Friends Bookshop to hold 50% off sale during Asheboro’s Christmas On Sunset

ASHEBORO – Looking for a great way to support your library while getting a head-start on your holiday shopping?

Take 50 percent off everything at the Friends of the Library Bookshop, 226 Sunset Avenue, during downtown Asheboro’s Christmas on Sunset event, 6-9 p.m. Friday, December 13. The sale will continue from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday, December 14.

Proceeds go to support the Randolph County Public Libraries. The bookshop, staffed entirely by volunteers, is open 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.

For more information, call the bookshop during operating hours at 336-629-1536 or visit randolphfriends.org.

Bestselling author Charlie Lovett to visit Liberty

Charlie Lovett

LIBERTY – The Liberty Book Club will host New York Times bestselling author Charlie Lovett at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, November 21, and the public is invited. 

Lovett will discuss his novel The Enigma Affair and talk about his writing. The event will take place in the Liberty Town Council Chamber/Senior Center beside the Liberty Public Library at 239 S. Fayetteville Street.

In The Enigma Affair, a librarian and a professional assassin team up to solve a seventy-five-year-old Nazi mystery and stop a nefarious opponent from wreaking havoc on the world.

Lovett also is author of the novels The Bookman’s Tale, Escaping Dreamland and The Lost Book of the Grail. He has penned five books on Alice in Wonderland author Lewis Carroll, including the biography Lewis Carroll: Formed by Faith, and has lectured internationally on Carroll.

He’s also a playwright, and recently adapted Escaping Dreamland for the stage at the Little Theatre of Winston-Salem.

A Winston-Salem native, Lovett is a graduate of Davidson College and the Vermont Academy of Fine Arts.

For further information, call the library at 336-622-4605.

Local historian to explore Johnstonville, first county seat, in Asheboro library talk

Ryan Beeson

ASHEBORO – Before Asheboro was established in 1793, Randolph County government called Johnstonville home.

The first county seat was located about two miles west of present-day Randleman, on old U.S. 311, about where the WGHP Fox8 transmission towers stand.

Local historian Ryan Beeson will explore the origins of the settlement in “Johnstonville: Randolph’s First County Seat at the Crossroads of North Carolina” at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, November 14, at the Asheboro library.

Before it was named Johnstonville, after the governor at the time of its founding, the place was known as Cross Roads because it sat at the junction of two important byways, the Indian Trading Path and the Cape Fear or Old Moravian Road. The Indian Trading Path predated European exploration and settlement, and the Old Moravian Road was established in 1754 to link Cross Creek (now Fayetteville) with the Moravian settlements that would become Winston-Salem.

Beeson will talk about the importance of these roads in colonial and post-colonial North Carolina, and why their intersection was chosen for Randolph County’s first courthouse and county seat. He also will illuminate early sessions of the county court at Johnstonville, illustrate the layout of the town based on his extensive research, and discuss its likely exact location.

A Randolph County native, Beeson grew up on a dairy farm in Sophia. A history enthusiast, he spends his free time researching local history from the Colonial era through the American Revolution.

A descendant of many early Quaker settlers of North Carolina, he also enjoys researching genealogy and Quaker history. He is a birthright member of Marlboro Friends Meeting, where he serves on Ministry & Counsel.

After graduating Randleman High School, he earned a B.A. in Political Science and a M.S. in Accounting from East Carolina University, where he served as president of the student body.

He lives in Asheboro with his wife Claire and their son Winslow.

The library is located at 201 Worth Street. For further information, call 336-318-6803.

Film prof to discuss social commentary in horror films during Asheboro library talk

ASHEBORO – The history of disability and deformity as represented in horror films is the topic of a talk by UNC School of the Arts film professor Kara Andersen at 4 p.m. Monday, October 28, at the Asheboro library.

The talk is designed for teens and their families, but is open to the public.

Andersen will use stills or clips from classic movies such as James Whale’s Frankenstein (1931) and William Castle’s The Tingler (1959), as well as more recent films, to reflect on how monsters in film often are a reaction to or social commentary on questions of personhood and belonging, disability and fear of physical deformity.

