Explore family friendly events, theatres, galleries, concerts, nightlife, things to do, and more in the Greenville, SC and Upstate areas.

Interested in adding an event to our calendar? Please click the green “Post Your Event” button below.

Saturday, April 13, 2024
Bookworms + Bites: Children’s Storytime
Apr 13 @ 10:00 am – 12:00 pm
Hub City Bookshop & Press

Welcome to Bookworms & Bites: Children’s Storytime! Join us at Hub City Bookshop & Press for a fun-filled event where our talented storytellers will captivate young minds with exciting tales and adventures.

It’s a perfect opportunity for children to discover the joy of reading and to give that wonder of books to another child by purchasing a book to donate to our Prepared to Thrive Book Drive.

Don’t miss out on this fantastic event and chance to give back!

All books donationed will benefit Spartanburg School District 6 and 7 schools.

Connecting with Nature: A Mindful, Meditative Walk in the Woods
Apr 13 @ 12:00 pm – 2:30 pm
Conestee Nature Preserve

For many of us, our time spent in nature can be restful, comforting, healing, and inspiring. Nature Therapy, which is based on the Japanese practice of Shinrin Yoku, enhances this experience by encouraging us to relax, slow down, be in the moment, and gently focus on the natural world.

On this leisurely Nature Therapy walk through the Preserve, you will be able to escape the demands of everyday life, engage with your senses, and perhaps encounter nature in a slightly different way. Marie McIntyre, a certified Association of Nature & Forest Therapy guide, will offer a series of “invitations” designed to help each person in the group create their own unique individual Nature Therapy experience.

Wednesday, April 17, 2024
Tech After Five
Apr 17 @ 5:30 pm – 7:00 pm
Think Tank Brew Lab

Tech After Five connects the tech community. We invite IT Professionals, Startups, Entrepreneurs and their community of support to come together and make meaningful professional connections.

You may be looking for work or looking to hire. You might be looking for customers or prospects. You may need co-founders, partners or mentors. We’ve got you covered.

Tech After Five is not like other networking events. We work particularly hard to make sure we get the right people in the room and then make sure it’s easy for you to find each other. Sign up using the right ticket type for you. We will then follow up with custom emails that let you know who you can expect to meet. We will print custom badges for the event that make it easy for you to find the people you are looking for.

We know that networking can be hard. We try to make it as easy as possible for you to meet the right people. We know that when smart people come together we can make things happen. We hope you will join us and become part of our community.

Thursday, April 18, 2024
Arboretum Reads Nature’s Best Hope
Apr 18 @ 3:30 pm – 5:00 pm
NC Arboretum

“Tallamy lays out all you need to know to participate in one of the great conservation projects of our time. Read it and get started!” —Elizabeth Kolbert, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Sixth Extinction 

Douglas W. Tallamy’s first book, Bringing Nature Home, awakened thousands of readers to an urgent situation: wildlife populations are in decline because the native plants they depend on are fast disappearing. His solution? Plant more natives. Another of Tallamy’s books, The Nature of Oaks, looked at the same issues in connection with one keystone species increasingly more imperiled in our urban canopies: the oak, a powerhouse of the plant kingdom that supports more life forms and interactions than any other tree genus in North America. In Nature’s Best Hope, Tallamy takes the next step and outlines his vision for a grassroots approach to conservation, showing how homeowners everywhere can turn their yards into conservation corridors that provide wildlife habitats. Arboretum environmental educator Libby Oswalt leads this drop-in reading circle in person at the Arboretum over two sessions. Bring your questions, comments and take-away wisdom from this insightful read and let’s discuss your plans for putting Tallamy’s recommendations to work in your own landscapes and communities!

Libby Oswalt loves all plants but is especially passionate about native plants! She graduated from Virginia Tech with a degree in Environmental Horticulture and has since gained years of experience working in the nursery industry with a particular interest in native trees, shrubs, and perennials. She currently works as a Youth Environmental Educator at the North Carolina Arboretum where she enjoys teaching students about the many wonders of Appalachian biodiversity. She enjoys spending her free time exploring the woods, gardening, and spreading awareness of the importance of native plants in our landscapes.

Registration and Participation in In-Person Classes through the Arboretum

 

— Registration for this class will close two days before the class start date.

— Make sure you enter your email address correctly when registering.

— Registrants will be sent a reminder email the day prior to class with the meeting location, current Safety Guidelines, and additional details.

