Each year, the Department of English brings visiting writers across genres for readings and master classes with students, hosted by our Writer-in-Residence, Wiley Cash. In recent years, the department has hosted several award-winning writers, including Ben Fountain, Camille Dungy, David Ebershoff, Chrystal Hana Kim, Frank X Walker, and many others.
Calendar of Events
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.
Wednesday, February
24, 2021
UNCA Visiting Writers Series Claudia Rankine
Each year, the Department of English brings visiting writers across genres for readings and master classes with students, hosted by our Writer-in-Residence, Wiley Cash. In recent years, the department has hosted several award-winning writers, including Ben Fountain, Camille Dungy, David Ebershoff, Chrystal Hana Kim, Frank X Walker, and many others.
Acclaimed poet, essayist and Guggenheim Fellow, Claudia Rankine, will present a reading and talk via zoom on Wednesday, February 24th at 7:00 PM. One of the most prominent voices in literary and critical race studies, Rankine is the author of Just Us: An American Conversation (2020), and six collections of poetry, including Citizen: An American Lyric and Don’t Let Me Be Lonely; three plays including HELP, which premiered in March of 2020 at The Shed, NYC, The White Card, which premiered in February 2018 (ArtsEmerson/American Repertory Theater) and published by Graywolf Press in 2019, and Provenance of Beauty: A South Bronx Travelogue; as well as numerous video collaborations. She is also the co-editor of several anthologies including The Racial Imaginary: Writers on Race in the Life of the Mind (FENCE, 2015). In 2016, she co-founded The Racial Imaginary Institute (TRII).
Thursday, March
4, 2021
Weekly 30 Minute Meditation for Moms
Hosted by Sahaja Yoga Meditation DFW
Join this FREE evening session for Meditation, specifically for Moms.
About this Event
We are creating this Meditation space for moms 💟 that can help
🤲 create a supportive community of moms who can come together and meditate
🤲 build a meditation routine
🤲 implement self-care, and take pause in hectic lives
🤲 bring calmness and balance that can reflect on kids and household
🤲 share experiences and learn to grow in this journey together
Join this FREE evening session for Meditation, specifically for Moms. Meditation is a simple way to de-stress, and it can help bring peace and balance, especially in these hectic times.
What we’re about
COVID-19 UPDATE: An email was sent out to Awakening Asheville advising all in-person meetups should be postponed or moved to virtual attendance only. Please contact hosts with any questions. Thank you, and be well! Courtney
We are an LGBTQ+ BIPOC safe spiritual group that enjoys the coming together of community lightworkers sharing our journeys. We offer meditations, healing energy, and many different workshops. Come join us!
Friday, March
5, 2021
Daily Meditation + Support
Hosted by: the Buddhist Studies Institute
FREE – ONLINE – 30 MINUTES – DAILY
🌺Guided meditation support and community🌺
🌸Stabilization and Liberation:
In order to liberate our minds– we need stable calm.
🌸Consistency & Commitment:
Stabilizing in calm clear presence takes consistent training.
🌸Support & Community:
Daily Meditation is a container and support for your meditation focus.
Expand your meditation circle- join us online any day or every day!
Formerly known as 100 Days of practice to support a Tibetan Yogis tradition to practice 100 days in the winter, this has now been expanded to continue daily. To learn more and register: https://buddhiststudiesinstitute.org/100-days-of-practice/
What we’re about
COVID-19 UPDATE: An email was sent out to Awakening Asheville advising all in-person meetups should be postponed or moved to virtual attendance only. Please contact hosts with any questions. Thank you, and be well! Courtney
We are an LGBTQ+ BIPOC safe spiritual group that enjoys the coming together of community lightworkers sharing our journeys. We offer meditations, healing energy, and many different workshops. Come join us!
Tuesday, March
9, 2021
30 Minute Meditation for Moms
Hosted by Sahaja Yoga Meditation DFW
Join this FREE evening session for Meditation, specifically for Moms.
