CULLOWHEE–Western Carolina University’s Lectures, Concerts and Exhibitions Series will present an “Evening of Spoken Word” featuring poet, actor and musician Saul Williams on Tuesday, Feb. 16, at the Fine and Performing Arts Center.
The evening will begin at 6 p.m. in the center’s Star Lobby and Fine Art Gallery with a performance by DJ Brett Rock of Asheville and creation of live art. Local artist Kinjac and members of the Afromotive will perform from 7 to 7:30 p.m. in the FAPAC theater, followed by Williams from 7:30 to 8:30 p.m. DJ Brett Rock will help close the evening as Williams hosts a book signing in the Star Lobby from 8:30 to 9:15 p.m.
Williams is best known for his debut performance and featured poetry in the 1998 film “Slam,” which he co-wrote. The film won the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival in 1998 and the Camera d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival. Williams has published three collections of poetry: “Said the Shotgun to the Head,” “She” and “The Seventh Octave.” His most recent work is 2006’s “The Dead Emcee Scrolls.”
Williams has performed with legendary poets Allen Ginsberg and Sonia Sanchez, and has released three albums: “Amethyst Rock Star” in 2001, “Not in My Name” in 2003 and “Saul Williams” in 2004.
This event is free and open to the public. For more information about the event or the LCE Series, call 828-227-7206.
Art comes in many forms and the newest addition to Southwestern Community College’s Oconaluftee Institute of Cultural Arts is actually old. It’s a letterpress that will be used to print books in the Cherokee syllabary.
“We are bringing back the Cherokee history in true art form,” said Luzene Hill, OICA progam outreach coordinator.
Years ago the Eastern Band published a newspaper called Tsa la gi Tsu lehisanunhi, or the Cherokee Phoenix. This first Native American newspaper was printed on a hot-type letterpress in which each word is put together by hand, combining individual metal letters or characters.
Through a $68,846 grant from Cherokee Preservation Foundation and a $47,792 grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, OICA will purchase a metal press and develop a print-making studio at its facilities on Bingo Loop Road in Cherokee.
“It opens up a whole new craft of Book Art for us, including print making, hand papermaking and hand bookbinding,” said Hill. “For our students Book Art will blend fine arts with crafts.”
Sequoyah, the inventor of the Cherokee syllabary, recognized that conveying ideas in language was powerful so he spent 12 years developing the Cherokee syllabary, completing it in 1821. Each character represents a syllable, instead of one sound, thus the name syllabary. As in the Phoenix newspaper, the power of the Cherokee language rises through the printed word on the page, transforming from thoughts to art, Hill explained.
“You already feel the power of words but capturing them in a book through individual characters you’ve laid out in hot type and on paper you’ve made from linen or hemp fiber really helps you feel them in an art form, too,” said Hill. “To me, binding a book- accordion-style, for instance, is like producing a piece of sculpture.”
“You already feel the power of words but capturing them in a book through individual characters you’ve laid out in hot type and on paper you’ve made from linen or hemp fiber really helps you feel them in an art form, too. To me, binding a book- accordion-style, for instance, is like producing a piece of sculpture.”
As students learn to produce first the paper and then the books, they will also learn skills such as precision, technique, spacing and artistic layout composition, said Hill, who is consulting with noted instructor Frank Brannon. Brannon, who runs his own letterpress studio SpeakEasy Press in Dillsboro, earned his master of fine arts in Book Arts at the University of Alabama and has recently taught Letterpress at the Penland School of Crafts and Papermaking and Printing at the John C. Campbell Folk School.
“One of Frank’s specialties is the Cherokee Phoenix newspaper,” said Hill. “He has explored and published copies from the original hand impressions of type from the Phoenix, found in a 1954 excavation of the New Echota historic site. He hand printed and hand bound the publications for exhibition.”