— Access to more information will be available upon registration via your account’s Supplemental Content section (if applicable to your class). To learn how to view this information, please use this helpful guide.

 

Please add [email protected] to your contacts to ensure our emails do not end up in your spam folder.

Jason Ryan: Swamp Kings Reading + Signing
Apr 18 @ 6:00 pm
Hub City Writers Project

Crime junkies and podcast enthusiasts, join us at Hub City Bookshop on April 18th at 6:00 PM for a reading and signing of Swamp Kings.

Crime junkies and podcast enthusiasts, join us at Hub City Bookshop on April 18th at 6:00 PM for a reading and signing of Jason Ryan’s Swamp Kings. Uncover the secrets of the infamous Murdaugh clan, their power, and influence in the Lowcountry. Swamp Kings is full of historical research and excellent storytelling. You won’t want to miss this event. RSVP and get a 10% discount on the book when you purchase your copy through Eventbrite.

About the Book

The stranger-than-fiction story of the now-notorious Lowcountry clan, in all its Southern Gothic intensity—by an author with unparalleled access to and knowledge of the players, the history, and the place.

The most famous man in South Carolina lives in prison. He stands convicted of a staggering amount of wrongdoing—more than 100 crimes and counting. Once a high-flying, smooth-talking, pedigreed Southern lawyer, Alex Murdaugh is now disbarred and disgraced. For more than a decade, prosecutors asserted that Alex was secretly a fraud, a thief, a drug trafficker, and an all-around phony. On the night of June 7, 2021, they claimed, he also became a killer, shooting dead his wife and son in a desperate bid to escape accountability.

The many crimes of Alex Murdaugh, exposed piecemeal over the last two years, have appalled the general public. Yet his implosion—the spectacular manner in which he has turned his vaunted family name to mud—has also proved mesmerizing. With every revelation, Alex Murdaugh has been shown to be a man without bottom, though he insists he never harmed his family.

Remarkably, all of his misdeeds have precedent. In Swamp Kings, Jason Ryan reveals Alex’s evil actions are only the tip of the iceberg. When it comes to the Murdaugh family of Hampton County, history has a way of repeating itself. For every alleged, headline-grabbing crime associated with Alex Murdaugh, mirror-image incidents have played out within his family’s past, including parallel instances of fraud, theft, illicit trafficking of babies and booze, calamitous boat crashes, and even alleged murder. There were some crimes committed by Alex’s kin that even he would not dare mimic.

Covering a century of depravity in an impoverished and isolated stretch of the Deep South, Swamp Kings weaves together the jaw-dropping narratives of generations of Murdaughs before culminating in the telling of a murder trial for the ages. Page after page the family’s legacy is laid bare as a spotlight is finally trained on the Murdaugh men who have long lorded over the South Carolina Lowcountry.

About the Author

Jason Ryan is a nonfiction author living in Charleston. He is a former reporter for The Beaufort Gazette and The State newspaper and is a graduate of Dorman High School and Georgetown University. His previous books include Jackpot: High Times, High Seas and the Sting that Launched the War on Drugs, Hell-Bent: One Man’s Crusade to Crush the Hawaiian Mob, and Race to Hawaii: The 1927 Dole Derby and the Thrilling First Flights That Opened The Pacific.

Monday, April 22, 2024
Open Tech Lab
Apr 22 @ 1:00 pm – 3:00 pm
Headquarters Library
Tuesday, April 23, 2024
Alicia D. Williams Book Talk + Signing
Apr 23 @ 6:00 pm
Pickens County Library System- Hampton Memorial Library - Easley

Join Newbery Honor-winning author Alicia D. Williams for a book talk and signing at the Pickens County Hampton Memorial Library (304 Biltmore Road, Easley, SC 29640) on Tuesday, April 23rd, at 6pm. Alicia will discuss her new book, Mid-Air, take questions from the audience, and will be available afterwards for a book signing.

This event is FREE and open to the public, or you can purchase a $19.25 book ticket that admits one to the event and includes a copy of Mid-Air. We will have additional books for sale at the event as supplies last, but purchase now to guarantee your copy.

If you are unable to attend, personalized copies of Mid-Air can be purchased on our website.

Book tickets can be purchased online through Monday, April 22 at 2pm. Free tickets can be reserved online until Tuesday, April 23rd at 6pm. Tickets may be purchased at the door if still available, but buy ahead to guarantee your spot. Refunds can be requested up until the ticket cutoff.

