Arts + Entertainment
All-star music compilation to benefit flood victims
With the recent floods ravaging Western North Carolina due to Hurricane Helene, there’s been countless avenues by which artists and musicians have come together to not only raise funds for those in dire need, but also to provide melodic solace and comfort.
The forgotten victims of violent death
Approximately 20,000 murders occurred in the United States in 2023. These killings ranged in scope from gang battles to domestic violence.
'A shelf on which to rest': Writing through trauma
As the life-threatening emergency faced in the wake Hurricane Helene ebbs in Haywood County and the reality of the long road to recovery washes over the region, so too does the task of processing the traumatic event. On Monday evening, Meredith McCarroll and Nickole Brown led a workshop at Orchard Coffee in Waynesville to help people process that trauma through writing.
Giving the present to the future
No book review today. Instead, some words about the importance of words — yours.
If you’re reading these words and live in Western North Carolina, Eastern Tennessee, or parts of Georgia and South Carolina, then you survived the Great Flood of 2024.
Bryson City community jam
A community jam will be held from 6-7:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 17, at the Marianna Black Library in Bryson City.
Anyone with a guitar, banjo, mandolin, fiddle, dulcimer or anything unplugged is invited to join. Singers are also welcomed to join in or you can just stop by and listen. The jam is facilitated by Larry Barnett of the Sawmill Creek Porch Band.
A proclamation about women as artists
As I peruse the shelves in the Jackson County Library’s “new releases” section, it is evident to me that there are more new titles written by women than by men. And while this may be true in literary circles in much the same way it is in politics these days, many of the storylines in these books being written by women have to do with a feminine renaissance that is going on world-wide.
Planting the seeds of tomorrow: A community comes together post-Helene
On Friday evening, downtown Waynesville was in kind of a festive spirit — a far cry from what all of us here in Western North Carolina have felt for over a week now.
Mountain Heritage Day celebrates 50 years
A beloved long-time Western North Carolina tradition, Mountain Heritage Day will spotlight its 50th anniversary from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 28, on the campus of Western Carolina University in Cullowhee.
A thoughtful farewell to summer
The change of season, especially to autumn, is always a welcome and refreshing time for me. Traveling diminishes, darkness encroaches sunlight and you hunker down into the coziness of cool mornings and hot drinks.
