It’s 1991. Em moved to New York City for excitement, adventure, and possibility. The Big Apple, though, isn’t quite what she thought it would be. Working as a literary agent’s assistant, she’s down to her last nineteen dollars but has made two close friends: Emily, a firebrand theater director living in a Lower East Side squat, and Lucy, a middle-aged novelist and single mom. Em’s life revolves around these two wildly different women and their vividly disparate yet equally assured views of art and the world. But who is Em, and what does she want to become? It's 2004. Em is now Emily, a successful book editor, happily married and coping with the challenges of a new baby. Though she barely thinks of her early days in the city, the past suddenly comes back to remind her. Her old friend Lucy wrote a posthumous work that needs a publisher, and her ex-friend Emily has reached out and is eager to reconnect. As they did once before, these two women—one dead, one very alive—force Emily to reckon with her decisions, her failures, and what kind of creative life she wants to lead. A sharp yet reflective story of a young woman coming into herself and struggling to find her place, Vintage Contemporaries is a novel about art, parenthood, loyalty, and fighting for a cause—the times we do the right thing, and the times we fail—set in New York City on both side of the millennium. Dan Kois is a writer, editor, and podcaster at Slate, where he’s been nominated for two National Magazine Awards. He’s the author of How to Be a Family, a memoir of parenting around the world, and the co-author (with Isaac Butler) of The World Only Spins Forward, an oral history of Tony Kushner’s Angels in America, […]

Sign up and mark your calendar for the Forest Hall Winter Wedding Fair! 📅 Sunday, January 22nd from 3-6pm. Free to couples planning weddings, their families and friends! Peruse vendors as you sip a glass of bubbly 🥂, enter to win one of our great prizes, enjoy menu samples from 39 West Catering and more! Discover fun and unique vendors for your wedding, view the beautiful Forest Hall venue and get wedding planning tips from seasoned planners. Some of the vendors include: Blossom Artistry 💐 Blossom Artistry FiveStarFayNC 🎵 Carolina Cravings Co. 🧁 Carolina Cravings Co. Curated Events Raleigh 🍽 Curated Events 39 West Catering 🍤🍝🥭 39 West Catering and more to come! Visit our eventbrite page here https://rpb.li/IkADGJ to reserve your spot. It's free, but just sign up so we know how many to expect. Anyone in your life recently engaged? Tag someone below who might want to attend!

Poems that discover enduring pleasures in the details of our everyday lives. Michael McFee’s twelfth collection of poetry explores challenging subjects—the realities of aging, the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, the disappearance of Appalachian culture—in poems that discover enduring pleasures in the details of our everyday lives. It also includes vivid, lively, and imaginative responses to quirky words, a jazz standard, family members, celebrities, and several paintings. As one reader has said, “In his poems filled with quotidian experience, the objects of the material world shimmer with consequence: they are alight with attention—McFee’s, and through his art, ours. He is one of our best poets.” Asheville native Michael McFee is the author or editor of seventeen books of poetry and prose, including Appointed Rounds: Essays (Mercer University Press, 2018). He will read poems from his new collection, A Long Time to Be Gone, published by Carnegie Mellon University Press. The Doris Betts Term Professor of English and Comparative Literature at UNC-Chapel Hill, he has taught in the Creative Writing Program since 1990.

Jazz nights are continuing on Wednesdays so don't miss out on the chance to hear some great holiday jazz this month, sprinkled in alongside your classic favorites. Here are our upcoming performers 01/25- Dave Quick Jazz 02/01- Kris Whitenack Trio 02/08- Lauren Meehan Band 02/15- Tony Galiano 02/22- Dave Quick Jazz So make a reservation and join us for dinner tonight! Lounge menu served in the dining room, and the lounge, and our full dinner menu as well.

Winner of the 2021 PEN/Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction, a thought-provoking and enchanting debut about a Black woman doing whatever it takes to protect all she loves at the beginning of the civil rights movement in Alabama.   It’s 1957, and after leaving the only home she has ever known, Alice Young steps off the bus into the all-Black town of New Jessup, Alabama, where residents have largely rejected integration as the means for Black social advancement. Instead, they seek to maintain and fortify, the community they cherish on their “side of the woods.” In this place, Alice falls in love with Raymond Campbell, whose clandestine organizing activities challenge New Jessup’s longstanding status quo and could lead to the young couple’s expulsion—or worse—from the home they both hold dear. But as Raymond continues to push alternatives for enhancing New Jessup’s political power, Alice must find a way to balance her undying support for his underground work with her desire to protect New Jessup from the rising pressure of upheaval from inside, and outside, their side of town. Jamila Minnicks is the author of Moonrise Over New Jessup, the 2021 winner of the PEN/Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction. Her work is also published in CRAFT Literary Magazine, The Write Launch, and The Silent World in Her Vase. Her piece, Politics of Distraction, was nominated for the Pushcart Prize. She is a graduate of the University of Michigan, the Howard University School of Law, and Georgetown University. She lives in Washington, DC. Jason Mott is the author of four novels. His credits and accolades include Pushcart Prize nominations, Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction Longlist, Joyce Carol Oates Prize Longlist selection, the Sir Walter Raleigh Award for Fiction and his most recent novel, Hell of a Book, was the winner of the 2021 National […]

Do you have friends looking for coworking space in Carrboro? Tell them about the Open House at the new Perch Coworking location, at 601 West Main Street, Suite A, Carrboro, NC.

