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.

Thursday, June 3, 2021
Crime and Politics Book Club
Jun 3 @ 7:00 pm
Online w/ Malaprop's

The Crime and Politics Book Club will be held virtually during the Covid-19 pandemic. Please email [email protected] for info and instructions to attend. 

Join host and Malaprop’s Bookseller Patricia Furnish to discuss a range of books across true crime and public affairs. The club meets the first Thursday of the month at 7 p.m. Click here to learn more about the club, view important news, and find the pick for this month.

Live Stream Reader Meet Writer: If or When I Call with Will Johnson
Jun 3 @ 7:00 pm
Online w/ Malaprop's Bookstore

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. Click here to RSVP. Prior to the event we will send an email with the link required to complete your registration and attend on Zoom.


If or When I Call is a novel about desperate people shot through with arrows of grace that only a writer as sensitive and insightful as Will Johnson can wield. Lives in small towns are not small, and neither is this author’s heart.”
– Wiley Cash, New York Times bestselling author of The Last Ballad and A Land More Kind Than Home. Writer-in-residence at UNC-Asheville

Between interstates and county lines, life in rural Missouri unfolds in a progression of simple moments that carry the weight of every hard thing gone by. Parker and Melinda are searching for themselves in the hollows of their estranged marriage. Parker, haunted by the demons of addiction, lives every moment at the edge of an undiagnosed disorder — a darkness that steals his awareness and throws him into convulsions. Melinda, on an odyssey of her own, knows Parker’s struggles all too well, and as they try to help their teenage son come to terms with their lives apart, they have only their memories of a brighter life to get by.

Haunting and lyrical, Johnson’s powerful debut is a hymn to the lives we overlook in the quiet places around us. And how close we are to living them ourselves.

Will Johnson is a musician and songwriter who has played in the bands Centro-matic, South San Gabriel, Marie/Lepanto, Overseas, New Multitudes, and Monsters of Folk. He also releases records under his own name, and makes paintings centering on the subject of baseball and its history. His work has appeared in American Short Fiction. He was born in Kennett, Missouri, and currently lives in Austin, Texas. If or When I Call is his first novel.

Friday, June 4, 2021
Wild and Furry Animals Book Donates to Help Wildlife
Jun 4 all-day
Online w/ Appalachian Wildlife Refuge

Appalachian Wildlife Refuge is a registered non-profit rescuing, rehabilitating, and releasing orphaned and injured wildlife, and serving 18 counties across WNC. They provide conservation education to the community, support the wildlife rehabilitation network, and offer a Wildlife Emergency Hotline to the public.  For help with wildlife in need, call 828-633-6364 ext 1 and leave a message or email [email protected], and a member of the hotline team will reach out right away. To learn more and support their cause, visit www.appalachianwild.org

Saturday, June 5, 2021
Wild and Furry Animals Book Donates to Help Wildlife
Jun 5 all-day
Online w/ Appalachian Wildlife Refuge

Appalachian Wildlife Refuge is a registered non-profit rescuing, rehabilitating, and releasing orphaned and injured wildlife, and serving 18 counties across WNC. They provide conservation education to the community, support the wildlife rehabilitation network, and offer a Wildlife Emergency Hotline to the public.  For help with wildlife in need, call 828-633-6364 ext 1 and leave a message or email [email protected], and a member of the hotline team will reach out right away. To learn more and support their cause, visit www.appalachianwild.org

Sunday, June 6, 2021
Poetrio: Angela Narciso Torres, Caridad Moro-Gronlier, and Jehanne Dubrow
Jun 6 @ 3:00 pm
Online w/ Malaprop's Bookstore

Join us for our monthly poetry event featuring three poets and hosted by poet Mildred Barya. This month, we welcome Angela Narciso Torres, Caridad Moro-Gronlier, and Jehanne Dubrow.

Click here to RSVP. 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!


