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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.
Hone your acting, singing, and dance skills in this class that dives into Broadway repertoire. With a focus on vocal technique, storytelling through song, and ensemble-based performance, this class will celebrate each actor’s individuality and boost their confidence to make more bold choices on and off stage. With new material every semester, this class can (and should) be taken multiple times!
Instructor: Anna Kimmell
Notes: This class will be held outdoors when the weather allows. When indoors, all students and staff will be required to wear masks.
This is a hybrid event, meaning there is an option to attend virtually and a limited amount of seats available to attend the event in-store. Registration is required for both in-person and virtual attendance.
Please click here to register for the VIRTUAL event. The link required to attend will be emailed to registrants prior to the event.
Please click here to register for the IN-PERSON event. Note the important event details on the RSVP form.
If you decide to attend and 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!
About Chasm:
Two months have passed since Patch Collins narrowly escaped the Board, leaving her loved ones behind to navigate the escalating tensions in America. Patch finds herself in an unfamiliar world, struggling with her mental health, and surrounded by those who abandoned the very idea of American diplomacy long ago. When a familiar enemy resurfaces and she learns the previously unknown fate of a loved one, Patch must make a choice: stay and live a life of relative safety, or risk everything to expose the Board’s actions to the world.
Jacqui Castle is a professional freelance writer and novelist. She lives and writes in the Blue Ridge Mountains near Asheville, North Carolina. Jacqui was selected as the 2020 Indie Author of the Year by the Indie Author Project(in collaboration with Library Journal and Biblioboard). Her debut novel, The Seclusion, is a Foreword Indies Book of the Year Award winner in Science Fiction and the winner of the North Carolina Author Project. The sequel to The Seclusion hits shelves on March 1, 2022. When not writing, Jacqui can be found consuming too much caffeine, and spending time with her husband and two children.
Rachael Sparks is a local Asheville author whose first novel, Resistant, was published in 2018, which was the same year that she met Jacqui here at Malaprops, and it was the beginning of a friendship peppered with pranks, bets, and an expanding group of author buddies. Rachael is a microbiologist with a background in transplants, who now leads marketing for a healthcare startup. She lives in North Asheville with her incredibly attractive and talented husband, her brilliant young daughter, and her amazing mother.
you all!
$8.00 for 3 games and shoes and 20% off on food.
Come socialize and get to know your group members. We will be enjoying our lives. “To enjoy is to be happy, To be happy is doing what makes you smile/laugh.” Come have fun. Please be on time so we all can have fun and enjoy our lives.
My EYLA Family, it about time to give back to our community. the temperature is changing, and nights are getting colder. If you have any old coats, sweaters, hoodies, and winter hats please bring them to this Wednesday’s Event. We will have time and date where some members may want to volunteer and hand out coats or any articles of clothing to homeless people downtown Asheville. Thank YOU!!
Asheville’s longest running comedy open mic is back. Every Wednesday, 8pm to 10pm (doors open at 7) at The Asheville Music Hall in downtown Asheville. The best in hit-or-miss comedy. Come grab a drink or a pizza and watch comics work on their stuff or try it for the first time. It’s always fun and always free. Sign ups open to everyone. Come on out!
Children of all ages love the circus — especially the Hejaz Shrine Circus, Upstate South Carolina’s premier family entertainment extravaganza! Held at the Spartanburg Memorial Auditorium, this family-friendly event is incredible fun for the whole family and should not be missed! It brings in families from all over the Upstate!
The circus offers lots of fun, but it is also an annual fundraising event for the Hejaz Shrine. The profits of the circus support the operations of the Hejaz Shrine and allow us to effectively serve the Hejaz Charities in the Upstate.
When you attend the Hejaz Shrine Circus, we know you and your family will have lots of fun — all while helping local children and families.
When you buy a ticket … it’s more than just a ticket.
Damon Akins, Professor of History at Guilford College in Greensboro, North Carolina, will give a talk focused on the history of writing about Native California, Indigenous sovereignty, and settler colonialism. Atkins’ recent book (with William J. Bauer), “We Are The Land: A History Of Native California”, will serve as the backdrop for his remarks.
