Waking Up Mama - Spring Equinox

CELEBRATION OF THE VERNAL EQUINOX
Saturday, March 19, 2011

7:00pm to 9:00pm

Waking up Mama - celebration of the Vernal Equinox (Public Ritual)

Family-friendly pubic ritual to celebrate the vernal equinox.

Location: Parish Hall of All Soul's Episcopal Church, Asheville, NC

This family-friendly and light-hearted spring welcoming ritual is open to the respectful public. A love offering will be accepted for Temple outreach projects and Mother Grove continues to gather non-perishable food items for the Mother's Cornucopia food pantry.


For more information, contact the Temple at info@mothergroveavl.org or

828-230-5069 | Link

If you are looking for a unique place to worship, visit this website for more information on their Sunday gatherings.

Asheville Mardi Gras Parade and Ball

This year's theme-"Homegrown, Fancy, and Free"
Sunday, March 6 · 3:00pm - 10:00pm
Downtown Asheville, and Pack's Tavern's Century Room

Everyone is invited to participate in, or simply spectate this family friendly spectacle. Asheville's Mardi Gras celebration is rapidly growing as more and more sparkles, feathers, and beads show up each year to march in our annual parade. The parade, led by this year's King and Queen, will be full of dancers, roller skaters, drummers and krewe's of colorful characters. The parade will line up in Pack's Square, NOT Walnut Street at 2:00 pm and will step off at 3:00 pm sharp, RAIN OR SHINE. We will then dance and march our way towards Walnut St, then to Lexington Ave, making a left on to Lexington, and then a right on to College St. Next, the parade will loop around Pritchard Park and up Patton Avenue to Pack Square. This is where the parade ends and the Mardi Gras Ball begins.

Interested in being a part of the parade? Gather your krewe of friends, family, classmates or co-workers or just yourself and come be a part of this great event. Feel free to get creative! Art cars and homemade floats are always welcome. Please register them on the Asheville Mardi Gras Facebook groups page. Remember that Asheville's Mardi Gras is a family friendly event and is “Homegrown, Fancy and Free”. Another great way to enjoy this event is to gather your friends and family, pull up a chair, sit back and watch the show! Bring a camera and be ready to catch beads.

After the parade is over around 4:00 pm, continue the fun and revelry at the Mardi Gras Ball in Pack's Tavern's elegant Century Room. Costumes are not required to enter the ball. This is a free event for the entire community to enjoy. There will be festive libations and extraordinary live music performed by Sirius B to keep us dancing all night long. For more information on the Parade or Ball, and for Mardi Gras events leading up to the parade day, check in with the groups page on Facebook under Asheville Mardi Gras.

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Grand Krewe at the Parade
Sunday at 12:00pm
Pack Square, Vance Monument/fountain area

Bike Love Party

Asheville on Bikes is proud to announce the 5th Annual Bike Love Party and Fundraiser, happening Saturday February 26th at the new downtown Arcade Asheville. It will be another memorable night of bike lovin’ featuring three bands: headliner Uncle Mountain, AoB’s own Red Dirt Floor, and the world premier performance from C Scott with The Multimodalers.

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Nataraj

Nataraj, translated from Sanskrit, means "king of dance", and we do our best to live up to that name.

Combining dynamic drumming with soaring otherworldly melodies, Our music weaves flowing improvisation together with the dancer's energy to create an interactive and high energy atmosphere. They are from Asheville, NC.

Facebook | Website

(cross-posted to Easy Bake Coven)

Activist Clare Hanrahan

Activist Clare Hanrahan may leave the front lines, but her voice still rings out - by Jason Sandford, Citizen-Times

In her younger days, she marched with garbage workers in Memphis, Tenn., in the wake of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination.

She has shaken her fist at the front gates of bomb-making factories. She has chanted with immigrants demanding fair treatment. She has stood silent vigil with women advocating for an end to war.

And she once trespassed on the grounds of the Fort Benning, Ga., military base, home to a military training school commonly known as the School of the Americas — an offense for which she spent six months in federal prison in 2002.

“At one point in my life, I thought if I screamed loud enough and worked hard enough and was unrelenting in my kind of advocating and demanding, I could make change,” Hanrahan said.

Read More

Great story on a true peace warrior from Asheville.

