Connie Bostic Art Exhibit Opening Reception
Thursday, February 15
Time: 6:00 – 8:00 p.m.
Location: Weizenblatt Gallery (Moore Fine Arts Building)
This is a collaborative exhibition featuring Asheville artist Connie Bostic and work from the MHU Women’s Studies Program. Bostic’s work will serve as a springboard for several conversations on campus that will discuss gender expectations, women’s health, violence against women, and identity development. Bostic’s artwork focus is on women – young girls to women – and vulnerability and concerns about their sexuality. Her images contain symbols referencing her views as an 80-year-old mother and grandmother. Exhibit runs through March 23.

Reel Appalachia: Films at the Ramsey Center – The Ralph Stanley Story
Thursday, February 15
Time: 7:00 – 9:00 p.m. Location: Liston B. Ramsey Center for Regional Studies
This documentary film is a portrait of the Grammy award-winning bluegrass great and star of the O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack. For over 50 years, Ralph Stanley’s banjo playing, haunting tenor voice and tradition-inspired repertoire have epitomized old time bluegrass music. This documentary explores Stanley’s musical roots in the Clinch Mountains of Virginia, the early days of The Stanley Brothers, and Ralph’s decision to continue on after the untimely death of his brother Carter.

The film will be followed by a Q&A/discussion with Gary Reid. Reid is a performer, record producer, writer, and historian, and is a three-time winner of the International Bluegrass Music Association’s award for Best Liner Notes. He is also the author of two recently-released books, for which he received the 2015 IBMA award for Print/Media Person of the Year. The books are: The Music of the Stanley Brothers and The Bluegrass Hall of Fame Inductee Biographies. In 2014, he launched a one-man play called A Life of Sorrow – the Life and Times of Carter Stanley.

Ain’t I a Woman! Chamber Music Theatre Performance
Monday, February 19
Time: 7:00 p.m. Location: Owen Theatre
Shayla Simmons portrays multiple characters while interacting with the onstage musical trio of cello, piano and percussion. Ain’t I a Woman! celebrates the life and times of four powerful African American women: renowned novelist and anthropologist Zora Neale Hurston, ex-slave and fiery abolitionist Sojourner Truth, exuberant folk artist Clementine Hunter, and fervent civil rights worker Fannie Lou Hamer. The musical score is drawn from the heartfelt spirituals and blues of the Deep South, the urban vitality of the Jazz Age, and contemporary concert music by African Americans. Sponsored by the MHU Women’s Studies Program, Office of Diversity and Multicultural Affairs, and the Visiting Artists and Lecturers Committee.

Crossroads Chapel Service
Tuesday, February 20
Time: 11:00 a.m.
Location: Broyhill Chapel
Joshua Hearne, a leader with, and one of the founding members of, Grace and Main Fellowship, an intentional and ecumenical Christian community in Danville, Virginia.

Appalachian Evenings: Making the “Invisible” Visible
Thursday, February 22
Time: 6:00 p.m.
Location: Liston B. Ramsey Center for Regional Studies
Join curator Ann Miller Woodford as she discusses her exhibition, When All God’s Children Get Together: A Celebration of the Lives and Music of African-American People in Far Western North Carolina (exhibited at the Ramsey Center January 15 through March 9, 2018). Using Black church music as the narrator, this project focuses on the musical traditions in African American communities in far WNC, as manifested in churches, schools, and workplaces. The Black community is miniscule (1.6%) in the region. That causes them to seem invisible in a place where Scots/Irish and Cherokee history is emphasized. Most of the far WNC African American history has passed away with the deaths of elders and their oral traditions. This project will answer the question, “Do any African Americans live here?” and if so, who and where are they?

Students vs. Faculty/Staff Basketball Game
Thursday, February 22
Time: 6:00 p.m.
Location: Chambers Gymnasium
Teams of students and faculty/staff will face off in this annual basketball game, which raises money for MHU students’ alternative spring break trips.

Pre-Tour Gala Concert
Thursday, February 22
Time: 7:30 p.m.
Location: Moore Auditorium
The Mars Hill University Wind Symphony, Jazz Band, and Percussion Ensemble present a joint concert as they prepare for their spring concert tour.

Theatre Arts Presents: Five Women Wearing the Same Dress
Thursday, February 22
Time: 7:30 p.m.
Location: James Thomas Black Box Theatre (Day Hall)
“Five Women Wearing the Same Dress” is a play written by Alan Ball famous for the film “American Beauty,” and creator of the HBO TV series “Six Feet Under” and “True Blood.” The play is a comedy set at the home of the bride during an ostentatious wedding reception at a Knoxville, Tennessee estate. Five reluctant, identically clad bridesmaids hide out in an upstairs bedroom of Meredith, the sister of the bride, each with her own reason to avoid the proceedings below. As the afternoon wears on, these five very different women joyously discover a common bond in this wickedly funny, irreverent, and touching celebration of the women’s spirit. **This is a ticketed event. For ticket prices and reservations, contact the box office at (828) 689-1239.**

Theatre Arts Presents: Five Women Wearing the Same Dress
Friday, February 23
Time: 7:30 p.m.
Location: James Thomas Black Box Theatre (Day Hall)
“Five Women Wearing the Same Dress” is a play written by Alan Ball famous for the film “American Beauty,” and creator of the HBO TV series “Six Feet Under” and “True Blood.” The play is a comedy set at the home of the bride during an ostentatious wedding reception at a Knoxville, Tennessee estate. Five reluctant, identically clad bridesmaids hide out in an upstairs bedroom of Meredith, the sister of the bride, each with her own reason to avoid the proceedings below. As the afternoon wears on, these five very different women joyously discover a common bond in this wickedly funny, irreverent, and touching celebration of the women’s spirit. **This is a ticketed event. For ticket prices and reservations, contact the box office at (828) 689-1239.**

Big Band Jazz Concert
Friday, February 23
Time: 7:30 p.m.
Location: Moore Auditorium
Concert presented by the MHU music department.

