Wednesday, July 12 – 4-9:00 PM – $5 Sangria special – Granache, brandy, orange-pineapple-lime juices – Natural fruit juices without the toooo sweet taste but a nice balance. Add some ice and you’re ready for a relaxing summer afternoon!
AND NC Writers Network returns with “In the Company of Writers” with guest authors: Kenneth Chamlee and Molly Bolton. Sign-ups for the open mic visit:https://thebrandybar.com/writers-open-mic/
Kenneth Chamlee is the author of If Not These Things (Kelsay Books, 2022) and The Best Material for the Artist in the World, a poetic biography of 19th century American landscape painter Albert Bierstadt (Stephen F. Austin State University Press, 2023). His poems have appeared in The North Carolina Literary Review, Cold Mountain Review, The Worcester Review and The Ekphrastic Review, among other publications. A Professor Emeritus of English at Brevard College in North Carolina, Ken conducts workshops for the Great Smokies Writing Program at UNC-Asheville and is a 2022-2023 Gilbert-Chappell Distinguished Poet for the North Carolina Poetry Society. Learn more at www.kennethchamlee.com.
Molly Bolton was awarded a Gilbert-Chappell mentorship with Ken Chamlee in 2023. Her poetry explores the intersections of grief, spiritual liberation, the Blue Ridge mountains, and queerness. Molly’s writing can be f
ound or is forthcoming in The EcoTheo Review, Hippocampus, Susurrus, and Morehouse Press. A spiritual care provider, she served as staff chaplain at The Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio for 6 years. She now teaches the art of spiritual direction through the Still Harbor program, leads workshops on poetry as a tool for grief support, and writes weekly liturgy for the spiritual collective enfleshed. Find out more about her work at revmollybolton.com.
Thurs 7/13 – 4-9:00 PM – We’ve been reading “Gleanings” from the 1910 THE FRENCH BROAD HUSTLER compiled by Dorothy Wood and comparing some of the simpler attitudes from that year to today’s points of view. This small cottage newspaper was an intermittently published rag from 1893 – 1919 covering primarily Henderson and Transylvania Counties. https://www.digitalnc.org/newspapers/french-broad-hustler-hendersonville-n-c/ Perhaps you will be pleasantly surprised by the conciliatory point of view of such ordinary subjects as “census takers” and a great deal of pride in what appeared to us as the mundane. “CENSUS BEGINS FRIDAY. If a quiet, inoffensive looking man comes into your home and asks you personal and intimate questions about your age, color, is inquisitive about the size of the mortgage you are carrying, don’t get angry. Treat him kindly, for remember, he’s the census man. On April 15 he begins his work which will continue for the following 30 days. He will ask you your age, sex, color, race, whether single or married, widowed or divorced, how long married, how many children born and living, place of birth of parents and children, can you speak English, etc. About this time you ask the census man to have a glass of buttermilk, and while he is drinking it you tell him how to make hair grow on a head which resembles a billiard ball, how to vote bonds for cement sidewalks and then not get the walks, etc. You converse pleasantly for a bit and then he starts in again. What is your occupation, were you working on April 15, 1910, how many weeks were you out of a job during 1909, can you read and write, have you been to school since Sept. 1, 1909, do you own your own home or do you pay rent, is your home mortgaged, did you serve in the Union or Confederate army or navy, are you blind, deaf or dumb. You wipe the perspiration from your brow, breath hard and look the census man in the eye. He will take the hint and leave, but if you want to tell him what you think about good roads, the care of babies, the big hog contest and the need of a daily paper, it will be all right. But be sure and treat him kindly – he’s paid to be inquisitive.”
The simple drinks: CB Frost and cranberry; Fir and Tonic – Douglas Fir and Q Tonic water; Classy Southern tea – C & K brandy with sweet or unsweetened iced tea; Orange frost – CB Frost with frozen orange juice; Vermy Cold – CB Frost and Antica Posta Vermouth (served over frozen grapes); Single pour of Ginger Brandy or Cointreau Noir