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.

Monday, February 22, 2021
Black History Month – Book List for Young Readers
Feb 22 all-day
Online
Take + Play – Borrow Ukuleles and Games from the Library
Feb 22 @ 9:00 am – 5:00 pm
Pack Memorial Library

The Perfect Turkey

Pack Youth Services introduces Take & Play, a pilot program that offers everyone the opportunity to borrow games, ukuleles, and disc golf sets from the Youth Services department at Pack Library. Take & Play items check out for three weeks, and you need to pick them up and drop them off at Pack Library. Games, ukuleles, and disc golf sets are available on a first-come, first-served basis and you check them out with your library card just like a book. Call 250-4720 for details, or drop by the library anytime we’re open.

All our library hours are listed here.

AniMonday! Anime Games, Music All Day
Feb 22 @ 1:00 pm – 9:00 pm
Asheville Retrocade

May be an image of one or more people and hair

Join us for Animoday! Every Monday all day. Listen to anime music, play anime games, watch anime, and talk anime!

Science Fiction Book Club
Feb 22 @ 7:00 pm
Online w/ Malaprop's

This club will meet virtually via zoom during the Covid-19 pandemic. Please email [email protected] for the link to join!  

Join host and Malaprop’s Bookseller Allison Beatty to dive into the wreck of the wily and wonderful world of sci-fi, weird fiction, speculative fiction, literary horror, and disturbing fiction with a healthy mix of underappreciated classic and contemporary books. The club normally meets at Malaprop’s on the last Monday of every month at 7:00pm.

Click here to see a full schedule of what the club is reading. Club attendees get 10% off the book at Malaprop’s!

Tuesday, February 23, 2021
Black History Month – Book List for Young Readers
Feb 23 all-day
Online
Take + Play – Borrow Ukuleles and Games from the Library
Feb 23 @ 9:00 am – 5:00 pm
Pack Memorial Library

The Perfect Turkey

Pack Youth Services introduces Take & Play, a pilot program that offers everyone the opportunity to borrow games, ukuleles, and disc golf sets from the Youth Services department at Pack Library. Take & Play items check out for three weeks, and you need to pick them up and drop them off at Pack Library. Games, ukuleles, and disc golf sets are available on a first-come, first-served basis and you check them out with your library card just like a book. Call 250-4720 for details, or drop by the library anytime we’re open.

All our library hours are listed here.

LITCAFE: Ann Woodford When All God’s Children Get Together
Feb 23 @ 6:00 pm – 7:00 pm
Online w/ Western North Carolina Historical Association

Image: Ann Miller Woodford at the Murphy Art Center 
Courtesy of Cherokee County Chamber of Commerce
In the spirit of exploring great WNC writing and writers, we are reprising our popular LitCafe series with the multi-talented Ann Miller Woodford, author of When All God’s Children Get Together: A Celebration of the Lives and Music of African American People in Far Western North Carolina. Ann’s exhibit of the same name is currently on display through April at the Smith-McDowell House.

Join us as Ann discusses her research, writing, and the people behind the book.

Location: Zoom webinar; a link will be sent to all registered participants in advance of the event

Registration: Pre-registration required.

Wednesday, February 24, 2021
Black History Month – Book List for Young Readers
Feb 24 all-day
Online
Take + Play – Borrow Ukuleles and Games from the Library
Feb 24 @ 9:00 am – 5:00 pm
Pack Memorial Library

The Perfect Turkey

Pack Youth Services introduces Take & Play, a pilot program that offers everyone the opportunity to borrow games, ukuleles, and disc golf sets from the Youth Services department at Pack Library. Take & Play items check out for three weeks, and you need to pick them up and drop them off at Pack Library. Games, ukuleles, and disc golf sets are available on a first-come, first-served basis and you check them out with your library card just like a book. Call 250-4720 for details, or drop by the library anytime we’re open.

All our library hours are listed here.

Live Stream: Wayne Caldwell Launches Woodsmoke in conversation with Ron Rash
Feb 24 @ 6:00 pm
Online w/ Malaprop's

Like most of our events, this event is free, but registration is required. Click here to RSVP for this event. Prior to the event the link required to attend will be emailed to registrants.

Wayne Caldwell will sign and personalize copies of Woodsmoke purchased from Malaprop’s! Pre-order below and put your personalization request in the comment section during checkout (e.g. “to Jane”).