About this Event
We are creating this Meditation space for moms 💟 that can help
🤲 create a supportive community of moms who can come together and meditate
🤲 build a meditation routine
🤲 implement self-care, and take pause in hectic lives
🤲 bring calmness and balance that can reflect on kids and household
🤲 share experiences and learn to grow in this journey together
Join this FREE evening session for Meditation, specifically for Moms. Meditation is a simple way to de-stress, and it can help bring peace and balance, especially in these hectic times.
Led by experienced instructors, this 30 min guided meditation session will help you feel the much needed calmness
What we’re about
COVID-19 UPDATE: An email was sent out to Awakening Asheville advising all in-person meetups should be postponed or moved to virtual attendance only. Please contact hosts with any questions. Thank you, and be well! Courtney
We are an LGBTQ+ BIPOC safe spiritual group that enjoys the coming together of community lightworkers sharing our journeys. We offer meditations, healing energy, and many different workshops. Come join us!
We welcome everyone and encourage all to share their expertise and offerings. If you have an event or gathering you wish to share, please contact the group organizer for postings. There is no charge to post, but in exchange for being able to promote for free, we encourage event hosts to offer something at no cost at some point, so the knowledge and spiritual expansion of this group can be available to all regardless of their finances.
Wednesday, March
10, 2021
Mary Magdalene Monthly Sacred Circle
Each month Adora will explore alchemical interventions and lead a guided meditation for healing and empowerment.
Pre-registration required:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/mary-magdalene-monthly-sacred-circle-tickets-129486689173
Thursday, March
11, 2021
Weekly 30 Minute Meditation for Moms
Hosted by Sahaja Yoga Meditation DFW
Join this FREE evening session for Meditation, specifically for Moms.
About this Event
We are creating this Meditation space for moms 💟 that can help
🤲 create a supportive community of moms who can come together and meditate
🤲 build a meditation routine
🤲 implement self-care, and take pause in hectic lives
🤲 bring calmness and balance that can reflect on kids and household
🤲 share experiences and learn to grow in this journey together
Join this FREE evening session for Meditation, specifically for Moms. Meditation is a simple way to de-stress, and it can help bring peace and balance, especially in these hectic times.
What we’re about
COVID-19 UPDATE: An email was sent out to Awakening Asheville advising all in-person meetups should be postponed or moved to virtual attendance only. Please contact hosts with any questions. Thank you, and be well! Courtney
We are an LGBTQ+ BIPOC safe spiritual group that enjoys the coming together of community lightworkers sharing our journeys. We offer meditations, healing energy, and many different workshops. Come join us!
Friday, March
12, 2021
Creative Writing Group online
Daily Meditation + Support
Come join us for creative writing online! We’ll meet on Zoom and do several rounds of writing and reading our writing to each other. Our focus is creating a supportive and fun environment through writing exercises and discussion
Hosted by: the Buddhist Studies Institute
FREE – ONLINE – 30 MINUTES – DAILY
🌺Guided meditation support and community🌺
🌸Stabilization and Liberation:
In order to liberate our minds– we need stable calm.
🌸Consistency & Commitment:
Stabilizing in calm clear presence takes consistent training.
🌸Support & Community:
Daily Meditation is a container and support for your meditation focus.
Expand your meditation circle- join us online any day or every day!
Formerly known as 100 Days of practice to support a Tibetan Yogis tradition to practice 100 days in the winter, this has now been expanded to continue daily. To learn more and register: https://buddhiststudiesinstitute.org/100-days-of-practice/
What we’re about
COVID-19 UPDATE: An email was sent out to Awakening Asheville advising all in-person meetups should be postponed or moved to virtual attendance only. Please contact hosts with any questions. Thank you, and be well! Courtney
We are an LGBTQ+ BIPOC safe spiritual group that enjoys the coming together of community lightworkers sharing our journeys. We offer meditations, healing energy, and many different workshops. Come join us!
