Artisans, crafters, food and beverage vendors are invited to submit applications for the Greening Up the Mountains Festival happening in Sylva from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. Saturday, April 22.

Youth Activities

At noon on Friday, Jan. 27, the Cherokee One Feather will select seven contestants at Qualla Java in Cherokee to participate in an in-person taste competition to determine the person who may best identify which coffee is decaffeinated and which is regular. The taste test date will be at noon…

Thirteen senior athletes traveled from Western North Carolina to compete in the North Carolina Senior Games and Silver Arts State finals held in the Raleigh area between Sept. 1 and Nov. 13.

Caedmon Akers, the son of Crystal and Chris Akers of Sylva, recently won the title of Mr. Dance of North Carolina at the Dance Masters of America Scholarship competition held in Greensboro.

Webster Baptist Church is sponsoring its annual community Christmas outreach dinner to those who are homebound, in financial distress, in nursing homes without family, and those in critical jobs having to work on Christmas Day.

By Dave Russell

Great Smoky Mountains National Park will host a Holiday Homecoming at the Oconaluftee Visitor Center and Mountain Farm Museum from 10 a.m. until 3 p.m. Saturday. Visitors of all ages can celebrate winter holiday traditions from multiple cultural groups who call Southern Appalachia home.

The Jackson County Public Library is hosting LEGO Club at 4 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 8, in the Community Room.

Dogwood Crafters will present an exploring watercolor class featuring Susan Lingg from 1-4 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 8. The class costs $40 and registration closes Friday, Dec. 2. Lingg says she will share the thrill of water color painting in this class designed for beginner to intermediate skill…

After sold out performances of this fall’s “Calliope Shorts: Campfire Stories,” Sylva’s Calliope Stage announces its holiday production of “The Greatest Christmas Story Ever Told by Two People, or ... A Christmas Carol?”

At 3 p.m. Saturday City Lights Bookstore features two novelists reading from each other’s books and talking about what their stories have in common.

Ginger Rutland of Waynesville (Gingerbreadland.com) will be the featured artist when the Hard Candy Christmas Arts & Crafts Show opens for its 35th season at the Ramsey Center at Western Carolina University.

Sylva resident Louise Morgan Runyon will appear at City Lights Bookstore at 4 p.m. Saturday for an in-person launch of her fifth book of poems, “Where Is Our Prague Spring?”

On Monday-Thursday, Nov. 7-10, the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Commerce Department, N.C. Cooperative Extension Cherokee office and EmPOWERing Mountain Food Systems are hosting the Street Food Institute for the inaugural Food Truck Boot Camp in Cherokee for anyone interested in learning how …

Calliope Stage Company is hosting Calliope Shorts: Campfire Stories during Oct. 27-29 and Nov. 3-5 at 7 p.m. at Full Spectrum Farms.

By Beth Lawrence

The Jackson County Chamber of Commerce will hold its second “Friends Night Out” from 4-7 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 3, in downtown Sylva.

Poets Lee Stockdale and Andrew Clark will visit City Lights Bookstore at 3 p.m. Saturday,to mostly discuss “Gorilla,” a collection of poetry about Stockdale’s journey as a suicide survivor.

The Wesley Foundation at Cullowhee United Methodist Church will host its 12th haunted house from 7-11 p.m. Oct. 28 and 29. Tickets are $10. The Wesley Foundation Haunted House started in 2008 and has grown into a major annual event that takes months of preparation and planning for Wesley Fou…

Calliope Stage Co. will host Calliope Shorts: Campfire Stories Oct. 27-29 and Nov. 3-5 beginning at 7 p.m. at the Full Spectrum Farms Pavilion in Cullowhee 

Frances Figart will visit City Lights Bookstore at 3 p.m. Saturday.

City Lights Bookstore will host a trio of North Carolina poets at 3 p.m. Saturday. Pat Riviere-Seel, Paul Jones and Ben Cutler will all share their respective works.

Park visitors still have a few chances to watch artists in action painting the beauty of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

Ronald Evans will present his historical novel “The Odyssey of Robert Peake” at 3 p.m. Saturday at City Lights Bookstore. Evans explores the story of an English indentured servant, Robert Peake, who set sail for the Virginia colony in 1623. “The Odyssey of Robert Peake” is a novelization abo…

Big Willie’s Sauces won first place in Verde hot sauce with their serrano sauce at the N.C. Hot Sauce Contest and festival in Oxford. Last year Big Willie’s ketchup based barbecue sauce placed third.

“ColorFest,” Dillsboro’s Fine Arts & Crafts Fair, returns for a 14th time from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 1.

The Jackson County Public Library hosts Bryan Thurman at 6 p.m. Tuesday in the Community Room.

Former Western Carolina University anthropology professor Robert Gurevich will visit City Lights Bookstore at 5 p.m. Friday to present his novel “The Razor’s Edge: Embezzlement, Corruption, and Development in Ethiopia.”

William Ritter, a singer-songwriter and keeper of Appalachian history, will be releasing his debut solo album Mentor on Sept. 23.

Charles Stallings will visit City Lights Bookstore at 3 p.m. Saturday to greet folks and sign his book, “A Path From Tobacco Road.” Stallings served as principal of Camp Laboratory School in Cullowhee, and later owned and operated the Speedwell General Store. To reserve copies of “A Path Fro…