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The businesses in Haywood County are collecting non-perishable food donations through July 15 for Hunger Free Haywood, an initiative with MANNA Food Bank to cut down on hunger in the county.
People wanting to donate should look for red barrels setup at participating businesses and organizations, including Walmart and Ingles. Red, White & Boom in Maggie Valley and the Lake Junaluska 4th of July celebration will feature the barrels.
The goal is to collect 50,000 pounds of food as well as educate people about hunger in Haywood County.
The Haywood County Public Library has acquired the Early Literacy Station, a computer loaded with 50 educational software titles for children ages 2-10.
The Early Literacy Station offers children a safe, standalone computer not connected to the Internet that is age-appropriate, engaging and academically relevant for children. The ELS has a colorful keyboard and tiny mouse, sized for a child’s hand, to promote easy learning and discovery.
The Early Literacy Station’s educational software covers seven areas: reading, math, science, social studies, writing, arts and music, and reference. The system is designed to attract and educate toddlers through elementary school ages.
The Early Learning Station is available in English, Spanish and French.
The Cherokee Preservation Foundation has awarded 24 new grants totaling $1.8 million that support cultural preservation, economic development, job creation and environmental preservation.
They include:
• A grant to the Museum of the Cherokee Indian to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Emissaries of Peace, host the Southeast Tribes Festival and continue the Snowbird Cherokee language camp.
• A grant to Tribal Government to buy five fuel-efficient vehicles, two rainwater cisters and to retrofit 10 buildings for energy conservation. Money was also provided to complete solar thermal installation on an 11th tribal building, the Ginger Lynn Welch facility.
• A grant that will enable the new Cherokee Children’s Home to include a number of green components, including geothermal heating and cooling, solar heated water, rainwater harvesting and a solar photovoltaic system to generation electricity.
• A grant that will enable Swain County Schools to develop a science, technology, engineering and mathematics curriculum that will emphasize digital and financial literacy, business planning, best practices in environmental responsibility and economic development, real world experiences and academic achievement. It will be used by students at Cherokee Central Schools and in Swain, Jackson, Haywood, Clay, Graham and Cherokee counties.
• Grants to support the Cherokee Youth Council in promoting leadership development opportunities and to establish youth councils in Clay and Cherokee counties that are modeled after the Cherokee Youth Council.
• A grant that will enable the Oconaluftee Institute of Cultural Arts to offer a summer art program for high schools students.
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or 828.628.9160.
Chandra Spaulding, an animal rights activist and vet’s assistant in Sylva, has jumped onboard a statewide campaign to crack down on puppy mills.
Signs of her handiwork — literally — can be seen in the form of a billboard on N.C. 107 telling people not to buy dogs from pet stores but instead to rescue animals from their local shelter.
The American Red Cross will hold blood drives in the area as the agency has reached emergency levels after receiving 50,000 fewer donations than expected in last month.
All blood types are needed, but especially O positive, O negative, B negative and A negative in order to meet patient demand this summer.
Here are upcoming blood drives in Haywood County:
• 9 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Saturday, July 7, Crabtree United Methodist Church. 828.627.3666.
• 9 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Sunday, July 8, New Covenant Church, Clyde. 828.627.9000.
• 11 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Monday, July 16, Longs Chapel Church, Waynesville. 828.627.9000.
• 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Friday, July 27, Lowe’s of Waynesville. 828.456.9999.
Here are upcoming blood drives in Jackson County:
• 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., walk-ins welcome, MedWest-Harris. 828.586.7130.
• 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., walk-ins welcome, Southwestern Community College at Bradford Student Lounge. 828.339.4305.
A free dental clinic will be held July 13-14 at the Ramsey Center at Western Carolina University.
The N.C. Missions of Mercy clinic is for adults earning less than twice the federal poverty level, providing free dental care ranging from dental hygiene to restoration to extractions. Most patients are served on a first come, first served basis.
The N.C. Missions of Mercy is sponsored by the N.C. Dental Society, which is partnering with Rotary District 7670. In September, a similar clinic attracted 500 people.
828.734.3393 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians has installed a series of metal trees baring solar panels on the branches near the three visitors areas on the Qualla Boundary.
The artistic solar arrays fasioned in the form of a tree were installed at the Welcome Center on Tsali Boulevard, the visitors center on U.S. 19 and a public rest area and infomation kisok near the Great Smoky Mountain National Park entrance.