Theatre Arts Presents: Five Women Wearing the Same Dress
Saturday, February 24
Time: 7:30 p.m.
Location: James Thomas Black Box Theatre (Day Hall)
“Five Women Wearing the Same Dress” is a play written by Alan Ball famous for the film “American Beauty,” and creator of the HBO TV series “Six Feet Under” and “True Blood.” The play is a comedy set at the home of the bride during an ostentatious wedding reception at a Knoxville, Tennessee estate. Five reluctant, identically clad bridesmaids hide out in an upstairs bedroom of Meredith, the sister of the bride, each with her own reason to avoid the proceedings below. As the afternoon wears on, these five very different women joyously discover a common bond in this wickedly funny, irreverent, and touching celebration of the women’s spirit. **This is a ticketed event. For ticket prices and reservations, contact the box office at (828) 689-1239.**

Theatre Arts Presents: Five Women Wearing the Same Dress
Sunday, February 25
Time: 2:30 p.m.
Location: James Thomas Black Box Theatre (Day Hall)
“Five Women Wearing the Same Dress” is a play written by Alan Ball famous for the film “American Beauty,” and creator of the HBO TV series “Six Feet Under” and “True Blood.” The play is a comedy set at the home of the bride during an ostentatious wedding reception at a Knoxville, Tennessee estate. Five reluctant, identically clad bridesmaids hide out in an upstairs bedroom of Meredith, the sister of the bride, each with her own reason to avoid the proceedings below. As the afternoon wears on, these five very different women joyously discover a common bond in this wickedly funny, irreverent, and touching celebration of the women’s spirit. **This is a ticketed event. For ticket prices and reservations, contact the box office at (828) 689-1239.**

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Ongoing:

The Civil War In the Southern Highlands: A Human Perspective
Exhibit runs through March 4
Rural Heritage Museum
This exhibition presents an account, using rare original letters and newly-discovered documents, of the personal struggles of the people living in Madison County and the Southern Appalachian Mountains during the middle of the 19th century. Museum hours are Tuesday through Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., and by appointment.

When All God’s Children Get Together: A Celebration of the Lives and Music of African-American People in Far Western North Carolina
Exhibit runs through March 9
Liston B. Ramsey Center for Regional Studies
Curator Ann Miller Woodford’s exhibit uses Black church music as the narrator for this project focused on the musical traditions in African American communities in far WNC, as manifested in churches, schools, and workplaces. The Black community is miniscule (1.6%) in the region. That causes them to seem invisible in a place where Scots/Irish and Cherokee history is emphasized. Most of the far WNC African American history has passed away with the deaths of elders and their oral traditions. This project will answer the question, “Do any African Americans live here?” and if so, who and where are they?

Connie Bostic Art Exhibit
Exhibit runs through March 23
Weizenblatt Gallery
This is a collaborative exhibition featuring Asheville artist Connie Bostic and work from the MHU Women’s Studies Program. Bostic’s work will serve as a springboard for several conversations on campus that will discuss gender expectations, women’s health, violence against women, and identity development. Bostic’s artwork focus is on women – young girls to women – and vulnerability and concerns about their sexuality. Her images contain symbols referencing her views as an 80-year-old mother and grandmother.

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Upcoming

February 26 – Around Here: Coffee and Conversation at the Ramsey Center
A History of Spreading the Gospel through Music: From Slave Spirituals to Civil Rights

March 2-4 – Bailey Mountain Cloggers Spring Concert

March 8 – Appalachian Evenings: A Lecture Series at the Ramsey Center. The View from Home: Images of Appalachia and the “Rural-Urban Divide”

March 17 – -EXPO Madison. Community and business event showcasing local businesses, food vendors, artists, nonprofits, and government organizations.

Exhibit opens March 19 – “The War From Above: William Barnhill and Aerial Photography of World War I”

March 22 – Presidential Lecture & Performance Series. Jessica Bandel of the N.C. Office of Archives and History, author of “North Carolina and the Great War, 1914-1918.”

April 3 (tentative) – -Presidential Lecture & Performance Series. U.S. Rep. David Price (D-NC 4th District), a member of the Mars Hill class of 1959

April 12 – Appalachian Evenings: A Lecture Series at the Ramsey Center. Between Slavery and the Want of Railroads: Reconstruction in Western North Carolina

April 16 – Around Here: Coffee and Conversation at the Ramsey Center. Awareness: A Community Responsibility — a discussion of the impact of the opioid crisis on mountain communities.

April 25 – Reel Appalachia: Films at the Ramsey Center. First Language, with Dr. Sara Snyder, Director of WCU’s Cherokee Language Program

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MHU Lions Home Athletics

Wednesday, February 14