Angela Narciso Torres is the author of What Happens Is Neither (Four Way Books 2021) Blood Orange, winner of the 2013 Willow Books Literature Award for Poetry, and the chapbook, To the Bone (Sundress Publications 2020). Recent work appears or is forthcoming in POETRY, Missouri Review, Quarterly West, Cortland Review, and Poetry Northwest. A graduate of Warren Wilson MFA Program for Writers and Harvard Graduate School of Education, Angela has received fellowships from Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, Illinois Arts Council, and Ragdale Foundation. She won the 2019 Yeats Poetry Prize (W.B. Yeats Society of New York), and New City magazine named her one of Chicago’s Lit 50: Who Really Books in Chicago. Born in Brooklyn and raised in Manila, she currently resides in San Diego. She serves as a senior and reviews editor for RHINO ​Poetry. Read more: https://www.angelanarcisotorres.com

“What Happens is Neither/ the end nor the beginning. /Yet we’re wired to look for signs,” offers the speaker of Angela Narciso Torres’ latest collection, which approaches motherhood, aging, and mourning through a series of careful meditations. In music, mantra, and prayer, Torres explores the spaces in and around grief—in varying proximity to it and from different vantage points. She writes both structurally formal poems that enfold the emotionality of loss and free verse that loosens the latch on memory and lets us into the sensory worlds of the speaker’s childhood and present. In poems set in two countries and homes, Torres considers what it means to leave a mark, vanish, and stay in one place. In a profound act of recollection and preservation, Torres shows us how to release part of ourselves but remain whole.


Caridad Moro-Gronlier is the author of Tortillera, winner of The TRP Southern Poetry Breakthrough Series: Florida (Texas Review Press 2021) and the chapbook Visionware (Finishing Line Press 2009). She is a Contributing Editor of Grabbed: Writers Respond to Sexual Assault (Beacon Press 2020) and Associate Editor for SWWIM Every Day. Moro-Gronlier is the recipient of an Elizabeth George Foundation Grant and a Florida Individual Artist Fellowship in poetry. Her work has been nominated for three Pushcart Prizes, The Best of the Net and two Lambda Literary Awards. Her recent work can be found at The Best American Poetry Blog, West Trestle Review, Literary Mama, The Sextant Review, Limp Wrist Review and others. A career educator, she is an English professor at FIU and MDC in Miami, FL where she resides with her family. Read more: http://www.caridadmoro.com/about-me.html

“An unflinching, delicious, and fierce anthem to Cuban-American and queer identities, Tortillera reclaims the homophobic slur of its title, engaging and subverting the canonical tradition of the love poem. Language, in its topographies and powers and failures, lies at the heart of these poems’ investigations: Moro writes, “of loss / the third language / we speak at home.” Tortillera confronts ‘poverty’s rumble,’ familial connections, sometimes fraught, sometimes endearingly tender. ‘Sifting through the rubble’ of fragmented romantic and parental relationships, the book is brilliant in its critique of beauty standards and machismo. I love Caridad Moro’s work, which reverberates with flavors of Miami—guarapo, harina con huevo frito, yuca, lechón—these are poems I admire and applaud, poems I read and reread with a ferocious appetite.” —Jenny Molberg, author of Refusal


Jehanne Dubrow is the author of nine poetry collections, including most recently, Wild Kingdom (LSU Press, 2021), as well as a book of creative nonfiction, throughsmoke: an essay in notes (New Rivers Press, 2019). Her previous poetry collections are Simple Machines, American Samizdat, Dots & Dashes, The Arranged Marriage, Red Army Red, Stateside, From the Fever-World, The Hardship Post, and a chapbook, The Promised Bride. Jehanne’s poems, essays, and book reviews have appeared in numerous literary journals, including Poetry, Southern Review, Pleiades, Colorado Review, and The New England Review. Her work has been featured by American Life in Poetry, The New York Times Magazine, The Slowdown, Fresh Air, The Academy of American Poets, as well as on Poetry Daily and Verse Daily. She is the founding editor of the national literary journal, Cherry Tree, and a Professor of Creative Writing at the University of North Texas. Read more: http://jehannedubrow.com/books/

Wild Kingdom explores the world of academia, examining this strange landscape populated by faculty, administrators, and students. Using what she calls “received academic forms,” Jehanne Dubrow crafts poems that recall the language of academic documents such as syllabi, grading rubrics, and departmental minutes. “Honor Board Hearing,” a series of prose poems, depicts challenges frequently faced by undergraduates, offering fictionalized accounts of cases involving plagiarism, theft, sexual assault, and substance abuse.