“I think they are pretty neat,” said Damon Lambert, EBCI Building Construction manager and head of the Strategic Energy Committee.
The tribe hopes the unique look will draw attention from visitors to the reservation.
“That is kind of why we did them in town,” Lambert said.
The end goal is to make the Welcome Center LEED certified and the downtown building achieve net zero energy status, meaning it does not use any non-renewable energy.
The addition of the solar panels is part of a larger Energy Efficiency & Environmental Showcase, which includes solar hot water, more efficient lighting and improved insulation. The project also will include a small wind turbine on Cow Mountain.
The total project is being funded through a $500,000 from the Cherokee Preservation Foundation, a nonprofit focused on preserving native culture, protecting the natural environment and creating diverse economic opportunities.
Lambert estimated that the upgrades will be complete by September.
Cherokee Preservation Foundation is sponsoring a community photo contest in connection with its 10th anniversary celebration. The contest is open to people who live on the Qualla Boundary or in Haywood, Swain, Graham, Jackson, Cherokee, Macon and Clay counties. Photos must relate to at least one of the foundation’s three areas of focus: cultural preservation, economic development and environmental preservation.
Photos must be submitted by 5 p.m. on July 27, and winners will be announced at a public reception and exhibition at Qualla Arts & Crafts in Cherokee on Aug. 23.
The contest has an adult and youth (16 years old or younger) age category. In the adult age category, winners will be selected for first prize ($500), second prize ($300) and third prize ($200), and the judges shall have the discretion to select honorable mentions ($100). In the youth age category, judges will award a first prize ($200), and they shall have the discretion to select honorable mentions ($50).
Information about the contest is available on the foundation’s website www.cpfdn.org/contest. And, those with additional questions are encouraged to email them to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
The Cherokee Preservation Foundation awards grants to regional projects and programs that address cultural preservation, economic development and job creation, and environmental sustainability.
Ron Rash and his latest novel The Cove will be featured in the season premiere of “North Carolina Bookwatch” on UNC-TV.
The program, hosted by D.G. Martin, will be broadcast at 9:30 p.m. July 6 with a repeat showing at 5 p.m. July 8.
Released in April, The Cove is set in Western North Carolina during World War I and tells the story of a mountain woman, Laurel Shelton, who lives in an isolated cove with her brother Hank, a war veteran recently returned from France. One day, Laurel finds a stranger, Walter, who has been nearly stung to death by yellow jackets, and she nurses him back to health as she falls in love. But, a local Army recruiter who is rabidly anti-German suspects Walter is not the person he claims to be and threatens to ruin the couple’s hopes for the future.
The Cove was collecting favorable reviews even before its release. It was recently listed as one of Amazon’s “Best Books of the Year So Far,” and it was named in a Publishers Weekly roundup of the “Best Summer Books 2012.”
Friends of the Haywood County Library’s “Let’s Talk About It” series will continue with The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara from 4-5:45 p.m. July 18 at the Waynesville branch auditorium.
Shaara drew inspiration from his own life experiences for the 1974 novel. The Killer Angels won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction and is written from the perspective of soldiers on both sides of the Gettysburg battle.
Dr. Emory Maiden from Appalachian State University will lead the discussion. Copies are available at the Waynesville library.
828.456.5311 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
Author Marshall Frank will give a talk at the public library in Sylva at 7 p.m. on July 12 based on his books and experiences as a police officer.
Frank’s most recent book, a thriller entitled The Upside to Murder, follows a respected Miami physician as he tries to protect his daughter, the victim of a horribly violent crime, and has to relive it as the case moves to trial.
Much of Frank’s writing is inspired by his 30 years as a police officer, including his years as a homicide detective in Miami-Dade County. His previous books are both novels and non-fiction, including a memoir entitled From Violins to Violence, which chronicles his early life as the stepson of a Miami Beach mobster and his training as a musician and dancer before he became a law enforcement officer.
828.586.2016.
A hummingbird program by Cathyrn and John Sill will be held July 10 at 6:30 p.m. at the Kern Youth Center at Lake Junaluska by the Great Smoky Mountains Audubon Society.