The essential road map for understanding—and defending—your right to privacy in the twenty-first century.   Privacy is disappearing. From our sex lives to our workout routines, the details of our lives once relegated to pen and paper have joined the slipstream of new technology. As a MacArthur fellow and distinguished professor of law at the University of Virginia, acclaimed civil rights advocate Danielle Citron has spent decades working with lawmakers and stakeholders across the globe to protect what she calls intimate privacy—encompassing our bodies, health, gender, and relationships. When intimate privacy becomes data, corporations know exactly when to flash that ad for a new drug or pregnancy test. Social and political forces know how to manipulate what you think and who you trust, leveraging sensitive secrets and deepfake videos to ruin or silence opponents. And as new technologies invite new violations, people have power over one another like never before, from revenge porn to blackmail, attaching life-altering risks to growing up, dating online, or falling in love. A masterful new look at privacy in the twenty-first century, The Fight for Privacy takes the focus off Silicon Valley moguls to investigate the price we pay as technology migrates deeper into every aspect of our lives: entering our bedrooms and our bathrooms and our midnight texts; our relationships with friends, family, lovers, and kids; and even our relationship with ourselves. Drawing on in-depth interviews with victims, activists, and advocates, Citron brings this headline issue home for readers by weaving together visceral stories about the countless ways that corporate and individual violators exploit privacy loopholes. Exploring why the law has struggled to keep up, she reveals how our current system leaves victims—particularly women, LGBTQ+ people, and marginalized groups—shamed and powerless while perpetrators profit, warping cultural norms around the world. Yet there is a solution to our […]

Get assistance with developing a business plan and gaining insight into financing, legal considerations, marketing, bookkeeping, and taxes for your business. Apply to join the Chatham SPARK program by Jan. 31st. Central Carolina Community College’s Siler City Center, 400 Progress Boulevard, Siler City, and will run from 6:00 pm - 9:00 pm CLASS ONE: Starting a Business/Building a Plan Monday, March 13, 2023, 6 - 9pm This session offers an introduction to the program, the basics of starting a business, and how to put together your business plan. Discussions will include developing an entrepreneurial mindset and evaluating the feasibility of your business idea. You'll also discover the resources available to help you start and successfully operate your business. This seminar will teach you the important components of a business plan and help you lay the foundation for a winning plan. Discover how a business plan is used by potential lenders, the dos and don'ts of writing a plan, and the steps for making the process easy. CLASS TWO: Legal Considerations of Starting a Business Monday, March 20, 2023, 6 - 9pm This session will address the potential legal issues facing small business owners. Discussion will include business structure, licensing, zoning, protecting your business assets, employer responsibilities and business insurance. (Business plan review) CLASS THREE: Business Taxes Monday, March 27, 2023, 6 - 9pm Gain a solid understanding of taxes required for small business owners and develop the best tax strategy for your business. Become familiar with the latest tax forms and procedures for both state and federal taxes. Discover how everyday business decisions can have tax implications that can affect your bottom line. This seminar is important for both new and experienced business owners. (Business plan review) CLASS FOUR: How to Find Your Customers (Market Research) Monday, April 5, 2023, […]

Join us in this community event happening all day at the store on Sunday, January 29. Bring in a gently-used puzzle to swap out for another one in similar condition. You can bring in your used puzzle now and obtain a "used puzzle credit" that you can redeem on the day of the event. All-new puzzles will be on sale for 10% off (in-store only)

