What’s Happening

On a beautiful June day in 2006, St. Joseph Sr. Joan Laplace was driving back to New Orleans after visiting the Gulf Coast with some sisters when her phone rang. It was from a sister in Cincinnati, asking how far Laplace was from Mirabeau, the New Orleans provincial house of  the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph.

“There’s been a fire,” the sister on the phone said. “How soon can you get there?” Laplace arrived to find the campus filled with firefighters and equipment. A helicopter ferried loads of water from the nearby Bayou St. John.  CLICK HERE TO CONTINUE

I am thrilled to announce that with the help of my co-editor, Daniel T. O’Hara, our Book Review Editor, Vanessa Loh, and our Cover Editor, artist Rosie Bruno, Issue 9, a whopper of a Double Issue of The Shining Rock Poetry Anthology & Book Review, is now free and online.

Korean American author speaks about her journey to find true self

By Kang Hyun-kyung

Cindy Wilson, author of “Too Much Soul: The Journey of an Asian Southern Belle,” was born I Wol-yang in Seoul and adopted by African-American parents in 1975 when she was a few months old. Her name was changed to Cindy and she was brought to America by her adoptive parents the following year.Unlike some other adoptees who have spent a great deal of time and energy to find their birth parents, Wilson has never tried to find her roots. She said she considers her adoptive parents, not birth parents, to be her true family.

Democracy is more than the system of government. It is a way of life based on our commitment as citizens to the common good. We can assess the vitality of any democracy by looking at its history, its current state, and its potential to serve the hopes and dreams of its people. But the truest measure of its health is how well it is practiced.

Dear music lovers,

Welcome to 3rd Thursday Music – our second offering!

This month we revisit a performance of Aaron Copland’s beautiful Appalachian Spring in its original setting for 13 players. This SRO concert took place at the Masonic Temple in Asheville on May 19, 2013. Were you there? LISTEN + ENJOY

Common Hymnal is an online library for the spiritual underground, a connecting point for an as-yet-uncoalesced movement around the exchange of songs, stories and ideas. We facilitate this exchange via this site, streaming, play listing, YouTube, social media, a podcast and a Patreon. 

RAW AND INTUITIVE

I am a compulsive artist…I paint everyday because I have to!

My images are raw and intuitive.  Colors harmonize in unexpected ways and exuberance often collides with angst.

Stephanie O’Neill – in NPR

We’re all experiencing some form of grief these days. As this pandemic progresses, more of us will brush shoulders with loss.

The death of someone you care about deeply can be so gut wrenching and annihilating that you may be left unable to imagine ever regaining your equilibrium. And if you’re there right now, just know you won’t be in that painful place forever. CLICK HERE TO CONTINUE

Offered by Va Boyle

We’re so excited about spring migration that we are DOUBLE BOOKED today! You now have two options to tune in and learn about the amazing journeys birds make to, from, and through North Carolina.We’re so excited about spring migration that we are DOUBLE BOOKED today! You now have two options to tune in and learn about the amazing journeys birds make to, from, and through North Carolina.

Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project

ASAP’s mission is to help local farms thrive, link farmers to markets and supporters, and build healthy communities through connections to local food. 

There are more than 100 farmers markets (also called tailgate markets) across the Appalachian Grown region. In addition to providing support for all of these markets, ASAP manages Asheville City Market, which was established in 2009 as a learning lab to pilot new programs and provide more opportunities for farmers, particularly those unable to access existing market options.

By Brian Wong and edited by Sam Dresser in Psyche

You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words. And yet I’m one of the lucky ones. People are suffering. People are dying. Entire ecosystems are collapsing. We are in the beginning of a mass extinction, and all you can talk about is money and fairy tales of eternal economic growth. How dare you!
– Greta Thunberg, 23 September 2019, New York