Please note this event will take place offsite at the Chapel Hill Public Library Meeting Room B. Get ready for an action-packed, inventive, and powerful take on the attack on Pearl Harbor, as only Alan Gratz can tell it. December 6, 1941: Best friends Frank and Stanley have it good. Their dads are Navy pilots stationed at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, and the boys get a front-row view of the huge battleships and the sparkling water. Yes, World War II is raging in Europe and in Asia, but the US isn't involved in the war, and the boys are free to dream about becoming comic book creators. They've even invented a superhero of their own, in the style of Batman, Superman, Captain America, and other stars of the Golden Age of Comics. Maybe they'll even get their comic published someday. December 7th, 1941: Everything explodes. That morning, Frank and Stanley are aboard the battleship the USS Utah when Japanese planes zoom overhead and begin dropping bombs on the ships below. Chaos ensues as everyone scrambles to dive for safety. Frank and Stanley realize what's happening: Japan is attacking America! The war has come to them. As the boys fight to make their way home amidst the carnage, it's clear that everything has changed. Stanley's mother is Japanese American and he is suddenly facing a terrible prejudice that he's never known before--he's now seen as the "enemy," and Frank, who's white, cannot begin to understand what Stanley will now face. Can their friendship--and their dreams--survive this watershed moment in history? Told with the immediacy, high-stakes action, and meaningful twists that have made Alan Gratz one of today's biggest authors, this gripping novel tackles themes of bravery, prejudice, and what it means to stand up for what's right. Just as Gratz's Ground […]

A masterful hybrid of nature writing and cultural studies that investigates our connection with deer—from mythology to biology, from forests to cities, from coexistence to control and extermination—and invites readers to contemplate the paradoxes of how humans interact with and shape the natural world Deer have been an important part of the world that humans occupy for millennia. They’re one of the only large animals that can thrive in our presence. In the 21st century, our relationship is full of contradictions: We hunt and protect them, we cull them from suburbs while making them an icon of wilderness, we see them both as victims and as pests. But there is no doubt that we have a connection to deer: in mythology and story, in ecosystems biological and digital, in cities and in forests. Delving into the historical roots of these tangled attitudes and how they play out in the present, Erika Howsare observes scientists capture and collar fawns, hunters show off their trophies, a museum interpreter teaching American history while tanning a deer hide, an animal-control officer collecting the carcasses of deer killed by sharpshooters, and a woman bottle-raising orphaned fawns in her backyard. As she reports these stories, Howsare’s eye is always on the bigger picture: Why do we look at deer in the ways we do, and what do these animals reveal about human involvement in the natural world? For readers of H is for Hawk and Fox & I, The Age of Deer offers a unique and intimate perspective on a very human relationship. Erika Howsare holds an MFA in literary arts from Brown University and has published two books of poetry. She also worked in local journalism for twenty years, covering culture and environmental issues. She teaches writing and contributes reviews and essays to various national […]

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 1/24 – Combo Platter 1/31 – Dave Quick Jazz 2/7 – Lauren Meehan 2/14 – Piano Only – NO JAZZ 2/21 – Steve Hobbs Trio 2/28 – Dave Quick Jazz 3/6 – Lauren Meehan 3/13 – Tony Galiani Jazz Quartet 3/20 – Combo Platter 3/27 – Dave Quick Jazz

Pittsboro Presbyterian Church invites you to a chili dinner and games night!

INTRODUCING CHATHAM SPARK! Are you ready to start or grow a business in Chatham County? You could be eligible for a $5,000 grant! Chatham SPARK is an entrepreneur-development program. It is an eight-class program that introduces new and existing business owners to concepts and tools for business success. Participants will learn best practices from professionals in the accounting, legal, finance, and marketing fields as well as state and local resource partners. For more information or to apply, visit: www.chathamsbc.com/spark. Hurry! Registration ends on Monday, January 31st Dates: March 1, 2022 – May 3, 2022 Day and Time: Tuesdays, 6:00 pm - 9:00 pm Location: Central Carolina Community College - Siler City Campus, 400 Progress Boulevard Hurry! Registration ends on Monday, January 31st

