Author to scare up ‘Carolina Haints’ at Archdale, Asheboro libraries

ASHEBORO  -- From the vampire beast of Bladenboro to the Hunter on Purgatory Mountain, author and podcaster Dan Sellers will scare up some “Carolina Haints” at the Archdale and Asheboro libraries in September.

Sellers will share North Carolina ghost stories and folk tales at the Archdale Public Library, 6 p.m. Tuesday, September 22, and at the Asheboro Public Library, 6:30 p.m. Thursday, September 24.

Sellers is founder of Carolina Haints, a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving and promoting folklore storytelling through the Carolinas, where  people have gathered for generations to share porch stories, pass down traditions and remember what others have forgotten.

Carolina Haints brings those stories to life through research, storytelling, books, podcasts and public programs. Sellers hosted the Carolina Haints podcast for seven seasons, and is co-author of the book Carolina Haints: Ghosts, Folklore, and Mysteries of the Old North State.

A High Point resident, he also has penned Haunted High Point and the upcoming Folk: A Collection of Curious Lore from the Carolinas.

The Archdale library is located at 10433 S. Main Street; for further information, call 336-431-3811. The Asheboro library is located at 201 Worth Street; for further information, call 336-318-6803.

Elizabeth Hudson comes ‘Full Circle’ in Sunset Series appearance

Elizabeth Hudson

ASHEBORO – Through her work with Our State magazine for more than 20 years, Asheboro native Elizabeth Hudson has learned where to find the best barbecue and the state’s most photographed waterfalls.

On the Outer Banks, she has walked in the same sand where pirates once trod, and she knows how much milk makes a perfect bowl of Southern snow cream.

Now, Hudson will come Full Circle — the title of her recently-published book of columns written for the magazine — as she returns to Randolph County for a Friends of the Library Sunset Signature Series event at 7:30 p.m. Friday, September 25, in downtown Asheboro’s historic Sunset Theatre.

Hudson’s appearance is free and the public is invited. Tickets can be reserved at tinyurl.com/ehfcss.

Ticket holders should be in the theatre by 7:15 p.m.; seats remaining after that time will be released to the general public.

Hudson’s talk will focus on how we preserve our memories, and why it matters that we do. She will share “as much Asheboro stuff as I can,” she says, “really kind of a walk down memory lane.”

Hudson started answering telephones in the Our State circulation department in 1997 before moving to the editorial department. She held various editorial titles before becoming editor-in-chief in 2009.

Under Hudson’s editorial leadership, Our State’s paid subscription has grown more than 30 percent, from 130,000 subscribers in 2009 to more than 175,000 today. Each month, she works with the top writers and photographers in the country to produce a magazine that has garnered national attention.

In 2011 and 2012, Our State won Gold Eddies for best issue of a regional magazine in the country from FOLIO, the magazine industry’s leading publication recognizing editorial excellence.

Hudson also has received numerous awards herself, including the 2014 Ethel N. Fortner Writer and Community Award celebrating contributions to the literary arts of North Carolina; the 2016 North Carolina Travel Industry Associations’ Charles Kuralt Award, which recognizes outstanding contributions by individuals who have brought positive public attention to North Carolina; and the 2021 Book Award of Excellence from the North Carolina Society of Historians for Silver Linings, a book of columns.

In 2019, she was inducted into the North Caroliniana Society, an organization recognizing service to the state’s historical, literary and cultural heritage.

She holds a B.A. in English from UNC-Greensboro, and in 2019, proudly accepted the Alumni Award from her alma mater, which honors a select number of graduates for exceptional achievement and significant contributions to their communities, professions and society.

Hudson currently lives in Greensboro.

The Sunset Series celebrates art and ideas by bringing world-class speakers and performers to Asheboro. It is sponsored by the Heart of North Carolina Visitors Bureau, the City of Asheboro, and the Friends of the Randolph County Public Libraries.

The theatre is located at 234 Sunset Ave. For more information, call 800-262-2672.

Pottery historian to discuss Mount Shepherd stove tiles in Asheboro library talk

The Revolutionary Randolph logo, featuring a representation
of a stove tile made by Moravian  potter Jacob Meyer in his
Mount Shepherd pottery in the 1780s

ASHEBORO – Learn about the history of pottery stove tiles – and the symbolism behind the “Revolutionary Randolph” America 250 logo – with master potter Tara Logue in “The Story Behind a Logo: Tile Stoves and the Mount Shepherd Potter,” 7 p.m. Tuesday, June 23, at the Asheboro Public Library.