Tuesday, March
16, 2021
UNCA Visiting Writers Series: CJ Hauser
30 Minute Meditation for Moms
Visiting Writers Series
CJ Hauser teaches creative writing and literature at Colgate University. Her novel, Family of Origin, was published by Doubleday in 2019. She is also the author of the novel The From-Aways, and her fiction has appeared, or is forthcoming, in Tin House, Narrative Magazine, The Paris Review, TriQuarterly, Esquire, Third Coast, and The Kenyon Review.
This event is free and open to the public, but you must register at this link:
Hosted by Sahaja Yoga Meditation DFW
Join this FREE evening session for Meditation, specifically for Moms.
About this Event
We are creating this Meditation space for moms 💟 that can help
🤲 create a supportive community of moms who can come together and meditate
🤲 build a meditation routine
🤲 implement self-care, and take pause in hectic lives
🤲 bring calmness and balance that can reflect on kids and household
🤲 share experiences and learn to grow in this journey together
Join this FREE evening session for Meditation, specifically for Moms. Meditation is a simple way to de-stress, and it can help bring peace and balance, especially in these hectic times.
Led by experienced instructors, this 30 min guided meditation session will help you feel the much needed calmness
What we’re about
COVID-19 UPDATE: An email was sent out to Awakening Asheville advising all in-person meetups should be postponed or moved to virtual attendance only. Please contact hosts with any questions. Thank you, and be well! Courtney
We are an LGBTQ+ BIPOC safe spiritual group that enjoys the coming together of community lightworkers sharing our journeys. We offer meditations, healing energy, and many different workshops. Come join us!
We welcome everyone and encourage all to share their expertise and offerings. If you have an event or gathering you wish to share, please contact the group organizer for postings. There is no charge to post, but in exchange for being able to promote for free, we encourage event hosts to offer something at no cost at some point, so the knowledge and spiritual expansion of this group can be available to all regardless of their finances.
Thursday, March
18, 2021
Weekly 30 Minute Meditation for Moms
Hosted by Sahaja Yoga Meditation DFW
Join this FREE evening session for Meditation, specifically for Moms.
About this Event
We are creating this Meditation space for moms 💟 that can help
🤲 create a supportive community of moms who can come together and meditate
🤲 build a meditation routine
🤲 implement self-care, and take pause in hectic lives
🤲 bring calmness and balance that can reflect on kids and household
🤲 share experiences and learn to grow in this journey together
Join this FREE evening session for Meditation, specifically for Moms. Meditation is a simple way to de-stress, and it can help bring peace and balance, especially in these hectic times.
What we’re about
COVID-19 UPDATE: An email was sent out to Awakening Asheville advising all in-person meetups should be postponed or moved to virtual attendance only. Please contact hosts with any questions. Thank you, and be well! Courtney
We are an LGBTQ+ BIPOC safe spiritual group that enjoys the coming together of community lightworkers sharing our journeys. We offer meditations, healing energy, and many different workshops. Come join us!
Friday, March
19, 2021
Daily Meditation + Support
Hosted by: the Buddhist Studies Institute
FREE – ONLINE – 30 MINUTES – DAILY
🌺Guided meditation support and community🌺
🌸Stabilization and Liberation:
In order to liberate our minds– we need stable calm.
🌸Consistency & Commitment:
Stabilizing in calm clear presence takes consistent training.
🌸Support & Community:
Daily Meditation is a container and support for your meditation focus.
Expand your meditation circle- join us online any day or every day!
Formerly known as 100 Days of practice to support a Tibetan Yogis tradition to practice 100 days in the winter, this has now been expanded to continue daily. To learn more and register: https://buddhiststudiesinstitute.org/100-days-of-practice/
What we’re about
COVID-19 UPDATE: An email was sent out to Awakening Asheville advising all in-person meetups should be postponed or moved to virtual attendance only. Please contact hosts with any questions. Thank you, and be well! Courtney
We are an LGBTQ+ BIPOC safe spiritual group that enjoys the coming together of community lightworkers sharing our journeys. We offer meditations, healing energy, and many different workshops. Come join us!