Monday, June 7, 2021
The 2021 Summer Learning Program: Tails + Tales – an exploration of wildlife and fantastical folktales
Jun 7 all-day
Online

Illustration of animals reading book.

Get ready to go wild at the library for our annual Summer Learning Program. Join us for Tails & Tales – an exploration of wildlife and fantastical folktales. We’ll have an activity sheet with lots of fun adventures for all ages. You can pick up a sheet at any library starting June 1, or download it HERE. Check our calendar to find our most up to date list of programs all summer long.

 

The 2021 Summer Learning Program is open to young people, preschool through teen, with books and activities for every age. All library programs are free and open to children of all abilities. Come in and see what the library has for you!

Tuesday, June 8, 2021
The 2021 Summer Learning Program: Tails + Tales – an exploration of wildlife and fantastical folktales
Jun 8 all-day
Online

Illustration of animals reading book.

Get ready to go wild at the library for our annual Summer Learning Program. Join us for Tails & Tales – an exploration of wildlife and fantastical folktales. We’ll have an activity sheet with lots of fun adventures for all ages. You can pick up a sheet at any library starting June 1, or download it HERE. Check our calendar to find our most up to date list of programs all summer long.

 

The 2021 Summer Learning Program is open to young people, preschool through teen, with books and activities for every age. All library programs are free and open to children of all abilities. Come in and see what the library has for you!

The Classic Hikes of the Smokies: Smokemont Loop
Jun 8 @ 9:00 am
Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Smokemont Loop 6 miles | Moderate Forest Walk

2021 CLASSIC HIKES OF THE SMOKIES

Discover America’s most-visited national park with a guided day hike! The Classic Hikes of the Smokies feature interpretation of the history, flora, and fauna of park trails. Hikes vary in distance, difficulty, and location within the park to provide a comprehensive overview of the Smokies, exposing hikers to high Appalachian vistas, streams teeming with aquatic life, the best collection of log structures on the Eastern Seaboard, and much more.

After completing registration…
You will receive an email the Friday before the hike with directions, and more information. All hikes begin at 9 a.m

Discussion Bound: In the Shadow of the Moon: America, Russia, and the Hidden History of the Space Race
Jun 8 @ 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm
Asheville Art Museum--Online

The most ambitious race humankind has ever undertaken was masterminded in the shadows by two engineers on opposite sides of the Cold War: Wernher von Braun, a former Nazi officer living in the US, and Sergei Korolev, a Russian rocket designer once jailed for crimes against his country—and your textbooks probably never told you. Von Braun became an American hero, recognized the world over, while Korolev toiled in obscurity. These two brilliant rocketeers never met, but together they shaped the science of spaceflight and in the process, redefined modern warfare. From Stalin’s brutal gulag and Hitler’s concentration camps, to Cape Canaveral and beyond, their simultaneous quests pushed science—and human ingenuity—to the breaking point. The governments of the US and USSR concealed the more disturbing truths of their early space programs, in some cases for decades. In the Shadow of the Moon is the extraordinary, often hidden story of the space race, that takes you behind the scenes into the bitter rivalry that launched humankind to the moon.

Moderated by Kristi McMillan, director of learning & engagement and Whitney Richardson, associate curator with special guest, author Amy Cherrix. Presented in conjunction with Meeting the Moon.

Meeting each second Tuesday at 12pm, this monthly discussion is a place to exchange ideas about readings that relate to artworks and the art world, and to learn from and about each other. Pick up some tasty local fare at the Malaprop’s Café to make the most of your midday break! Books are available at Malaprop’s for a 10% discount.

Generous support for this program is provided by Art Bridges.

LitCafe: Dale Neal presents Appalachian Book of the Dead
Jun 8 @ 6:00 pm – 7:00 pm
Online w/ Western North Carolina Historical Association (WNCHA)

Join us (virtually) for another installment of LitCafé as author Dale Neal discusses his writing and most recent work Appalachian Book of the Dead.