Cathryn Sill is the author of the “About” series of books for children, which includes About Hummingbirds. The book uses simple, easy to understand language to teach children what hummingbirds are, how they look, how they move, what they eat, and where they live. Many varieties of hummingbirds are introduced, from the smallest to the largest.
John Sill is a nature freelance artist and illustrator. He illustrated his wife’s “About” series.
The Plateau Fly Fishing Club will hold a casting clinic at 6:15 p.m. and a meeting at 7 p.m. July 10 at the Albert Carlton-Cashiers library.
The speaker will be Alex Bell, owner of AB’s Fly Fishing Guide Service and co-creator of the Western North Carolina Fly Fishing Trail, which outlines 15 prime fishing stops in Jackson County. Mr. Bell will discuss the locations to include access points, flies and techniques for accessible and lightly fished streams.
Following the meeting, a raffle will be held featuring flies, accessories and the grand prize of a handmade fiberglass rod for small streams.
828.885.7130
Cherokee mounds will be the focus of a 7 p.m., July 12, presentation at the Highlands Biological Station.
Ben Steere, from the Coweeta Long Term Ecological Research Program at the University of Georgia, will give a talk titled “The Western North Carolina Mounds and Towns Project: New perspectives on human settlement in the southern Appalachians.”
WNC has a rich history of archaeological research, yet data regarding Cherokee mound and town sites have not been systematically compiled. The Coweeta program and the Tribal Historic Preservation Office of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians are working together to build a database and GIS map containing archaeological information for all mound and town sites in WNC.
828.526.2221.
An evening of stargazing using optical or radio telescopes will be held at 7 p.m. July 13 at the Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute.
The event is part of the Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute’s monthly evening at PARI series. It will include a presentation by Bernard Arghiere, president of the Astronomy Club of Asheville. Arghiere has been observing and studying the night skies for 40 years and has made astronomical observing trips to Africa, Europe and South America.
The program will begin with the presentation, followed by the observing session and optional campus tour.
Reservations are required and will be accepted until 3 p.m. the day of the event. Evening at PARI programs cost $20 per adult, $15 for seniors/military and $10 for children under 14.
www.pari.edu, 828.862.5554, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., or www.AstroAsheville.org.
Nantahala Outdoor Center has opened a new Nantahala Zip Line Adventure Park that features a traditional zip line and aerial obstacle course.
The Mountain Research Station will hold its annual Hay Day on July 12, featuring demonstrations of the latest hay equipment and educational sessions for growers. Two hours of pesticide credits are available as well as three hours of continuing education credits for certified crop advisors.
The schedule will include:
• 10 to 10:45 a.m.: mowing, tedding and sprayer demonstrations
• 10:45 to 11:45 a.m.: calibrating sprayers
• 11:45 a.m. to noon: FFA competition
• Noon to 12:30: lunch
• 12:30 to 12:50 p.m.: welcome and Introductions
• 12:50 to 1:00 p.m.: FSA update
• 1 to 1:20 p.m.: preparing for emergencies on the farm
• 1:20 to 2:20 p.m.: pesticide and farm safety
• 2:20 to 3 p.m.: pasture and hayfield fertility
• 3 to 4 p.m:. raking and baling demonstrations
Learn the latest about the Land Trust for the Little Tennessee, including an update on land conservation initiatives, at noon on Thursday, July 12, at Tartan Hall in Franklin.
The League of Women Voters of Macon County is sponsoring the program by Sharon Taylor, the deputy director of the Land Trust, and Dennis Desmond, stewardship director. The Land Trust is a Franklin-based nonprofit conservation organization. It merged in December 2011 with the Little Tennessee Watershed Association.
Taylor will give an update on the merged organization’s expanded staff and their move to the Little Tennessee River near the Nikwasi Mound. Desmond will discuss the Land Trust’s growing restoration and monitoring program, including its partnership with Southern Appalachian Raptor Research on breeding bird monitoring.
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or 828.371.0527.
Meet with a park ranger and enjoy mountain views while lunching on top of Hemphill Bald July 19.
Hiking enthusiast and author Danny Bernstein will lead the hike from Purchase Knob to Hemphill Bald as part if Friends or the Smokies classic hikes series. The 7.5-mile hike is moderate in difficulty and has an elevation gain and descent of 1,500 feet.