Tuesday, March
23, 2021
30 Minute Meditation for Moms
Hosted by Sahaja Yoga Meditation DFW
Join this FREE evening session for Meditation, specifically for Moms.
About this Event
We are creating this Meditation space for moms 💟 that can help
🤲 create a supportive community of moms who can come together and meditate
🤲 build a meditation routine
🤲 implement self-care, and take pause in hectic lives
🤲 bring calmness and balance that can reflect on kids and household
🤲 share experiences and learn to grow in this journey together
Join this FREE evening session for Meditation, specifically for Moms. Meditation is a simple way to de-stress, and it can help bring peace and balance, especially in these hectic times.
Led by experienced instructors, this 30 min guided meditation session will help you feel the much needed calmness
What we’re about
COVID-19 UPDATE: An email was sent out to Awakening Asheville advising all in-person meetups should be postponed or moved to virtual attendance only. Please contact hosts with any questions. Thank you, and be well! Courtney
We are an LGBTQ+ BIPOC safe spiritual group that enjoys the coming together of community lightworkers sharing our journeys. We offer meditations, healing energy, and many different workshops. Come join us!
We welcome everyone and encourage all to share their expertise and offerings. If you have an event or gathering you wish to share, please contact the group organizer for postings. There is no charge to post, but in exchange for being able to promote for free, we encourage event hosts to offer something at no cost at some point, so the knowledge and spiritual expansion of this group can be available to all regardless of their finances.
Thursday, March
25, 2021
Weekly 30 Minute Meditation for Moms
Hosted by Sahaja Yoga Meditation DFW
Join this FREE evening session for Meditation, specifically for Moms.
About this Event
We are creating this Meditation space for moms 💟 that can help
🤲 create a supportive community of moms who can come together and meditate
🤲 build a meditation routine
🤲 implement self-care, and take pause in hectic lives
🤲 bring calmness and balance that can reflect on kids and household
🤲 share experiences and learn to grow in this journey together
Join this FREE evening session for Meditation, specifically for Moms. Meditation is a simple way to de-stress, and it can help bring peace and balance, especially in these hectic times.
What we’re about
COVID-19 UPDATE: An email was sent out to Awakening Asheville advising all in-person meetups should be postponed or moved to virtual attendance only. Please contact hosts with any questions. Thank you, and be well! Courtney
We are an LGBTQ+ BIPOC safe spiritual group that enjoys the coming together of community lightworkers sharing our journeys. We offer meditations, healing energy, and many different workshops. Come join us!
Friday, March
26, 2021
Daily Meditation + Support
Hosted by: the Buddhist Studies Institute
FREE – ONLINE – 30 MINUTES – DAILY
🌺Guided meditation support and community🌺
🌸Stabilization and Liberation:
In order to liberate our minds– we need stable calm.
🌸Consistency & Commitment:
Stabilizing in calm clear presence takes consistent training.
🌸Support & Community:
Daily Meditation is a container and support for your meditation focus.
Expand your meditation circle- join us online any day or every day!
Formerly known as 100 Days of practice to support a Tibetan Yogis tradition to practice 100 days in the winter, this has now been expanded to continue daily. To learn more and register: https://buddhiststudiesinstitute.org/100-days-of-practice/
What we’re about
COVID-19 UPDATE: An email was sent out to Awakening Asheville advising all in-person meetups should be postponed or moved to virtual attendance only. Please contact hosts with any questions. Thank you, and be well! Courtney
We are an LGBTQ+ BIPOC safe spiritual group that enjoys the coming together of community lightworkers sharing our journeys. We offer meditations, healing energy, and many different workshops. Come join us!
