resumes are appreciated, but not required.
2) Record an audition video (you can do so on your phone) using at least one of the sides located at https://www.montfordparkplayers.org/abou…/volunteers-page/. Upload the video here: https://driveuploader.com/upload/6XaW3rROQN/ (Be sure and name the video with your name and the word “Sword”).
3) Virtual Auditions will be accepted until midnight May 10
Callbacks will be by invitation and will take place May 15 & 16 at the Hazel Robinson Amphitheatre. Callbacks will be appropriately socially distanced.

For more information email [email protected]

Carolina Recycling Association’s 31st Annual Conference + Trade Show
May 3 all-day
Online w/ Carolina Recycling Association

Join us and representatives from recycling companies, local governments, state and federal agencies, universities and colleges, state recycling organizations and other non-profits for our 31st Annual Conference & Trade Show: Learn. Network. Inspire. Virtually! We are offering a top of the line platform with live-streamed sessions, virtual round-tables, instant-access networking, an interactive exhibit hall, video and live chat, gaming, smart metrics, and of course all of the awesome programming you know and love. All registrants will receive instructions for accessing the platform and setting up your event experience prior to the conference start. Check out the awesome conference we have planned.

FABRICated at Center for Craft
May 3 all-day
Center for Craft

FABRICated presents an intergenerational look at new boundaries in art and craft through works that merge fiber-based processes with other media, like painting, sculpture, and blacksmithing. Each of the seven artists explores ideas of the body, identity, and their unique, personal stories by using a medium with a rich history of craft. Stitching, in and of itself, is slow and methodical and invites the audience to slow down and look carefully at the physicality of the thread, the textures of the fabric, and the paint and the found objects that are introduced into the mix. The result is an exhibition that questions the nature of what constitutes women’s work, the relationship of fine art and craft, and how these elements can come together to form a new kind of community conversation. FABRICated presents the work of two established artists, Virginia Derryberry (Asheville, NC) and Marcia Goldenstein (Knoxville, TN), along with five emerging artists who are exploring new boundaries in art and craft and, by so doing, open up an exploration between an older and a younger generation.

For Your Consideration: Best of WNC Ballot
May 3 all-day
online w/ Buncombe County Government

Each year, thousands of residents and visitors take part in evaluating what’s best and brightest about a very wonderful place — Western North Carolina. With spring in full bloom and months of lockdown behind us, voting for what you love most about your community is a restorative affirmation.

Buncombe County Recreation Services dedication to low- and no-cost recreational programming and equitable access to quality outdoor spaces is reflected in its mission statement: Connect Communities. Preserve Culture. Change Lives. Among the ballot categories, we offer some suggestions for your consideration.

VOTE NOW >>

Kids

  • Place for Outdoor Fun – Buncombe County Parks
  • Playground – Lake Julian Park
  • Place for Birthday Parties – Buncombe County Parks

Outdoors

  • Picnic Spot – Lake Julian Park
  • Fishing Spot – Lake Julian Park

Farm, Yard, & Garden

  • Orchard – Sand Hill Native Tree Orchard
  • Community Garden – Sand Hill Community Garden

Pets

  • Outdoor Place to Take Your Pet – Buncombe County Parks

Uniquely Asheville

  • Place to Connect With Nature Within Asheville City Limits – Buncombe County Sports Park
  • Holiday Event (Winter/Spring) – Festival of Lights at Lake Julian Park
  • Bumper Sticker – I ♥ Parks (Buncombe County Recreation Services)

Regional

  • Local Place to Enjoy the Outdoors (Swannanoa/Black Mountain) – Charles D. Owen Park
  • Local Place to Enjoy the Outdoors (Weaverville/Woodfin) – Ledges Whitewater River Park

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

Gardening Video: Gardening for All Abilities—Gardening for a Lifetime
May 3 all-day
Online w/ Extension Master Gardener Volunteers of Buncombe County

Are your special needs or changing physical abilities keeping you out of the garden? Are your garden chores becoming more challenging? Do you know how to select tools and equipment that will keep you healthy and safe in the garden? In this presentation Mary Hugenschmidt and Suzanne Wodek, Master Gardener Volunteers and longtime teachers of therapeutic horticulture, will tell us about ergonomic tools, garden structures and design, and proper body mechanics to get us back in the garden and keep us gardening for life.