Warren Haynes' Annual Xmas Jam

WARREN HAYNES PRESENTS: THE TWENTIETH ANNUAL CHRISTMAS JAM

(Asheville, NC) --For the past 20 years, Warren Haynes has coordinated his annual Christmas Jam. Like a family reunion, the annual, one-of-a-kind, semi-structured marathon of music brings together old friends on stage and in the audience at the Civic Center Arena in Asheville, N.C. for one of the countries greatest live events. The London Times has rated it "One of the top ten concerts in the USA."

"Christmas Jam started 20 years ago as an opportunity for local musicians to jam at the one time of year they were all in town at the same time. Back then, we gave the money to whatever charity we felt like. As the event grew and we became aware of Habitat For Humanity, we settled on them because we believe in the organization and know the money goes where its supposed to."

Featuring:
Steve Miller Band
The Warren Haynes Band
Gregg Allman
John Bell (Widespread Panic)
Umphrey's McGee
The Dirty Dozen Brass Band
Missing Cats

twitter | facebook

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Dancing Santa - B-boy Santa Sneak Attack in Asheville

A dancing Santa b-boy is on the loose in Asheville, North Carolina and he's looking to start a hip hop, break dance holiday flash mob. Did he succeed? Watch him sneak up and surprise visitors with head spins, flares and seriously fresh break dancing moves at the Pritchard Park Drum Circle, Pack Square, Asheville Visitors Center, Lexington Avenue Brewery, The Grove Park Inn Resort & Spa, National Gingerbread House Competition, The Orange Peel and America's Largest Home, Biltmore.

Link

Santacon in Asheville

Looks like they had so much fun, doesn't it?

Santacon, or Santarchy is a huge global success and Asheville participates, too.

In 2009, 2008, 2007, and now we had one this year over the weekend. (link below)

There are rumors of another TWO more Santacons scheduled in Asheville for this year. Either somebody needs to do a better job of organizing this damn thing or I should research this a bit further. If I find any more details I'll add them to this post.

For more on the story and to see many more photos, see this Link

Tango in Asheville with Karen Jaffe

Karen offers other classes throughout the year. Watch for weekend Intro courses, and Special Seminars with Karen a a variety of partners from around the SE , teaching here in Asheville and also all over the SE region throughout the year.



Karen is available for group and private lessons, as well as performances.

See website @ Tango Gypsies | Yahoo! Group

Freaks of Asheville Calendar

Freaks of Asheville 2011. Buy your calendar NOW!

via

Asheville Zombiewalk 10/10/10!

Asheville Zombiewalk - Come out this SUNDAY! Check links for more details.

Location:Downtown Asheville Pizza and Brewing and the streets of Downtown Asheville
Time:6:00PM Sunday, October 10th

Link | Facebook | YouTube

Verve Asheville

Our October issue should be out around town tomorrow! In the meantime, check out this behind-the-scenes album from our "Rock 'n Roll Couture" photo shoot. Shots by Stewart O'Shields, styling by Dema Badr, makeup by Mendy Hoffman and Scott Thompson, and hair by Gretchen Pheffer.

VERVE is Western North Carolina’s smartest magazine for women. Our sassy, sophisticated readers love our bimonthly publication for its stunning photography and riveting feature stories—which provide an in-depth look at Western North Carolina women in the arts, business, fashion and design.

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Activist Community Potluck

5-8pm, Sunday September 19
Malvern Hills Park
Asheville, NC

This is the first of many monthly potlucks, each on a different topic, and each in a different location. All activists, community builders and leaders, and any community members are welcome. This is a great opportunity to get together, build relationships, network, share ideas, brainstorm, and synergize.

Link

Asheville Octoberfest

October 9, 2010

On the 200th anniversary of the first Oktoberfest, the Asheville Downtown Association is proud to bring you Asheville's own Oktoberfest! One of the highlights of the event will be the Brewery Team Contests! Asheville Brewing Co., Craggie, French Broad, Green Man, Highland and Pisgah will each field a four person team for team contests held throughout the day!

Contests will include:

* Keg-Rolling
* Stein Races
* Dizzy Gnome
* Bratwurst Eating Contest
* Alphorn Blowing Contest

Link

Asheville from a Chicago Point of View, ahem...

I saw this on Ashvegas and just had to know more about another article on Asheville from an outsider. sigh...

and it dared to call itself:

Asheville, home of hillbilly progressives.

Click the link below if you've already had your nerve pills or your heart medication today. These pieces on Asheville tend to make this ol' hillbilly a might riled up. [/sarcasm]

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