A tender-souled boy reeling from the death of his best friend struggles to fit into a world that wants him to grow up tough and unfeeling in this stunning middle grade novel in verse from the Newbery Honor–winning author of Genesis Begins Again.

It’s the last few months of eighth grade, and Isaiah feels lost. He thought his summer was going to be him and his boys Drew and Darius, hanging out, doing wheelies, watching martial arts movies, and breaking tons of Guiness World Records before high school. But now, more and more, Drew seems to be fading from their friendship, and though he won’t admit it, Isaiah knows exactly why. Because Darius is…gone.

A hit and run killed Darius in the midst of a record-breaking long wheelie when Isaiah should have been keeping watch, ready to warn: “CAR!” Now, Drew can barely look at Isaiah. But Isaiah, already quaking with ache and guilt, can’t lose two friends. So, he comes up with a plan to keep Drew and him together­­­—they can spend the summer breaking records, for Darius.

But Drew’s not the same Drew since Darius was killed, and Isaiah, being Isaiah, isn’t enough for Drew anymore. Not his taste in clothes, his love for rock music, or his aversion to jumping off rooftops. And one day something unspeakable happens to Isaiah that makes him think Drew’s right. If only he could be less sensitive, more tough, less weird, more cool, less him, things would be easier. But how much can Isaiah keep inside until he shatters wide open?

About the Author:

Alicia D. Williams is the author of Genesis Begins Again, which received Newbery and Kirkus Prize honors, was a William C. Morris Award finalist, and for which she won the Coretta Scott King – John Steptoe Award for New Talent; and picture books Jump at the Sun and The Talk which was also a Coretta Scott King Honor book. An oral storyteller in the African American tradition, she lives in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Refund Policy:

Refunds can be requested up until the ticket cutoff.

Alicia D. Williams Book Talk + Signing
Apr 23 @ 6:00 pm
Pickens County Library System- Hampton Memorial Library - Easley

Join Newbery Honor-winning author Alicia D. Williams for a book talk and signing at the Pickens County Hampton Memorial Library (304 Biltmore Road, Easley, SC 29640) on Tuesday, April 23rd, at 6pm. Alicia will discuss her new book, Mid-Air, take questions from the audience, and will be available afterwards for a book signing.

This event is FREE and open to the public, or you can purchase a $19.25 book ticket that admits one to the event and includes a copy of Mid-Air. We will have additional books for sale at the event as supplies last, but purchase now to guarantee your copy.

If you are unable to attend, personalized copies of Mid-Air can be purchased on our website.

Book tickets can be purchased online through Monday, April 22 at 2pm. Free tickets can be reserved online until Tuesday, April 23rd at 6pm. Tickets may be purchased at the door if still available, but buy ahead to guarantee your spot. Refunds can be requested up until the ticket cutoff.

A tender-souled boy reeling from the death of his best friend struggles to fit into a world that wants him to grow up tough and unfeeling in this stunning middle grade novel in verse from the Newbery Honor–winning author of Genesis Begins Again.

It’s the last few months of eighth grade, and Isaiah feels lost. He thought his summer was going to be him and his boys Drew and Darius, hanging out, doing wheelies, watching martial arts movies, and breaking tons of Guiness World Records before high school. But now, more and more, Drew seems to be fading from their friendship, and though he won’t admit it, Isaiah knows exactly why. Because Darius is…gone.

A hit and run killed Darius in the midst of a record-breaking long wheelie when Isaiah should have been keeping watch, ready to warn: “CAR!” Now, Drew can barely look at Isaiah. But Isaiah, already quaking with ache and guilt, can’t lose two friends. So, he comes up with a plan to keep Drew and him together­­­—they can spend the summer breaking records, for Darius.

But Drew’s not the same Drew since Darius was killed, and Isaiah, being Isaiah, isn’t enough for Drew anymore. Not his taste in clothes, his love for rock music, or his aversion to jumping off rooftops. And one day something unspeakable happens to Isaiah that makes him think Drew’s right. If only he could be less sensitive, more tough, less weird, more cool, less him, things would be easier. But how much can Isaiah keep inside until he shatters wide open?

About the Author:

Alicia D. Williams is the author of Genesis Begins Again, which received Newbery and Kirkus Prize honors, was a William C. Morris Award finalist, and for which she won the Coretta Scott King – John Steptoe Award for New Talent; and picture books Jump at the Sun and The Talk which was also a Coretta Scott King Honor book. An oral storyteller in the African American tradition, she lives in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Refund Policy:

Refunds can be requested up until the ticket cutoff.

