The North Carolina Humanities Council, a statewide nonprofit and affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities, has awarded $57,486 in grants for projects in the humanities. All funded programs are free and open to the public.

The Mountain Area Information Network (MAIN) of Asheville will receive $7,000 for the fifth annual Asheville Wordfest, a multicultural poetry festival presented in collaboration with Grateful Steps Publishing House and Bookshop and the YMI Cultural Center.

On May 3-5, 2012, poets and citizen-journalists from varied cultural backgrounds will explore the theme of home. Festival programming includes workshops in Geopoetics, Imaginature children’s events, film showings and the presentation of The Elumenati Dome. Wordfest’s poetry readings are webcast live and archived in an online video library.