Tuesday, March
30, 2021
30 Minute Meditation for Moms
Hosted by Sahaja Yoga Meditation DFW
Join this FREE evening session for Meditation, specifically for Moms.
About this Event
We are creating this Meditation space for moms 💟 that can help
🤲 create a supportive community of moms who can come together and meditate
🤲 build a meditation routine
🤲 implement self-care, and take pause in hectic lives
🤲 bring calmness and balance that can reflect on kids and household
🤲 share experiences and learn to grow in this journey together
Join this FREE evening session for Meditation, specifically for Moms. Meditation is a simple way to de-stress, and it can help bring peace and balance, especially in these hectic times.
Led by experienced instructors, this 30 min guided meditation session will help you feel the much needed calmness
What we’re about
COVID-19 UPDATE: An email was sent out to Awakening Asheville advising all in-person meetups should be postponed or moved to virtual attendance only. Please contact hosts with any questions. Thank you, and be well! Courtney
We are an LGBTQ+ BIPOC safe spiritual group that enjoys the coming together of community lightworkers sharing our journeys. We offer meditations, healing energy, and many different workshops. Come join us!
We welcome everyone and encourage all to share their expertise and offerings. If you have an event or gathering you wish to share, please contact the group organizer for postings. There is no charge to post, but in exchange for being able to promote for free, we encourage event hosts to offer something at no cost at some point, so the knowledge and spiritual expansion of this group can be available to all regardless of their finances.
Thursday, April
1, 2021
Celebrate National Poetry Month at the Library Black Out Poetry Kits
Live Stream Reader Meet Writer: Wild Women and the Blues with Denny S. Bryce
Weekly 30 Minute Meditation for Moms
April is National Poetry Month and we invite all poets, would be poets and poetry fans to celebrate with Buncombe County Public Libraries. We’ll be hosting the following free events at libraries all over the county. For more information on any of these programs, contact your friendly neighborhood library.
Black Out Poetry Kits Available at the Library
All Month Long
Every Library
Come to any library and pick up a free kit to create a black out poetry masterpiece. Black out poetry doesn’t start with a blank page, it starts with a page of words taken from an old book. Poets will eliminate words to create a poem composed of the words left on the page. Visit any branch of Buncombe County Public Libraries in April to pick up your very own black out poetry kit featuring markers, inspiration and pages of print to begin your creation. When you’re finished, photograph your creation and upload it to facebook or instagram. Tag your library’s account and we’ll feature it as a post! You can also drop your poem by the library and we’ll post it for you. Kits are available while supplies last.
We’re pleased to be part of the Reader Meet Writer series of online events hosted by the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance.
This event is free but registration is required. Prior to the event we will send an email with the link required to complete your registration and attend on Zoom.
In a stirring and impeccably researched novel of Jazz-Age Chicago in all its vibrant life, two stories intertwine nearly a hundred years apart, as a chorus girl and a film student deal with loss, forgiveness, and love…in all its joy, sadness, and imperfections.
“Why would I talk to you about my life? I don’t know you, and even if I did, I don’t tell my story to just any boy with long hair, who probably smokes weed.You wanna hear about me. You gotta tell me something about you. To make this worth my while.”
1925: Chicago is the jazz capital of the world, and the Dreamland Café is the ritziest black-and-tan club in town. Honoree Dalcour is a sharecropper’s daughter, willing to work hard and dance every night on her way to the top. Dreamland offers a path to the good life, socializing with celebrities like Louis Armstrong and filmmaker Oscar Micheaux. But Chicago is also awash in bootleg whiskey, gambling, and gangsters. And a young woman driven by ambition might risk more than she can stand to lose.