Dale Neal is a novelist, teacher, and veteran journalist, living in Asheville about a mile from the banks of the French Broad River. He is the author of Appalachian Book of the Dead, a Southern Buddhist thriller that was a finalist for the Thomas Wolfe Literary Award.

Live Stream Reader Meet Writer: The Soulmate Equation with Christina Lauren
Jun 8 @ 7:00 pm
Online w/ Malaprop's Bookstore

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. Click here to RSVP. Prior to the event we will send an email with the link required to complete your registration and attend on Zoom.


The New York Times bestselling author of The Unhoneymooners returns with a witty and effervescent novel about what happens when two people with everything on the line are thrown together by science–or is it fate? P erfect for fans of The Rosie Project and One Plus One .

Single mom Jess Davis is a data and statistics wizard, but no amount of number crunching can convince her to step back into the dating world. Raised by her grandparents–who now help raise her seven-year-old daughter, Juno–Jess has been left behind too often to feel comfortable letting anyone in. After all, her father’s never been around, her hard-partying mother disappeared when she was six, and her ex decided he wasn’t “father material” before Juno was even born. Jess holds her loved ones close, but working constantly to stay afloat is hard…and lonely.

But then Jess hears about GeneticAlly, a buzzy new DNA-based matchmaking company that’s predicted to change dating forever. Finding a soulmate through DNA? The reliability of numbers This Jess understands.

At least she thought she did, until her test shows an unheard-of 98% compatibility with another subject in the database: GeneticAlly’s founder, Dr. River Peña. This is one number she can’t wrap her head around, because she already knows Dr. Peña. The stuck-up, stubborn man is without a doubt not her soulmate. But GeneticAlly has a proposition: Get to know him and we’ll pay you. Jess–who is barely making ends meet–is in no position to turn it down, despite her skepticism about the project and her dislike for River. As the pair are dragged from one event to the next as the “Diamond” pairing that could make GeneticAlly a mint in stock prices, Jess begins to realize that there might be more to the scientist–and the science behind a soulmate–than she thought.

Funny, warm, and full of heart, The Soulmate Equation proves that the delicate balance between fate and choice can never be calculated.

Christina Lauren is the combined pen name of longtime writing partners and best friends Christina Hobbs and Lauren Billings, the New York TimesUSA TODAY, and #1 internationally bestselling authors of the Beautiful and Wild Seasons series, Dating You / Hating YouAutoboyographyLove and Other WordsRoomiesJosh and Hazel’s Guide to Not DatingMy Favorite Half-Night Stand, and The Unhoneymooners. You can find them online at ChristinaLaurenBooks.com, @ChristinaLauren on Instagram, or @ChristinaLauren on Twitter.

 

Wednesday, June 9, 2021
The 2021 Summer Learning Program: Tails + Tales – an exploration of wildlife and fantastical folktales
Jun 9 all-day
Online

Illustration of animals reading book.

Get ready to go wild at the library for our annual Summer Learning Program. Join us for Tails & Tales – an exploration of wildlife and fantastical folktales. We’ll have an activity sheet with lots of fun adventures for all ages. You can pick up a sheet at any library starting June 1, or download it HERE. Check our calendar to find our most up to date list of programs all summer long.

 

The 2021 Summer Learning Program is open to young people, preschool through teen, with books and activities for every age. All library programs are free and open to children of all abilities. Come in and see what the library has for you!

Live Stream CRAFT: Authors in Conversation with Courtney Lilly
Jun 9 @ 7:00 pm
Online w/ Malaprop's Bookstore

New York Times bestselling author Denise Kiernan talks with Courtney Lilly, showrunner and Executive Producer of the hit show “black•ish.” Click here to attend on crowdcast.

Event date:
Live Stream: Karen Tucker presents Bewilderness, in conversation with Nathan Ballingrud
Jun 9 @ 7:00 pm
Online w/ Malaprop's Bookstore

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.

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!


