Appalachian Self-Care

Hiking the Smokemont - Bradley Forks Trail in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park from https://www.flickr.com/photos/ugardener/10817704663/ 2020 has most of us on-edge.  So much loss, uncertainty, and stress with the COVID-19 pandemic has exhausted most people and pushed us to our limits. Those of us in Appalachia have seen hard times before. I recently learned …

Living in Kindness

February 16th - 23rd is Random Acts of Kindness Week! Kindness is nourishment for our souls, so let's use this week to celebrate and explore the philosophical and scientific roots of human kindness. What is kindness? Mark Ian Barasch has written one of my favorite books on the exploration of compassion and kindness, complete with …

Destination Fiction: Asia

https://stockwatchboard.com/traveling-through-books/ Hello Readers! This summer I hope you will participate in the Adult Summer Reading program at Jackson County Public Library, beginning June 3rd. This year’s theme is the Great Jackson County Read: The Armchair Traveler, which is all about experiencing the world abroad through the books you read, from the comfort of your favorite …

When All God’s Children Get Together

In case you live under a rock and have no idea, February is African American History Month. It became an official celebration in 1976, but started as an awareness week in 1926. The purpose of the celebration is to honor African American history and achievement. Pretty straight forward, right? Well many of these types of …

Human Rights – From “Conception” to “Realization”

Hey y’all, this is Savannah from the Macon County Public Library.   You heard about several holidays in the last blog but for this blog, we are going to talk about human rights and Human Rights Day which was on December 10. Now, as a semi-trained history geek, my “historian” mind went all over the place …

A Month of Multicultural Celebrations

There are so very many holidays and celebrations in December. In our neck of the woods some of them are very well know, Christmas and Hanukkah immediately come to mind. While some are becoming more widely recognized, like Kwanzaa and Yule. Let's do a little armchair adventuring and look at some holiday traditions from across …

World AIDS Day

World AIDS Day takes place on the 1st of December each year. It’s an opportunity for people worldwide to unite in the fight against HIV, to show support for people living with HIV, and to commemorate those who have died from an AIDS-related illness. Founded in 1988, World AIDS Day was the first ever global health …

November is Native American Heritage Month – Trail of Tears National Historic Trail Sign Dedication

Kristina Moe here at the Macon County Public Library in Franklin, writing my first blog. Yes, I’ve been here nearly 12 years without contributing, but last month I was finally convinced to write something. Here goes. Most days I love my view from the Reference Desk- when I started writing this there was a glorious …

Creating your Character

Hello everyone! Julia from JCPL here and this go around in Dungeons and Dragons world we will discuss the first step in beginning any successful DnD campaign- creating your character. As with most things in DnD, you have near unlimited control over who your character is and who she/he will become. Which also means that …

Healthy Engagement 101: Theatre at the Library – A New Community Theatre Group in Franklin, NC

  Theatre is work.  No one knows that better than Roberta Pipitone, a retired drama teacher of 30 years, who has graciously volunteered her time to help the Macon County Public Library continue to build a theatre program.  Pipitone not only wrote this season’s suspenseful comedy: “Murder by the Book” – to take place at …