Arts + Entertainment
Folkmoot lets festival go, pivots to next chapter
In a move that will raise some eyebrows and just as many questions, the decades-long dance festival put on by Folkmoot USA in Waynesville has quietly been eliminated.
Ode to Folkmoot, ode to the what’s next
July 2012. When I was in the running for the open position of arts and entertainment editor here at The Smoky Mountain News, I had to drive from where I was living at the time (Plattsburgh, New York) to Waynesville (1,100 miles each way) for the final interview.
Read this if you’re jonesing for your phone
By now, most Americans are aware that cell phones are addictive. The dopamine hits keep on coming, and huge numbers of Americans keep on getting the high those hits delivered. Social media users, the texting fanatics, news junkies and the rest of us, even those of us who only minimally slip that little device in our fingers, are all hooked.
Cherokee pottery exhibition
A special showcase, “Didanisisgi Gadagwatli: A Showcase of Pottery from the Mud Dauber Community Workshop,” is now on display at the Museum of the Cherokee People in Cherokee.
Break free, rolling stone: Justin Osborne of Susto
When it comes to modern-day singer-songwriters, Justin Osborne is becoming a fast-rising face in the musical realms of Americana, alt-country and indie-rock, his poignant words cutting through the white noise and endless distraction of a chaotic, digital world.
A book-length love poem to nature
Reminiscent of “Starting From San Francisco,” one of the first books by Lawrence Ferlinghetti, San Francisco is also where Victor Depta spent some of his early years and where this 2024 reprint of his 1973 book “The Creek” (Ohio Univ. Press, 2024) begins — with references to Coit Tower, Nob Hill and the Fillmore District when he was there and reading Wordsworth, Whitman and Rimbaud.
Horizon behind me, no more pain: The Black Crowes land at Harrah’s Cherokee
When it comes to American rock music, you’d be hard-pressed to find a more talented and sonically important act than The Black Crowes. Thankfully, in recent years, the Robinson brothers (Chris and Rich) have patched things up and put their storied music right back where it belongs — in front of a raucous live audience.
Holding secrets can prove slippery
Kayden is doing her very best not to tell me about the preparations she and mom and Jack have made for Father’s Day, but she is six years old, and at this age especially, secrets are like little, wet bars of soap.
Chris Cox’s warm, witty book about family
Search online, or in a library or bookshop, and you’ll find how-to books about parenting. Recent popular titles include “Simplicity Parenting,” “The Five Principles of Parenting” and “How to Talk So Kids Will Listen & Listen So Kids Will Talk.” There are even books about how not to parent, like Leonard Sax’s “The Collapse of Parenting.”