Register for the talk through Zoom
Seattle’s Naked Giants burst onto the national music scene with their 2018 full-length debut, SLUFF, a candied and insanely catchy blast of unhinged pop-punk-grunge-surf-rock. But if that record was the sound of, as one reviewer labeled them, a trio of “affable miscreants just out of high school” getting their musical rocks off, then The Shadow, the band’s new and second studio effort, is in comparison a decidedly more—what’s the word?—mature offering.
That is, if “mature” is the appropriate term for an album where one member is credited with playing a fun machine, and another merely with “charisma.”
And so, welcome once again to the extraordinary and eccentric world of Naked Giants. They might be older (average age: 23) and wiser, but the band members—singer and guitarist Grant Mullen, singer and bassist Gianni Aiello and drummer Henry LaVallee—are still out to conjure a rip-roaring good time.
In fact, cue up The Shadow, and within little more than the first five minutes you’ve already careened through the throttling “Walk of Doom,” a blitz of post-punk riffing, wastoid gang shouting and toms-heavy drumming; the singalong anthem-for-the-disaffected “High School (Don’t Like Them),” in which Mullen aloofly intones of former class mates, “Now you’re lying on the couch and life’s busted / Never made a big sting or erupted” over waves of ratty, distorted chords; and the taut, falsetto-flecked “Take a Chance,” a Talking Heads-ish funk-rock workout with bits of shimmery synth and lo-fi slide guitar riffing thrown in for good measure.
“It’s all about how many smiles can we crack on the people that are listening to this music,” LaVallee says by way of something like a mission statement. “And also on the people that are playing it.”
And to be sure, The Shadow is an energetic and exhilarating musical rollercoaster ride. But there’s also a whole lot more to it.
Take, for starters, “Turns Blue,” an ‘80s-tinged dream-pop torch song that floats along on an undulating bass line and heavily reverberated dew-drop guitars before erupting in a soft explosion of pounding drums and harmonized na-na-na’s in the chorus.
Or “The Ripper,” a slice of mellowed-out, dark-toned psych-folk that, in lines like “wash me away ‘til my color’s gone,” explores, as songwriter Aiello puts it, the “effects of Western cultural domination and colonization attitudes from the large scale onto the small scale” (even if, LaVallee admits with a slight laugh, he interpreted those same lyrics as being about “ripping bong hits”).
Subject matter aside, the point, of course, is that The Shadow reveals new and welcome layers to the Naked Giants sound, both musically and lyrically. For every anthem like the wiry, slamming “(God Damn!) What I Am” (“I’m feeling all right / I’ve got my band and my song is playing all night”), there’s a “heartfelt acoustic ballad” (LaVallee’s words) like “Song for When You Sleep,” a junkyard-blues workout like “Better Not Waste My Time” and a socially-conscious new-wave jam like “Television,” where over a loopy, hypnotic groove Aiello laments, “Eighteen, nineteen dead this week / But have you seen this fucking meme?”
And yet, for all its wide-ranging sounds, The Shadow is also an extremely focused set. Credit this in part to producer Chris Funk, who got the band out of their Seattle hometown to work closely with him at his own Halfling Studios in Portland, Oregon.
“We were pretty much isolated there for two weeks, which was different from SLUFF, where we were recording in Seattle and going back and forth from our homes to the studio,” recalls Mullen of working with the Decemberists multi-instrumentalist. “This time, we were totally immersed in the process.”
And what did Funk bring to the proceedings?
“A lot,” says LaVallee. “I don’t know if you’ve seen Game of Thrones, but there’s this one character who’s, like, Stannis’s guide, and he kind of looks like Chris Funk. I told Chris, ‘You’re kind of like that guy—an older warrior who’s seen the road,’ you know?”
Mullen picks up the thread, offering some clarity in the process. “Chris is such a creative guy, and such a musician himself, that it felt more like we were working with another songwriter and collaborator as opposed to just a producer,” he says. “He was guiding the project, but he was also just enjoying himself. So the sessions had a real nice and easy flow. We were all very inspired the entire time.”Regarding the variety and depth of the music on The Shadow, Mullen continues, “We realized we didn’t have to immediately go to ten on every song, which is what we may have done in the past.” Rather, he says, “we were able to lay back and focus more on the details of the music as opposed to just writing the catchiest, most energetic things we can think of.”