“The Phoenix was a bi-lingual weekly newspaper printed in parallel columns in Cherokee and English and one of its biggest subscribers was the British Library,” said Brannon, who also teaches at Book Works in Asheville. “Most folks don’t know that the paper was distributed in Europe, too. The first issue was published Feb. 21, 1828, using the 85 character Cherokee syllabary completed by Sequoyah just seven years earlier,” he said.
The first paper that the Phoenix was printed on came from Knoxville by wagon and it took two weeks to arrive, according to Brannon. The last issue was published in 1834, shortly before the Cherokee removal to Indian Territory in Oklahoma.
“Students will learn the Cherokee history right along with the history of the letterpress,” said Hill.
The Cherokee language will also be incorporated into the course since the books can be published in the Cherokee syllabary, she added.
JEAN: Why do you feel poetry is important for children?
SUSAN MARIE: Poetry is part of our cultural legacy. Like visual art, storytelling, music, dance, theater, and other arts, poetry belongs to everyone. Poetry welcomes and challenges us with its rhythms, sounds, and patterns. Reading poems, we can imagine and explore different ways of thinking, feeling, and experiencing the world. Poetry maps the territory of the human heart.
JEAN: Do you have any tips you can share with those of us who are interested in encouraging our children to explore poetry as an art form?
SUSAN MARIE: Invite young children to tell you things and to play with words. Write stuff down for them, without worrying about whether it is a story or a poem or a report or something else. But be open to the thought that their words could be poems.
CULLOWHEE – Ron Rash, the Parris Distinguished Professor of Appalachian Culture at Western Carolina University, is recipient of the 2009 Sir Walter Raleigh Award for Fiction for his fourth novel, “Serena.”
The award is presented annually by the North Carolina Literary and Historical Association in recognition of works of fiction that exhibit “creative and imaginative quality, excellence of style, universality of appeal, and relevance to North Carolina and her people.”
Rash will pick up his award at a February meeting of the association in Greensboro. He also won the Sir Walter Raleigh Award in 2006 – that one for his third novel, “The World Made Straight.”
Published in October 2008, “Serena” tells the story of timber baron George Pemberton and his ruthless wife, Serena, who come to the North Carolina mountains to create a timber empire. The book drew widespread praise from critics across the nation after its release. A New York Times reviewer complimented Rash’s “elegantly fine-tuned voice” and listed the book as one of her 10 favorites of 2008, and “Serena” made the “best of 2008” lists of Publishers Weekly, The Christian Science Monitor, The Washington Post and San Francisco Chronicle. The book also was No. 7 in online retailer Amazon’s list of the 100 best books of 2008.
A native of Boiling Springs, Rash teaches Appalachian literature and creative writing at WCU. His next book, a compilation of short stories titled “Burning Bright,” will be released in March.
REGIONAL–Kay Byer, of Cullowhee, served as North Carolina’s Poet Laureate from 2005 until 2009.
Here, Brian Brodeur, poet and author of the blog How a Poem Happens, interviews Byer. They talk at some length about Byer’s poem “Precious Little”.
From the poem:
I seethed while my student poets,
all of them women, sat waiting for someone
to challenge his vision of literature,
belligerent canon
where warring tribes battle it out
in their epics and blood-spattered novels.
“Miss Welty,” I countered, “stayed
clear of the battlefield, if you recall.
She sat down every day at the same desk
and made language raise the world up
from the grave of our common amnesia.”
An excerpt from the interview:
Byer: “The fiction writer, made much younger and more successful in the poem, actually said that war was the story, expressing his regret that he had never experienced war first-hand. I countered with Eudora Welty’s never having been to war, yet being one of our greatest American writers. My students were appalled by his attitude, and over the next few weeks, we kept spiraling back to this incident in our discussion. The poem began out of my initial irritation and growing frustration at not having spoken more forcefully and eloquently that day.”