A park ranger will discuss work done at the Appalachian Highlands Science Learning Center. Hikers will also visit the The Swag’s Nature Trail, a two-mile loop that includes a swinging bridge, working water-wheel, and hidden pond.
Participants will gather to depart from Asheville at 8:30 a.m. and in Waynesville at 9 a.m. Meeting locations are specified upon registration.
Hikers should come prepared with food, water and appropriate hiking gear for the all day excursion. A donation of $35 to go to the Friends’ Smokies Trails Forever program is requested, and includes a complimentary membership to Friends of the Smokies. A donation of $10 is requested from current Friends of the Smokies members. Members who bring a friend hike for free.
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., 828.452.0720, www.friendsofthesmokes.org
The Land Trust for the Little Tennessee will host a nature study and leisurely hike to Yellow Creek Falls and nearby stretches of the creek in Robbinsville July 13.
Philip Moore, the Land Trust’s program director for Clay, Cherokee and Graham counties, will lead the hike. The forested tract includes healthy streams and upland communities, wetlands, and critical habitat for aquatic species. The upper section of Yellow Creek on the property is very slow moving and winding, unusual features for a mountain stream. The creek gets progressively steeper as it charts its downstream course toward the Cheoah River and culminates in Yellow Creek Falls.
Hikers will meet at the trailhead at 9 a.m. on U.S. 129 North in Graham County, about 2.3 miles north of Yellow Creek Road.
This event is free for LTLT members, but a donation of $35 is requested for non-members, and includes a complimentary membership to LTLT.
RSVP’s are required. This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or 828.524.2711 ext 304.
A guided hike on the three-and-a-half mile round-trip Thomas Divide Trail in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park will be held July 7.
Great Smoky Mountains Association is sponsoring the hike, which will be led by naturalist Liz Domingue. Thomas Divide Trail has moderate uphill and downhill grades. There is a forest of Eastern hemlock, yellow birch, American beech and several species of maple. Many fallen chestnut logs can be seen on the forest floor.
Wear appropriate hiking gear. Bring rain gear and bottled water, along with a snack or lunch. A hiking stick is recommended.
There is a $5 fee for GSMA members, and a $10 charge for non-members.
865.436.7318, ext. 222 or 254.
The Highlands Plateau Audubon Society is offering birders a chance to stroll around the grounds of a private home on Mirror Lake in Highlands on July 7.
Also on tap will be a talk by Douglass Pratt, a curator with the N.C. Museum of Natural Sciences, at 7 p.m., July 9, and a Saturday morning field trip around Highlands on July 14.
The Mirror Lake property has exceptionally active bird feeders and wildflower gardens geared for beginners. Audubon leaders will offer assistance and education in using binoculars, field guides and spotting birds in the field. Participants will meet in the Highlands Town Hall parking lot near the public restrooms at 7:30 a.m.
The program featuring Pratt will be held at the Highlands Civic Center on U.S. 64. Pratt has gained an international reputation as an authority on birds of the tropical Pacific Islands and has conducted museum expeditions to Fiji, Samoa and Micronesia, along with incidental visits to Hawaii.
The regular Saturday morning field trip will be led by Audubon guide Romney Bathurst and will include roadside birding along Rich Gap Road. The group will meet in the Highlands Town Hall parking lot near the public rest rooms at 7:30 a.m. to carpool.
828.743.7421.
The Cradle of Forestry in Pisgah Forest just outside of Brevard will host a night for nature enthusiasts of all ages to learn more about night-flying animals during the Winged Creatures of the Night Program from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. July 14.
Moths, bats and owls are among the animals active at night when many people are settled into bed.
Children can make a luna moth finger puppet to take home. After a short program of nature-oriented songs, naturalists will describe the special adaptations animals have for going about the business of living from dusk to dawn. Winged creatures, such as bats and owls, play important roles in the forest because they help keep mosquito and mouse populations in check.
After the talk, naturalists will lead the group on a stroll through the evening woods in search of winged creatures of the night. Along the way, participants will see and hear a demonstration of acoustic monitoring equipment used to survey local bat activity. This device allows the human ear to hear bats’ echolocation, the biological sonar they use to navigate and forage in the dark.
The fee is $6 for ages 16 and older; $3 for youth 15 and under and America the Beautiful and Golden Age pass holders.
828.877.3130 or www.cradleofforestry.org
The Bascom’s 2012 Mountains in Bloom Garden Festival, which includes a garden tour and flower show, will take place July 13-14.