As for what led to this development?
“It’s life experience, and the sort of conscious awareness that comes with that growth,” Aiello says.
Much of that experience and conscious awareness came courtesy of the band’s exhaustive tour schedule over the past year and a half. Naked Giants have always been known as a band that truly comes alive on the stage, and they only further solidified that reputation since the release of SLUFF, playing sold-out, sweaty club shows on their own and also hooking up with Car Seat Headrest for a long outing where they pulled double duty as both the opening act and backing band for the Will Toledo-led headliners.
In terms of what they gleaned from the experience, Mullen says, “I think it gave us a perspective on how we want to craft music, and how we want things to actually sound. Because you’re playing the same songs hundreds of times and you’re watching how the crowds respond to them, and a lot of times these are people that have never even heard of you before. It was a valuable lesson.”
And also a fun one.
“It’s so awesome to finish your set, have a 10-minute break and then go out for another one,” LaVallee acknowledges. “Also I’d be a fool not to mention it was a dream-come-true to play at some of those venues in front of big crowds, and to also be a part of the headlining act.”
Which is very different from Naked Giants’ earliest experiences, playing house parties around Seattle when Aiello and Mullen were students at the University of Washington. “The crowds were just crazy 19-year-olds, loving our heavy kind of music,” Mullen says. “I remember a feeling of high risk at every show, because everyone was right up against the band, and there was always some drunk guy stepping on your pedals or bumping into your gear. It definitely influences how you attack the music.”
Aiello concurs. “We kind of got our schtick by being this opening band that was throwing everything we had at the audience. But as our set time started to get longer and as we started playing with Car Seat Headrest, we started to notice the importance of having a little bit of cool-down time. It helps to switch things up instead always going for it full-on.”
Which brings us back to The Shadow, and also to “The Shadow” itself, the epic title track that seems to encapsulate everything great about Naked Giants ca. 2020. It’s a slow-burning behemoth of a song, creeping along on crashing drums, a fuzzed-out, bloated bass line, skronky distorto-chords and acid-freakout guitar squiggles and then building to a massive chorus in which the members chant, almost as an incantation, that they “want to see the shadow.” Halfway though, the song erupts into a Sabbath-damaged, double-time metal chugger, with all three Giants bearing down hard on their respective instruments and bringing the whole thing to a glorious, noisy climax.
And what, exactly, is the Shadow?
“It’s the core of what we’re dealing with on the album, which is facing the darkness,” Mullen says. “It could be your past, or some guilt that you’re holding onto, or an issue in the world around us—it could be anything.”
These are concerns, Aiello adds, like “information overload, social media anxiety, racial injustice, all this terrible shit that people have to deal with and that we as young people are struggling to navigate in our own lives.”
But whatever the particular shadow is, Mullen continues, “it’s about looking it in the face and embracing it, and having the desire to deal with it.”
All that said, LaVallee also adds that “a shadow represents darkness only in the presence of light. So even if there’s this innate darkness, The Shadow is also a story of light, and an expression of life.”
And it’s an expression the band looks forward to sending out into the world—and then, hopefully, beaming into each and every audience member’s skull from the stage.
“When we’re playing we always have to give it 100 percent, because otherwise why even bother doing it?” Mullen says. “There’s such a power in making that emotional connection.”
“The way I look at it, people are coming together for the music, and we’re the conduits,” adds Aiello. “And sometimes people are going through something amazing, and sometimes they’re going through something terrible. You have to be aware of the energy in a space and give the people what they want and let them have a good time.”
It’s a credo that LaVallee describes as “setting fire to the darkness.”
“Like, ‘Let’s get some flood lights on all these dark places in our audience’s lives and our own lives,’ ” he says, then laughs. “Let’s illuminate all of it and let’s flush out that darkness—with the power of rock!”