SYLVA–One of the most harrowing crimes committed in western North Carolina during the first half of the 20th century is the alleged murder in 1913 of two-year-old Roberta Putnam by her grandmother, Nancy Kerley, known as Nance Dude. Released from prison after 15 years hard labor, Nance Dude lived out her life rejected by her family. But as she never admitted her guilt or testified in court, her side of the story was never heard. In his acclaimed play, Gary Carden imagines what she might have said, combining folklore, some compelling historical evidence, and a playwright’s storytelling art.The much-performed play is now available as a DVD, featuring a performance by Elizabeth Westall.
Friday, December 4, City Lights Bookstore in Sylva will host a reception and discussion to celebrate the release.
The evening at City Lights will feature copies of the DVD for sale as well as refreshments and conversation with the playwright. The focus of the discussion will be not only on the play but also more generally on the subject of preserving and celebrating the folklore and heritage of the region. Pam Duncan, Rob Neufeld, and Michael Beadle will join in the discussion, as well.
These folk art houses are from the collection of Steven Burke and Randy Campbell, the largest such collection in the country. According to the exhibit attendant this is the first (and probably only) time this collection will be exhibited.
Fans of Cormac McCarthy’s gruesome post-apocalyptic novel “The Road” — some of which is set in the Smokies — have hung on semi-patiently for the oft-delayed release of the film, directed by John Hillcoat and starring Viggo Mortensen.
Well the picture is out for the holiday season, and the New York Times‘ A.O. Scott has a review.
An excerpt:
The most arresting aspect of “The Road” is just how fully the filmmakers have realized this bleak, blighted landscape of a modern society reduced to savagery. A grimy, damp fog hangs over everything, and instead of birdsong there is the eerie creak and crash of falling trees. Vehicles sit abandoned on highways, houses stand looted and vacant, and what used to be towns are afterimages of violence and wreckage.
The only thing scarier than the empty, depopulated roads is the possibility of seeing people on them, who are more likely to be predators than possible companions. (However, since this is Cormac McCarthy country, we do meet an ancient, nearly blind man who speaks in riddles and is played by Robert Duvall.) The panic that must have attended the early days of destruction has long since given way, for the father and son, to weary anxiety and, in the boy’s case, constant fear. This is normal life: desperate scavenging punctuated by bouts of acute danger and occasional spasms of good luck.
DILLSBORO–Dillsboro invites folks to experience Christmas spirit in early December as this walkabout mountain town glows in holiday splendor for the 26th annual Dillsboro Festival of Lights & Luminaries.
The four-night festival, which takes place Dec. 4-5 and Dec. 11-12, begins each evening at dusk when merchant “elves” illuminate the streets with 2,500 white paper bag luminaries. The merchants also flip the switches on strands of tiny white lights trimming the town’s buildings, many of which date to the 1800s.
Once the town is aglow, carolers fill the streets with music, musicians stroll the sidewalks playing Christmas favorites, and Santa visits with children in the town hall.
Shopkeepers add to the festivities by staying open late and serving holiday treats with hot cider and cocoa.
“If you’re having trouble getting into the holiday spirit, this festival will do wonders,” says Julie Spiro of the Jackson County Tourism Authority. “We’re often told that visiting the luminaries festival is like stepping into a Christmas painting.”
There’s no admission charge for the Festival of Lights & Luminaries, and lodging is plentiful with more than half of Jackson’s County guest rooms located in Dillsboro or within 15 minutes.
For information, go to www.visitdillsboro.org, or call the Jackson County Visitors Center at (800) 962-1911.
HIGHLANDS–Bored with traditional Thanksgiving-weekend trappings? Then head to The Bascom this week with out-of-town guests for three eclectic visual art exhibitions on the art center’s six-acre historical campus. “American Art Today, Juried Works,” featuring more than 40 pieces from artists across the nation, is in the Main Gallery; “The Shopping Bag: Exemplary Art and Design” (above), featuring a collection of historical bag samples from the Newark (N.J.) Public Library, is in the Loft Gallery; and “Enchanted Forest,” featuring creations by The Bascom’s youth art students, is in the Children’s Gallery. Admission is always free. Hours are Tuesdays through Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. (closed Thanksgiving Day). While on-campus, also hike The Bascom’s Nature Trail or do some browsing in the Shop, which offers unique, handcrafted items by local and regional artists. For more information, call (828) 526-4949 or visit www.thebascom.org.