2015: Film student Sawyer Hayes arrives at the bedside of 110-year-old Honoree Dalcour, still reeling from a devastating loss that has taken him right to the brink. Sawyer has rested all his hope on this frail but formidable woman, the only living link to the legendary Oscar Micheaux. If he’s right—if she can fill in the blanks in his research, perhaps he can complete his thesis and begin a new chapter in his life. But the links Honoree makes are not ones he’s expecting…
Piece by piece, Honoree reveals her past and her secrets, while Sawyer fights tooth and nail to keep his. It’s a story of courage and ambition, hot jazz and illicit passions. And as past meets present, for Honoree, it’s a final chance to be truly heard and seen before it’s too late. No matter the cost…
DENNY S. BRYCE is an award-winning author and three-time RWA Golden Heart® finalist, including twice for Wild Women and the Blues. In addition to writing for NPR Books and FROLIC Media, the former professional dancer is a public relations professional who has spent over two decades running her own marketing and event management firm. A member of the Historical Novel Society, Women’s Fiction Writers Association, and Novelists, Inc., she is a frequent speaker at author events. Originally from Chicago, she now lives in Savannah, Georgia. Visit her online at DennySBryce.com.
Hosted by Sahaja Yoga Meditation DFW
Join this FREE evening session for Meditation, specifically for Moms.
About this Event
We are creating this Meditation space for moms 💟 that can help
🤲 create a supportive community of moms who can come together and meditate
🤲 build a meditation routine
🤲 implement self-care, and take pause in hectic lives
🤲 bring calmness and balance that can reflect on kids and household
🤲 share experiences and learn to grow in this journey together
Join this FREE evening session for Meditation, specifically for Moms. Meditation is a simple way to de-stress, and it can help bring peace and balance, especially in these hectic times.
What we’re about
COVID-19 UPDATE: An email was sent out to Awakening Asheville advising all in-person meetups should be postponed or moved to virtual attendance only. Please contact hosts with any questions. Thank you, and be well! Courtney
We are an LGBTQ+ BIPOC safe spiritual group that enjoys the coming together of community lightworkers sharing our journeys. We offer meditations, healing energy, and many different workshops. Come join us!
Friday, April
2, 2021
Voices of the River: Art + Poetry Contest
Celebrate National Poetry Month at the Library Black Out Poetry Kits
Daily Meditation + Support
|
|
April is National Poetry Month and we invite all poets, would be poets and poetry fans to celebrate with Buncombe County Public Libraries. We’ll be hosting the following free events at libraries all over the county. For more information on any of these programs, contact your friendly neighborhood library.
Black Out Poetry Kits Available at the Library
All Month Long
Every Library
Come to any library and pick up a free kit to create a black out poetry masterpiece. Black out poetry doesn’t start with a blank page, it starts with a page of words taken from an old book. Poets will eliminate words to create a poem composed of the words left on the page. Visit any branch of Buncombe County Public Libraries in April to pick up your very own black out poetry kit featuring markers, inspiration and pages of print to begin your creation. When you’re finished, photograph your creation and upload it to facebook or instagram. Tag your library’s account and we’ll feature it as a post! You can also drop your poem by the library and we’ll post it for you. Kits are available while supplies last.
Hosted by: the Buddhist Studies Institute
FREE – ONLINE – 30 MINUTES – DAILY
🌺Guided meditation support and community🌺
🌸Stabilization and Liberation:
In order to liberate our minds– we need stable calm.
🌸Consistency & Commitment:
Stabilizing in calm clear presence takes consistent training.
🌸Support & Community:
Daily Meditation is a container and support for your meditation focus.
Expand your meditation circle- join us online any day or every day!
Formerly known as 100 Days of practice to support a Tibetan Yogis tradition to practice 100 days in the winter, this has now been expanded to continue daily. To learn more and register: https://buddhiststudiesinstitute.org/100-days-of-practice/
What we’re about
COVID-19 UPDATE: An email was sent out to Awakening Asheville advising all in-person meetups should be postponed or moved to virtual attendance only. Please contact hosts with any questions. Thank you, and be well! Courtney
We are an LGBTQ+ BIPOC safe spiritual group that enjoys the coming together of community lightworkers sharing our journeys. We offer meditations, healing energy, and many different workshops. Come join us!