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. If you would like to support us without purchasing a book, you may purchase a gift card or make a donation of any amount. Thank you!


Woodsmoke is a poetry collection that renders the experience of living out life in a single, exquisite place–“in the shadow of the mountain my father said was mother to us all”–Mount Pisgah in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. Wayne Caldwell, author of the novel Cataloochee, brings us the waning days of Posey Green, who cuts his own firewood, looks after himself, and tends to the land where his wife Birdie and her people are buried. Posey’s colloquial narrative poetry is presented as found verse, conjured from Posey’s internal musings–and these poems alternate with those of a new neighbor, a sympathetic female poet who observes Posey and his surroundings and creates a more formal poetic record of his days.

Wayne Caldwell is the author of the novels Cataloochee (2007) and Requiem by Fire (2010). He has won the Thomas Wolfe Memorial Literary Award from the Western North Carolina Historical Association and the James Still Award from the Fellowship of Southern Writers. Woodsmoke is his first collection of poetry. He lives with his wife, Mary, just west of Asheville, on land that has been in her family since 1831. In his spare time, he works up firewood.

Ron Rash is the author of the PEN/Faulkner finalist and New York Times bestselling novel Serena, in addition to the critically acclaimed novels The Risen, Above the Waterfall, The Cove, One Foot in Eden, Saints at the River, and The World Made Straight; four collections of poems; and six collections of stories, among them Burning Bright, which won the 2010 Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award, Nothing Gold Can Stay, a New York Times bestseller, and Chemistry and Other Stories, which was a finalist for the 2007 PEN/Faulkner Award. Twice the recipient of the O. Henry Prize and winner of the 2019 Sidney Lanier Prize for Southern Literature, he is the Parris Distinguished Professor in Appalachian Cultural Studies at Western Carolina University and lives in Clemson, SC.

Learn to Play Mah Jongg
Feb 24 @ 6:30 pm – 8:30 pm
Online w/ Heavenly Hand Mah Jongg

Learn to Play Mah Jongg

ONLINE lessons given at an interactive classroom website at the School of American Mah Jongg. You will play online with 2 or 3 other students while I teach you how to play in four weekly lessons at the Mah Jongg classroom. In addition, a Zoom link provides audio and visual support. Please sign up in advance as I need to mail learning materials to you for use during the class. Class meets on February 10, 17, 24 and March 3. Please register and pay for the class by Laura Hoover at the School of American Mah Jongg. https://mahjongteacher.com

What we’re about

This group is designed to teach American Mah Jongg is a fun and stimulating game of strategy, skill, and luck. Mah Jongg is a 4 player game using 152 tiles and the National Mah Jongg rule card. All lessons are done in a virtual, interactive classroom through the School of American Mah Jongg. Please refer to event details for more info or contact me at [email protected] or Facebook at LessonsFromLaura

ONLINE lessons starting soon.

Thursday, February 25, 2021
Black History Month – Book List for Young Readers
Feb 25 all-day
Online
Take + Play – Borrow Ukuleles and Games from the Library
Feb 25 @ 9:00 am – 5:00 pm
Pack Memorial Library

The Perfect Turkey

Pack Youth Services introduces Take & Play, a pilot program that offers everyone the opportunity to borrow games, ukuleles, and disc golf sets from the Youth Services department at Pack Library. Take & Play items check out for three weeks, and you need to pick them up and drop them off at Pack Library. Games, ukuleles, and disc golf sets are available on a first-come, first-served basis and you check them out with your library card just like a book. Call 250-4720 for details, or drop by the library anytime we’re open.

All our library hours are listed here.

Black History: Actively Aging Through Activism and Art with Ann Miller Woodford
Feb 25 @ 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm
Online w/ AARP

The presentation will include ways that Woodford has highlighted the voices of people that have often been overlooked, as she shares the history and heritage of African Americans who have lived in far Western North Carolina communities.

Ann Miller Woodford w When All Gods Children Get T

The lecture will be followed by four additional virtual events featuring Woodford on Thursdays, March 11 and 25, and April 8 and 15 from 1-2 p.m.  Those free-to-the-public sessions, held under the theme “When All God’s Children Get Together:  Fostering Racial Justice Book Club with Ann Woodford,” will address several topics covered in the author’s new book.

