Sons to remember Woody Durham in Randolph library Friends event

Woody Durham

ASHEBORO – “The Voice of the Tar Heels” — Woody Durham — will be remembered by his sons Wes and Taylor Durham in a Friends of the Randolph County Public Library event at 6 p.m. Wednesday, April 17, at Pinewood Country Club.

              

Tickets are $30 and are on sale now at the Asheboro Public Library, 201 Worth Street. Heavy hors d’ouevres are included in the ticket price; there will be a cash bar.

Taylor and Wes will share memories about their sportscaster father and stories from his career. Woody’s wife, Jean, also will be on hand for the event.

Woody Durham, who passed away in 2018, was known as the “Voice of the Tar Heels” during his 40-year career as play-by-play announcer for the University of North Carolina men’s basketball and football programs.

Wes Durham has been the radio play-by-play voice of the Atlanta Falcons since 2004, and is in his sixth season as the primary play-by-play announcer for the Atlantic Coast Conference on Fox Sports South and the ACC Network. He is an 11-time winner of the Georgia Sportscaster of the Year award from the National Sports Media Association.

Taylor Durham is in his 10th year with Elon Athletics as The Voice of the Phoenix, and his 19th year with Learfield IMG College, handling all aspects of Elon football, basketball and baseball broadcasts while also helping to cultivate corporate partnerships with Elon Athletics.

For further information, call 336-318-6801.

Taylor and Wes Durham 

One-woman show at Asheboro library portrays ‘The Spirit of Harriet Tubman’

Diane Faison as Harriet Tubman

ASHEBORO  -- Experience history through “The Spirit of Harriet Tubman” as Gibsonville performer Diane Faison brings the famed abolitionist to life at 7 p.m. Tuesday, March 26, at the Asheboro Public Library.

The one-woman show is sponsored by the Friends of the Library in honor of Women’s History Month. It is free and the public is invited.

Tubman, born in 1822, escaped a brutal existence as an enslaved person to establish the Underground Railroad and advocate tirelessly for abolition. She served in the United States Army during the Civil War, and afterwards became an advocate for women’s suffrage.

An art teacher in North Carolina and Virginia for 25 years before retiring, Faison wanted students to feel history, rather than just researching it.

She studied Tubman’s life and developed her one-woman play, which her husband, a history teacher, asked her to perform for his students.

Since then, she has performed multiple times each month for close to 30 years in schools, colleges, libraries, churches and retirement homes. A Winston-Salem native, Faison holds a bachelors of arts in art appreciation from North Carolina Central University. She has received grants from the Winston-Salem and Alamance arts councils, and the Puffin Foundation.

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

Randolph library Friends to host ‘Trivia on Tap’ at Four Saints

ASHEBORO – Test your knowledge of books and authors, pop culture, and local history – and support the Friends of the Randolph County Public Library – at “Trivia on Tap,” 6:30 p.m. Monday, April 1, at Four Saints Brewing Company.

Ticket price is $25 per person, and includes food and the trivia competition. Proceeds go to support Friends programs such as Books for Babies, children’s activities at the library, and literacy.

Tickets are on sale at the Asheboro Public Library, 201 Worth Street. Call 336-318-6801 to reserve tickets or for more information.

Emcee Rich Powell returns for the friendly competition, in which participants will answer three rounds of trivia questions in teams. Participants may sign up in groups as teams, or simply join a team on arrival.

The name of the winning team and its members will be displayed on the Friends Trivia Champion trophy at the Asheboro library.

There will be a cash bar. Four Saints is located at 218 S. Fayetteville St. in Asheboro.

Author to follow Daniel Boone’s footsteps in Asheboro library talk

Randell Jones

ASHEBORO – Go “In the Footsteps of Daniel Boone” with award-winning author and storyteller Randell Jones at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 12, at the Asheboro Public Library.

Boone led one of the fullest and most eventful lives in American history as a hunter, frontier guide, wilderness scout, militia leader, woodsman, land speculator, merchant and more — and spent 21 years in North Carolina.

Daniel Boone

Jones will  trace the life of Boone by placing Boone’s adventures on the landscape and taking the audience to some of the 85 sites across 11 states, from Pennsylvania to Missouri, where the pioneer hero left his mark.

“In the Footsteps of Daniel Boone” is based on Jones’s book by the same name. Jones, who lives in Winston-Salem, also is author of Scoundrels, Rogues and Heroes of the Old North State, Before They Were Heroes at Kings Mountain, and several other titles about the pioneer era and the American Revolution.