Saturday, April
3, 2021
Voices of the River: Art + Poetry Contest
Celebrate National Poetry Month at the Library Black Out Poetry Kits
Paint Rock Conservation Forest Bath
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April is National Poetry Month and we invite all poets, would be poets and poetry fans to celebrate with Buncombe County Public Libraries. We’ll be hosting the following free events at libraries all over the county. For more information on any of these programs, contact your friendly neighborhood library.
Black Out Poetry Kits Available at the Library
All Month Long
Every Library
Come to any library and pick up a free kit to create a black out poetry masterpiece. Black out poetry doesn’t start with a blank page, it starts with a page of words taken from an old book. Poets will eliminate words to create a poem composed of the words left on the page. Visit any branch of Buncombe County Public Libraries in April to pick up your very own black out poetry kit featuring markers, inspiration and pages of print to begin your creation. When you’re finished, photograph your creation and upload it to facebook or instagram. Tag your library’s account and we’ll feature it as a post! You can also drop your poem by the library and we’ll post it for you. Kits are available while supplies last.
Are ready to connect to the healing energy of the forest??
Cera from Harmonize Your Health will guide you on a forest bathing meditation experience near Pisgah National Forest to dive deep into the heart of nature healing. As humans we evolved with the forest but a lot of us have lost a deep understanding of and connection to how it guides us on our healing journey.
Shinrin Yoku or translated Forest Bath is an ancient Japanese practice involving completely immersing yourself in the healing powers of nature.
Get your tickets today!
Sunday, April
4, 2021
Voices of the River: Art + Poetry Contest
Celebrate National Poetry Month at the Library Black Out Poetry Kits
Poetrio: Petra Kuppers, Rodney Terich Leonard, and Kevin Prufer
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|
April is National Poetry Month and we invite all poets, would be poets and poetry fans to celebrate with Buncombe County Public Libraries. We’ll be hosting the following free events at libraries all over the county. For more information on any of these programs, contact your friendly neighborhood library.
Black Out Poetry Kits Available at the Library
All Month Long
Every Library
Come to any library and pick up a free kit to create a black out poetry masterpiece. Black out poetry doesn’t start with a blank page, it starts with a page of words taken from an old book. Poets will eliminate words to create a poem composed of the words left on the page. Visit any branch of Buncombe County Public Libraries in April to pick up your very own black out poetry kit featuring markers, inspiration and pages of print to begin your creation. When you’re finished, photograph your creation and upload it to facebook or instagram. Tag your library’s account and we’ll feature it as a post! You can also drop your poem by the library and we’ll post it for you. Kits are available while supplies last.
Join us for our monthly poetry event featuring three poets. This month, we welcome Petra Kuppers, Rodney Terich Leonard, and Kevin Prufer. 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!
PETRA KUPPERS is a disability culture activist and a community performance artist. Her third poetry book, the ecosomatic Gut Botany (2020), was named one of the top ten poetry collections of 2020 by the New York Public Library. She is also the author of the queer/crip speculative short story collection Ice Bar (2018). She is the Artistic Director of The Olimpias, an international disability culture collective; teaches at the University of Michigan and at Goddard College; and co-creates Turtle Disco, a somatic writing studio, in Ypsilanti, Michigan. https://petrakuppersfiction.wordpress.com/
“Gut Botany charts my body / language living on indigenous land as a white settler and traveler,” Petra Kuppers writes in the notes of her new poetry collection. Using a perfect cocktail of surrealist and situationist techniques, Kuppers submits to the work and to the land, moving through ancient fish, wounded bodies, and the space around her. The book invites the reader to navigate their own body through the peaks and pitfalls of pain, survival, sensual joy, and healing. Readers looking for experimental poetry that takes up space in their brains and bodies will dive deep and fast into this queer ecosomatic investigation.
