The annual QuickDraw art fundraiser will once again be held from 4:30-9 p.m. Saturday, June 20, at Laurel Ridge Country Club in Waynesville.

The cocktail social will include an hour-long QuickDraw Challenge, live/silent auction, refreshments and dinner. Live artists will be working in the public eye, creating timed pieces, which will then be auctioned off. 

To the Editor:

I write as someone with more than 30 years of experience facilitating transparent, evidence-based decision-making across diverse stakeholders, and as a pro-democracy advocate who believes local governance is essential to community health. 

Even as it sees its own demise over the horizon, the Fontana Regional Library Board of Trustees is moving fast to make its agenda into policy. 

Swain Librarian Jeff Delfield learned through a text that Macon commissioners had voted to begin the process of leaving the Fontana Regional Library system in 2027. 

The June 9 decision follows in the footsteps of Jackson County. Though Jackson commissioners cited concerns about LGBTQ+ material as justification, Macon County framed the vote as a financially prudent move. 

Macon commissioners voted to notify the Fontana Regional Library system of the county’s withdrawal. 

While the item wasn’t included in the agenda for the June 9 meeting that went out to the public, it was added near the beginning of the meeting on a motion by Commissioner Barry Breeden, who spearheaded the withdrawal discussion. 

(Editor’s note: This is if the first in a three-part review of “Buddha.”)

Curious about the man known as the Buddha, I read three books about him, and my favorite, by far, is Karen Armstrong’s “Buddha” (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2000, 171 pp). The reviewer for The Times of London describes it like this: “A fascinating book … It is hard to imagine a clearer, more concise or more authoritative introduction to one of the world’s most influential (yet shadowy) spiritual figures.”  

A prominent regional storyteller, Davy Arch will join the “Conversations with Storytellers’ series at 6 p.m. Thursday, June 11, at Pigeon Community Multicultural Development Center in Waynesville.

Arch tells Cherokee stories and presents lectures on Cherokee history and culture. He also demonstrates carving, flint knapping and mask making. Using artwork from different mediums, he describes both Cherokee history and contemporary Cherokee life. 

A first-of-its-kind exhibition centering Native voices, perspectives and creativity in response to the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States, the exhibition “Unrelenting: Cherokee People and the American Revolution” is currently being showcased at the Museum of the Cherokee People (MotCP) in Cherokee. 

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

• Maria E. Lyons will host a reading and signing for her children’s book series, “Angelina The Adventure Cat,” at 11 a.m. Saturday, June 13. Lyons is a storyteller and educator with more than 30 years of experience in faith-based education and the arts. 

Though I had assured my Smoky Mountain News editor I’d deliver a real book review this week — my to-read stack includes biographies of Karl Marx and Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, a novel, two books of essays on education, and more — book-centered distractions in late May led me in a different direction.