For readers of Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier and Enemy Women by Paulette Jiles, an evocative, morally complex novel set in rural 19th century North Carolina, as one woman fights to keep her family united, her farm running, and her convictions whole during the most devastating and divisive period in American history. Talk of impending war is a steady drumbeat throughout North Carolina, though Joetta McBride pays it little heed. She and her husband, Ennis, have built a modest but happy life for themselves, raising two sons, fifteen-year-old Henry, and eleven-year-old Robert, on their small subsistence farm. They do not support the Confederacy’s position on slavery, but Joetta considers her family to be neutral, believing this is simply not their fight. Her opinion is not favored by many in their community, including Joetta’s own father-in-law, Rudean. A staunch Confederate supporter, he fills his grandsons’ heads with stories about the glory of battle and the Southern cause until one night Henry runs off to join the war. At Joetta’s frantic insistence, Ennis leaves to find their son and bring him home. But soon weeks pass with no word from father or son and Joetta is battered by the strain of running a farm with so little help. As the country becomes further entangled in the ramifications of war, Joetta finds herself increasingly at odds with those around her – until one act of kindness brings her family to the edge of even greater disaster. Though shunned and struggling to survive, Joetta remains committed to her principles, and to her belief that her family will survive. But the greatest tests are still to come – for a fractured nation, for Joetta, and for those she loves... Donna Everhart is a USA Today bestselling author known for vividly evoking challenges of the heart […]

It’s time for our first member sale of 2024!!! From this Friday, January 26 to Sunday, January 28, Flyleaf members will receive a 20% discount on most in-store items. This includes used books and other trinkets (!!!) Here’s the annual membership deal: ❄️$30 flat fee for a one-year membership ❄️It covers your whole household! (anyone living at the same address can use it) ❄️Members receive 10% off new books all the time and 20% off nearly everything in the store during our biannual Member sales ❄️Exclusive access to our annual member events Not an annual member? No problem! You can sign up this weekend on the spot and receive all the perks instantly (and take home a free member gift)!

Check out the bmc brewing events page for more information about what's happening at BMC Brewing!

Check Havoc Brewing Events for more details about specific #HavocHappenings.

Come hear a panel discussion on how the United States became the gun capital of the world in the twentieth century, and the repercussions experienced in our Chapel Hill community. Just as World War II transformed the United States into a global military and economic superpower, so too did it forge the gun country America is today. After 1945, war-ravaged European nations possessed large surpluses of mass-produced weapons, and American entrepreneurs seized the opportunity to buy used munitions for pennies on the dollar and resell them stateside. A booming consumer market made cheap guns accessible to millions of Americans, and rates of gun ownership and violence began to climb. Andrew C. McKevitt tells the history of this gun boom through the dynamics of consumer capitalism and Cold War ideology, the combination of which resulted in a vast number of Americans arming themselves to the teeth and centering their political identity on their guns. When gun control legislation emerged in the 1960s, many Americans, accustomed to the unregulated postwar bounty of cheap guns and fearful of Soviet invasion, domestic subversion, and urban uprisings, fiercely challenged it. Meanwhile, gun control groups were diverted from their abolitionist roots toward a conciliatory, fundraising-focused strategy that struggled to limit the stockpiling of firearms. Gun Country recasts the story of guns in postwar America as one of Cold War and racial anxieties, unfettered capitalism, and exceptional violence that continues to haunt us to this day. Andrew C. McKevitt is John D. Winters Endowed Professor of History at Louisiana Tech University. He is the author of the recently released book, Gun Country: Gun Capitalism, Culture, and Control in Cold War America. Paige Masten, a lifelong North Carolinian and UNC alum, is the deputy opinion editor for The Charlotte Observer. She covers stories that impact people in Charlotte […]

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 1/31 – Dave Quick Jazz 2/7 – Lauren Meehan 2/14 – Piano Only – NO JAZZ 2/21 – Steve Hobbs Trio 2/28 – Dave Quick Jazz 3/6 – Lauren Meehan 3/13 – Tony Galiani Jazz Quartet 3/20 – Combo Platter 3/27 – Dave Quick Jazz

We’re trying something new: join us on Thursday, February 1 for an exclusive bookish showcase with our Penguin Random House friends! Get a behind-the-scenes view of the publishing industry with this lively talk given by our sales reps from PRH! Sherry & Michael will present the very latest books and will offer a sneak preview on forthcoming hot titles to look out for. Tickets are available on our website (link in stories!) for $5. Your ticket includes admission to the talk, drinks & snacks, other free stuff (free books perhaps), and the chance to win some fun raffle prizes. See you there! 🥂

The Chatham County Historical Association and Wren Memorial Library have partnered to sponsor monthly get-togethers to discuss and record Siler City history. We'll be there to listen and learn from you Siler City folks, as well as sharing what we know. The topic in January will be businesses on Chatham Street and Birch Street, but discussion of other topics is welcome! Let us know what you'd like to talk about in the months to come. Meetings will be on the first Friday of each month, from 10:30 to 11:30am at Wren Memorial Library. Light refreshments will be served. Join us on Friday, January 5 for our first meeting. The meetings are free and everyone is welcome.

