Around Town: A NYT best seller and a Pulitzer Prize finalist to speak in Brevard

Two successful authors, including one New York Times best seller and also one Pulitzer Prize finalist, will be making presentations this month in Brevard.

According to a press release, Brevard College’s Teacher Education Program will host children’s author, Dr. Carole Boston Weatherford, and her son, Jeffery Weatherford, a notable illustrator, in the Francis at 6:30 p.m. in the Pavillion, Porter Center.

Weatherford is a New York Times best-selling author. Her presentation is entitled “The Power of Children’s Literature: Building Comprehension Skills to Empower All Readers,” focusing on the role literature plays to open the world of learning and build background knowledge, the release said. The event begins with a reception at 6:30 p.m. and lecture at 7.

Weatherford is a Newbery Honor author, and two-time NAACP Image Award winner. Since her 1995 debut, she has published more than 50 books, including these Caldecott Honor winners: Freedom in Congo Square, Voice of Freedom: Fannie Lou Hamer: Spirit of the Civil Rights Movement and Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom. Most recently, Weatherford’s book “Unspeakable: The Tulsa Race Massacre” was the 2022 winner of the Coretta Scott King Book Award honoring African American authors and illustrators of outstanding books for children and young adults. She is also a professor of English at Fayetteville State University.

A Baltimore-born daughter of educators, Weatherford at age 6 dictated her first poem to her mother. Her father, a high school printing teacher, published some of her early poems on a printing press in his classroom. By middle school, she had transferred from an all-black public school to an exclusive private school. There, her eighth-grade teacher wrongfully accused her of plagiarism, according to the release. That slight left her determined to use her writing to amplify marginalized voices.

Highland Bookstore will be selling Weatherford's books and will donate a portion of the proceeds to Brevard’s chapter of the Augustine Literacy Project.

Scott to discuss his book 'Black Snow' on Nov. 2 in Brevard

James M. Scott, the author of the recently-released "Black Snow: Curtis LeMay, the Firebombing of Tokyo, and the Road to the Atomic Bomb," will speak at 2 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 2 at the Transylvania County Library in Brevard. According to a press release, Scott’s talk will be in the library’s Rogow Room and will include a question-and-answer period.

It is free to attend.

Drawing on first-person interviews with American pilots and bombardiers and Japanese survivors, as well air force archives and oral histories, Scott's new book details the devastating firebombing campaign. A Pulitzer Prize finalist for his previous book, Target Tokyo: Jimmy Doolittle and the Raid that Avenged Pearl Harbor, Scott spoke previously in Brevard in the spring as part of the Veterans Museum of the Carolina’s well-attended speaker series, the release said.

In Black Snow, Scott describes the development of the long-range Boeing B-29 Superfortress bomber, the capture of the Marianas Islands for use as airfields and the momentous change in strategy from high-altitude “precision” bombing to low-altitude nighttime incendiary bombing.

Scott is a native and current resident of South Carolina. A graduate of Wofford College, he was also a Nieman Fellow at Harvard. His other previous books include Rampage, The War Below and Attack on the Liberty.

Black Snow is available now at Highland Books, 36 West Main St. in Brevard and also online at https://www.highlandbooksonline.com/. He will be signing books at his presentation. The book will also be available for purchase and signing by the author after his presentation at the Veterans History Museum, 21 East Main St., Brevard. His presentation will be livestreamed on Facebook starting at 2:10 p.m. and will later be posted on YouTube. More information is available at https://theveteransmuseum.org/james-m-scotts-new-book-black-snow/.

Adrian Smith to play at Episcopal Church of St. John in the Wilderness

According to a press release, the Episcopal Church of St. John in the Wilderness will host a Friends of Music concert featuring Bass-Baritone Adrian Smith at 4 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 13 in the Parish Hall across from the church. He will be accompanied by pianist Dewitt Tipton.

The public is invited to attend, and contributions will be gratefully accepted, the release said.

Hailed for his “big bronze voice,” Smith has been heard in numerous opera and concert roles. Appearances include roles in Rigoletto, Jennifer Higdon’s Cold Mountain, La Cenerentola, Carmen, L’elisir d’amore,The Magic Flute, La fanciulla del West, and Capriccio. Concert performances include Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, Brahms’ and Mozart’s Requiem, Berlioz’ Roméo et Juliette, Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Vaughan Williams’ Songs of Travel, Handel’s Messiah and Dettingen Te Deum, and major works by J. S. Bach. A native of Hickory, he holds degrees from Lenoir-Rhyne University and Boston University, and was a prize winner in competitions in Lincolnton; Shreveport, Louisiana; Birmingham, Alabama; and the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions.

Future concerts include flutist Kate Steinbeck on Dec. 4 and folk musicians Laura Boosinger and Josh Goforth on Feb. 19.

St. John in the Wilderness is located in Flat Rock at 1905 Greenville Highway. For more information, call the church office at (828) 693-9783 or visit www.stjohnflatrock.org.

ReFi Fest set for Saturday in Flat Rock

From 10-11:45 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 5, a community of changemakers are co-creating a festival and broadcast based at Regen Campus in Flat Rock at 215 Rhett Dr. Dubbed ReFi Fest, the event will showcase authors, farmers, mathematicians, builders, holistic practitioners, artists, members of the SEEDS community and others who will share their perspectives for how we step into a regenerative future, according to a press release.

Participants will also be invited to to present their visions for the future and to witness projects actively building with this mission at the forefront. Inspired by the third birthday of SEEDS (the movement, the community, and the currency), as well as the recent launch of Regen Civics Alliance, the desire for this event is to activate local and global regenerative, land-based projects that represent regenerative community prototypes, with select projects invited to incubate together at Regen Campus, the release said.

To register go to BetterWorlds.com.

Brevard Music Center's 'East Meets West' to be held Nov. 8

Brevard Music Center continues its Parker Concert Hall Fall/Winter Series with “East Meets West” at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 8, according to a press release.

Sitar and Tabla master Ustad Shafaat Khan will be joined by keyboardist Farhaj Aziz, vocalist Aditi Sethi andguitarist Jay Brown in a program that highlights Classical music and other forms, including Bollywood, Ghazal and Thumri, the release said.

Tickets are priced from $35 and are available online at brevardmusic.org.

This article originally appeared on Hendersonville Times-News: Around Town: A NYT best seller and a Pulitzer Prize finalist to speak in Brevard