The weird world of Wombo is a kaleidoscopic journey of sharp turns and surprising visions, a melting pot of influences with a cheeky cheshire-cat grin that coalesce into a trippy but infinite universe, a portal into their unique vantage point without limitation. Already committed to living outside the traditionally-heralded country sound of the music scene in their hometown of Louisville Kentucky, Sydney Chadwick (vocals) and Cameron Lowe (guitar) had previously played in punk pop band the Debauchees, and with the addition of Joel Taylor (drums) in 2016 they found a winning combination of more straightforward indie rock combined with Chadwick’s pitched up, oscillating vocals and unpredictable shifts in melody that see the band moving forward at an impressive pace. Their 2018 album Blossomlooksdownuponus is a snapshot of Wombo’s wide-ranging aspirations that careen across avant pop, psych and wonky post punk interludes with a sky’s-the-limit approach to translating the mundanity of regular life into their own high-frequency language.
In a generation where pop has come to be defined as anything but, Wombo have spearheaded their own definitive sound that avoids genre classification but is impossible not to tap your foot along to. “Usually if the babies like it, we like it”, admits Chadwick, and it speaks to the band’s bass-driven song structures that pivot through a whirlwind of instrumentation at rapid speeds that they are still able to land on a winning formula that strikes the sweet spot between effervescent overload and razor sharp intention. In 2019, the band toured with White Reaper, Dehd and The Nude Party, bands whose affinity and dedication to strange experimentation have won them fans across a wider audience, and Wombo are poised to follow suit. In a careful balance where no one instrument overwhelms, Chadwick’s vocals are the cherry on top of a decadent dessert that explodes with personality and ingenuity.
Comedy Open Mic at Asheville Music Hall in downtown Asheville. Every Weds. 8pm. Doors and comic sign up at 7pm. Free
Ages 18+
“We stick to the archetypes. A literal world isn’t interesting. We’re trying to put a skin around the symbols and myths that civilization has told itself for 10,000 years. The better the symbol and the more universal the myth, the more people can create a world for themselves from their memories and desires. That’s the goal: Give the audience enough raw material to make the world their own.”
— Tyler Lyle of The Midnight
Start with an emerald river that flows from ancient mountains. Add an abundance of living creatures that co-evolved over millennia. Bring in humans who honor their place in the interconnected web. And rebuild a vital stream that supports us all.
Your support and engagement helps ensure the health of this watershed for the ages! We can’t do it without you.
The YELP Assistant position is an 11 week paid internship between May 23 – August 5 for young BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) adults aged 18-22.
Interns are responsible for helping to lead an educational, environmental service work internship for BIPOC high schoolers. Interns work in the field locally in the greater Asheville area, as well as in the Great Smoky Mountains, completing environmental service work, learning from experts and relevant community partners, and developing their own group initiatives.
The intern does not need to arrive with these skills. Part of their internship will include learning to canoe and kayak, how to collect scientific data, hiking etiquette, and nonviolent communication leadership training.
More information can be found through the Job Description linked above.
Questions? Email [email protected] or [email protected]
Asheville Gallery of Art
March 2022 Exhibit, New Members Show
“Color Dance”
Asheville Gallery of Art’s March exhibit, “Color Dance” will feature works by four new gallery members: Anne Marie Brown, Raquel Egosi, JoAnn Pippin, and Cindy Shaw. The show will run March 1-31 during gallery hours, 11am-6pm. An event to meet the artists will be held at the gallery on First Friday, March 4, from 5-8pm at 82 Patton Avenue.
These four exciting artists have selected “Color Dance” as the theme for their show. Paintings are generally static, and are confined within a frame. The combined creative energy of these artists has seemingly moved beyond these limits, to create beautiful expressions of dynamic, moving shapes, captured within a spatial environment. They wish their works to evoke thoughts, emotions, and awareness to celebrate the sentient meaning of life.
Please join us for “Color Dance” to revel in the paintings presented by these new gallery artists. They will deliver dynamic color, vibrancy, and hue into scenes that will dance their way into your heart.
Anne Marie Brown
Anne Marie began painting when, as a florist, she would paint small watercolors of her floral designs. She has exhibited in outdoor shows for over ten years and has had exhibitions in numerous galleries. Now settled in the mountains, she is inspired to paint the sweeping vistas and flora and fauna within. Anne Marie works in watercolor, gouache, oil, and acrylic, and hopes the images that touch her heart and canvas will touch yours as well.
Color is music to my eyes. The song that is created on the canvas makes my heart dance.