Invite a friend! 🙋‍♀️We will be @greenway_health_center on Saturday 3rd next month! Get all the benefits of an IV infusion to feel great, boost your immune system and replenish your body! (Please call for an appointment and confirm availability.)

The Chatham County Republican Party is sponsoring a blood drive on Feb 3 at Mt. Pisgah Church in Apex. Please register for a donation time following the link from the QR code in the image. If you can't make Feb 3, the link will show you other opportunities to donate.

You are invited to an Artist Reception on Sunday, February 4 from 1-3pm which is FREE and open to the public. Please join us in supporting six extremely talented young artists / Chatham County high school students. Pittsboro Gallery of Arts will host @chathamartistsguild (CAG) EMERGING ARTISTS exhibition February 3 thru 16, 2024. CAG’s Emerging Artists is a free, juried program which pairs individual young artists with a CAG mentor. For one full school year, mentors provide aspiring student artists with information and guidance on the business of being a professional artist. The program culminates with this special gallery exhibit at the Pittsboro Gallery of Arts in February and an Emerging Artists Tent at Pittsboro’s First Sunday on May 5, 2024. Our Emerging Artists and their CAG Mentors are: From Chatham Early College - 10th Graders Fabi Vasquez (mentor, Kristin Bergsten) and Kayle Maxfield (mentor @Jane Eckenrode ). From Seaforth High School - 12th Grader Lauren Winkler (mentor, Kathy Flood, Artist). From Northwood High School - 11th Grader, Savannah Stahoviak (mentor Current Works by Steevie Jane Parks ) and 12th Graders Rokia Sissoko (mentor, Donna Stubbs) and Ray Brock (mentor, Sarah Graham). We heartily congratulate all of these young artists and their CAG artist mentors.

Check out the bmc brewing events page for more information about what's happening at BMC Brewing!

Check Havoc Brewing Events for more details about specific #HavocHappenings.

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 2/7 – Lauren Meehan 2/14 – Piano Only – NO JAZZ 2/21 – Steve Hobbs Trio 2/28 – Dave Quick Jazz 3/6 – Lauren Meehan 3/13 – Tony Galiani Jazz Quartet 3/20 – Combo Platter 3/27 – Dave Quick Jazz

“Mika, you sit at our feet all these hours and days, hearing us tell our tales. You have all these stories inside you: all the stories everyone in our family knows and all the stories everyone in our family tells. You write ‘em in your books and show everyone who we are.” So begins award-winning poet DéLana R. A. Dameron’s stunning novel-in-stories, Redwood Court. The baby of the family, Mika Tabor spends much of her time in the care of loved ones, listening to their stories and witnessing their struggles. Growing up on Redwood Court, the cul-de-sac in the all Black working-class suburb of Columbia, South Carolina, where her grandparents live, Mika learns important lessons from the people who raise her: her exhausted parents, who work long hours at multiple jobs while still making sure their kids experience the adventure of family vacations; her older sister, who, in a house filled with Motown would rather listen to Alanis Morrisette, and can’t wait to taste real independence; her retired grandparents, children of Jim Crow, who realized their own vision of success when they bought their house on Redwood Court in the 1960s, imagining it filled with future generations; and the many neighbors on the Court who hold tight to the community they’ve built, committed to fostering joy and love in an America so insistent on seeing Black people stumble and fall. With visceral clarity and powerful prose, Dameron reveals the devastation of being made to feel invisible and the transformative power of being seen. Redwood Court is a celebration of extraordinary, ordinary people striving to achieve their own American dreams. DéLana R. A. Dameron received an MFA in poetry from NYU. Her debut collection, How God Ends Us, was selected by Elizabeth Alexander for the South Carolina Poetry Book Prize. Her […]