Irene, a lonely nineteen-year-old in rural North Carolina, works long nights at the local pool hall, serving pitchers and dodging drunks. One evening, her hilarious, magnetic coworker Luce invites her on a joy ride through the mountains to take revenge on a particularly creepy customer. Their adventure not only spells the beginning of a dazzling friendship, it seduces both girls into the mysterious world of pills and the endless hustles needed to fund the next high.

Together, Irene and Luce run nickel-tossing scams at the county fair and trick dealers into trading legit pharms for birth-control pills. Everything is wild and wonderful until Luce finds a boyfriend who wants to help her get clean. Soon the two of them decide to move away and start a new, sober life in Florida––leaving Irene behind.

Told in a riveting dialogue between the girls’ addicted past and their hopes for a better future, Bewilderness is not just a brilliant, funny, heartbreaking novel about opioid abuse, it’s also a moving look at how intense, intimate friendships can shape every young woman’s life.

Karen Tucker was born and raised in North Carolina. Her fiction has appeared in The Missouri ReviewThe Yale Review OnlineTin HouseBoulevardEpoch, and elsewhere. She lives in the Blue Ridge Mountains with her partner and multiple cats.

Nathan Ballingrud was born in Massachusetts but has spent most of his life in the South. He’s worked as a bartender in New Orleans and a cook on offshore oil rigs. His story “The Monsters of Heaven” won the inaugural Shirley Jackson Award. He lives in Asheville, NC, with his daughter.

Thursday, June 10, 2021
The 2021 Summer Learning Program: Tails + Tales – an exploration of wildlife and fantastical folktales
Jun 10 all-day
Online

Illustration of animals reading book.

Get ready to go wild at the library for our annual Summer Learning Program. Join us for Tails & Tales – an exploration of wildlife and fantastical folktales. We’ll have an activity sheet with lots of fun adventures for all ages. You can pick up a sheet at any library starting June 1, or download it HERE. Check our calendar to find our most up to date list of programs all summer long.

 

The 2021 Summer Learning Program is open to young people, preschool through teen, with books and activities for every age. All library programs are free and open to children of all abilities. Come in and see what the library has for you!

Hike Catawba Falls
Jun 10 @ 10:00 am – 4:00 pm
Catawba Falls

This is an easy 1.5 mile gravel trail hike to the first water fall. For those with the adventurous side and can handle the challenge, we will trek to the upper falls from there, this portion IS NOT EASY. For those who cant make the second part you can stay at lower falls and admire nature. We will grab you on the way back down. The hike to the upper falls is about a mile and requires some climbing, but the pay off is amazing. It literally is my favorite of all the falls. The photo above is the Upper falls.

Plan to meet @ 10am at the Asheville Mall Parking lot (Sears). Once we have the group we can follow each other to the trail head (@ 20 minutes away). Be sure and bring water and something to snack on.

Friday, June 11, 2021
The 2021 Summer Learning Program: Tails + Tales – an exploration of wildlife and fantastical folktales
Jun 11 all-day
Online

Illustration of animals reading book.

Get ready to go wild at the library for our annual Summer Learning Program. Join us for Tails & Tales – an exploration of wildlife and fantastical folktales. We’ll have an activity sheet with lots of fun adventures for all ages. You can pick up a sheet at any library starting June 1, or download it HERE. Check our calendar to find our most up to date list of programs all summer long.

 

The 2021 Summer Learning Program is open to young people, preschool through teen, with books and activities for every age. All library programs are free and open to children of all abilities. Come in and see what the library has for you!

Saturday, June 12, 2021
The 2021 Summer Learning Program: Tails + Tales – an exploration of wildlife and fantastical folktales
Jun 12 all-day
Online

Illustration of animals reading book.

Get ready to go wild at the library for our annual Summer Learning Program. Join us for Tails & Tales – an exploration of wildlife and fantastical folktales. We’ll have an activity sheet with lots of fun adventures for all ages. You can pick up a sheet at any library starting June 1, or download it HERE. Check our calendar to find our most up to date list of programs all summer long.

 

The 2021 Summer Learning Program is open to young people, preschool through teen, with books and activities for every age. All library programs are free and open to children of all abilities. Come in and see what the library has for you!