Raquel Egosi
Raquel’s art career began in 1996 in Brazil. Studying with acclaimed artists and attending a variety of painting classes, she was active in her local art community, collaborating and setting up art shows. She currently participates regularly in gallery shows and museum exhibitions. Her art sells internationally and she leads workshops for mixed media techniques in both the United States and overseas.
Constructed using a variety of mixed media, my compositions are exceedingly rich in color and texture, with partial or fully figurative and abstract elements.
JoAnn Pippin
JoAnn’s passion is to explore different watercolor techniques, with her subjects. Her paintings have been exhibited in juried art shows throughout the US, and her focus is on color, composition, and texture, to create light and mood through technique.
The theme “Color Dance” is especially meaningful to watercolorists, because we literally watch color dance and blend when we add wet paint to wet paper. It is not simply mixing colors on the palette and placing them in our work, but the excitement of observing the action as they blend and mingle to create wonderful new hues.
Cindy Shaw
Cindy originally trained as an Architect and worked for many years on projects as well as teaching. However, when her husband’s career took her to rural Italy, she purchased art supplies and began to paint. While there, she enjoyed exploring the Italian countryside and capturing “le viste belle!”. Returning home to the USA, she has continued to grow and develop as an impressionist artist over the past decade.
“Color adds depth and meaning, not only to our paintings, but also to our outlook on life. Color can be joyful, dramatic, and exciting.”
For further information about this show, please contact the Asheville Gallery of Art at (828) 251-5796, visit the gallery’s website at www.ashevillegallery-of-art.com, or go to the gallery’s Facebook page.
Ashevillians looking for motivation to get moving during colder months can join friends, neighbors, and other community members as the city runs, walks, and rolls during the free Fit 50 Challenge. Back for its second year, Asheville Parks & Recreation’s challenge allows participants to track their progress as they complete 50 miles between February 1-April 1.
“Taking a brisk 30 minute walk, hike, ride, or stroll each day has tremendous benefits,” according to Alic Wynn, Dr. Wesley Grant Sr. Southside Community Center Facility Supervisor and Certified Personal Trainer. “The Fit 50 Challenge offers a great opportunity to improve or maintain overall health and wellness goals. The challenge builds on the encouragement and spirit of our community in a way that shows we all want to see each other succeed.”
Running, walking, and rolling around Asheville allow residents to explore, connect, and discover. These benefits are great on their own, but Fit 50 Challenge participants can also win prizes. All registrants receive an exclusive sticker to display as a badge of honor on a favorite water bottle, bike, or notebook. The five challengers who record the top five mileage totals win prize packs. Of those, the two with the most total miles win an Apple Watch (first place) and AirPods (second place).
Miles can be completed anywhere by running, walking, jogging, skating, cycling, or whichever way challengers choose. With numerous natural surface trails in parks and neighborhoods, treadmills and tracks at community centers, self-guided tours such as the Urban Trail, and 8 miles of paved greenways, the City of Asheville offers a variety of ways to enjoy the city at no cost.
Find out more information and register for the challenge.
In addition to the Fit 50 Challenge, Asheville Parks & Recreation hosts regular walking clubs, hikes, adaptive recreation, races and relays, and story trails throughout the city. Download the AVL Rec app for iPhone, search programs online, or browse Asheville Park & Recreation’s programming guide for the latest opportunities.
Rules:
-Every participant must register for the challenge
-Obtain 50 miles by running, walking or rolling by April 1st, 2022 (60days)
-You can track miles through your daily steps. 2500 steps equals one mile
-Upload proof of miles/steps on our bi weekly Facebook post about the challenge(you can do this by uploading a picture of the tracking form we provide to everyone or a screenshot of your mileage from smartwatch or in phone health app)
-Forms of tracking include Smart watch/step watch, phone app, or pedometer(will be provided if needed)
-You are more than welcome to go over the 50 mile challenge and you are also encouraged to do so.
Participants:
-The first 75 registered participant will receive a free 2022 “Asheville FIT 50 t-shirt”
-The top 5 mileage participants will also receive an Asheville Parks & Rec goodie bag prize!
-1st and 2nd place winners for total mileage will receive a grand prize
Only a couple of days left to get your video in for auditions for As You Like It, directed by Mandy Bean (and for our 50th season).