Andersen is Associate Professor and Chair of the Cinema Studies Department at UNC School of the Arts. Her research interests include film theory, American animation, stop motion animation, and materiality, or how physical characteristics of the film itself impacts viewer’s experience watching a movie.

The library is located at 201 Worth Street. For further information, call 3336-318-603.

Franklinville library to celebrate 100th anniversary

FRANKLINVILLE --  The tiny, but mighty, Franklinville Public Library will celebrate 100 years of service at 2 p.m. Sunday, October 13. 

The birthday party will include comments from dignitaries, a display of historical photographs and refreshments from the Franklinville Diner.

Music will be provided by Bad Penny, made up of Gwen Auman and Ron Baughman. Library staff member Lois Warren and her husband Terry also will provide tunes.

The library was established in 1924, making it the first public library in Randolph County. John W. Clark, owner of Randolph Mills, promoted the idea of a library for the education and recreation of mill employees.

The company provided space for the library and set aside a fund to support it. Books were loaned by the State Library Commission, while Clark solicited donations and contributed some his of own books. The library became part of the Randolph County Public Library system in 1940, and the county took over direct operation in 2018.

The library is located at 111 Sumner Place. For further information, call 336-685-3100.

History prof to explore ‘Jack the Ripper’ case in Asheboro library talk

ASHEBORO --In the fall of 1888, the East End of London was terrorized by a string of brutal murders. The murders were attributed to “Jack the Ripper,” a serial killer who was never identified.

Join UNC-Greensboro history professor Dr. Jill C. Bender to explore “‘Jack the Ripper’ and Late-Victorian Crime,” 6:30 p.m. Thursday, October 17, at the Asheboro Public Library.

Jack’s victims were all impoverished women who lived on the margins of accepted society. The murders occurred at night, and there were no witnesses, no clues and no perceivable motive.

The police were at a loss and the murderer never caught.

Bender will place the crimes and the proposed suspects into historical context and consider what the unsolved case of “Jack the Ripper” tells us about late-Victorian society.

Bender is an associate professor of History  at UNCG, and author of the book The 1857 Indian Uprising and the British Empire, among numerous article and book chapters. She is currently working on a second book project in which she examines the famine era migration of women from Ireland’s workhouses to colonies in Australia, Canada and southern Africa.

The library is located at 201 Worth Street. For further information, call 336-318-6803.

WFU prof to explore slavery during Revolution in Asheboro library talk

Dr. Jake Ruddiman

ASHEBORO – What did slavery look like to combatants in the Revolutionary War — white, Black, American and European — as they traveled between regions?

Join Wake Forest University History professor Dr. Jake Ruddiman for “Is This the Land of Liberty? Soldiers and Slavery in the War of American Independence,” 6:30 p.m. Monday, September 30, at the Asheboro Public Library. 

The talk, supported by the Friends of the Library, is free and the public is invited.

Ruddiman will discuss his research into the travel writing of soldiers during the war. The campaigns of the American Revolution carried troops far from their homes and exposed them to unfamiliar enslaved societies. What did these military outsiders see and what did they record?

The war profoundly disrupted the institution of slavery, spreading charged rhetoric about liberty, levying new demand with mobilization and opening opportunities for freedom-seekers. What did Black Americans encountering soldiers traveling with the armies see? What new relationships could they make?

How did these observations and relationships then shape the course of the war? What were the relationships between wartime experiences and new streams of pro- and anti-slavery arguments in the Revolutionary states?

The answers, Ruddiman contends, connect the War of Independence with the generational transformation of the Revolution.

Ruddiman, who received his Ph.D. from Yale, is an associate professor of History at Wake Forest. His first book, Becoming Men of Some Consequence: Youth and Military Service in the Revolutionary War, explores the lives of young men in the Continental Army.

That project led to research into other aspects of the Revolutionary experience, including “Is This the Land of Liberty.” Across his research, Ruddiman’s work as a historian of Revolutionary America explores how people built their lives, reshaped their communities and constructed meaning for themselves and for posterity.

The library is located at 201 Worth Street. For further information, call 336-318-6803.