The Jackson County Farmers Market is sponsoring the sixth annual Farm Tour and Garden Walk from 1 to 5 p.m. July 14 and 15.
To the Editor:
We, the undersigned, are a group of Haywood County citizens that meets regularly for a respectful dialogue around race issues. This group first fellowships together over a meal and then enters into a structured conversation aimed at understanding and appreciating our varied life experiences around race.
At our most recent gathering, we discussed a racially charged incident which happened recently in our area. We fervently believe that we need to address this incident; it should be brought out into the sunlight so we can move fully into an era when all of our residents live in safety, dignity, and without discrimination.
The situation was a reported cross burning in the yard of a home in northern Haywood County where a biracial child was visiting on May 4. Although the four-foot cross was characterized by one law officer as ‘a huge cross it was not; it was a homemade smaller cross ….,” we are heartened that the burning is being treated as a hate crime and that it is being investigated by local authorities. We encourage the inquiry to go forward.
These kinds of acts are loaded with historical memory which is painful, frightening, and disrespectful to particular members of our community. Indeed, they are a form of terrorism that has historically been used to threaten and control minority populations. We are dismayed that young people are reenacting this history of hatred and violent repression. They do not do this spontaneously. Prejudice and hatred are learned. As a community, we must come together to rethink the messages we transmit across generations.
We thank you for your attention to this matter. We believe that if anyone is made to fell unwelcome or ‘less than’ because of race, then none of us can fully know justice and equality.
We welcome anyone interested in joining our dialogue to participate with us as Changemakers for Racial Understanding. Please call 828.456.6029 for date, time, and location of our next meeting.
Barbara B. Smith, Sara Jenkins, Thelma Gibbs, Douglas K. Staiger, William Nelson Stecher, Elizabeth K. Stecher, Robert G. Fulbright, Alvin Forney, Liz Forney, Mary Elizabeth Staiger, Tom Bishop, Charles Alley, Kathryn F. Alley, Mary Alice Lodico, Mary Grace Lodico, Arlene Lukas, Helen Geltman, Mary McGlauflin, Katherine Bartel, Russell Binkley, Dr. Ari Hart, Kelly Coe, Suzi Pressley, Latuasha Forney, Rocky Turner, Mayra Vargas, Ken Roach, Ann Overbeck, John Vanderstar, Ernestine E. Upchurch, Michael Lodico, Sara Evans, Charles Dayton
To the Editor:
In Western North Carolina we are extremely lucky to live, work and play in a place of incredible natural beauty. I am proud that I worked professionally for many years to safeguard the health of both our environment and our economy by protecting the national parks in our region. A recently published economic analysis of all national parks found that Great Smoky Mountains National Park (GSMNP) ranked highest in the country for economic benefits.
Visitors to GSMNP spend over $818 million annually in the gateway communities surrounding the park and those same visitors support 11,367 local jobs. Visitors to the Blue Ridge Parkway spend close to $300 million supporting over 4,000 local jobs. nature.nps.gov/socialscience/docs/NPSSystemEstimates2010.pdf
We enjoy this huge benefit to our economy because people from all over the world enjoy exploring our natural resources. Visitors also come to experience our national and state forests, clear vistas and clean running streams and rivers. Of course it is not only tourists who support the health of our economy because of the beauty of western North Carolina and the quality of our environment.
The Asheville region has gotten excellent economic news recently with New Belgium Brewing, Sierra Nevada Brewing and Legacy Paddlesports opening new facilities. Sierra Nevada will invest $107.5 million in a new facility in Henderson County and create 175 full and part-time jobs and 60 construction jobs for two years. Legacy Paddlesports will spend $4.5 million renovating a facility in Fletcher and will add 40-50 employees to the 70 who will come with it.
Sierra Nevada owner Ken Grossman cites the “outstanding quality of life, shared values and access to the outdoors” and the quality of our water. Bill Medlin, president and CEO of Legacy Paddlesports, says, “We wanted to be part of the growing outdoor cluster based in the Asheville area. It gives us an opportunity to recruit people who have strong passion for outdoors to become our employees.”
It is perfectly clear that the health of our economy in western North Carolina is based on the quality of our natural resources and the health of our environment.