NATIONAL–Eric Fingerhut’s blog CapitalJ blog provides this anecdote about Rahm Emmanuel’s aggressive encouragement of 11th District Rep. Heath Shuler, when Shuler was mulling over a run for congress (this was while Emmanuel was still a congressman himself).
Emmanuel doesn’t easily take no for an answer.
Here’s an excerpt:
The most amusing part of the [documentary about Emmanuel] — the D.C. premiere of which I attended recently — was when Rep. Heath Shuler (D-N.C.) describes how he hesitated when Emanuel first recruited him to run, wondering if he would still have enough time to spend with his family. Emanuel tells him it’s really not that bad, and Shuler then starts receiving regular calls from the then-congressman.
“Heath, I’m just calling to say I’m on my way to school to take my kids. Health, I’m on my way now back to school, I think I’m going to eat lunch with the kids today. … Heath, we’re going to soccer practice …”
CULLOWHEE – Tickets go on sale Monday, Nov. 30, for an appearance at Western Carolina University by Garrison Keillor, host of the popular public radio show “A Prairie Home Companion.”
Garrison Keillor
An acclaimed author, storyteller, humorist and musician, Keillor will take center stage in WCU’s Fine and Performing Arts Center at 7 p.m. Monday, March 8. Reserved seat tickets for “An Evening with Garrison Keillor” are $25.
“We are starting ticket sales much earlier than we do for most other events because we thought many of our patrons might be interested in purchasing tickets as a holiday gift for that Garrison Keillor fan in their lives,” said Paul Lormand, Fine and Performing Arts Center director.
Keillor hosted the first broadcast of “A Prairie Home Companion” in St. Paul, Minn., on July 6, 1974. The show ended in 1987, resumed in 1989 in New York as “The American Radio Company,” returned to Minnesota, and in 1993 resumed the name “A Prairie Home Companion.” More than 3 million listeners on more than 450 public radio stations now hear the show each week.
Keillor’s most recent role included playing himself in the movie adaptation of his show, “A Prairie Home Companion.” He also is the author of 12 books, including “Lake Wobegon Days,” “The Book of Guys,” “The Old Man Who Loved Cheese,” “Wobegon Boy,” “Me: By Jimmy ‘Big Boy’ Valente as Told to Garrison Keillor,” “Love Me” and “Homegrown Democrat.” His newest novel, “Pontoon,” was released in the fall of 2007.
Keillor has received numerous awards, including a Grammy Award for his recording of “Lake Wobegon Days.” He also has received two Cable ACE Awards and a George Foster Peabody Award. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and recently was presented a National Humanities Medal by the National Endowment for the Humanities. He was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame at Chicago’s Museum of Broadcast Communications in 1994.
REGIONAL--I’d seen a few references to this video during the past few days, but didn’t give it much attention until Gulahiyi posted it.
As it so happens, a Tennessee news crew was filming at the site of a small rockslide along the Ocoee river gorge when a Department of Transportation geologist showed up, listened to the ground for a minute or two, then suggested maybe everybody ought to move back a little. That was when a much larger chunk of the mountain came down, and the news crew caught it on tape.
The story reminded me of a time when I was (much) younger, and was doing some construction work in a fairly deep, hand dug ditch. Improperly braced, no doubt. We were doing our thing when we noticed that the walls of the ditch had begun to move — not to slide, but to sort of vibrate, or ripple in the oddest way. It fell in behind us as we raced out.
REGIONAL–Jean Van’t Hul writes Asheville’s Artful Parent, and in an interview with the author of the popular blog Quince and Quire, she gets at the essence of children, home and art.
An excerpt:
My two exuberant children inspire me to bring these disparate interests together in a way that shapes their learning and informs their lives. I want craft to be a daily necessity; I want the shape of letters to be apparent as art; I want the weight of history to feel like a blanket at their feet; I want the urgency of peace to find its form in their creations. I want them to be rooted at home while investigating the traditions of faraway places.
