All Learn to waltz and ballroom dance with Carolina Dance Collaborative. Be wowed by close-up magic and mentalism! Bring your best masks to don while dancing or create one at the ball. Part of the event series: Winter Reading Audience: Adults Category: Performing Arts, Health & Wellness, Games & Hobbies

Get started with African-American genealogy and learn about useful Library System resources that will further your research. Registration required. Email [email protected] or call 864-269-5210 to register. Part of the event series: Black History Month Audience: Adults Category: History & Genealogy

We’re excited to be hosting Romantic Comedy Movie Nights every Friday in February at 7pm!

February 3rd- How To Lose A Guy in 10 Days

2/10 The Proposal

2/17 The Princess Bride

2/24 50 First Dates

Dress warm, bring a chair and snuggle up with your loved ones on our patio every Friday in February!

*please note these movie nights will be an outdoor event and will be subject to rain. If there is a chance of rain we will have to cancel the viewing. Please continue check social media for event updates!

United Way’s VITA program provides free income tax assistance to individuals and families with a household income of $60,000 or less. IRS-trained and certified volunteers help participants receive all eligible tax credits and deductions.

In Her Shoes is a program to inspire young women to be future leaders.

Join us on February 4 at 1PM (before the Furman game) in the Bon Secours Wellness Arena Atrium to hear from some of our local female leaders.

Ticket price includes access to the In Her Shoes program, one meal voucher, plus one ticket to the Furman Paladins Basketball Doubleheader vs. Wofford.

Code: SHOES

Panelists:
Jackie Carson – Head Coach, Furman Women’s Basketball

Dr. Elizabeth Davis – President, Furman University

Beth Paul – General Manager – Bon Secours Wellness Arena

Jenny Wehrs – COO, Bon Secours St. Francis

Patricia Mullinax – Captain, Greenville Police Department

* panelists are subject to change 

Foothills Philharmonic continues its 23rd concert season with our Chamber Orchestra Concert. Tonight, Foothills Philharmonic explores smaller works for orchestra in a concert that has a more intimate feel than our normal orchestral concerts. Please plan on a fun day in the City of Greer! Tonight’s program features a brand new community event aimed at benefiting Miracle Hill Ministries Homeless shelters. Please feel free to visit their booth in the lobby to learn more about the work that they are doing to benefit our community. Upon conclusion of the concert, we will have a reception in the fellowship hall to which all of our audience members are invited.

The South Carolina Department of Parks, Recreation & Tourism is a cabinet agency assigned to operate and manage South Carolina’s 47 state parks, market the state as a preferred vacation destination and provide assistance to communities to develop recreation assets. At this Voice of Business, hear from gubernatorial appointed Director Duane Parrish. Duane provides leadership and direction that helps the agency deliver public service pursuant to the goals and objectives of the Governor of the state of South Carolina.

Speaker Biography – Duane Parrish:

Parrish has dedicated more than 40 years of his professional career to the hospitality industry, including extensive experience in hotel property management and development throughout South Carolina. He was appointed to his current role by then-Governor Nikki Haley in 2011 and re-appointed by Governor Henry McMaster in 2018.

As Director of SCPRT, Parrish has led South Carolina?s tourism industry through continued positive development, resulting in seven consecutive years of record-breaking economic growth (2013 ? 2019). Under his leadership and direction, South Carolina State Parks has achieved an unprecedented 99% operational self-sufficiency. Parrish is also responsible for initiating renovations to modernize and innovate the state?s Welcome Center facilities, the front porches of Palmetto State hospitality.

Parrish holds a degree in Business Administration from USC and has served as an adjunct professor at the College of Charleston and Trident Technical College. He is a former Chairman and active member of the SC Restaurant and Lodging Association, serves on the Board for the US Travel Association and is the immediate Past Chair of the National Council of State Tourism Directors.

Greenville County Schools 4k enrollment is now open until March 10th 2023. 4K programs are offered at various elementary schools and six child development centers across Greenville County. Children who will be four years old on or before September 1, 2023 are eligible to apply for this free program. Priority for 4K placement is based on risk factors such as academic or developmental needs, low family income, or low parent education level. Parents will be notified of application status by April 1, 2023. GCS will be completing registration at the following locations:

• January 24th Norwest Crescent CDC
• January 25th Greenview CDC
• January 30th Dunbar CDC
• February 7th Overbrook CDC
• February 8th Golden Strip CDC
• February 27th Riley CDC

GCS will help with enrollments from 8:30am to 4:00pm. Parents should bring the child’s birth certificate and shot record, the parent’s picture ID, and two proofs of residency. No appointment is necessary. Parents can just come on the days listed. For more information, please contact Leanne Ramirez, District Social Worker.

United Way’s VITA program provides free income tax assistance to individuals and families with a household income of $60,000 or less. IRS-trained and certified volunteers help participants receive all eligible tax credits and deductions.

