Community Calendar

Iron Light is the Western North Carolina Sculpture Center’s signature cast‑iron sculpture residency and public arts gathering, combining intensive artist collaboration with hands‑on community engagement. Held annually, Iron Light brings visiting and resident sculptors together on site for mold‑making, iron pour preparation, fabrication, and installation, culminating in a dramatic public iron pour where visitors can watch molten iron transformed into sculpture in real time. Community participation is central to the event, with opportunities for the public to engage alongside artists through demonstrations, iron tile and mold activities, and artist talks. The event atmosphere is celebratory and inclusive, featuring live music, food trucks, and family‑friendly programming, making Iron Light both an artistic spectacle and a social gathering that connects people to the creative process through fire, metal, and shared experience.

Event Schedule:
12pm-4pm: Scratch Block Mold Workshop - make your own mold to be poured during the event ($75)
4pm: Live music and food trucks begin
5pm-8pm: Iron pour demonstration

International circus skills performer and teacher Paolo Garbanzo takes you on a journey, from fundamental whip safety to dynamic techniques for stage. Moving from the basics to more advanced whipcracks, this class progresses at the pace of the students. Some whips will be available for loan and sale.
Whip is LOUD.
➡ About Paolo - Paolo travels the US, UK and Europe performing his juggling, comedy and fire show in three languages. He taught circus arts at the School in Turin, Italy, and leads cultural and D&D tours in both England
and New Orleans.

What happens when stress, emotion, and the nervous system collide?
This engaging talk explores how modern neuroscience explains something many people feel but struggle to name: how life experiences — especially stress and emotional overwhelm — shape the body, influence the brain, and affect our sense of well-being.
Walk away with practical techniques you can use immediately to calm your nervous system, release tension, and restore a sense of balance and clarity.
Long before neuroscience mapped stress responses or trauma patterns, Edgar Cayce - known as the “Sleeping Prophet” - spoke about the deep connection between physical health, emotional balance, and the inner life. Today, discoveries in neuroscience and psychology reveal striking parallels, positioning Cayce as a fascinating Western bridge between older wisdom traditions and modern science.
In this eye-opening session, you’ll learn:
How the nervous system responds to stress and emotional experiences�• Why anxiety, tension, or shutdown can persist�• How stress patterns become stored in the body�• The science behind somatic awareness and regulation�• Simple techniques to calm the body and clear the mind
Blending insights from neuroscience, psychology, and body-based practices, this talk offers a grounded, science-informed perspective on stress, resilience, and self-regulation - delivered in a way that’s clear, relatable, and immediately useful. Perfect for the curious, the creatively minded, the overwhelmed, and anyone ready for both insight and practical tools.

About Nadira - Nadira doesn’t follow straight lines… she follows curiosity.
For over two decades, she has created spaces where artistry, embodiment, and community collide. A research enthusiast with a degree in History, Nadira has a long-standing fascination with how humans make meaning - through the body, the brain, and lived experience. Her academic background fuels her passion for exploring how emerging insights from neuroscience, psychology, and somatic studies can be translated into practical, accessible tools for everyday life.
Today, she works in Community Outreach at the Association for Research and Enlightenment (A.R.E.), bridging science, embodiment, and human experience in ways that are both thought-provoking and immediately useful.

Join us in this hands on class where you will make a hammered sterling silver wide band ring. One of Ignite's fabulous instructors will take you through the process step by step including soldering, shaping, hammering, and finishing your ring.

These also make great wedding bands! Come make your own wedding bands (or each other’s) in our fully equipped studio. Or just take this as a fun make-and-take in our amazing maker space. This class is a little taste of what it’s like to make jewelry as a profession.

You'll leave with a beautiful ring made to size in our downtown Asheville metalsmithing studio.

$120 includes all materials

Arrive 15 minutes early to sign the safety waiver and get settled.

*Convenient parking is available just below the studio in either the Harrah's Parking Garage or Rankin Parking Garage, 1st hour is free!

Already know something about tarot and want to read for others? Want to read cards at festivals, parties, and corporate events? There are important legal and ethical considerations to understand before you take your personal passion public. Let’s dive deep into the do’s-and-don’ts of cartomancy for money. We will touch on the history of fortunetelling and also explore spreads for various types of gigs, best practices for tough situations, and have an AMA about the cards in general.
➡About Onca - Onca O’Leary aka Madame Onca is a published tarot artist, author and teacher with decades of experience reading cards both for fun and profit. She is the artist and co-author of the critically acclaimed World Spirit Tarot as well as the Yuletide Monsters Oracle, as well as a dancer, singer, NC, international tour guide and event producer.

Come sass it up in this super fun bellydance/burlesque fusion workshop!
Designed for all levels of movers and shakers, we will be movin’ and shakin’ with absolutely zero judgement, so wear what makes you feel comfortable and unrestricted, and bring plenty of water, a notebook, and a towel if needed!
We’ll do a burlesque movement informed fitness warmup - which may or may not harken to the glory days of 80’s and 90’s workout videos (now with better movement mechanics!). Natasha will guide you through movements that are similar in both dance forms, and some brief history as to the possible why. While we learn a short piece of choreography, we’ll also go over what may or may not be appropriate in certain settings, so that fun can be had by all while revering the history and cultures of the dance. We’ll discuss similarities in costuming as well!
You will leave this workshop with a lil bit of history, a lil choreo that you can use, and a whole lot of SASS!
➡About Natasha - Our glam metal Headliner from Portland! She is a globetrotting, award-winning, event producing powerhouse with decades of experience in bellydance, fitness and burlesque. Natasha has taught and performed at festivals and stages all across the US and is a class favorite with her students.

A community-centered book launch that invites conversation around disability, care, access, and how art can hold these realities with honesty.