Participants, who can register at https://aarp.cvent.com/AnnWoodfordBookClub, will discuss subjects listed below with facilitators and Woodford:

March 11–General Overview.  How African American people in this region compare to nationwide:  race relations and racial disparities.

March 25–History of Ethnic Cleansing in Georgia and how it led to African American people coming to Western North Carolina (includes other national cleansings, the Green Book and a coup in Wilmington, N.C.)

April 8–What is White Privilege and how it can make a difference; Using your power to make a difference.

April 15–Steps that can be taken to smooth race relations locally and beyond.

As a child in a segregated, one-room, one-teacher “colored/negro” elementary school in the small mountain town of Andrews, N..C. Woodward’s talents as an artist were discovered by one of her teachers.  Soon, she was using oils, pencil, charcoal and ink as she drew remarkable scenes of people, animals and landscapes, which has led to a long career as an artist.  Eventually, her creativity knew no boundaries, as she has excelled as a writer, designer, entrepreneur and speaker.  Learn more about Woodford at her website, https://anntree.com.

Event participants can find her book at the library, various local and national online sellers or on her website.  While the book is recommended, it is not required to participate.

“When All God’s Children Get Together:  Fostering Racial Justice Book Club with Ann Woodford,
Feb 25 @ 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm
Online

Ann Miller Woodford w When All Gods Children Get T

The lecture will be followed by four additional virtual events featuring Woodford on Thursdays, March 11 and 25, and April 8 and 15 from 1-2 p.m.  Those free-to-the-public sessions, held under the theme “When All God’s Children Get Together:  Fostering Racial Justice Book Club with Ann Woodford,” will address several topics covered in the author’s new book.

Participants, who can register at https://aarp.cvent.com/AnnWoodfordBookClub, will discuss subjects listed below with facilitators and Woodford:

March 11–General Overview.  How African American people in this region compare to nationwide:  race relations and racial disparities.

March 25–History of Ethnic Cleansing in Georgia and how it led to African American people coming to Western North Carolina (includes other national cleansings, the Green Book and a coup in Wilmington, N.C.)

April 8–What is White Privilege and how it can make a difference; Using your power to make a difference.

April 15–Steps that can be taken to smooth race relations locally and beyond.

As a child in a segregated, one-room, one-teacher “colored/negro” elementary school in the small mountain town of Andrews, N..C. Woodward’s talents as an artist were discovered by one of her teachers.  Soon, she was using oils, pencil, charcoal and ink as she drew remarkable scenes of people, animals and landscapes, which has led to a long career as an artist.  Eventually, her creativity knew no boundaries, as she has excelled as a writer, designer, entrepreneur and speaker.  Learn more about Woodford at her website, https://anntree.com.

Event participants can find her book at the library, various local and national online sellers or on her website.  While the book is recommended, it is not required to participate.

https://www.aarp.cvent.com/AnnWoodfordBookClub

Black Experience Book Club
Feb 25 @ 6:30 pm
YMI Impact Center

Man reading book

YMI Cultural Center and Buncombe County Public Libraries have partnered on a book club exploring modern Black authors. December’s selection is The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates.

Asheville’s YMI Cultural Center (YMI) and Buncombe County Public Libraries (BCPL) are partnering to create a book club focusing on modern Black authors and readers. Beginning Thursday, Dec. 10, 2020, the Black Experience Book Club will meet twice per month at 6:30 p.m. on the second and fourth Thursdays of each month.

To maximize safety, meetings will be held in a hybrid in-person and online format during the COVID-19 pandemic. Anyone interested may join the meeting via Zoom or meet in person at the YMI Impact Center, 39 S. Market St., Suite A, Asheville, NC 28801. In-person meetings will be capped at 10 participants in order to observe social distancing.

To register to attend in-person, please call YMI staff at 828-257-4540 from 9 a.m.-4 p.m., Monday through Thursday or email [email protected] at any time. To receive the Zoom link or for questions regarding finding copies of book club titles, please contact Alexandra Duncan at [email protected]. You may also find information about upcoming titles and request the Zoom link through the library’s Events Calendar. Visit buncombecounty.org/library and click on Events Calendar at the top of the page.