I do not believe that our elected officials in Raleigh understand this. The new legislative leadership argues that environmental safeguards hamper economic growth. To make their point, last year they slashed state funding for the state environmental agency, eliminated environmental programs like the landslide hazard mapping program, made it virtually impossible to pass new environmental regulations, weakened groundwater protections, and forbid new rules that are more stringent than federal standards. This year, they gutted the state’s protective toxic air pollution program and passed a bill to allow fracking for natural gas.
These leaders, including most of the first-term legislators from Western North Carolina, are out of touch with what works here. The economy of this region requires a healthy environment to be successful. Environmental safeguards that keep our air and water clean don’t kill jobs, they create them. Instead of recognizing this, the policies coming from these leaders only benefit a few special interests, and the result is legislation that serves neither the public good nor our economy.
I want to see that our economic health improves and job growth continues. Our elected leaders should stop forcing the false choice between jobs and the environment and, instead, understand that we can have both. To be economically successful, western North Carolina must have both.
Greg Kidd
Waynesville
Haywood Community College’s Professional Crafts Clay students got a firsthand lesson in designing and building kilns at its new creative arts building.
Jackson County art organizations are co-hosting a mural painting workshop called “The Young Artists of ColorFest” from 2 to 5 p.m. July 14 in Dillsboro.
More than 50 arts and crafts booths will line the streets of downtown Hayesville for the 33rd annual Festival on the Square from July 13-15.
The event will start with a street dance at 7 p.m. July 13 and continue from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. July 14 and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. July 15.
Vendors from around the South will display basketry, woodcrafts, paintings, glass, fiber arts, soaps and candles. Free entertainment, food and kids’ activities will continue every day of the festival. Attendance and parking are free, but food will be sold at a nominal cost to support various organizations. No pets allowed.
The Maggie Valley Club will bring a taste of “Beer City” to Haywood County at 6 p.m. July 13.
The beer tasting will feature craft beer from local breweries and give locals an opportunity to enjoy some of the new beers from around Western North Carolina.
Tickets will be $15 and includes local craft beers, snacks and live acoustic music by Josh Fields. Participants must be 21 or older.
The Maggie Valley Club is a golf community located on Country Club Drive off of Mood Farm Road.
828.926.4826 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
Bill LaBounty, Candi Carpenter, and Grammy and CMA Nominee Bobby Tomberlin will play at the Balsam Mountain Inn’s Songwriters-in-the-Round series at 6 p.m. on July 7.
Tomberlin co-wrote Diamond Rio’s number one hit “One More Day” and has also written songs for Faith Hill, Kenny Rogers, Josh Turner, Jerry Lee Lewis and many others. Bobby is a cast member of the hit Country Music Television series “The Singing Bee.”
With more than 100 songs recorded by other artists, LaBounty has written hits for Brooks and Dunn (“Rock My World”), Michael Johnson (“This Night Won’t Last Forever” and “I Want To Be Loved Like That”), and others for the Judds, Alison Krauss, Alan Jackson and Tim McGraw.
Carpenter is a new star on the horizon. She has shared the stage with legends like Vince Gill and Loretta Lynn. She writes songs with Bill Anderson and Phil Everly of the Everly Brothers.
The Songwriters-in-the-Round series began in 1996 and brings some of the nation’s best lyricists and musicians to the inn for monthly performances in the Grand Dining Room. The musicians sit in a small circle in the dining room with the audience all around and swap tales and sing songs.
Balsam Mountain Inn is on Seven Springs Drive off the U.S. 74/23 in Balsam.
800.224.9498.
Local artist Silvia Cabrera Williams will lead an experimental art workshop from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. July 13 at the Leapin’ Frog Gallery in Waynesville.
Williams will give instruction on how to use household materials to do loose abstract experimental collages. Photos, inkjet photos, plastic wrap, fabric, cheesecloth and other items will be used. She will also show attendees how to fix old paintings including oils. Cost is $35.
Williams’ work can be seen at Leapin’ Frog Gallery, Village Framer and Gallery 262, all in Waynesville. Her work has a national and international audience.
828.456.8441.
The library in Sylva will host the musicians of Country Memories at 7 p.m. July 10.
The sextet consists of guitar, banjo, fiddle and autoharp players who perform contemporary and traditional country, gospel and bluegrass with a bit of country “rap.” The group is made up of musicians from Franklin and the north Georgia.
