In 2011, a coalition of public and private interests purchased a narrow wedge of land along Hominy Creek in West Asheville to create an an urban green space. The result was the Hominy Creek Greenway.
“In a rapidly developing Asheville, it’s easy to focus on what’s the new cool spot, but our single greatest resource is the natural beauty of this area,” says Bryan Tomes, president of Friends of Hominy Creek Greenway. “It’s why people are drawn to Asheville.”
To commemorate 10 years of the greenway, the group has invited local artists to supplement the area’s natural charms with temporary, outdoor art installations meant to explore the idea of the natural world thriving in the midst of significant development.
The public art exhibition, Hominy Rising, will be on display Saturday, Oct. 2-Sunday, Oct. 10, on the Hominy Creek Greenway, 80 Shelburne Road. An opening party will be held Saturday, Oct. 2, 4-7 p.m.
The juried exhibit will include works by artists Max Cooper, Jenna Jaffe, Pagans & Androids and Jason Rojas.
“Many of the artists in the show walk the greenway regularly,” Tomes says.
The 10-year celebration week will also include Family Day Sunday, Oct. 3, at 1 p.m., and an Art Bark Walk Saturday, Oct. 9, at 10 a.m. The latter event, hosted by Mountain Pet Rescue Asheville, will let people walk their leashed dogs down the greenway to check out the art. Dog costumes are encouraged, and dogs looking for forever homes will be on hand.
“Asheville has a bounty of artists and of beautiful natural spaces,” Tomes says. “We hope the exhibit inspires more projects that bring the two together.”
For more information, visit avl.mx/9id.
Outlaw tales
Veteran musician Mickey Hayes first saw Warren Haynes perform at an Asheville club called The Brass Tap in 1980. A few months later, he hired the 20-year-old Haynes to play guitar in the band of legendary outlaw country performer David Allan Coe.
“We called him at night and put him on a plane to Baton Rouge the next morning and put him onstage to play our show that very night,” says Hayes. “Trial by fire. He was great!”
Haynes, of course, would go on to a Grammy-winning career of his own, including a long stint playing for the Allman Brothers Band and founding popular jam band Gov’t Mule.
Hayes, who splits his time between Asheville and Texas these days, promises plenty of stories about Haynes in his new book, My Life on the Road With David Allan Coe.
“I wrote this book primarily to give all [Coe’s] millions of fans an insight to what the real David Allan Coe was like and not what some of the trash articles out there say about him,” says Hayes.
Hayes was sharing a Nashville townhouse with Haynes in 1988 when the latter told him about an Asheville benefit concert he planned for homeless veterans. That would turn out to be the first Christmas Jam, held that year at 45 Cherry. It has since moved to Harrah’s Cherokee Center – Asheville, and has included performances by the Doobie Brothers, Sheryl Crow, Peter Frampton and many others over the years.
The self-published book will be available for purchase on Thursday, Sept. 30. For more information, visit avl.mx/ahk.
HART presents Diary of Anne Frank
HART Theatre will present a production of The Diary of Anne Frank Thursday-Saturday, Sept. 30-Oct. 2 and Thursday-Saturday, Oct. 7-9, at 7:30 p.m. The theater will also offer performances Sunday, Oct. 3, and Sunday, Oct. 10, at 2 p.m.
The play, written by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett and first staged in 1955, is an adaptation of the posthumously published 1947 book, The Diary of a Young Girl. The book contains the writings of Anne Frank while she was hiding with her family for two years during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands. She died in a concentration camp in 1945.
Goodrich and Hackett used unedited diary entries to show the hope and spirit of Frank, and the play contains some funny exchanges and sweet moments in addition to its dark themes, director Julie Kinter says.
“If I could have the audience take away one thing from this play, it would be that finding that empathy and compassion for another person, despite our differences, is the key to mankind surviving,” she says.
HART Theatre is at 250 Pigeon St., Waynesville. For more information or to get tickets, go to avl.mx/agr.
Live theater back in Black Mountain
The Black Mountain Center for the Arts, which has been dark for more than a year due to COVID-19, returns to live theater with Love, Linda (The Life of Mrs. Cole Porter) Friday-Saturday, Oct. 1-2, at 7 p.m., and Sunday, Oct. 3, at 2 p.m. The play also will be presented Friday-Saturday, Oct. 8-9, at 7 p.m., and Sunday, Oct. 10, at 2 p.m.
The one-woman show, with music and lyrics by Cole Porter and book by Stevie Holland with Gary William Friedman, explores the unconventional relationship and genuine love between Linda Lee Thomas and Porter, who was gay. The couple were married for 35 years.
Love, Linda will be directed and produced by Misty Theisen. The role of Thomas will be played by Karen Covington-Yow, with Bob Strain on piano.
“I knew very little about her [Thomas] before I was cast in this show, but now I feel so honored to bring her love story with Cole to life,” Covington-Yow said in a press release.
The Black Mountain Center for the Arts is located at 225 W. State St., Black Mountain. For more details or to get tickets, go to avl.mx/agv.
Kids say the funniest things
Wanna see some improv comedy?
Yes, and …
Get the Hook, a teen improv comedy troupe, will perform at the Parkway Playhouse in Burnsville Friday-Saturday, Oct. 1-2, at 6:30 p.m.
Under the direction of Kristen Donelle Livengood, the rib-tickling teens will play high-energy improv games based on audience suggestions.
Current troupe members include Willa Briggs, Leif Cedergren, Ellie Murphy, Aaron Neighbors, Toby Rogers and Roby Summerfield.
Parkway Playhouse is located at 202 Green Mountain Drive, Burnsville. For more information, go to avl.mx/ags.
Feting fall
Appalachian Standard at Ross Farm, a craft hemp producer and garden greenhouse in Candler, will present Harvest Fall Festival on Saturday, Oct. 2, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.
“Since it is harvest, we want to celebrate the hard work we’ve put in this past year and celebrate the people that have supported us,” says Heather Divoky, processing manager for Appalachian Standard.
The free, first-time event will feature live music, including bluegrass and a performance by Asheville rock band Buddhagraph Spaceship. Also on tap will be a mechanical bull, artisans and fall-themed games such as pumpkin tic-tac-toe.
The farm’s greenhouse will be open and selling pumpkins and seasonal plants.
Social media hemp advocate Lauren Davis, who has about 700,000 TikTok followers, will be on hand for a meet-and-greet.
The farm is located at 91 Holbrook Road in Candler. For more information, go to avl.mx/ah1.
Unfortunately, the tree Mr. Rojas is hanging his bowl on in the photo is a highly invasive Mimosa & should be cut down & replaced with something native. https://projects.ncsu.edu/goingnative/howto/mapping/invexse/mimosa.html