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

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Tuesday, May 16, 2023
Power Up Workshops – How to Start Your Business
May 16 @ 9:00 am – 11:00 am
OneSpartanburg, Inc. | Milliken Board Room 105 N. Pine St. Spartanburg, SC 29302

Power Up Workshops – How to Access Capital
May 16 @ 3:00 pm – 4:00 pm
OneSpartanburg, Inc. Milliken Board Room

Make plans to attend this Power Up Spartanburg Workshop – Access to Capital. Offered every month in partnership with the SC Small Business Development Center, join Katrina Meeks to learn about the topics below.

 Accounting/Budget, Business Financing, Cash Flow Management

This event will equip you with the knowledge of:

  • Access to Capital ( what do I need for a bank loan?)
  • Who will Fund my Business
  • The Five C’s of Credit
  • Skin in the Game
  • Terms and Conditions (do I sign on the dotted line? )
Saturday, May 20, 2023
SpringBoard Conference 2023: Training for Boards + Commissions
May 20 @ 9:00 am – 12:30 pm
online

The fourth annual SpringBoard Conference will help South Carolina women who have yet to seek positions on appointed boards and commissions gain the knowledge and confidence to do so and help women already serving become more effective board members. Learn the important role boards and commissions play in our government, understand the responsibilities associated with serving, and how to stand out in the application process. We’ll help you find the right board for your interests and experience, submit, and follow up on your application.

New this year–learn about service on corporate and nonprofit boards and hear from the officials who oversee appointments to statewide boards!

This is a virtual only conference.

 

Leading in the Private Sector: Serving on a Corporate or Non-Profit Board
Learn what it’s like serving on a private board, how to know if it’s the right fit for you, what experience you need, and how to find opportunities.

Presented by:
Karen Jenkins, President, Columbia Chamber of Commerce and member, SC Chamber of Commerce Board
Naomi Lett, Executive Director, United Way of SC


Starting at Home: Serving on a Local Appointed Board

Learn the roles boards and commissions play in local government, how they function, and the type of boards you can expect to find.

Presented by:
Dr. Kim Roberts, Fairfield County Clerk to Council

 

A New Solution: Appointments in the Digital Age
Learn how the innovative new MatchBoard app can help you find and apply for boards in your area.

Demonstration presented by:
Emily Bowerman, MatchBoard Director, SC Women in Leadership
Christie Lindsey, Clerk, City of Spartanburg


The Secret Formula for Being Appointed

What makes a candidate stand out to the council members and mayors making appointments? What skills should you have? Can networking help? What should you do before and after you apply?

Panelists:
Brandy Amidon, Mayor, City of Travelers Rest
David Kenner, Barnwell County Council
Daniel Rickenmann, Mayor, City of Columbia


How to Become a (More) Effective Board Member

What’s it like to serve? What’s the time commitment involved and how do you juggle it with other responsibilities? How many hours a month are you working outside of meetings? How do you handle conflict during meetings? How can you build a relationship with council members and officials? How do you increase your value to and status on the board?

Panelists:
Aisha Grant TaylorWorkers Compensation Commission
Kelly GlynnColumbia HTAX Committee
Ashlye WilkersonWinthrop Board of Trustees


Expanded Horizons: Serving on a Statewide Board

Learn more about opportunities to serve at the state level and how the appointment process varies from local appointments.

Panelists:
S.C. State Senator Sandy Senn, District 41 – Charleston & Dorchester Counties
S.C. State Representative Beth Bernstein, District 78 – Richland County, Member, S.C. House Judiciary Committee and Secretary, S.C. House Ethics Committee

Tuesday, May 23, 2023
South Carolina Women In Leadership: Office Hours Workshop: Opportunity Seats
May 23 @ 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm
online

Learn which offices are most likely to be winnable in your area! Using public data and SC WIL proprietary research, we will walk through which offices position you best to be elected. This is a great place to start if you’re thinking about running but aren’t sure what position you’re interested in. Sign up here.

Wednesday, May 24, 2023
Tom Tenbrunsel Virtual Writers Workshop: Poetry on my Mind
May 24 @ 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm
online w/ Carl Sandburg Home

You will find Tom Tenbrunsel a delightfully refreshing poet with a wide variety of subject matter and a style somewhere between Sandburg, Frost and the late Appalachian poet James Wright. Tom challenges one’s whit with a refreshing array of non-conforming rhyme, structure, rhythm and oft made-up words and hidden meanings. Uniquely Tom includes a photo and Author’s Notes with each poem. Join us in May to engage the spirit and myth of poetry with Tom’s “Poetry on my Mind”

Casual Poetry/Poetry on my Mind. Tom will read a couple poems for fun. He will ask guests to write a
short poem from a prompt with feedback from the group. Tom would like guests to feel free to bring short
poems to read and discuss. He encourages questions about writing poetry, about a poem of his or his
journey as a poet or his Self Help Series. So familiarize yourself with his works by scanning his website,
tenbrunsel.com Comments or questions are welcomed. Or feel free to email him in advance at
[email protected].  Check out his website tenbrunsel.com before the workshop. Send in one of your
poems to be commented on by Tom.