828.586.2016 or www.fontanalib.org.
A Second Sunday Contra Dance will be from 2:30 to 5 p.m. July 8 on the second floor of the old courthouse in the Jackson County Library Complex in Sylva.
No previous experience is necessary to participate, and all dances will be taught and walked through before dancing. No partner is required, and local musicians are invited to sit in with the band to jam and learn the music.
Email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
The Marianna Black Library in Bryson City will host a community jam from 6-7:30 p.m. July 5 in the library auditorium or, weather permitting, on the library’s front lawn. Anyone with a guitar, banjo, mandolin, fiddle, dulcimer or other acoustic instrument is invited to join.
The music jams are offered to the public each first and third Thursday of the month – year round.
828.488.3030.
The Waynesville Gallery Association’s monthly Art After Dark will take place from 6-9 p.m. July 6, followed by the new Saturday Stroll from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. July 7.
The Maggie Valley Summer Arts and Crafts Show will return to the Maggie Valley Festival Grounds from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. July 7 and 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. July 8.
The event will feature seasonal items, yard art, paintings, photography, pottery, wooden bowls, furniture, jewelry, and goat milk soaps.
Chainsaw artist, Jeremy Buckner, will add to the wide selection of arts and crafts this year with his carvings of bears, cats and eagles.
Admission and parking are free.
828.926.1686 or www.maggievalley.org.
The Great Smoky Mountains Railroad offer a train ride based on the PBS kids series Dinosaur Train, departing from Bryson City July 20 to 22, 27 to 29 and Aug. 4 to 5.
Dinosaur Train is an Emmy-nominated and Parents’ Choice Silver Honor TV series, and it consistently ranks in the top ten shows for kid’s ages 2 to 5. In the TV series, young viewers join Buddy and his adoptive family of Pteranodons on whimsical adventures through prehistoric jungles, swamps, volcanoes and oceans. For this event, families will ride a train bound for the Nature Trackers Adventure Area where young guests will participate in a series of educational challenges as they unearth basic concepts in natural science, natural history and paleontology. Also included are music, Dinosaur Train merchandise and an opportunity to meet Buddy.
Tickets start at $39 per adult and $30 per child ages 2 to 12. Crown Class tickets are $49 per adult and $36 per child.
800.872.4681 or www.gsmr.com.
The Liars Bench, a live authentic Southern Appalachian storytelling, music, poetry, drama and folk arts presentation will perform at 7 p.m., Thursday, July 12 at the Macon County Library in Franklin. Author Gary Carden started The Liars Bench in the summer of 2010.
Thursdays at the Library is an eclectic mix of programs by authors, musicians and educators on topics designed for enjoyment and education. The programs are sponsored by the Friends of the Library; they are free and open to all.
Haywood Arts Regional Theatre will kick off a $1 million capital fund drive to build a second theater space at its performing arts center at the Shelton House on July 6, in conjunction with the opening night of the Haywood Arts Regional Theatre’s production of “La Cage Aux Folles.”
The public library in Franklin is hosting two days of haunting teen events exploring monsters and the paranormal.
The Haunted North Carolina & Ghost Story Workshop will explore “The Brown Mountain Lights” that have been spotted for hundreds of years in Western North Carolina from 3:30 to 5 p.m. July 11. The group will explore what these lights could be and watch footage of the mysterious lights while they hear other ghost stores from N.C. Participants can also receive tips on how to write a ghost story.
The following evening from 5:30 to 8 p.m. teens will learn how to apply monster makeup. During America’s Next Top Monster, participants will get a makeover from professional make-up artist, Mary Bennett. She will transform faces into the monster of their choosing such as zombies, vampires, ghosts, aliens, or a made-up monster. Once their faces are painted, participants can strut their stuff down a runway in a monstrous fashion show that will be judged.
Actress Barbara Bates Smith will star in a stage adaptation of the short story “Lincolnites” at 7 p.m. July 12 at the Mountain Heritage Center on Western Carolina University’s campus.
“Lincolnites” was included in author Ron Rash’s prize-winning fiction collection Burning Bright. Inspired by the author’s Union-supporting ancestor, the story revolves around a Union soldier’s young wife who is at home when a marauding Confederate whistling “Dixie” confiscates her draft horse.