Silent Hike + Forest Qigong
Jun 12 @ 10:30 am – 12:00 pm
The North Carolina Arboretum

Let’s enjoy a quiet, mindful stroll through the woods together. A silent hike takes us to scenic treasures on the arboretum property where we will do a restorative qigong practice. Qigong is a series of simple movements that supports the body’s natural healing processes, promotes healthy circulation, invites inner calm, and releases tension from the body. Hikes will be mindfully-paced and qigong practices easy and accessible.

*Registrants will be sent a “reminder” email the day prior to class with the meeting location and additional details. Please add [email protected] to your contacts to ensure our emails do not end up in your spam folder. We encourage all participants to make conscious, courteous decisions based on your own and others’ wishes and needs for safety. Mask wearing is supported but not required of participants for experiences in the field.

**Arboretum Members receive a 10% discount on all classes. To become an Arboretum Member and receive discounts on all classes, go to our Membership page.

 

Jenne Sluder is a qualified mental health professional and is certified through the International Association of Yoga Therapists as a trauma-sensitive therapeutic yoga instructor. She holds a Master’s in Transpersonal Psychology: Ecopsychology from Naropa University and specializes in mind-body approaches to improving mental and physical health. An Asheville native, Sluder works with individuals and with groups using somatic (body-based), contemplative (mindfulness-based), ecological (nature-based), and compassion-based practices.

Sunday, June 13, 2021
The 2021 Summer Learning Program: Tails + Tales – an exploration of wildlife and fantastical folktales
Jun 13 all-day
Online

Illustration of animals reading book.

Get ready to go wild at the library for our annual Summer Learning Program. Join us for Tails & Tales – an exploration of wildlife and fantastical folktales. We’ll have an activity sheet with lots of fun adventures for all ages. You can pick up a sheet at any library starting June 1, or download it HERE. Check our calendar to find our most up to date list of programs all summer long.

 

The 2021 Summer Learning Program is open to young people, preschool through teen, with books and activities for every age. All library programs are free and open to children of all abilities. Come in and see what the library has for you!

Backcountry Navigation With A Map and Compass
Jun 13 @ 9:00 am – 1:00 pm
REI
  • FITNESS LEVEL : 1

    Relaxed

During this class, our instructors will help you understand the information provided on your map, the proper use of your compass, and how to put the two together. You’ll learn about magnetic north, true north, and magnetic variation (declination). After covering these fundamentals, you’ll get time to practice taking a bearing from the terrain and your map so that you can make sense of your position and plan a route. This engaging course is a great introduction to outdoor navigation and map reading!

Dupont State Recreational Forest – Fawn Lake Access Area

Monday, June 14, 2021
The 2021 Summer Learning Program: Tails + Tales – an exploration of wildlife and fantastical folktales
Jun 14 all-day
Online

Illustration of animals reading book.

Get ready to go wild at the library for our annual Summer Learning Program. Join us for Tails & Tales – an exploration of wildlife and fantastical folktales. We’ll have an activity sheet with lots of fun adventures for all ages. You can pick up a sheet at any library starting June 1, or download it HERE. Check our calendar to find our most up to date list of programs all summer long.

 

The 2021 Summer Learning Program is open to young people, preschool through teen, with books and activities for every age. All library programs are free and open to children of all abilities. Come in and see what the library has for you!

SVM Book Club: Steel Drivin’ Man: John Henry, the Untold Story of an American Legend
Jun 14 @ 11:30 am – 12:30 pm
Online

From the publisher: “The ballad ‘John Henry’ is the most recorded folk song in American history and John Henry–the mighty railroad man who could blast through rock faster than a steam drill–is a towering figure in our culture. In Steel Drivin’ Man, Scott Reynolds Nelson recounts the true story of the man behind the iconic American hero, telling the poignant tale of a young Virginia convict who died working on one of the most dangerous enterprises of the time, the first rail route through the Appalachian Mountains. Using census data, penitentiary reports, and railroad company reports, Nelson reveals how John Henry, victimized by Virginia’s notorious Black Codes, was shipped to the infamous Richmond Penitentiary to become prisoner number 497, and was forced to labor on the mile-long Lewis Tunnel for the C&O railroad. Equally important, Nelson masterfully captures the life of the ballad of John Henry, tracing the song’s evolution from the first printed score by blues legend W. C. Handy, to Carl Sandburg’s use of the ballad to become the first “folk singer,” to the upbeat version by Tennessee Ernie Ford. Attractively illustrated with numerous images, Steel Drivin’ Man offers a marvelous portrait of a beloved folk song–and a true American legend.”