Actors will submit initial audition information online through our website at https://www.montfordparkplayers.org/about-us/volunteers-page/ and may do so at any time.
The Montford Park Players is committed to gender-neutral and race-conscious casting. ALL are welcome and invited to participate!
In response to statewide demand for healthcare
professionals, Blue Ridge Community College announced today an
expansion of the Associate Degree Nursing (ADN) Program. The hands-on
nursing education program added 20 seats, now serving up to 74 students
each year. ADN students learn from highly qualified faculty in state-of-the-art
simulation labs at the College’s Health Science Center in Hendersonville or
Transylvania County Campus in Brevard. Blue Ridge is actively accepting
applications for qualified students. Scholarships and tuition assistance are
available, and more details can be found at http://blueridge.edu/nursing.
“Blue Ridge Community College’s team of experienced and compassionate
instructors plays a vital role in preparing aspiring nurses for jobs today and in
the future,” said AdventHealth Hendersonville Chief Nursing Officer Maureen
Dzialo, MS, RN, NE-BC. “They help students in our local community find
rewarding careers with endless possibilities for advancement. AdventHealth
values their exceptional program and the students that graduate from Blue
Ridge.”
Graduates of the two-year program are prepared and eligible to take the
National Council Licensure Examination (NCLEX-RN) to become registered
nurses and provide hands-on care in a variety of health care settings. In 2021,
Blue Ridge students’ first-time pass rate for this exam was 96%.
“Pardee UNC Health Care is proud to partner with Blue Ridge Community
College to help train the next generation of nurses,” said Carol Stefaniak, DNP,
RN, NE-BC, VP Clinical Services and Chief Nursing Officer at Pardee UNC
Health Care. “Their nursing program graduates are of the highest caliber year
after year, and as we work to recruit a qualified workforce while facing a
national shortage of nurses, we are grateful to Blue Ridge for actively working
to fill that pipeline.”
Educating and training the next generation of nursing professionals is a crucial
step toward meeting the needs of area residents. It also positions the
workforce to respond to increasing demand for healthcare workers.
Furthermore, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that 2.6 million
healthcare occupation jobs will be added between 2020 and 2030.
“Nursing is a rewarding profession that aligns the passion to make a difference
in our community with the desire for a dependable career path,” said Blue
Ridge Community College Dean of Health Sciences Leigh Angel, MSN, RN. “As
essential members of the interdisciplinary healthcare team, nurses use expert
knowledge and clinical reasoning to manage complex care needs – all while
compassionately caring for others during each stage of life.
Buncombe County is seeking project ideas to help the community recover from and respond to COVID-19 and its negative economic impacts. Nonprofits and public organizations can submit projects now for consideration to be funded by federal COVID Recovery Funding. This is the second Request for Proposals issued by the County as part of COVID Recovery Funding, which Buncombe County was allocated $50.7M through the American Rescue Plan Act. So far, the county has awarded $23.1M to 27 projects, leaving $27.6 M available still to award.
Buncombe County Commissioners have selected ten categories for this round of proposals:
- Affordable Housing
- Aging/Older Adults
- Business Support/Economic Development
- Environment/Climate
- Homelessness
- K-12 Education
- Infrastructure and/or Broadband
- Mental Health/Substance Use
- NC Pre-K Expansion
- Workforce
If you are interested in applying, the deadline is Tuesday, April 12 at noon. Learn more here.
The county is also holding a workshop that will help you better understand what projects the County is looking to fund and best practices on creating a successful application. Learn more about the scope of projects Buncombe County is looking for and have a chance to ask questions. All questions and responses from the session will be posted in the form of an addendum, and a recording of the session will be published.
The virtual funding workshop will be held on Monday, March 14 from 1:30-3 p.m. Register here.
As part of the East Asheville Library’s LEED certification, the library has two level 2 (240 volt/30 amp) electric car chargers and special parking spots for both electric and other clean air vehicles, such as hybrids. The chargers add about 25 miles of range per hour of charge time and should be able to charge all types of electric vehicles. Tesla vehicles do require an adapter that comes with the vehicle when purchased.