REGIONAL–Western Carolina University associate professor Anna Fariello takes an in-depth look at the extraordinary world of Cherokee basketry in her new book “Cherokee Basketry: From the Hands of our Elders”, just out from the History Press of Charleston, South Carolina.
An author, editor and former research fellow at the Smithsonian Museum of American Art, Fariello most recently turned her attention to Cherokee basketry, a thousands-year-old tradition, passed from mother to daughter, that she believes is integral to Cherokee culture. Fariello’s new book, titled “Cherokee Basketry: From the Hands of our Elders,” studies Cherokee baskets and basket-makers who lived during the first half of the 20th century.
The project reinforced Fariello’s understanding that for Cherokee people, “the making of things is significant to their culture and their identity,” a concept foreign to many people in contemporary, mainstream culture, she said. The Cherokees’ use of natural resources as basket materials gave Fariello an appreciation of the environmental sustainability and ecological balance also inherent in the culture.
BALSAM–Blogger “Gulahiyi” holds forth on whether the internet is storytelling’s bane. His references, as always, are broad-ranging.
An excerpt:
I know it is tempting to blame the Internet for the death of narrative. But is it really that simple? Any loquacious blowhard can satisfy the desire to tell stories…without the assistance of new technologies. But for a soft-spoken recluse such as myself the Internet provides an opportunity to share stories that would otherwise go untold. If it weren’t for this computer screen, I’d just be talking to the walls. Some might count that reason enough to condemn the Internet. It’s not for me to say.
REGIONAL–Popular regional bluegrass act Balsam Range has had a breakout year.
Editor Kelly Donaldson at the Cashiers Crossroads Chronicle sums it up in this nice feature.
Here’s an excerpt:
The five-man band is wrapping up a phenomenal year that included touring, a number one song, a top five album and an appearance on a television show with one of bluegrass music’s hottest acts.
Balsam Range features Tuckaesegee native Darren Nicholson on vocals and mandolin, along with Western Carolina University graduates Buddy Melton (fiddle, vocals) and Grammy award winner Marc Pruett (banjo). The band is rounded out by Haywood County’s Caleb Smith on guitar and vocals and Tim Surrett on bass and vocals.
The boys recently took the stage on Saturday, Oct. 17 for a live TV taping of the popular PBS program “Song of the Mountains.” Balsam Range performed alongside Rhonda Vincent and the Rage, Next Best Thing Band, and Fall Creek.
CULLOWHEE – Native American artist and activist Shan Goshorn will visit Western North Carolina in November for a talk at Western Carolina University and a demonstration at the Oconaluftee Institute for Cultural Arts.
“Pieced Treaty,” wood pulp splints and commercial dye, 20 by 20 by 26 inches, by Shan Goshorn, 2007.
An artist working in a variety of media, including paint, photography and mixed-media, Goshorn will speak about the progression of her work and her art as an expression of her activism during an artist’s talk at 3:30 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 3, in Room 130 of the Fine and Performing Arts Center on the WCU campus. The event is free and open to the public.
From 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 5, Goshorn will lead a workshop demonstrate her process of hand-tinting black-and-white photography at OICA, 70 Bingo Loop in Cherokee. The workshop is limited to 25 people and includes lunch and supplies, although participants may bring their own black-and-white prints, in a matte finish. No artistic background is required.
Goshorn is a member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians and lives in Tulsa, Okla. An artist for more than 25 years, she has exhibited work across the United States, Canada, Europe, China and Africa. Her work addresses contemporary American Indian and human rights issues, including Indian stereotypes and treaty violations. For example, Goshorn wove “Pieced Treaty,” a basket in the traditional Cherokee “spider’s web” pattern, from paper printed with tobacco agreements between the state of Oklahoma and the Cherokee Nation.