Randolph County has used clay stove tile designs found at the 1780s Mount Shepherd pottery site of Moravian potter Jacob Meyer for both the 200th and 250th anniversary logos for the county. In 1976, the design was a soldier standing at attention.

In 2026, a representation of a tile featuring a dragoon (cavalry soldier) on horseback is incorporated in the Revolutionary Randolph logo.

Both tiles were discovered during the 1970s, when an archaeological dig found numerous artifacts from the pottery operated by Meyer during the Revolutionary War era. Logue, a former educator and lead potter at Old Salem, will talk about the history of tile stoves, their design and construction, and how Meyer might have used his tile designs to market to new, patriotic buyers.

“What does the concept of patriotism mean to a pacifist Moravian in the North Carolina back country in the aftermath of the Revolution? As the new American Idea began to take form, the impacts reached into every facet of identity,” Logues says.

“Through the pottery excavations at Mount Shepherd, we can get an intimate window into the ways that religious identity, cultural heritage, and craftsmanship were complicated as the local potters defined for themselves what it meant to become an American.”

Through her pottery work reproducing Moravian earthenware, Logue developed a specialty in tile stoves, known as “kachelofen.” She has presented at the international conference of the Masonry Heater Association, been featured on the “Things” podcast of the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts, and worked alongside master potter Ron Probst to restore a historic tile stove in the Single Brothers’ House at Old Salem.

Logue lives in Kernersville. Her current ceramic work includes both historic reproductions as well as original designs that draw from historical influences.

Coinciding with Logue’s talk is a display of Mount Shepherd pottery artifacts, documents and photographs in the upstairs Asheboro library display case. The display features the soldier-at-attention tile used for Randolph County’s bicentennial in 1976.

The library is located at 201 Worth Street. For more information, call 336-318-6815.

‘Keep NC Weird’ with author Liz Z Pardue at Asheboro and Archdale libraries

ASHEBORO – Take a journey through the strangest history, most eccentric characters and darkest folklore of the Old North State on Thursday, June 4, at the Archdale and Asheboro libraries.

Join award-winning storyteller, writer and director Liz Z Pardue for “Keep NC Weird,” a lively exploration of the bizarre, macabre and delightfully peculiar stories that make North Carolina unforgettable, 2 p.m. at the Archdale library and 6:30 p.m. at the Asheboro library.

Pardue, founder of Sisterhood of Spirits, LLC, operates ghost tours and spooky historical theatrical productions from her home in Fuquay-Varina, purported to be the most haunted small town in the South.

In the last year, she published her first book, Fuquay-Varina Ghosts, Legends and Lore, and performed at the North Carolina Storytelling Festival, the Bynum Front Porch Series, the Monti, and the Stone Soup Storytelling Festival, where she won both the Linda Goodman New Voices and People’s Choice awards. Currently she is touring the state with her “Keep NC Weird” series.

The Asheboro library is located at 201 Worth Street. The Archdale library is located at 10433 S. Main St.

For more information, call 336-318-6803 (Asheboro) or 336-431-3811 (Archdale).

Randolph libraries promise a T-Rexcellent summer of reading activities

Luke Vandergriff

ASHEBORO -- Dig into a DINO-mite Summer Reading experience at your Randolph County Public Libraries with a prehistoric season of stories, discovery and fun! Stomp, chomp and explore your way into a summer packed with performances, puppets, magic, storytimes, hands-on activities and more with reading challenges and rewards that are saurus-ly awesome!

“Unearth a Story” is the dinosaur-focused theme of this year’s Summer Reading initiative, which offers children and teens a no-pressure way to stay engaged with reading and learning while out of school, so they can avoid “summer slide” and be ready to pick up where they left off when school starts in the fall. Adults aren’t extinct from the fun either, with author visits and hands-on experiences. Everyone gets to roar into reading!

Visit www.randolphlibrary.org/summer for a complete schedule of events, or pick up calendars at your local library.

