By Kanute Rarey
Guest Writer
Anne Wheeler, North Carolina Storyteller
The second event of Stories and Music on the Square by the new FRESH AIR Concert series is back in downtown Hayesville, North Carolina on Friday, July 23 from 6 p.m. - 8 p.m. Mountain Area Storytellers, the Beal Center and Clay County Community Revitalization Association, host another live concert at the gazebo on the square at the Historic Courthouse.
The outdoor event is free and will provide an evening of family-friendly fun. Folks from Clay, Cherokee, Macon, Towns and Union Counties, and places beyond, are invited for this evening of storytelling “revival” as lyrics, “long” words and laughs fill the air and spur the imagination. Help bring back the “old time” variety show as we fill the stage. Folks are invited to bring a folding chair and come on out. If there is rain, the show “must” go on and will be moved into the Beal Center and the courtroom of the old courthouse building.
The concert series, called "Fresh Air - Stories and Music on the Square", was the inspiration of a group of interested performers and Mountain Area Storytellers. All were wanting to get back outside in front of live audiences following a year of separation, isolation and anxiety for so many of our families and for us.
The lawn of the courthouse, the Beal Center and the covered, raised gazebo in the center of town provide the perfect stage for the open air event. There is lots of room for visitors, friends and families to spread out and enjoy a day or evening on the lawn.
The line up for the July night includes Georgia storytellers, Denise Mount and Leslie Shelley, Alabama storyteller Anne Wheeler, North Carolina storytellers Lee Lyons, Cynthia Raxter and Kanute Rarey, North Carolina poets Richard Cary and Mary Ricketson, and music with North Carolina singer songwriters, Justin Wetzel and Dr. Paul Constantine.