Jones’s appearance, part of the Road Scholar series, is made possible by funding from the North Carolina Humanities Council, a statewide non-profit and affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Friends of the Library.

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

La Leche League representative to offer breastfeeding advice in Asheboro library talk

ASHEBORO – Join Laura Evans of the La Leche League of Greensboro for “Milk for Everyone: An Overview of Breastfeeding Benefits and Stages” at 10:30 a.m. Friday, March 8, at the Asheboro Public Library. The talk is free and expectant/nursing mothers are invited.

Evans will cover the benefits of breastfeeding for families, transition to work, introduction of solid foods and other topics, with time for discussion.

A working mother of two, Evans is a volunteer with the La Leche League of Greensboro.

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

Jim Avett: An honest man shares his love of life and music in Asheboro Sunset Series performance

Jim Avett

ASHEBORO – Son of a Methodist minister and a classical pianist, Jim Avett grew up in a home full of love and music, where he learned the importance of hard work and honest living.

Avett, a lifelong songwriter and musician, only turned to full time performing after retiring from a welding business he operated for 35 years to provide for his own family.

Now with four albums to his name and international acclaim, Avett will anchor the second installment of the 2019 Friends of the Library Sunset Signature Series at

7 p.m. Friday, March 15, in downtown Asheboro’s historic Sunset Theatre.

The performance, sponsored by the Heart of North Carolina Visitors Bureau, the City of Asheboro and the Friends of the Randolph County Public Library, is free and the public is invited. Seating is on a first-come first-served basis.

Avett’s shows are a combination of beloved country tunes, his original ballads and stories he tells to introduce the songs. His performances have been characterized as spending the evening on the front porch, singing and talking with a good friend.

A North Carolina native who now lives in Cabarrus County, Avett released his first album, Jim Avett and Family, in 2008. It featured sons Scott and Seth — the Avett Brothers — and daughter Bonnie.

His next album, 2010’s Tribes, featured original songs ranging from soulful love ballads like the title track to the more lighthearted “Fight with a Bottle of Booze” – and a murder ballad that will ring especially true with Randolph County audiences, “Naomi.”

Listeners could find classic country and early rock ‘n’ roll influences on Second Chances in 2010, in which Avett drew on his life experiences to write songs about love, boyhood memories and loss. He followed that with For His Children and Ours in 2017.

The Sunset Signature Series will feature two more events in 2019: author Jerry Bledsoe, 7 p.m. Thursday, May 2; and UNC basketball titan Eric Montross, 7 p.m. Saturday, September 21.

The Sunset Theatre is located at 234 Sunset Avenue. For further information, call 800-626-2672.

Celebrate Dr. Seuss’s birthday with The Cat in the Hat at all Randolph libraries

ASHEBORO -- Meet The Cat in the Hat and other crazy characters during the first week in March as all seven public libraries in Randolph County celebrate the birthday of Dr. Seuss.

The Cat, a.k.a. storyteller and illusionist Caleb Sigmon, will appear for a performance and meet-and-greet at all the libraries as follows:

· Archdale: 7 p.m. Tuesday, March 5, 10433 S. Main Street.;

· Asheboro: 6:30 p.m. Friday, March 8, 201 Worth Street.;

· Franklinville: 4 p.m. Thursday, March 7, 111 Sumner Place;

· Liberty: 3:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 6, 239 S. Fayetteville Street;

· Ramseur: 10:30 a.m. Thursday, March 7, 1512 S. Main Street;

· Randleman: 3:30 p.m. Friday, March 8, 142 W. Academy Street;

· Seagrove: 1 p.m. Tuesday, March 5, 530 Old Plank Road.

The performances, sponsored by the Friends of the Randolph County Public Library, are free and the public is invited.

The fun, interactive events will feature live actors, puppets, music and audience participation, followed by a Meet-and-Greet with the Cat.

Sigmon visited the Asheboro library in December as the Grinch, drawing an audience of over 300.

Performing a variety of shows 150 times a year with a unique blend of magic, drama and storytelling, Sigmon is a mainstay of libraries, schools, churches and performing arts centers.  He has appeared at venues ranging from the Virginia Beach Boardwalk to the Johnny Carson Theatre in Lincoln, Nebraska.

Dr. Seuss’s actual birthday is March 2.

For further information, call 336-318-6804.