Bright Star Touring Theatre

Appearing at all libraries in June is musical storyteller Luke Vandergriff with DinoHearts. Vandergriff creates an imaginative, interactive, bilingual English/Spanish performance using original songs, handmade instruments and playful audience participation to tell the story of Juanca, a young boy from Bolivia as he navigates big feelings like fear, courage and kindness with the help of his imagination — and a few friendly dinosaurs.

At all libraries in July is Bright Star Touring Theatre’s Dino Academy. Travel back millions of years in time for an action-packed prehistoric adventure with delightfully quirky paleontologist Dr. Sarah Tops as she opens the doors to her top-secret dinosaur facility and invites audiences to step into a world where science, storytelling and imagination collide.

Meanwhile, there’s more to unearth at the various libraries as Sigmon Theatrical returns with The Big Dino Show; Shepherd Shakespeare presents DinoShakes; Steve Somers Digs Into Reading; the NC Zoo, Ellie’s Exotic Road Show and Wild Tails NC visit with animal ambassadors; Matt Sandbank brings back his Shadow Factory Puppet Show; Dana Hill performs Presto Prehistoric Magic… and more!

For more information, call 336-318-6804.

Appearances by Luke Vandergriff and Bright Star Touring Theatre are sponsored by the Friends of the Library. The project receives support from the North Carolina Arts Council, a division of the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources, with funding from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Medal of Honor recipient Col. Joe Marm to speak in Asheboro Sunset Series event

Col. Joe Marm

ASHEBORO – Medal of Honor recipient Col. Joe Marm will tell his story in a Friends of the Library Sunset Signature Series event, 7:30 p.m. Saturday, May 23, in downtown Asheboro’s historic Sunset Theatre.

The talk is free and the public is invited.

In 1965, Marm was a 2nd lieutenant leading a platoon of the 7th Cavalry Regiment during the Vietnam War when his unit joined what became the battle of Ia Drang, the first major engagement between the U.S. and North Vietnamese armies. The battle is recounted in the book We Were Soldiers Once… and Young by Hal Moore and Joseph L. Galloway, and in the film We Were Soldiers.

With his platoon under fire from a concealed machine gun, Marm exposed himself to draw fire and locate the enemy position, then made two attempts to destroy it – the second by charging 30 yards under heavy fire to eliminate it despite being severely wounded.

For his actions, he received the Medal of Honor from President Lyndon Johnson on December 19, 1966. The citation states that Marm’s “selfless actions reduced the fire on his platoon, broke the enemy assault, and rallied his unit toward the accomplishment of his mission.”

Marm, a Pennsylvania native and Eagle Scout, earned a business degree from Duquesne University in 1964 before joining the Army. He retired as a colonel in 1995, and resides in eastern North Carolina.

The Sunset Series celebrates art and ideas by bringing world-class speakers and performers to the heart of Asheboro. The series is sponsored by the Heart of North Carolina Visitors Bureau, the City of Asheboro and the Friends of the Randolph County Public Libraries.

The final 2026 Sunset Series event will be Our State Editor Elizabeth Hudson, 7:30 p.m. Friday, September 25. The Sunset Theatre is located at 234 Sunset Avenue.

For more information, call the Heart of North Carolina Visitors Bureau at 800-626-2672.

Historian Ricky Allred to talk about county ‘Poor House’ at Asheboro library

Ricky Allred

ASHEBORO – Until the middle of the 20th century, counties were responsible for taking care of their poor and indigent residents. 

Local historian Ricky Allred will discuss Randolph County’s role in caring for its neediest citizens in a talk at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, April 30, at the Asheboro Public Library. The talk is free and the public is invited.

Allred is author of The Least of These: Caring for the Poor in Randolph County, N.C., 1794-1922, published in 2025. The book chronicles the provisions for caring for those who could not take care of themselves, from the parish-based system of colonial times through the post-independence shift to county responsibility and the creation of a county Poor House, to the beginnings of state supervision following the Civil War, and finally to the replacement of the Poor House with a modern County Home in 1922. 

While legal and government structure frame the historical account, stories Allred has uncovered of individuals within the system — both care recipients and caregivers — give color to the statistics and vitality to the narrative.

Allred’s interest in history springs from deep family roots in Randolph County, and has led to research into a variety of local history topics. He is known for his “Walk Through the Past” tours of the Old Asheboro Cemetery.

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