For this event, please also read the article “Somebody Died, Babe: A Musical Cover-Up of Racism, Violence and Greed,” by Warren Wilson professors Jeff Keith and Kevin Kehrberg and published in the Bitter Southerner.

Available to order through Black Mountain bookstore Sassafras-on-Sutton.

This event is free, but an RSVP is required in order to receive the Zoom link. Registration ends half an hour before the start of the event. RSVP below.

Pay What You Can Bargain Book Sale
Jun 14 @ 1:00 pm – 5:00 pm
Smart Start

Smart Start Partnership for Children is an early childhood nonprofit serving Henderson County families
with children 0-5, with the mission to support, educate, and advocate to build a strong foundation for
the youngest members of our community. Smart Start Partnership for Children has officially moved
offices and now it is time to move all the gently used children’s books. Before this big moving day
happens, Smart Start is hosting ONE MORE final book sale in 2021. Throughout the year Smart Start
hosts book drives with key community partners. The books collected are often used at community
events, early literacy activities, and to support the once-a-year Smart Start book sale fundraiser. During
the covid-19 pandemic Smart Start has been able to host sales, but the organization has not been able
to attend community events. Smart Start wants to get these books into the hands of children, families,
and teachers.
Communications and Development Director Carrie Ann Chandler had this to say about the upcoming
sale.
“We’ve had two virtual sales and one hybrid book sale during this pandemic. While we have
been able to make some gains in fundraising through these efforts, we have not been able to reach the
families and wider community that our live February event has historically reached. We are thrilled that
we will be able to go back to our regular in-person February event in 2022. Please join us for one more
shopping event in 2021!”
Smart Start plans to host a Pay What You Can Bargain Book Sale for the week of June 14th – 18th. This
special sale will happen at the old Smart Start offices located at 722 5th Ave West, Hendersonville NC
28739. Folks will be welcomed into the old Smart Start offices to shop boxes and boxes of books, over
6,000 books still available. Special pricing, $Pay what you can for a BOX or a BAG of books. Please see
the schedule for shopping below, special late hours on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Mystery Book Club
Jun 14 @ 7:00 pm
Online w/ Malaprop's

The club will meet virtually during the Covid-19 pandemic. If you are interested in attending, please email [email protected] for instructions about how to attend the club event.  

Join host Tena Frank for Malaprop’s Mystery Book Club! 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 Malaprop’s on the second Monday of every month at 7:00pm.

Tuesday, June 15, 2021
The 2021 Summer Learning Program: Tails + Tales – an exploration of wildlife and fantastical folktales
Jun 15 all-day
Online

Illustration of animals reading book.

Get ready to go wild at the library for our annual Summer Learning Program. Join us for Tails & Tales – an exploration of wildlife and fantastical folktales. We’ll have an activity sheet with lots of fun adventures for all ages. You can pick up a sheet at any library starting June 1, or download it HERE. Check our calendar to find our most up to date list of programs all summer long.

 

The 2021 Summer Learning Program is open to young people, preschool through teen, with books and activities for every age. All library programs are free and open to children of all abilities. Come in and see what the library has for you!

