Apr 16 Thursday
Step up to the mic and share your creativity at Isothermal Community College’s Poetry Slam! Whether you write your own verses, bring a classic to life, display original artwork, or capture meaning through photography, this is your chance to shine—and compete for cash prizes!
Categories:📜 Original – Perform your own poem.📖 Interpretive – Bring another artist's poem to life.🔬 STEM – Explore Science, Technology, Engineering, or Math through poetry.🎨 Artwork – Share and explain your favorite drawing, painting, sculpture, etc.📸 Photography – Pick a photo to take the spotlight.
Age Categories:🧒 Youth (18 & under)🧑🎓 Adult (19 & up)
Performance Guidelines:⏳ Each performance must be five minutes or less.📜 Participants' personal expression must comply with the Student Code of Conduct.💰 Cash prizes are awarded to eligible participants.
Enjoy live music from our special guests, Mike Lipkin and friends. 🎶
Sign up here.
This is Jeopardy! Get ready for an epic trivia experience like no other with Jeopardy! Bar League. Geeks Who Drink is partnering with Sony Pictures Television and bringing America's Favorite Quiz Show® out of the studio and straight to your local bar. No more shouting at your TV: with Jeopardy! Bar League you get a thrilling, team-based experience with real clues from the Jeopardy! writers' room, all on your phone. Gather your smartest (or most entertaining) friends, form your team, and head to Bear's Smokehouse for Jeopardy! Bar League every Thursday at 7pm.
To learn more, visit jeopardybarleague.com.
Penny & SparrowCaleb ElliottThursday, April 16Show: 8 pm | Doors: 7 pmThe Orange PeelAges 18+
Since 2018, GA-20 has been at the forefront of a traditional Blues revival. The dynamic throwback trio have long been disciples of the place where traditional Blues, Country and Rock ‘n’ Roll intersect. “We make records that we would want to listen to,” says guitarist Matt Stubbs. “It’s our take on the song-based traditional electric Blues we love.Since 2018, GA-20 has been at the forefront of a traditional Blues revival. The dynamic throwback trio have long been disciples of the place where traditional Blues, Country and Rock ‘n’ Roll intersect. “We make records that we would want to listen to,” says guitarist Matt Stubbs. “It’s our take on the song-based traditional electric Blues we love.” Stubbs, along with guitarist & vocalist Cody Nilsen and drummer Josh Kiggans, strive to bring traditional Blues to the front lines of the modern roots music scene. “The focus for us has always been on the story, the melody, and on creating a mood,” Stubbs continues. “Traditional Country and Soul have all had these massive recent revivals. We want to be part of doing that for traditional Blues music.”
Jontavious Willis is resolved in his mission: to reinvigorate today’s Blues with the spirit of the past. Inspired by a time when the Blues were plentiful and rhythm reigned supreme, Jontavious leverages his unique sound—a synthesis of his Georgia heritage and reverence for traditional Blues—to get the world dancing again. A Grammy-nominated musician and songwriter, Jontavious performs original, toe-tapping tunes in the style of Delta, Piedmont, Texas, and Gospel Blues. Dynamic vocals, technical prowess, and an abundance of Southern charm keep Jontavious sending jolts of vitality through the Blues community.
Apr 17 Friday
A Multi-Media Journey of Resilience, Fiber Art, and Painting by Julie Miles
Three summers ago, in a lightkeeper’s house-turned-museum off the coast of Maine, Julie Miles was asked a simple but piercing question: “Who are you outside of your family?” “Made of This” is her answer.After an eight-year hiatus from painting to support her family through her husband’s early-onset Parkinson’s diagnosis, Miles returns to her artistic practice with work rooted in resilience, devotion, and rediscovery. What began as an homage to her farming grandparents evolved into an immersive exploration of material, labor, and belonging.For this body of work, Miles learned to process and spin raw wool, dye fibers with plants over an open fire, and weave twill cloth on a vintage four-shaft loom. She turned to pinhole photography to create self-portraits in the landscapes of her Michigan youth—beaches, open fields, and rural expanses that echo memory and identity.Blending fiber, photography, and painting, “Made of This” honors both the harshness and tenderness of life. It invites viewers to dwell in the quiet space where grief and joy coexist, where materials “dictate” their own becoming, and where loving it all—labor, loss, beauty, play—leads to a life well lived.Join us for the opening reception on April 3rd and experience a powerful return to art shaped by devotion, discovery, and the enduring act of making.
April 3 – 26 Monday – Friday, 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM Reception: April 3, 5:00 – 6:30 PM at the Black Mountain Center for the Arts
Billie Holiday's unique vocal approach and advanced sense of rhythm made her one of the most important and influential vocalists in American History. Her relentless fight to be treated as an equal - as a musician, a female, and an African-American - made her one of the most important American figures in the 20th century. Join us as we detail how she developed her unique vocal style and how she blazed a trail for women and African-Americans that would pave the way for future generations.
Whenever Oliver Wood isn't touring with The Wood Brothers — the Grammy-nominated roots trio that he co-founded in 2006 — he typically begins his mornings the same way: in Nashville, at home, with a coffee cup in his hand and a notebook in his lap.
"There's a chair in my living room, right in front of a window," he says. "Every morning, I go down there to drink my coffee, meditate, and write. It's like a therapy session for me, because I can write without any specific goal in mind. I can be creative without being self-judgmental.”
Many of the songs from Fat Cat Silhouette, Wood's second solo record, began taking shape in that chair. Produced by his Wood Brothers’ bandmate Jano Rix, it's an album of unexpected twists and turns. Longtime fans will recognize the earnest, elastic voice that has always anchored the Wood Brothers' mix of forward-looking folk and southern country-funk, but Fat Cat Silhouette doesn't spend much time looking backward. Instead, it abandons convention, breaks a few rules, and positions Oliver Wood as a roots-music innovator who's every bit as interested in the process as the product.
"I wanted to get outside my box and embrace the uncertainty of what's out there," he explains. "I wanted weird guitar tones. The song 'Yo I Surrender' has the worst guitar sound I've ever heard in my life, and I just love it. I wanted more percussion and less drums. Once we began experimenting and doing whatever we wanted, the pressure melted away and I felt liberated.”
On the album's opener, "Light and Sweet," Wood matches an imaginative storyline with a melody that leaps from ground level into the stratosphere. Eight songs later, he brings things to a close with "Fortune Drives the Bus," which he recorded on an iPhone in his own backyard. While tracking the rest of Fat Cat Silhouette to analog tape, Wood pushed himself to keep things weird. This is an album that finds the art in the unexpected, and Oliver Wood — whose songwriting and vocal chops remain as sharp as ever — at his most adventurous.
Apr 18 Saturday
https://www.blueridge.edu/programs-courses/horticulture/plant-sale/
Want to learn to make jewelry? This beginner friendly metalsmithing course teaches the basic skills involved in making your own jewelry. Learn to use a variety of tools and equipment common in a jewelry studio.This 2 Day Intensive will teach many techniques including sawing, filing, polishing, soldering, textures, and more!Included is 10 hours of access to Open Studio sessions (Wed/Thurs 11-4) valid for 2 months from class.
Class Times 9am-5pmMaterials Fee: $55 -due at class
Happens on the following Dates:Apr 18, 2026, 9:00am to 5:00pm Timezone: Eastern Time (US & Canada)Apr 19, 2026, 9:00am to 5:00pm Timezone: Eastern Time (US & Canada)