Smith’s presentation will also include musical accompaniment by Jeff Sebens of Cana, Va., and selected Civil War letters from the special collections section of WCU’s Hunter Library.
Smith is noted for her off-Broadway presentation of “Ivy Rowe,” based on author Lee Smith’s Fair and Tender Ladies.
Old Mater Farm is set to host Junior Sisk and Darrin and Brooke Aldridge for its first summer benefit at 1 p.m. July 7.
As part of a summer series of music, the Marianna Black Library in Bryson City is presenting a special program of words and music, featuring George Ellison, reading from his new book Permanent Camp and Lee Knight, singing tunes from “The Songcatcher’s Notebook.”
This free program will begin at 6:30 p.m. June 28 and people are encouraged to arrive early.
Ellison and his wife Elizabeth are Bryson City fixtures. The Ellisons have found their own secluded valley in these verdant mountains, crafting a permanent camp in which to reflect on their place in the natural world. In Permanent Camp, Ellison’s poems detail the unique environment surrounding his isolated homestead in the woods.
Knight, raised in the Adirondack Mountains of upstate New York, became interested in folk music while in high school. During college, he became familiar with the music and stories of the Southern Appalachian Mountains. He also collected songs and stories from other parts of the world, including England, Scotland, Central Asia, Columbia and the Amazon region of Peru.
828.488.3030 or www.fontanalib.org/brysoncity.
Morgan James of Macon County will sign copies of her book Quiet Killing at Books Unlimited in Franklin at 10 a.m. July 4 and at the Macon County Public Library from 4:30-6:30 p.m. July 12.
Quiet Killing is a new mystery novel set in Western North Carolina. It is the second in the Promise McNeal mystery series and takes the main character, made popular in Quiet the Dead, on a hunt for a murderer roaming territory many area residents may find familiar. North Carolina folk hero and notorious moonshine outlaw, Lewis Redmond, also figures in the tale of a mysterious lost little girl, arson and a restless spirit haunting the mountains.
Voices in the Laurel’s SummerVoice Music Camp will expand this year to become the Voices in the Laurel Summer Music Quest taking place from 8:45 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. July 30 – Aug. 3 at the First Baptist Church of Waynesville.
The camp received funding from the Young Singers Foundation Grant from Sweet Adelines International that supports worthy projects, which inspire children and youth to sing in harmony with approved, high quality music instructors.
The camp is open to singers who will be entering first to ninth grades in the fall. Campers will be divided into age groups to participate in a variety of musical experiences and learn to sing with proper vocal technique and in two and three part harmony. Groups will rotate through classes in mountain dulcimer, world drumming, and class guitar and piano as well.
Some choral numbers will include choreography. The week will end with a demonstration concert at noon. Cost is $85 per camper and includes all music, snacks, professional instructors, a T shirt, and five days of music-making. Space is limited.
828.335.2849, www.voicesinthelaurel.org or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Registration continues for Dulcimer U, a residential program at Western Carolina University that draws dulcimer enthusiasts from across the country for a week of classes, concerts, jam sessions and fellowship. The program will run July 15-20.
Participants in Dulcimer U will spend mornings developing their playing skills and afternoons taking elective courses that allow them to explore different facets of the mountain dulcimer. For the first time, the event will offer a course in “Playing for Others in Healthcare and Related Settings.”
Larry and Elaine Conger of Paris, Tenn., will run the weeklong school. Named the national champion dulcimer player in 1998, Larry Conger is the author of eight books of dulcimer arrangements. Elaine Conger is a former classroom teacher and backup singer for Faith Hill.
The award-winning instructors at Dulcimer U will present a concert, “Dulcimers in the Round,” at 7 p.m. on July 19, in the John W. Bardo Fine and Performing Arts Center. Tickets for the general public go on sale July 10 at the Bardo Center box office. Ticket prices are $12 for adults and $7 for students and children.
dulcimeru.wcu.edu or 828.227.7397.
Paul Heckert, professor of astronomy and physics at Western Carolina University, will present a special program about stars and planets at 2 p.m. June 28 in the auditorium at the Marianna Black Library in Bryson City.
The program is for elementary age children in grades 3-5.
828.488.3030.
“Music, Art & Poetry Night,” an open mic arts night, will begin at 7 p.m. June 29 at the Rickman Store in Macon County.
