Whether the Weather
An Evening of Stories on the Anniversary of Hurricane Helene
presented by Temple of Seaweed
How has the storm changed us? What have we learned and lost? What worlds are we creating after the flood?
Join us for an evening of offerings from new and familiar writers and storytellers from throughout Western North Carolina as we reflect and grieve, honor and celebrate, bear witness, and find our way together one year after the storm.
Sunday, September 28 6:00-8:30 PM
Doors Open at 5:30 PM
This event is SOLD OUT.
Forward all inquiries to weatheringhelene@gmail.com
Donations accepted at the door.
Suggested donation $20 - $30
All proceeds go to Swannanoa Communities Together, a community-led effort to support the Swannanoa Valley community, care for each other, share resources, advocate, and organize for Swannanoa’s future.
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Heather Laine Talley has been listening to hurricane stories since she was a girl in South Louisiana. Those stories shaped every key decision she made when Helene decimated her neighborhood. Since the storm, writing and creativity have been her most potent pathways for healing.
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Ami Worthen is dedicated to contributing to a new paradigm. Her writing is informed by the vision of a collective narrative that is truly collective. It is her belief that shifting the narrative is one of the ways we move towards liberation.
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Marsha Almodovar is a mixed-media painter whose work passionately explores themes like social justice, bodily autonomy, healing generational trauma, and embodiment. Her expressive style draws on bright colors, emotion, natural elements, and personal narrative.
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Aisha Johnson Adams is a writer, media entrepreneur, and community leader based in Western North Carolina. Her work explores resilience, belonging, and the untold stories of Black women and families navigating systemic challenges. She is the author of the forthcoming memoir This Is What Made Me.
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Rae Anderson is a poet, therapist, queer, and land steward living on wild mountain land near Fairview NC. Her writing explores what it means to be in connection to nature, community, spirit, and self.
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Mari Beth Bennett is a recently retired literacy educator transplanted from Massachusetts, figuring out her next purpose in life. Foodcentric .
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Melanie Ida Chopko is a local singer songwriter and performer, who co-wrote a series of songs just after Helene with the kids she teaches at Asheville Music School, ranging from deeply heartfelt to silly. Her sophomore album, Never Had a Love Like This, a dispatch from dating and the stubbornly hopeful quest to find intimacy and friendship will be released October 14th.
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Lena Garzarelli is an Appalachian native and student at Warren Wilson College, where she studies Environmental Education. As a writer, herbalist, and animist, she is passionate about tending to the earth and honoring our relationship to the more-than-human world.
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Lillian Govus is the Director of Communications and Public Engagement for Buncombe County. Her voice became the soundtrack of Helene as she facilitated daily press conferences for months following the storm. She lives between Black Mountain and Swannanoa.
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Charlotte Huggins/c.savage ~20 year Asheville community member, lover of trees and people, salamanders, rivers/waters, curious about change and humans' love of world. Poetry, divination, clown, curiosity, love, interaction, relationship, care. Blessings.
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Kate Hurley is a seasoned touring musician turned writer, teacher, and entrepreneur, who brings creativity, empathy, and vision to whatever she is setting her hand to. She aims to build communities rooted in story, connection, and transformation. She lives in Fairview, in a red cabin her husband built. Her deepest goal: to love whoever is standing in front of her.
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Kelly Riedesel is a Cree-Métis dual citizen of the U.S. and the Métis Nation of Ontario. With a background in Soil and Water Science and Microbiology, Kelly turned to poetry as a way to continue to uphold the Cree law of Wâhkôhtowin— the kinship and sacred collective responsibility we have that binds us to both the richness and the suffering of all creation now and in the future.
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René Treece is a photographer, writer, and community worker rooted in Asheville. After losing her River Arts studio in the flood, she’s continued to show up with her camera and her hands—doing mutual aid, telling the quiet stories of resilience, and turning to poetry as a way through. Her work carries the pulse of place, grief, and belonging, and keeps reaching for what endures after the storm.
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Anne Turnbow Raustol is a writer, mom of three young adult children, and a small business owner who loves watching her dogs run up and down mountain trails and sharing good food and conversations with friends and family!
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Amy Worthy grew up in rural Alabama and got out as quickly as she could. She found Western North Carolina over twenty years ago and has never looked back. Amy is a psychotherapist and a writer. She lives with her wife, daughter, and two dogs in diapers (it’s complicated) in Asheville, North Carolina.