“‘Pieced Treaty” refers to the continual breaking of agreements,” Goshorn said. “I deliberately left the basket unfinished because the negotiations appear to be ongoing.”
The piece won first place in the basketry division of the 2009 Red Earth Festival’s artist competition and has been purchased by the National Museum of the American Indian, part of the Smithsonian Institution. Goshorn’s work is featured in numerous other collections, including the Institute of American Indian Art; in Cherokee, her work is in the Museum of the Cherokee Indian, Harrah’s Cherokee Hotel and the Qualla Arts and Crafts Mutual.
The WCU School of Art and Design and the Oconaluftee Institute are co-hosts of Goshorn’s visit. The visit is funded by the Cherokee Preservation Foundation and the Revitalization of Traditional Cherokee Artisan Resources, an initiative operated through Western Carolina University’s Cherokee studies program.
The Oconaluftee Institute partners with Southwestern Community College and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians to offer an associate’s degree in fine arts. An agreement with WCU allows graduates to enter the university as juniors pursuing the bachelor of fine arts degree.
Collin Wilcox Paxton, who played the white-trash girl who accused a black man of raping her in the classic 1962 film “To Kill a Mockingbird,” died Oct. 14 of brain cancer at her home in Highlands, N.C. She was 74.
Paxton was a long time resident of Highlands, and was active in the arts community there.
CULLOWHEE – Care for a serving of Shakespeare, hold the Elizabethan English and add fiddle and a soft Southern drawl? The department of stage and screen at Western Carolina University will present “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” – a commentary on the absurdity of love – at 7:30 p.m. Thursday through Saturday, Oct. 29-31, and 3 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 1, at the Fine and Performing Arts Center on the WCU campus.
WCU’s Mainstage theater series presents Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” set in Depression-era Appalachia, at 7:30 p.m. Thursday through Saturday, Oct. 29-31, and 3 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 1, at the Fine and Performing Arts Center on the WCU campus.
One of the most often performed of Shakespeare’s comedies, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” weaves multiple storylines: A royal wedding, a group of amateur actors planning the wedding entertainment, the confused affections of four young lovers and a feuding fairy king and queen whose magical spells cause mayhem. The characters ultimately decide they must have dreamed the chaotic series of events, yet all find themselves changed by the experience.
“Shakespeare has purposely made this all a jumble,” said director Claire Eye, a faculty member in the department of stage and screen. “Shakespeare’s point is that you can’t put logic into who you fall in love with.”
Eye set the play in Depression-era Appalachia because it was a time when people craved laughter, and the play reminds her of qualities of this region. “There’s such a beauty to the music and the people here,” Eye said.
The play’s music, dance, costumes and set will evoke Appalachia, and while the language will be Shakespeare’s original, the pronunciation will be in a Southern dialect – a natural fit because “Shakespeare’s writing is very musical,” Eye said.
The cast includes:
• Titania, queen of the fairies – senior Dayna Damron of Valdosta, Ga.
• Oberon, king of the fairies – junior Jack Watson of Asheville
• Demetrius – senior Jon Coward of Titusville, Fla.
• Lysander – senior Nathanial Mason of Bryson City
• Hermia – junior Christina DeSoto of Charlotte
• Helena – senior Amanda Pisano of Candler
• Puck – freshman Peter O’Neal of Raleigh
• Bottom the Weaver – Peter Savage of Asheville, a faculty member in the department of stage and screen
The play is part of the College of Fine and Performing Arts’ Mainstage theater series and recommended for ages 12 and older. Sunday’s showing also is part of the 2009-10 Galaxy of Stars Series. Tickets cost $20 for the general public, $5 for students and $15 for WCU faculty and staff and people older than 60. To purchase tickets, visit the FAPAC box office or call the box office at (828) 227-2479 for Visa and MasterCard orders. To order online, go to www.ticketreturn.com and select “need tickets” on the left-hand side. Under the “Western Carolina University” heading, select “arts & entertainment.” For Sunday’s show, choose “FAPAC,” and for all other shows choose “Mainstage.”
