So I’m starting a feed of events registered for Greenfield Amphitheater with imeem.com:

This page will, I hope, maintain a list of syndicated events for the curious, like me.

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UNCW has been great about attracting good speakers to the area, though I confess I don’t love Sherman Alexie’s work. I have serious reservations about the work. Get it??…Reservations? He’s a Native American writer? Am I supposed to say this? I can’t remember, but I’ve read a number of Alexie’s stories, some in his collection The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fist Fight in Heaven, some in the New Yorker, and I just don’t think his writing is good. Granta called him one the nation’s best young novelists, and the New Yorker identified him as one of the “20 Writers for the 20th Century”. And I kid oafishly here because I think his reputation has been staked not on his ethnicity, much less on his writing, but on his ethnic-ness, on his self-conscious “indian”-ness. Which I don’t think is a good basis for judgments about writing.

He’s not terrible. But praise for him is all out of proportion to his skills as a writer. That’s what I’m trying to say. I mean,…one of the “20 writers of the 20th century”? Is the absence of an adjective before “writers” some way to hedge the New Yorker bet, to say something about Alexie without actually praising him? Is there some other set of Alexie work I should take up? His poetry? Is the screenplay for Smoke Signals much better than the movie? (Man, I sound like a lit-grouch this morning!)

Grove Project reader Bill L. sends along this notice about Wilmington’s first Twestival, to be held downtown at Port City Pub on Grace, and featuring lots of musicians and other artists performing in a benefit for charity:water.

Update: Here’s our friend Bruce Brown on the Twestival and its object, charity:water:

Find more videos like this on 3rd Street Plaza

The Doris Betts Fiction Prize awards the first- and second-place winners with prizes of $250 and $100 respectively. Winners and finalists will be considered for publication in the North Carolina Literary Review.
This year’s final judge will be Kat Meads, a native of eastern North Carolina now living in California, Mead’s books include the short story collections Not Waving and Little Pockets of Alarm and the novels Sleep and The Invented Life of Kitty Duncan Benedict Roberts.

The 2008 Betts Prize and second place stories will appear in NCLR’s 2009 issue, forthcoming this summer. For subscription information, go to www.ecu.edu/nclr.

Contest flyer in PDF

Along with Uhuru Surfcraft, we will be hosting the Fourth Annual Clean Water Classic Surf Festival in Wrightsville Beach, NC on October 25-26, 2008 and would like to invite you to attend and participate in the contest and festival activities.
The Cape Fear Clean Water Classic Surf Festival is a gathering for surfers on the East Coast. It is also a forum for addressing water quality, equitable beach access, and other issues affecting the coastal environment. The Festival aims to bring like-minded surfers and ocean/water enthusiasts together to promote surfing and raise awareness of these issues.

With hurricane season at its peak, this will be an exciting opportunity to showcase some of the hottest surfing talent on the East Coast in a fun relaxed atmosphere.

Adjacent to the competition, booths and displays representing environmentally-minded organizations will be highlighting their involvement with education and conservation of the coastal environment. With the contest serving as the focal point, this will be a fantastic opportunity for everyone to network and meet individuals from all over the East Coast with similar interests.

Following the first day of the contest, an outdoor banquet will be held at the Landing in Wrightsville Beach, NC. Relax and unwind with great food, music and entertainment, like minded people and lots of fun!

After the success of the previous Cape Fear Clean Water Classics, we are anxious to have another great event. Should you wish to receive more information or would like to donate your time and/or resources, please feel free to contact the Cape Fear Chapter of the Surfrider Foundation.

The contest includes a surf shop team challenge as well as a college tag-team challenge. In addition, the individual Eighteen and over division will feature a $1,000 prize for 1st place, $500 for 2nd place, $250 for third place, $150 for fourth place, and $100 to all semi-finalists. For more information and entry forms log on to www.wbcleanwaterclassic.com

We hope to see you there!

Regards,

Sean Ahlum,
Chair – Surfrider Foundation, Cape Fear Chapter

Admission is free, but space is extremely limited, making the event an up-close experience with local musicians. Capacity in the Gallery is 80 and only 60 actual seats will be available for the concert. WHQR’s front desk will start taking reservations for seats on July 14.

The performers for this first show will be none other than Wilmington’s favorite folk-grass trio, the Barnraisers. You can check them out at www.barnraisersmusic.com, and listen to an older interview with them right here on The Grove Project.

Fourth Friday Gallery Nights Return! Friday May 23rd; Join us for a self-guided tour of downtown galleries, studios and more, every fourth Friday of every month throughout the year. Bottega, Peacock’s Fine Art Atelier, Montage Galley at WHQR, New Elements, Acme Studios, Façade Design Studios, Golden Gallery, Three Hounds Gallery, Port City Pottery and more.

Art exhibits, opening receptions, artist discussions, meet & greets, wine, food, entertainment and more.

Support the Arts. Support Downtown Wilmington!

What this doesn’t say is that the owner of New Elements gallery, Merrimon Kennedy, has been tirelessly managing and successfully promoting this great downtown event for years, and finally had to hand it over. And that the pleasant arty savvy owners of Bottega have taken up the mantle — not only of FFG stewardship but of local art and the downtown.

…We had a conversation at the Bottega Gallery at one point — when the gallery was new, I think, and the owners Bonnie and Steve were just settling in — about Wilmington and its promise as an arts hub. Bonnie expressed some bewilderment about how much one hears of support for the arts in Wilmington, about arts friendliness and all that, but how little one sees, especially in terms of cohesion. She also expressed some disappointment with institutions like GWACA, now gone (?), as well as hope for the then-new creativewilmington.com, which I share. We said that one might look around Wilmington and see lots and lots of trees, so to speak, but none of them clustering up enough to make a forest. Fourth Friday Gallery is a great part of the (re)forestation of the arts here. Can’t wait to start going.

WHQR: Fourth Friday Gallery Nights

Earth Day 2008 | Wilmington, NC | April 26th, 2008

Thursday April 17, 2008 – 8:00 pm
City Stage, 21 North Front Street, Wilmington, N.C.
910-342-0272
General admission $10.00, $8.00 for children under 12, students, seniors and GWACA members.

From the press release:

An exciting evening concert that features local musicians, choreographers and dancers. Live music will be performed by Rick Tobey and the Chickenhead Blues Band and the newly formed band Stable Hands with rhythm guitarist/lead vocalist Frank Bruno, who has toured with Bruce Springsteen as a member of the Sessions Band. Dance performances include “ Company T” tap dancers, Vatra Gitana Bellydance, Shea-Ra-Niche African dance, Forward Motion Dance Company, as well as works by students, instructors from The Dance Cooperative and Glory Academy of Fine Arts. Choreographers include Melanie Haulman, Linda Larson, Shea-Ra Nichi, Tracey Varga and Marcy Whipkins. Modern contemporary, jazz, tap, Middle Eastern and African style dance forms will be presented. Please come join us for a unique evening celebrating local talents uniting to support a very important Wilmington community organization.
Proceeds of Arts Sensation will go to support Good Shepherd Center and its mission to feed the hungry, shelter the homeless, and foster transition of those in crises to independence in the community.