These features are part of Buncombe County’s long-term plan for sustainable and eco-friendly facilities. To learn more about the Library’s LEED certification, stop by the library and ask for more information.
Think you might need to use an absentee ballot for the Primary Election on May 17? Here’s what you need to know so you can make sure your vote counts.
Absentee ballots will be mailed out beginning on March 28. The deadline to submit an Absentee Ballot Request Form is May 10 at 5:00 p.m. for the 2022 Primary Election. Any North Carolina registered voter may request, receive, and vote a mail-in absentee ballot. No special circumstance or reason is needed. Registered voters in North Carolina must request an absentee ballot with an official N.C. Absentee Ballot Request Form. There are two ways to access and submit the form:
For active-duty military, their family members, and U.S. citizens living abroad, click here. If you have questions about that process, you can call us at (828) 250-4200 or visit buncombecounty.org/vote.
No Printer? You may complete an absentee ballot request form at the Election Services office at 59 Woodfin Place, Asheville, 28801, or call (828) 250-4200 and one will be mailed to you. You may return the request in one of the following ways:
Mail it to:
P.O. Box 7468, Asheville, NC 28802
Hand deliver it to our office:
59 Woodfin Place, Asheville, 28801
Note: The Absentee Ballot Request Form may not be emailed or faxed. Request forms that are hand delivered to the office must be returned only by the voter or the voter’s near relative
The deadline to return the completed Absentee Ballot is Tuesday, May 17, 2022, at 5:00 p.m., however, voters are encouraged to return the ballot as early as possible. You may return it to us in one of the following ways:
By mail: Absentee ballots may be mailed to P.O. Box 7468 Asheville, NC 28802. Ballots must be postmarked on or before Tuesday, May 17, 2022 and received by Friday, May 20.
At an Early Voting site: Absentee ballots may be returned to an early voting site during the early voting period, but not at a polling location on the day of the Primary Election. Ballots returned at an early voting site must be delivered to the election official at the check-in station.
In person: Absentee ballots may be returned in person to our office at 59 Woodfin Place between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. Absentee ballots may be returned only by the voter or the voter’s near relative.
For more information about absentee voting, visit the North Carolina Board of Elections website. Or call us at (828) 250-4200. You can also email your questions to [email protected].
This month, Asheville GreenWorks will deploy four new self-serve clean-up stations at area libraries. Each station will be stocked with supplies that individuals can check out to run their own clean-ups.
Locations:
Enka/Candler Library
1404 Sand Hill Rd, Candler, NC 28715
Swannanoa Library
101 W Charleston Ave, Swannanoa, NC 28778
Weaverville Library
41 N Main St, Weaverville, NC 28787
Skyland/South Asheville Library
260 Overlook Rd, Asheville, NC 28803
Library staff will NOT maintain these boxes. Please direct all questions or requests to [email protected]
Old Shiloh was one of Asheville’s first communities established by emancipated people. The community moved to its present-day location – New Shiloh – after George Vanderbilt, in an effort to expand his land holdings as he planned to build his Biltmore Estate, purchased the land and buildings and agreed to relocate the Shiloh church and cemetery.
To help MANNA meet this challenge of limited access to fresh produce in the winter months, we are pleased to announce our first virtual Fresh Food Drive. You can make a direct impact in the health of Western North Carolina families by helping MANNA purchase fresh fruits and vegetables, and create those healthy, colorful plates that everyone deserves.
And, thanks to an extremely generous matching gift challenge from the Rakay Family Foundation, your support of the Fresh Food Drive will be matched dollar-for-dollar, up to $100,000, from March 1st through April 1st! MANNA is deeply grateful to the Rakay Family Foundation for this very special gift matching opportunity to provide nutritious foods to the people we serve across WNC.
“Regardless of economic status, everyone deserves access to healthy foods, and healthy eating benefits the entire community, as our neighbors enjoy improved health outcomes,” said Bruce Rakay of the Rakay Family Foundation. “The Rakay Family is honored in helping to achieve this goal.”
This matching gift will help nourish families in need with a colorful bounty of fresh fruits and vegetables on their plate, and will enable MANNA to meet the challenges of limited access to local, fresh produce in the winter months and the increased costs of sourcing outside of the region.