Pay What You Can Bargain Book Sale
Jun 15 @ 1:00 pm – 5:00 pm
Smart Start

Smart Start Partnership for Children is an early childhood nonprofit serving Henderson County families
with children 0-5, with the mission to support, educate, and advocate to build a strong foundation for
the youngest members of our community. Smart Start Partnership for Children has officially moved
offices and now it is time to move all the gently used children’s books. Before this big moving day
happens, Smart Start is hosting ONE MORE final book sale in 2021. Throughout the year Smart Start
hosts book drives with key community partners. The books collected are often used at community
events, early literacy activities, and to support the once-a-year Smart Start book sale fundraiser. During
the covid-19 pandemic Smart Start has been able to host sales, but the organization has not been able
to attend community events. Smart Start wants to get these books into the hands of children, families,
and teachers.
Communications and Development Director Carrie Ann Chandler had this to say about the upcoming
sale.
“We’ve had two virtual sales and one hybrid book sale during this pandemic. While we have
been able to make some gains in fundraising through these efforts, we have not been able to reach the
families and wider community that our live February event has historically reached. We are thrilled that
we will be able to go back to our regular in-person February event in 2022. Please join us for one more
shopping event in 2021!”
Smart Start plans to host a Pay What You Can Bargain Book Sale for the week of June 14th – 18th. This
special sale will happen at the old Smart Start offices located at 722 5th Ave West, Hendersonville NC
28739. Folks will be welcomed into the old Smart Start offices to shop boxes and boxes of books, over
6,000 books still available. Special pricing, $Pay what you can for a BOX or a BAG of books. Please see
the schedule for shopping below, special late hours on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Wednesday, June 16, 2021
The 2021 Summer Learning Program: Tails + Tales – an exploration of wildlife and fantastical folktales
Jun 16 all-day
Online

Illustration of animals reading book.

Get ready to go wild at the library for our annual Summer Learning Program. Join us for Tails & Tales – an exploration of wildlife and fantastical folktales. We’ll have an activity sheet with lots of fun adventures for all ages. You can pick up a sheet at any library starting June 1, or download it HERE. Check our calendar to find our most up to date list of programs all summer long.

 

The 2021 Summer Learning Program is open to young people, preschool through teen, with books and activities for every age. All library programs are free and open to children of all abilities. Come in and see what the library has for you!

Pay What You Can Bargain Book Sale
Jun 16 @ 1:00 pm – 5:00 pm
Smart Start

Smart Start Partnership for Children is an early childhood nonprofit serving Henderson County families
with children 0-5, with the mission to support, educate, and advocate to build a strong foundation for
the youngest members of our community. Smart Start Partnership for Children has officially moved
offices and now it is time to move all the gently used children’s books. Before this big moving day
happens, Smart Start is hosting ONE MORE final book sale in 2021. Throughout the year Smart Start
hosts book drives with key community partners. The books collected are often used at community
events, early literacy activities, and to support the once-a-year Smart Start book sale fundraiser. During
the covid-19 pandemic Smart Start has been able to host sales, but the organization has not been able
to attend community events. Smart Start wants to get these books into the hands of children, families,
and teachers.
Communications and Development Director Carrie Ann Chandler had this to say about the upcoming
sale.
“We’ve had two virtual sales and one hybrid book sale during this pandemic. While we have
been able to make some gains in fundraising through these efforts, we have not been able to reach the
families and wider community that our live February event has historically reached. We are thrilled that
we will be able to go back to our regular in-person February event in 2022. Please join us for one more
shopping event in 2021!”
Smart Start plans to host a Pay What You Can Bargain Book Sale for the week of June 14th – 18th. This
special sale will happen at the old Smart Start offices located at 722 5th Ave West, Hendersonville NC
28739. Folks will be welcomed into the old Smart Start offices to shop boxes and boxes of books, over
6,000 books still available. Special pricing, $Pay what you can for a BOX or a BAG of books. Please see
the schedule for shopping below, special late hours on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Thursday, June 17, 2021
The 2021 Summer Learning Program: Tails + Tales – an exploration of wildlife and fantastical folktales
Jun 17 all-day
Online

Illustration of animals reading book.

Get ready to go wild at the library for our annual Summer Learning Program. Join us for Tails & Tales – an exploration of wildlife and fantastical folktales. We’ll have an activity sheet with lots of fun adventures for all ages. You can pick up a sheet at any library starting June 1, or download it HERE. Check our calendar to find our most up to date list of programs all summer long.

 

The 2021 Summer Learning Program is open to young people, preschool through teen, with books and activities for every age. All library programs are free and open to children of all abilities. Come in and see what the library has for you!