Author Kristin Entler will discuss their new poetry collection, Of Water Never Ceasing, with fellow poet H. M. Cotton. Kristin will read from the book and take questions from the audience.

Of Water Never Ceasing is written from within ongoing illness and care. Moving through hospitals, homes, and the body itself, Kristin Entler traces how treatment, fatigue, diagnosis, and love alter the rhythms of living. These poems resist recovery narratives and instead stay with the daily negotiations of care, presence, and endurance, offering an intimate and clear-eyed record of what it means to keep living without the promise of resolution.

Kristin Entler is a writer and educator from Alabama, currently living in Western North Carolina. They hold an MFA in poetry from the University of Arkansas and an MA in Creative Writing from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Their work can be found in The Bitter Southerner, Gulf Stream Literary Magazine, Porter House Review, BOOTH, and elsewhere. Entler can be found online @findmycure.

H. M. Cotton is the managing editor of Birmingham Poetry Review, contributing editor for NELLE, and production manager for both journals. Her writing appears in places such as Raleigh Review, storySouth, and SmokeLong Quarterly. She is an MFA student at Warren Wilson and teaches at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. As a 2023 Alabama State Council on the Arts poetry fellow, she kayaked 180-miles of the Cahaba River and details the adventure at thecahabaproject.substack.com.

Join us for “EMERGENCE”, a Contact Improvisation retreat on June 5 – 7th, at Dreaming Stone Arts and Ecology Center, in the mountains of NC! During this open-level retreat weekend, we will practice rooting into ground and our own centers to cultivate the capacity to emerge, fly, expand, and connect with others.

Workshops led by Michele T. Hower and emily liptow will be themed around questions of emergence in contact improvisation practice, such as– How do we access presence and ground amidst the complexity of improvisational dance? Can we stay with a sensation or choice just long enough to see/feel what is emerging in our personal and collective dance? What are strategies for radical responsiveness to the ever-evolving nature of CI?

With both structured workshops and open jam time, this potent container will nourish and inspire your movement practice and widen your CI community.

This is an open-level event and would be a great opportunity and location for your first CI immersion experience or to deepen your engagement with the form. If you are brand new to Contact Improvisation, we encourage you to take a few classes first or sign up for our fall Fundamentals Intensive.

Sign Up Here:
https://dreamingstone.org/emergence/

APLR and Life-Force Academy Present: Jai Dev - Kriya: Tuning The Instrument Part One
Saturday, June 6th, 2026
AyurPrana Listening Room - 312 Haywood Rd, Asheville, NC 28806
Doors 2:30 PM || Event 3:00 PM
Kriya: Tuning The Instrument Part One
Kriya: Tuning The Instrument Part One moves through rhythmic movement, Pranayama, and foundational Kriyas to flush accumulated tension, clear the channels, and strengthen your capacity to hold more life force.
Jai Dev Singh
Jai Dev Singh is a renowned international teacher of Kundalini Yoga and Ayurveda, and founder of Life- Force Academy (LFA), a global training academy for the yogic arts and sciences with members in over 60 countries around the world.
Jai Dev was raised by a loving Jewish family in upstate South Carolina. While his family environment was nurturing, there was a lingering sense that he didn’t quite fit in. As a young man, he developed health challenges. While modern medicine offered temporary relief, it couldn’t get to the root of the problem. This led him on a search for true health and a deeper understanding of the human body that has taken him across the world and back.
His intense love of music brought him to Middle Tennessee State University where he studied Production in the Recording Industry. It was in college that he found himself at his very first Kundalini Yoga class. Jai Dev didn’t know much about yoga but was magnetically drawn to it. After one class he was hooked and thus began his life-changing yogic journey.
Inspired by his teacher, Jai Dev soon began to teach himself. He almost immediately attracted an audience of eager students, making it clear early on that he had uncovered a natural gift that he continues to nurture to this day.
Over the years Jai Dev trained extensively in Kundalini Yoga and a variety of other yogic traditions. He moved to Nevada City, CA to study Ayurveda. There, he discovered the true root of his health issues and exactly how imbalances in the mind and body occur. This led him on an incredible path to restoration, healing, and teaching others how to do the same. After graduating, he became the Clinical Director at the College of Ayurveda until his teaching demands led him to create his own training school: The Life-Force Academy.
Jai Dev travels the world with LFA’s mission to help people restore their inner vitality, connect to their genuine sense of purpose, and learn to live a happy life. LFA offers (virtual and in-person) courses and workshops on Kundalini Yoga, Ayurveda, and meditation. The courses are designed to improve your health, mental wellness, inner-confidence, increase prosperity, and so much more. Jai Dev’s down-to-earth sensibility and humor, combined with a creative delivery of yogic teachings have influenced thousands of practitioners and teachers around the globe.
Today, Jai Dev is based in Nevada City, California. When not running his global training academy, he enjoys basketball, spending time with his son, and experiencing as much live music as possible.

**You're Invited to the Summer Time Kick-Off Concert at WoodMill Winery!**

Hey there, music lovers! We’re kicking off summer in style at WoodMill Winery, and you won't want to miss it!

**Main Stage:** Get ready to groove with The Chairmen of the Board! Check them out at http://www.thechairmenoftheboard.com

**New Pavilion Stage:** Our good friends, Todd & Friends, will start the fun at 4:00 PM. Learn more about them at www.woodmillmusicworks.com/toddandfriendsband
We’ll have tasty food trucks, chilled wine, and our famous WoodMill wine slushies to keep you refreshed and energized!
And don’t forget, The Chairmen of the Board and The Executives will take the stage at 7:00 PM for an unforgettable performance.
Bring your friends and come join the celebration!

More Info:
http://www.woodmillmusicworks.com