Thank you for sharing in our commitment to providing healthy, balanced plates of food to our neighbors in need through MANNA’s Fresh Food Drive.
If you’re behind on your water bill or afraid your water might get cut off, a new resource might be able to help you. On Jan. 4, the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners approved more than $450,000 in federal funding for the Low-Income Household Water Assistance Program (LIHWAP). The initiative is aimed at preventing water disconnections and helping reconnect drinking and wastewater services.
The LIHWAP will be administered by Buncombe County-based Eblen Charities. The nonprofit will make payments directly to utilities on behalf of qualifying households. The program is slated to run through Sept. 30, 2023 or until funds are exhausted.
Eligibility requirements
Households that currently receive Food and Nutrition Services (FNS), Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) or Work First services, or those that received Low-Income Energy Assistance Program (LIEAP) services from Oct. 1, 2020-Sept. 30, 2021, are automatically eligible to receive this benefit if their water services have been cut off or are in danger of being cut off.
For additional eligibility information or to apply, please contact Eblen Charities at (828) 255-3066.
The Preservation Society of Asheville and Buncombe County (PSABC) was formed in 1976, with interest in preservation sparked by observance of the U. S. Bicentennial, and in response to threats to local buildings and sites posed by neglect, insensitive alteration, and large-scale transportation projects. Disinvestment in downtown, plans for the open cut through Beaucatcher Mountain, and a proposal to turn Montford Avenue into a through street connecting to U.S.19-23 spurred formation of the volunteer group, which quickly incorporated and initiated work as a community non-profit.
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Vaccines and Public Health in WNC: Past and Present In this two-hour event, three historians discuss previous epidemics, pandemics, and public health campaigns in WNC and Appalachia, including the 1918 flu, smallpox, and polio, as well as the community and government efforts to combat these crises. These historians are followed by an immunologist and a virologist—both professors of biology at Appalachian State University— who present information on Covid-19 variants as well as data on lives saved by vaccines.
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The Brevard Rosenwald School Betty J. Reed discusses her research into the Brevard Rosenwald School and other segregated schools in WNC. This school, also funded by Julius Rosenwald, served African American students in Transylvania County from c1923-1966 and, according to Reed, represents “a microcosm of Black education in southern Appalachia.” Reed, a native of Western North Carolina, is an independent scholar who has spent over twenty-five years researching the history of schools in the region, especially those functioning during the era of segregation.
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Buncombe Co. Remembrance Project This project acknowledges the personal and community trauma inflicted on individuals of color after the Civil War, the Equal Justice Initiative’s research related to lynchings, and the three lynchings of record that occurred in Buncombe County, NC. Dr. Joseph Fox is a life-long educator, mentor, and community advocate. He has advocated for students of a darker hue for more than 30 years in his role as a community college instructor, as well as his role as a former Department Chair of Business Administration at Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College.
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Hands On Asheville-Buncombe has teamed up with the WNC Chapter of Project Linus. Project Linus blankets provide love, a sense of security, warmth and comfort to children who are seriously ill, traumatized, or otherwise in need. They are handcrafted by caring volunteers who want a child in crisis to know that someone cares about them. It is hoped that each blanket will become a treasured possession. The gifts of new handmade blankets and afghans lovingly created by volunteer “blanketeers” provides a rewarding and fun service opportunity for interested individuals and groups for the benefit of children. Blankets are given to the WNC Project Linus chapter for distribution by hospitals, social workers, or police.
Since this project is done from home,we ask volunteers to provide their own equipment and supplies.
As part of Buncombe County’s 2025 Strategic Plan, Permits & Inspections and Planning & Development are in the third phase of the electronic plan submittal and review rollout for building permitting. “We started this process more than a year ago,” said Permits & Inspections Director Bob Haynes. “We’ve heard from our commercial builders that the portal has helped to streamline the permitting process and we are excited to offer this service to our residential builders as well.” The first phase of this implementation began in January 2021, and as of Monday, March 21, 2022, the residential permitting submittal process is also moving to the online portal. See details for submittal below.
Phase One (Complete)
Phase Two (Complete)
Phase Three
Find more information at buncombecounty.org/permits or call the main Permits line at (828) 250-5360. Permit applications are not accepted in person after 4 p.m.