Wednesday, April 24, 2024
Mamie Morgan in Conversation with Patrick Whitfill
Apr 24 @ 6:45 pm – 7:45 pm
Hub City Bookshop

Thursday, April 25 at 6:00 PM, Mamie Morgan will be in in conversation with Patrick Whitfill at Hub City Bookshop. Listen in on a reading of Morgan’s newest poetry collection Everyone I’ve Dance with is Dead – a collection that offers up lamentation for, and salutation to, the dead.

This event is free and open to the public, registration on Eventbrite comes with a book at a 10% discount and holds a reserved seat at the event.

Thursday, April 25, 2024
The Greenville Day Traders Meetup Group Monthly Meetup
Apr 25 @ 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm
online

We will discuss markets, software, strategies, and any topics of interest to traders.

Sunday, April 28, 2024
Boozy Book Fair
Apr 28 @ 1:00 pm – 3:00 pm
Fireforge

There was nothing like the elementary school book fair – the smell of new books in the air, the rush of racing your friends to find the next installment of your favorite series, and, if you were lucky, the crinkle of money from Mom in your pocket.

Life felt so much easier back then, didn’t it? Don’t you find yourself wishing from time to time that you could just go back?

This April, you can – but we’re doing it grown-up style.

Don’t miss our Boozy Book Fair at Fireforge (311 E Washington St, Greenville, SC 29601) on Sunday, April 28th from 1-3pm!

Book categories will include:

Adulting

-Geeks and Gamers

-Myths and Fairy Tales

-Gothic and Ghastly

-Meet Cute Moments

-Romantasy

-Read the Rainbow

-When Nature Calls

-Bookclub Picks

-Young at Heart

-Truth ‘R Us

-Criminally Good Reads

…and much much more!

This event is FREE and open to the public, so bring your friends! Be sure to RSVP so we have the booze + books ready – we can’t wait to see you there.

Thursday, May 2, 2024
DEF CON 864 Meeting
May 2 @ 6:00 pm – 7:00 pm
Hughes Main Library
DEF CON 864 Meeting

Join us for the monthly DEF CON 864 group meeting online and in-person.

  • In-person at Hughes Main Library meeting room A
  • Online details are posted in our Discord.
  • Discord invite is on our website at dc864.org.

All meetings are free and open to the public.

We have a very open format, so join in and let us know what your interests are that you’d like to see from this group.

We leave an hour to going over member projects and interests. Have a Raspberry Pi project or build a custom drone? Bring it in and show us how you did it. Creating your own set of scripts for system reconnaissance? We’d love to see it.

Friday, May 3, 2024
Friends of the Library Used Book Sale Friends Members Only
May 3 @ 2:00 pm – 5:30 pm
Five Forks Library

Friends of the Library Used Book Sale

Saturday, May 4, 2024
Friends of the Library Used Book Sale
May 4 @ 10:00 am – 3:00 pm
Five Forks Library

Friends of the Library Used Book Sale

Tuesday, May 7, 2024
Meditative Morning
May 7 @ 8:00 am – 10:00 am
NC Arboretum

We’ve heard your valuable feedback, and now you don’t have to hear us! Beginning May 4, 2021, the period between 8 and 10 a.m. on the first Tuesday morning of every month will be reserved for “Meditative Mornings,” a pause for quiet time in our gardens and on our trails. During this time, our working garden crew will abstain from using leaf blowers, mowers and other equipment so you can be sure to enjoy the sounds of birds and the wind in the trees.

Take advantage of half-price parking on the first Tuesday of every month and come out to the Arboretum to enjoy a Meditative Morning!

Computer Basics
May 7 @ 3:30 pm – 5:00 pm
Hughes Main Library
Training Lab

Learn the basics of navigating a computer and using a mouse and keyboard.

Questions? Call 864-527-9258. Registration required.

Tommy Tomlinson in Conversation with Bronwen Dickey: Dogland
May 7 @ 6:00 pm – 7:00 pm
Hub City Bookshop & Press

Are show dogs and pet dogs happy? Tommy Tomlinson searches for a deeper understanding of the relationship between dogs and and humans. Discover his inside account of the Westminster Dog Show and his experience behind the scenes of more than one hundred competitions across the country. Tomlinson will be joined in conversation with author Bronwen Dickey, author of Pit Bull: The Battle over an American Icon. Join us at Hub City Bookshop on Tuesday, May 7th at 6 PM for this event perfect for any dog lover!

