Listen, learn, and create with this year’s Appalachian Heritage Week programming

This year’s Appalachian Heritage Week will be held Monday, April 6 through Friday, April 10 with a week of fun and educational programming celebrating the people, traditions, and history of the Southern Appalachian region.

Hosted by the college’s John B. Stephenson Center for Appalachia and Comparative Highland Studies, Appalachian Heritage Week engages the college and local community each year through a five-day celebration. All programming is free and open to the public.

Appalachian Makers will gather in Swank Park from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Come out to admire the work of artists working in traditional Appalachian mediums like quilting and basket weaving.

That evening, come out to the Theatre Arts Building for Holler and Strum Old Time Jam from 6:30–8:30 p.m. and enjoy some live old-time music.

Junaluska Gospel Choir, the resident choir at Boone Mennonite Brethren Church, will perform at Banner Elk Presbyterian Church at 7 p.m. The choir and the church are cornerstones of the African American community in the High Country and are integral parts of local history.

Join Student Affairs for a Barn Quilt Painting workshop in Swank Park, 11 a.m.–1 p.m. Barn quilts are an American folk-art tradition that may represent a farm’s focus or symbolize a family’s heritage.

Gather at 7 p.m. in Evans Auditorium for the Prairie Preacher Documentary and Expert Panel Discussion. A screening of the documentary—which follows Dwayne Estes, a botanist and grassland conservation activist who is the co-founder and executive director of Southeastern Grasslands Institute—will be followed by an expert discussion panel.

The panel will feature Estes himself, along with Chief of Ecological Restoration and Stewardship at the Southern Grasslands Institute Jeremy French and Jennifer Geib, associate professor in the Department of Biology at Appalachian State University.

In the morning, come out to Pinnacle Deck at 11 a.m. for the Front Porch Gathering, a social event featuring porch games like checkers, dominos, and horseshoes, and refreshments like sweet tea, lemonade, and cobbler.

Continue the celebration that afternoon with an hour-long Nature Walk departing from the Rock House at 2:30 p.m.

Don’t forget to stop by installations that will be on display throughout the week, including the Family Tradition Wall and the Where is Your Appalachian Interactive Map in Shelton Learning Commons, and the Looking at Appalachia Photo Exhibit in the May School of Natural and Health Sciences gallery.

Learn more about the Stephenson Center