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RODNEY TERICH LEONARD was born in Nixburg, Alabama. An Air Force veteran who served during the Gulf War, his society profiles and poems have appeared in Southern Humanities Review, Red River Review, The Huffington Post, BOMB Magazine, The Cortland Review, Indolent Books-What Rough Beast, Four Way Review, The New York Times, The Amsterdam News, The Village Voice, For Colored Boys… (anthology edited by Keith Boykin) and other publications. Sweetgum & Lightning is his debut collection of poetry. He holds degrees from The New School, NYU Tisch School of the Arts and Teachers College Columbia University. A Callaloo poetry fellow, he received an MFA in Poetry from Columbia University and currently lives in Manhattan.
Sweetgum & Lightning lets us into an extraordinary poetic universe, shaped by a vernacular rooted in the language of self, one’s origins, and music. In poems that are deeply sensual in nature, Rodney Terich Leonard considers gender and sexuality, art, poverty, and community. Imagery expands through unexpected lexical associations and rumination on the function of language; words take on new meaning and specificity, and the music of language becomes tantamount to the denotations of words themselves. Through extensive webs of connotation, Leonard’s narratives achieve a sense of accuracy and intimacy. The nuanced lens of these poems is indicative of the honesty of expression at work in the collection—one that affirms the essentiality of perception to living and memory.
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KEVIN PRUFER was born in Cleveland, OH, and attended Wesleyan University, The Hollins Writing Program, and Washington University. He is the author of eight poetry collections, including the Four Way Books titles The Art of Fiction (2021); How He Loved Them (2018), long-listed for the Pulitzer, named a finalist for the Rilke Prize, and winner of the Julie Suk Award; Churches (2014), named one of the ten best poetry books of the year by The New York Times Book Review; In a Beautiful Country (2011), a Rilke Prize and Poets’ Prize finalist; and National Anthem (2008), named one of the five best poetry books of the year by Publishers Weekly and a finalist for the Poets’ Prize. Prufer is the recipient of many awards, including four Pushcart prizes, several awards from the Poetry Society of America (including the 2018 Lyric Prize), fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Lannan Foundation, and several Best American Poetry selections. He is a professor of English and Creative Writing at the University of Houston.
The Art of Fiction is Prufer’s eighth collection of poetry (and fifth with Four Way Books). Prufer’s career-spanning talent for estranging the familiar—and also for recording the unthinkable with eerie directness—recurs, enhanced and transformed by the collection’s meta-level attention to the role of fiction in our civic lives. Prufer describes, often through personae, a near future, tracing there the political gambit of Fake News and the role of the imagination in our self-understanding (whether it’s cogent or delusional). Via both satire and direct address (to the point of reader-squeamishness), Prufer aims to understand the ugly-casual atmosphere of our often racialized, pervasive distrust. The Art of Fiction fundamentally understands that fictions are deployed to divide us, and they work: they get under our skin. Prufer powerfully explores the roles of imagination and art in how we explain ourselves to ourselves.
Monday, April
5, 2021
Voices of the River: Art + Poetry Contest
Celebrate National Poetry Month at the Library Black Out Poetry Kits
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April is National Poetry Month and we invite all poets, would be poets and poetry fans to celebrate with Buncombe County Public Libraries. We’ll be hosting the following free events at libraries all over the county. For more information on any of these programs, contact your friendly neighborhood library.
Black Out Poetry Kits Available at the Library
All Month Long
Every Library
Come to any library and pick up a free kit to create a black out poetry masterpiece. Black out poetry doesn’t start with a blank page, it starts with a page of words taken from an old book. Poets will eliminate words to create a poem composed of the words left on the page. Visit any branch of Buncombe County Public Libraries in April to pick up your very own black out poetry kit featuring markers, inspiration and pages of print to begin your creation. When you’re finished, photograph your creation and upload it to facebook or instagram. Tag your library’s account and we’ll feature it as a post! You can also drop your poem by the library and we’ll post it for you. Kits are available while supplies last.