Join us for an evening of stories, music, and poetry honoring the balance of light and darkness, change and renewal, and new beginnings.
ARTIST LINE-UP
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Caribbean/African-American, Connecticut born, and Ozark raised, my influences vary to say the least. Immersed in the Indie-folk culture of North-West Arkansas, I found genuine expression and inclusivity. I'm now releasing music under the name "All Signs Point North." This project evokes emotions associated with self-discovery and sojourning. The name of the project attempts to convey the process of engaging with the synchronicities that life has to offer.
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Michael Hettich’s most recent book of poetry, The Halo of Bees: New and Selected Poems, 1990-2022 was published in May, 2023 by Press 53. His poetry, essays, and reviews have appeared widely in many journals and anthologies, and he has published more than a dozen books of poetry across four decades. His honors include several Individual Artist Fellowships from the Florida Division of Cultural Affairs, The Tampa Review Prize in Poetry, the David Martinson/Meadowhawk Prize, a Florida Book Award, the Lena M. Shull Book Award from the North Carolina Poetry Society, and the inaugural Hudson-Fowler Prize from Slant magazine at the University of Central Arkansas. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Miami and taught for many years at Miami Dade College where he was awarded an Endowed Teaching Chair. His website is michaelhettich.com.
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Internationally acclaimed Celtic fiddle virtuoso Jamie Laval creates rapt audiences with his passionate performances and engaging storytelling. Winner of the U.S. National Scottish Fiddle Championship, Jamie performed for Her Majesty the Queen, appeared on Dave Matthews' platinum Some Devil album, and presented a TEDx Talk on the value of arts and music in our communities.
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Carolina is a bilingual storyteller who engages her audience with Latin American stories from El Río Grande to La Patagonia. Since arriving in the US, she has been featured at the National Storytelling Festival and The Timpanogos Storytelling Festival, among other events. Carolina has toured numerous schools, libraries, museums, and cultural institutions from east to west, sharing the richness of Latin American and Hispanic folklore.
Her dedication to stories brought her to produce her literary podcast, Tres Cuentos, which showcases Latin America’s literature and can be found at her website, www.carolinaquiroga.com. Today, Carolina showcases animated videos for kids, parents, and teachers to enjoy on her YouTube Channel @CarolinaQuirogaStoryteller.
As a teacher-artist for The Wolf Trap Institute of Early Learning since 2016, Carolina created an integrated curriculum for Pre-K classrooms in San Antonio, Texas. She is part of the TAPAS (Teaching Artists Presenting in Asheville Schools) today.
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Originally from north Belfast, Adrian and his American wife and youngest son have lived in Hickory for almost twenty years. He has established himself as a poet on both sides of the Atlantic. Muck Island (1990), a collaboration with leading Irish artist, Ross Wilson, is housed in The Tate Gallery and the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. In 1997, Rice received the Sir James Kilfedder Memorial Bursary for Emerging Artists. In autumn 1999, as recipient of the US/Ireland Exchange Bursary, he was Poet-in-Residence at Lenoir-Rhyne College. His first full poetry collection – The Mason’s Tongue (1999) – was shortlisted for the Christopher Ewart-Biggs Memorial Literary Prize, nominated for the Irish Times Prize for Poetry, and translated into Hungarian by Thomas Kabdebo (A Komuves Nyelve, 2005). In 2002, he co-edited a major Irish anthology entitled, A Conversation Piece: Poetry and Art (The Ulster Museum in association with Abbey Press). Selections of his poetry and prose appear in both The Belfast Anthology and The Ulster Anthology (Blackstaff Press). Rice returned to Lenoir-Rhyne College as Visiting Writer-in-Residence for 2005, and has worked and published in NC ever since. Hickory Station was nominated for the Roanoke-Chowan Award for Poetry, and a poem from Hickory Station, “Breath”, was a Pushcart Prize nomination, and a Guardian ‘Poem of the Week’. Rice also plays with The Belfast Boys, an Irish Traditional duo, whose album, Songs For Crying Out Loud, regularly airs across the Carolinas. Accepting a full-time position in 2020, Rice is now a Senior Lecturer at Appalachian State University. He received the Rennie W. Brantz Award for Outstanding Teaching in the First Year Seminar. Adrian's passion is centered on proving the educational, sustaining power of Poetry and the Arts in his Appalachian classrooms. Adrian's poems are also included in Arlen House/Syracuse University Press's, Open-Eyed, Full-Throated: An Anthology of American/Irish Poets (2019), and in Crossing the Rift: North Carolina Poets on 9/11 & Its Aftermath (Press 53, 2021). His latest book is The Strange Estate: New & Selected Poems 1986-2017, and The Chances of Harm is due Fall 2024 (Press 53).