About the Book

From Pulitzer Prize finalist Tommy Tomlinson comes an inside account of the Westminster Dog Show that follows one dog on his quest to become a champion—and explores the bond between dogs and their people.

Tommy Tomlinson was watching a dog show on television a few years ago when he had a sudden thought: Are those dogs happy? How about pet dogs—are they happy? Those questions sparked a quest to venture inside the dog-show world, in search of a deeper understanding of the relationship between dogs and humans that has endured for thousands of years. Dogland shares his surprising, entertaining, and moving adventures.

Tomlinson spends three years on the road and goes behind the scenes at more than one hundred competitions across the country, from Midwestern fairgrounds to Madison Square Garden. Along the way he is licked, sniffed, and rubbed up against by dogs of nearly every size, shape, and breed. Like a real-life version of the classic mockumentary Best in Show, Dogland follows one champion show dog—a Samoyed named Striker—as well as his handler, Laura King, and his devoted entourage of breeders and owners as he competes in the 2022 Westminster Dog Show.

Striker’s whole career has been leading up to this moment. As Tomlinson writes, picking a top show dog is like drafting an NFL quarterback when they’re still in elementary school. Now Striker has made it to the Super Bowl. Tomlinson takes readers on the long road to glory, bringing the dog-show circuit to life as he witnesses teams scrambling from town to town in search of championship points and large, colorful ribbons. (Striker and his crew travel in a custom-built RV named after Betty White.)

Tomlinson’s limitless curiosity about people and dogs reaches far beyond the show tents and into the ordinary lives of dogs. We hear from experts who have discovered new insights into how dogs and humans formed their bond—and how that bond has changed over the centuries. We discover the fascinating origins of different dog breeds, learn about the elaborate breed standards that determine an ideal show dog, and consider the health issues that can arise in purebred dogs. We also meet dog lovers who applaud every dog, regardless of breed, simply for being themselves, such as WeRateDogs, the social media phenomenon with millions of followers, all for posts celebrating the day-to-day goofiness in most dog owners’ lives.

Engaging, charming, and insightful, Dogland is an irresistibly appealing read that invites us on a rollicking backstage tour through the rituals, tricks, and wonders of the dog-show world—and reveals what matters most for the happiness of dogs and dog lovers everywhere.

About the Author

Tommy Tomlinson is the author of The Elephant in the Room, a memoir about being overweight in America. He’s the host of the podcast SouthBound in partnership with WFAE, Charlotte’s NPR station. He has written for publications including EsquireESPN the MagazineSports IllustratedForbesGarden & Gun, and many others. He spent twenty-three years as a reporter and local columnist for the Charlotte Observer, where he was a finalist for the 2005 Pulitzer Prize in commentary. His stories have been chosen twice for the Best American Sports Writing series (2012 and 2015) and he also appears in the anthology America’s Best Newspaper Writing. He teaches magazine writing at Wake Forest University and has taught at colleges, workshops, and conferences across the country. He also has a Substack called The Writing Shed. Tommy and his wife, Alix Felsing, live in Charlotte with Alix’s mom and a cat.

Conversation Partner

Bronwen Dickey is a journalist, science writer, and the author of Pit Bull: The Battle over an American Icon. In 2017, she was a finalist for the National Magazine Award in feature writing. She teaches journalism at Duke University.

Thursday, May 9, 2024
Streaming 101
May 9 @ 3:30 pm – 5:00 pm
Hughes Main Library
• Training Lab

Discover the fun and entertainment of streaming digital media on you computers and phones.

Questions? Call 864-527-9258. Registration required.

Silent Reading Social Hour
May 9 @ 7:00 pm – 8:00 pm
Travelers Rest Library

Ages 18+ | Join us for a time of quiet reading and socialize (or not) with fellow readers. Refreshments provided.

Saturday, May 11, 2024
A. C. Hobbs Author Pop-up
May 11 @ 11:00 am – 1:00 pm
Hub City Bookstore

Introducing Local Author Pop-up! Meet a local author at our bookshop on Saturday, ask them questions about their books and get your copy signed. A.C. Hobbs will be at Hub City Bookshop on May 11th from 11 AM – 1 PM showcasing her book Scythe and Pen — a dark fantasy novel set in the Jazz Age.