The following readings will be held at City Lights Bookstore in Sylva.

• Rima Vesely-Flad will share her new book, “The Fire Inside: The Dharma of James Baldwin and Audrey Lorde,” at 3 p.m. Saturday, May 9. 

On May 1, several dozen students, faculty and community members gathered beside Western Carolina University’s “Catafount” in Cullowhee for a May Day action celebrating the history of labor organizing — and demanding the rights workers have yet to be afforded. 

May Day, also known as International Workers’ Day, is an expression of worker solidarity in honor of those who lost their lives in the aftermath of Chicago’s Haymarket affair. 

The popular “Concerts on the Creek” summer music series at Bridge Park in Sylva has once again been nominated for the prestigious USA Today 10Best Readers’ Choice Awards in the category of “Best Outdoor Concert Series.”

This national recognition highlights the series’ continued impact as a beloved community event and regional attraction. Voting is now open to the public and runs through 11:59 a.m. Monday, May 11. 

On April 24, the N.C. Center for the Advancement of Teaching celebrated the groundbreaking of its 51-bedroom residential expansion at its main campus in Cullowhee. The capital project is underway thanks to a $30 million, five-year grant from the General Assembly and it also includes renovations to NCCAT’s existing facility. The expansion is  expected to partially open by August and the project should be completed by August 2027, according to Adam Caruthers, an architect working on the expansion. 

A prominent Western North Carolina legislator may be gone, but his legacy of commitment to public safety and first responders will live on thanks to a bill filed in the General Assembly a month after his passing. 

House Bill 1019, titled the “Mike Clampitt 1st Responder Tax Fairness Act,” proposes a targeted change to North Carolina’s tax code aimed at reducing financial burdens on certain volunteer emergency service organizations. 

Fifth graders from Cullowhee Valley School and Scotts Creek School participated in conservation field days at East LaPorte Park Wednesday to learn more about natural resources and conservation.  

Harris Regional Hospital will partner with Jackson County Public Schools to host its annual free sports physical event at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, April 30, in the Smoky Mountain High School gym in Sylva. 

Following the arrest of former executive director Gretta Worley, HERE of Jackson County is reassuring residents that it will continue to pursue its mission. 

On March 31, Worley was indicted on 10  felony counts of obtaining property by false pretenses. According to the indictment, Worley used her position as director of the nonprofit to “obtain and use multiple credit cards” that were used by her and her family for “person expenditures not authorized by her position.”

The Republican parties of Jackson, Swain and Transylvania counties, during a joint meeting, selected a replacement for Rep. Mike Clampitt (R-Swain), who passed away March 18 at age 71 following a prolonged battle with cancer.

Silicon Valley and Sylva are about as different as any two places can be, but they do share at least one thing in common. 

In Cupertino, billion-dollar office buildings rise within sight of tents and tarps. People sleep in cars or on bare ground backdropped by a landscape where extreme wealth and extreme poverty exist side by side.