A deeply personal memoir that unearths a family history of racism, slaveholding, and trauma as well as love and sparks of delight. Marcia Herman’s family moved to Birmingham in 1946, when she was five years old, and settled in the steel-making city dense with smog and a rigid apartheid system. Marcia, a shy only child, struggled to fit in and understand this world, shadowed as it was by her mother’s proud antebellum heritage. In 1966, weary of Alabama’s toxic culture, Marcia and her young family left Birmingham and built a life in North Carolina. Later in life, Herman-Giddens resumed a search to find out what she did not know about her family history. Unloose My Heart interweaves the story of her youth and coming of age in Birmingham during the Civil Rights Movement together with this quest to understand exactly who and what her maternal ancestors were and her obligations as a white woman within a broader sense of American family. More than a memoir set against the backdrop of Jim Crow and the civil rights struggle, this is the work of a woman of conscience writing in the twenty-first century. Haunted by the past, Unloose My Heart is a journey of exploration and discovery, full of angst, sorrow, and yearning. Unearthing her forebears’ centuries-long embrace of plantation slavery, Herman-Giddens dug deeply to parse the arrogance and cruelty necessary to be a slaveholder and the trauma and fear that ripple out in its wake. All this forced her to scrutinize the impact of this legacy in her life, as well as her debt to the enslaved people who suffered and were exploited at her ancestors’ hands. But she also discovers lost connections, new cousins and friends, unexpected joys, and, eventually, a measure of peace in the process. With heartbreak, moments […]

SAVE THE DATE: We are co-sponsoring the 2023 State of Black Entrepreneurship in Rural NC hosted by WEBB Squared on Friday, Feb 3rd at 9:30 AM at the Chatham Agriculture & Conference Center. The event will help raise awareness about barriers & opportunities to develop ecosystems to support Black & Brown entrepreneurs in NC. Learn more and get your ticket: https://webbsquared.org/state-of-black-entrepreneurship/

Join us as we unveil our Gallery redesign and the opening of our new show featuring fresh Art for the new year! Mingle with the Artists while enjoying small bites & refreshments. Browse our Gallery to find the perfect, locally made gift for your Valentine. This Event is Free and open to the public.

The Quiltmaker Café will be partnering with Carolina Brewery for their Dining For Dollars event. The Café will receive 5% of the entire day's total sales: Lunch, Dinner, or a Late Night Snack! Check out their menu and mark you calendar!

The transformation of Governor Ralph Northam Virginia Governor Ralph Northam's "blackface scandal" could have destroyed any politician. The photo of Governor Northam purportedly in blackface created a firestorm not only locally but also in every political sphere. What the Eyes Can't See details why Northam's career did not end with the scandal, and how it made him a better governor—and a better citizen. In this book, Margaret Edds draws on unprecedented access to the governor, his aides, and members of the Virginia Legislative Black Caucus, whose initial anger evolved into determination to mine good from an ugly episode. Both scolding and encouraging, they led Northam to a deeper understanding of the racism and pain the photograph symbolized. To Northam's credit, he listened, and more importantly learned the lessons of endemic, systemic racism and applied those lessons to his legislative agenda. Edds provides a revealing examination of race in the nation, how racism might be addressed and reckoned with, and how we all may find a measure of redemption in listening to one another. Margaret Edds is a former reporter and editorial writer for the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot. She is the author of several books, including We Face the Dawn: Oliver Hill, Spottswood Robinson, and the Legal Team That Dismantled Jim Crow; Finding Sara: A Daughter's Journey; and An Expendable Man: The Near-Execution of Earl Washington Jr. Dianne Jackson,retired educator in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro School System, a member of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro NAACP, Campaign for Racial Equity, OCCRC, and Bridging the Gap Foundation.

Jazz nights are continuing on Wednesdays so don't miss out on the chance to hear some great holiday jazz this month, sprinkled in alongside your classic favorites. Here are our upcoming performers 02/08- Lauren Meehan Band 02/15- Tony Galiano 02/22- Dave Quick Jazz So make a reservation and join us for dinner tonight! Lounge menu served in the dining room, and the lounge, and our full dinner menu as well.

Each of the ten stories in Have Mercy on Us is an illuminating window into a human life. In the way of all the best fiction, these stories enlarge our understanding of what it means to be alive and to love, with characters who leap off the page. In this award-winning collection, the people are varied in age, race, and origin. An old man travels to a village in Kenya in an attempt to bring his estranged son home; against her mother’s wishes, a young woman attends the funeral of the father she never met, hoping to forge a relationship with her eight siblings; a woman long married to a renowned artist whose infidelity is nearly blatant, takes things into her own hands in a brilliantly realized moment of independence; in an imagined, loving portrait, the writer Zora Neale Hurston is shown near the end of her life in 1948, working as a maid in a motel in Ft. Pierce, Florida. These stories are spare and romantic without being sentimental. The youngest of six children, Lisa Cupolo grew up in the Honeymoon Capital of the World: Niagara Falls, Canada. At thirteen, she was diagnosed with Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis, and spent much of her teens and twenties battling illness. She has spoken about how this trial was one of the blessings of her life, because it led her to writing. She learned to escape, creating stories when reality got difficult, and she imagined herself living the lives of her characters, and in the real world, she became an observer. Lisa has worked as a paparazzi photographer, photo editor, and literary publicist at HarperCollins in Toronto. She has lived all over the world, but currently calls Southern California home. Lisa holds a BA in philosophy from The University of Western Ontario, a […]