In December 2020, the Black Experience Book Club will discuss The Water Dancer, by Ta-Nehisi Coates. In January 2021, members will discuss The Coldest Winter Ever, by Sister Souljah, and in February 2021, Homegoing, by Yaa Gyasi. Selected titles for future months will be announced in book club meetings, on the library’s Events Calendar, and via YMI and BCPL social media channels. Readers may borrow any of these titles at any BCPL location or at the YMI. Copies will be available on a first-come, first-serve basis, so participants are encouraged to reserve their copies early.

Connect Beyond Festival Book Club: “The Master Plan: My Journey from Life in Prison to a Life of Purpose.”
Feb 25 @ 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm
Online

Purchase the Book | More About Chris Wilson

The first book club feature will be The Master Plan: My Journey from Life in Prison to a Life of Purpose by Chris Wilson. Registration is available now and the online meetups will be on February 25th, March 11th, and March 25th (includes Author Q&A). The book has been described as “An inspiring instructive, and ultimately triumphant guide to turning your life around, from a man who used hard work and his Master Plan to convert a life sentence into a second chance.”

Friday, February 26, 2021
Black History Month – Book List for Young Readers
Feb 26 all-day
Online
Take + Play – Borrow Ukuleles and Games from the Library
Feb 26 @ 9:00 am – 5:00 pm
Pack Memorial Library

The Perfect Turkey

Pack Youth Services introduces Take & Play, a pilot program that offers everyone the opportunity to borrow games, ukuleles, and disc golf sets from the Youth Services department at Pack Library. Take & Play items check out for three weeks, and you need to pick them up and drop them off at Pack Library. Games, ukuleles, and disc golf sets are available on a first-come, first-served basis and you check them out with your library card just like a book. Call 250-4720 for details, or drop by the library anytime we’re open.

All our library hours are listed here.

Saturday, February 27, 2021
Black History Month – Book List for Young Readers
Feb 27 all-day
Online
Take + Play – Borrow Ukuleles and Games from the Library
Feb 27 @ 9:00 am – 5:00 pm
Pack Memorial Library

The Perfect Turkey

Pack Youth Services introduces Take & Play, a pilot program that offers everyone the opportunity to borrow games, ukuleles, and disc golf sets from the Youth Services department at Pack Library. Take & Play items check out for three weeks, and you need to pick them up and drop them off at Pack Library. Games, ukuleles, and disc golf sets are available on a first-come, first-served basis and you check them out with your library card just like a book. Call 250-4720 for details, or drop by the library anytime we’re open.

All our library hours are listed here.

Sunday, February 28, 2021
Black History Month – Book List for Young Readers
Feb 28 all-day
Online
Take + Play – Borrow Ukuleles and Games from the Library
Feb 28 @ 9:00 am – 5:00 pm
Pack Memorial Library

The Perfect Turkey

Pack Youth Services introduces Take & Play, a pilot program that offers everyone the opportunity to borrow games, ukuleles, and disc golf sets from the Youth Services department at Pack Library. Take & Play items check out for three weeks, and you need to pick them up and drop them off at Pack Library. Games, ukuleles, and disc golf sets are available on a first-come, first-served basis and you check them out with your library card just like a book. Call 250-4720 for details, or drop by the library anytime we’re open.

All our library hours are listed here.

Book Club – The Midnight Library
Feb 28 @ 4:00 pm – 5:00 pm
Online

It’s been a YEAR since we had Book Club ladies! I miss everyone! While we’re waiting for it be safe to all get together in person, how about a virtual book club? I’ll post a zoom link soon. (note to self: Figure out how to create and post a zoom link) Here’s a link to read about the book I chose. I hope it sounds interesting to everyone!
The Midnight Library
Check out this book on Goodreads: The Midnight Library https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/52578297-the-midnight-library

What we’re about:

Hello and Welcome! I am new to town and would really like to get other women in the area together to enjoy Hendersonville with! I want to build a group of women looking to make new friends and try new experiences together.

I hope to bring the Women of Hendersonville together to have coffee, brunch, dinners, wine nights, and book clubs. We can attend breweries, the movies or the theater, go on hikes, do yoga, and anything else you can think of!

So let’s get together to have fun, socialize, and get to know one another! If you’re new to town, or not new to town, it doesn’t matter. ALL are welcome and I cannot wait to meet each one of you!

Monday, March 1, 2021
AniMonday! Anime Games, Music All Day
Mar 1 @ 1:00 pm – 9:00 pm
Asheville Retrocade

May be an image of one or more people and hair

Join us for Animoday! Every Monday all day. Listen to anime music, play anime games, watch anime, and talk anime!