Get started with African-American genealogy and learn about useful Library System resources that will further your research. Registration required. Email [email protected] or call 864-268-5955 to register. Part of the event series: Black History Month Audience: Adults Category: History & Genealogy

This Black History Month, join the Southern Studies Fellowship in Arts and Letters Writer-in Residence Desiree S. Evans as she moderates a conversation on the power of the Black fantastic with speculative fiction writers Nicky Drayden, Ehigbor Okosun, and Suyi Davies Okungbowa. 

Worldbuilding is a key part of creating fictional narratives, and it is a core element of storytelling found in the speculative fiction genre. Whether creating imagined futures or alternate universes, speculative fiction writers must be able to immerse readers into their new worlds on the page. The panelists will discuss how they build their own speculative worlds in their novels, and how they weave worldbuilding into every aspect of the story, from setting to plot to character arcs, from science to magic systems. 

REGISTER HERE!

About the Panelists

Nicky Drayden is a Systems Analyst who dabbles in prose when she’s not buried in code. She resides in Austin, Texas where being weird is highly encouraged, if not required. Her award-winning novel THE PREY OF GODS is set in a futuristic South Africa brimming with demigods, robots, and hallucinogenic hijinks, and with her latest series ESCAPING EXODUS and its sequel ESCAPING EXODUS: SYMBIOSIS, she takes her weirdness off-world to a civilization living inside the gut of a moon-sized space beast. See more of her work at nickydrayden.com or catch her on twitter @nickydrayden.

Ehigbor Okosun is an Austin-based author who writes speculative fiction for adult and young-adult audiences. Her debut adult fantasy novel, FORGED BY BLOOD, is forthcoming from Harper Voyager in August 2023. A British private school survivor turned Nigerian-American immigrant, Ehigbor hopes to do justice to the myths and traditions she grew up steeped in, and to honor her large, multiracial and multiethnic family. She is a graduate of the University of Texas with degrees in Plan II Honors, Neurolinguistics, and English, as well as Chemistry and Pre-Medical studies. When she’s not reading, you can catch her bullet journalling and baking. Follow her on Twitter at @Ask_Heebs, and on Instagram at @okosunreads.

Suyi Davies Okungbowa is a Nigerian author of fantasy, science fiction, and general speculative work. His latest novel is SON OF THE STORM (Orbit, 2021), first in the epic fantasy trilogy, The Nameless Republic (WARRIOR OF THE WIND, second in the trilogy, is forthcoming in 2023). His debut godpunk fantasy novel DAVID MOGO, GODHUNTER (Abaddon, 2019), won the 2020 Nommo Ilube Award for Best Novel. His shorter works have appeared in various periodicals and anthologies and have been nominated for various awards. He earned his MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Arizona, and lives in Ontario, where he is a professor of creative writing at the University of Ottawa. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram at @suyidavies, or via his newsletter, SuyiAfterFive.com.

About the Moderator

Desiree S. Evans writes fiction for children, teens, and adults. She is the co-editor of the forthcoming young-adult fiction anthology THE BLACK GIRL SURVIVES IN THIS ONE (Flatiron Books, 2024), and a contributor to the young-adult fiction anthologies COOL. AWKWARD. BLACK. (Penguin Teen, 2023) and FORESHADOW: STORIES TO CELEBRATE THE MAGIC OF READING AND WRITING YA (Algonquin Young Readers, 2020). Desiree’s creative writing has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net, and has appeared in literary journals such as Gulf Coast, The Offing, Nimrod Journal, and others. Desiree is a graduate of Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, and the Michener Center for Writers at The University of Texas at Austin, where she received her MFA in fiction. Visit her on the web at desiree-evans.com, and follow her on Instagram and Twitter at @literarydesiree.

Ever question if there’s more to life? Alpha is a series of group conversations that explore the basics of the Christian faith in a friendly environment. It’s a place to connect with people, where you can say anything you like or nothing at all. Everyone’s welcome. You’re invited, no matter your background or beliefs.

Each session includes a time to connect with others (often over a free meal), hear a short talk on an element of the Christian faith, and then a chance for each person to share their own questions with the group. We’d love to hear your perspective!

Greenville County Schools 4k enrollment is now open until March 10th 2023. 4K programs are offered at various elementary schools and six child development centers across Greenville County. Children who will be four years old on or before September 1, 2023 are eligible to apply for this free program. Priority for 4K placement is based on risk factors such as academic or developmental needs, low family income, or low parent education level. Parents will be notified of application status by April 1, 2023. GCS will be completing registration at the following locations:

• January 24th Norwest Crescent CDC
• January 25th Greenview CDC
• January 30th Dunbar CDC
• February 7th Overbrook CDC
• February 8th Golden Strip CDC
• February 27th Riley CDC

GCS will help with enrollments from 8:30am to 4:00pm. Parents should bring the child’s birth certificate and shot record, the parent’s picture ID, and two proofs of residency. No appointment is necessary. Parents can just come on the days listed. For more information, please contact Leanne Ramirez, District Social Worker.