Friday-Sunday | YMI Cultural Center, 39 S. Market St., Asheville
With GRINDfest now a thing of the past, Goombay is Asheville’s only enduring festival devoted Black culture. An opening-night staging of “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner” highlights a weekend of art and performance also featuring music, dance, a gallery exhibition and, this being Asheville, an afternoon of drum circles.
While you’re there, pick up information about the work honoring Asheville’s legacy Black neighborhoods: East End, Shiloh, Southside and Burton Street, along with the Latin immigrant-rich Emma.
Friday-Saturday | Wortham Center for the Performing Arts
The touring Banff Centre Mountain Film Festival melds the spirit of outdoor adventure and mountain culture into two days of thematically diverse nonfiction screenings. Unlike most film fests, each day’s offerings here are wrapped into singular programs of shorts and not-so-shorts, with intermissions. The pacing is baked into the program, so tickets get you into all of it.
The fest is also MountainTrue’s largest fundraiser of the year. So if the prospect of inspiring your own next adventure isn’t enough, knowing your entry fee ($22-$38 per night) goes to one of the region’s most important nonprofits should be enough to lift your soul.
11a-5p Saturday | various locales | River Arts District, Asheville
As we approach the second anniversary of Helene, flooded-out artists and businesses in the River Arts District continue showcasing their comeback.
The Cotton Mill Studios, in particular, are a focal point for this Resilience Day. Painter Alison Press is showcasing seven new works in a flood-inspired series. Live river painting happens from 11a-1p. Kendra Hamman leads collaborative art-making in her “Turning the Page on Helene” community art project.
Pink Dog Studios, Wedge Foundation and The Grey Eagle should also be on your list of stops along the day.
7:30p Friday-Saturday, 2p Sunday | Black Mountain Center for the Arts, 225 W. State St., Black Mountain
“Examination” is billed as a dystopian drama following 15-year-old Jax, who struggles to survive in a fractured society. Sounds like just about every teen I know. The story turns supernatural and tests the bonds of friendship when Jax discovers an otherworldly force manipulating events and sending him into the arms of the law.
Performances continue Sept. 18-20.
Image above from the studio of RAD painter Alison Press.