Tuesday, March 2, 2021
Kids Vote for the North Carolina Children’s Book Awards
Mar 2 @ 10:00 am – 4:00 pm
online w/ Buncombe County Libraries

 

It’s time for kids to vote for their favorite books!

Throughout the month of March, kids can vote for the NC Children’s Book Award by visiting any Buncombe County Public Library location. The North Carolina Children’s Book Award is a children’s choice program sponsored by school and public librarians in North Carolina. The awards are designed to introduce kids to books and to instill a lifelong love of reading.

The Library has partnered with the Board of Elections to provide official voting booths for kids to vote.

Kids can vote in person at any of these libraries between March 2 and March 31:

  • Enka-Candler
  • Fairview
  • North Asheville
  • Pack Memorial
  • South Buncombe
  • Swannanoa
  • Weaverville
  • West Asheville

Kids can also vote “absentee” by asking for a ballot at any library, or they can drop their completed ballot in our book drop before the end of March to “mail in” their vote.

You are eligible to vote if 1) You’re a kid and 2) You’ve read or listened to at least 5 of the picture book nominees and/or 3) You’ve read or listened to at least 3 of the junior book nominees. Kids may vote for each category if they have read or listened to the required number of titles.

For more information on the NC Children’s Book Award and a list of the nominees, please visit the North Carolina Children’s Book Award.

If you’d like to have the picture books read to you, just click the “Read Aloud” link under any book.

Any questions? Contact your friendly neighborhood librarian.

Book Discussion: Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Mar 2 @ 6:00 pm – 7:30 pm
Online w/ Weaverville Library

Weaverville Library Evening Book Discussion: Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Join us as we discuss, Tender is the Night, by F. Scott Fitzgerald via ZOOM. Registration is necessary. Newcomers are welcome

WILD (Women in Lively Discussion) Book Club
Mar 2 @ 6:30 pm
Online w/ Malaprop's

Check the WILD book club’s Facebook page for COVID-19 related updates. Please RSVP the moderator at [email protected] for the Zoom meeting passcode for the meetings.  

Join former Malaprop’s General Manager Linda-Marie Barrett for this woman-only book club that seeks to have fun by reading books (fiction & non) by women writers. Click here to see a full schedule of what the club is reading. Club attendees get 10% off the book at Malaprop’s!

The club meets at 6:30 P.M. on the first Tuesday of the month at the Battery Park Book Exchange. It will be held virtually during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Book Discussion: The Tattooist of Auschwitz, by Heather Morris
Mar 2 @ 7:00 pm – 8:00 pm
Online w/ Enka-Candler Library

Enka-Candler Library Evening Book Club

Chat with other book lovers about this month’s book selection, The Tattooist of Auschwitz, by Heather Morris.

To reserve your copy of the book, visit buncombe.nccardinal.org.

Wednesday, March 3, 2021
Kids Vote for the North Carolina Children’s Book Awards
Mar 3 @ 10:00 am – 4:00 pm
online w/ Buncombe County Libraries

 

It’s time for kids to vote for their favorite books!

Throughout the month of March, kids can vote for the NC Children’s Book Award by visiting any Buncombe County Public Library location. The North Carolina Children’s Book Award is a children’s choice program sponsored by school and public librarians in North Carolina. The awards are designed to introduce kids to books and to instill a lifelong love of reading.

The Library has partnered with the Board of Elections to provide official voting booths for kids to vote.

Kids can vote in person at any of these libraries between March 2 and March 31:

  • Enka-Candler
  • Fairview
  • North Asheville
  • Pack Memorial
  • South Buncombe
  • Swannanoa
  • Weaverville
  • West Asheville

Kids can also vote “absentee” by asking for a ballot at any library, or they can drop their completed ballot in our book drop before the end of March to “mail in” their vote.

You are eligible to vote if 1) You’re a kid and 2) You’ve read or listened to at least 5 of the picture book nominees and/or 3) You’ve read or listened to at least 3 of the junior book nominees. Kids may vote for each category if they have read or listened to the required number of titles.

For more information on the NC Children’s Book Award and a list of the nominees, please visit the North Carolina Children’s Book Award.

If you’d like to have the picture books read to you, just click the “Read Aloud” link under any book.

Any questions? Contact your friendly neighborhood librarian.