This workshop is open to writers of all skill levels and is a fun way to find inspiration from a new prompt or revise current work. It is hosted by the Friends of Carl Sandburg at Connemara and will use Microsoft Teams for the virtual connection. Sign up to attend the workshop here!

A writer and a poet, Dr. Tenbrunsel enjoyed a long successful career in Clinical Psychology. Born and raised in Nashville, Tennessee, Tom graduated from Bellarmine University, obtained his doctorate from St Louis University in 1969. He taught, published and was in administration at Michigan State University and was VP for Advancement at the University of Alabama at Huntsville. He and his wife reside in the Appalachians of Western North Carolina. They have three successful children and eight grand grandchildren. Dr T. enjoys photography, gardening, cycling, hiking, camping and stalking the elusive trout. His writings and publications speak for themselves. He has published numerous books including:  Casual Gardening,  Poetry on My Mind, The Fund Raising Resource Manual,  The Fund Raising Handbook, Fund-Raising and Grantsmanship:  Getting Money from the Community for the Community, The Lansing Area Doctors Directory, 1&2,   Dissertation “A Group Coupon Economy Program in Treating Mental Illness:  An Experiment in Social Innovation”,   A Wrinkle in My Time: My Memoirs (a work in progress)

Thursday, June 1, 2023
Upstate Homeschool Expo
Jun 1 @ 4:00 pm – 8:00 pm
North Greenville University

All the best resources for homeschooling in the Upstate in one place,
on one night! And, this year we have more space, and more time!

Gather resources for your homeschool. Get answers. Find your tribe!

Co-ops, associations, sports, community groups, field trips, arts, & more all in one fun place for the whole family.

NEW THIS YEAR: Learn about homeschooling in breakout sessions, & experience educational, & fun, mini-field trips as a family.

COST
$6.75 per adult.
Children are free.

Expo admission includes breakout sessions, & one tote bag per family.

Dinner, drinks, & snacks, are available for purchase in the cafe downstairs,
& snow cones will be just outside.

Saturday, June 3, 2023
National Trails Day
Jun 3 @ 10:00 am – 3:00 pm
Chimney Rock State Park

Hit the trails and celebrate this national holiday, not to mention NC State Park’s Year of the Trail. Join us for guided hikes throughout the day and meet with a ranger to learn the 10 essentials of hiking and backpacking.

Tuesday, June 20, 2023
Time Travel 101: A Workshop With Author Mickey Dubrow
Jun 20 @ 2:00 pm
Hub City Writers Project

Join Hub City Bookshop for a writing workshop with author Mickey Dubrow! Perfect for budding writers and those with experience. Open to all ages.

Please bring your own writing materials.

About the Workshop

Time travel doesn’t exist…yet. Until it does, it’s up to writers to explore how and why people travel through time. In this 90 minute hands-on workshop, participants will explore the elements of writing compelling time travel fiction for young adults.

Participants will:

-Learn the basic rules of time travel (there really are some)

-Generate new material

-Craft engaging scenes

-Engage in teamwork exercises

No prior writing experience required.

About the Author

Mickey Dubrow is the author of Always Agnes and American Judas. For over thirty years, he wrote television promos, marketing presentations, and scripts for various clients including Cartoon Network, TNT Latin America, and HGTV. His short stories and essays have appeared in Prime Number Magazine, The Good Men Project, The Signal Mountain Review, Full Grown People, and McSweeney’s Internet Tendency. His first novel, American Judas, was a Finalist for the 2020 Georgia Author of the Year Award in the category of First Novel. He lives in Atlanta with his wife, author Jessica Handler.

Sunday, June 25, 2023
Meet and Hike
Jun 25 @ 10:00 am – 11:00 am
Paris Mountain State Park

I’m excited to announce the first meeting for this group.
For this meeting I’d like to hike a simple trail at Paris mountain and just talk, hangout and get to know each other. Afterwards I would like to invite anyone who wants to join to come to the swamp rabbit cafe for a light lunch/brunch.

Thursday, August 17, 2023
Simpsonville Writers’ Round Table
Aug 17 @ 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm
Simpsonville Library

Join us for an informal writing workshop. Registration required. Email [email protected] or call 864-963-9031.

Tuesday, September 12, 2023
Writing Workshop: Telling Poems with Eric Nelson
Sep 12 @ 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm
online

The oldest and most common advice poets hear is “show don’t tell.” But what does that mean, exactly? What is the difference between showing and telling? Why is “showing” better? Most of us write poems to tell readers something, to share our ideas. Many poets—from as far back as John Donne to as recent as Stephen Dunn–do a lot of telling in their poems. So why are we always advised not to tell? In this workshop we will discuss these questions. In the process, we will look at a few well-known poems to see how–or if—they show rather than tell, and we will do some writing exercises that may help us arrive at some conclusions about this persistent advice.

This workshop is open to writers of all skill levels and is a fun way to find inspiration from a new prompt or revise current work. It is hosted by the Friends of Carl Sandburg at Connemara and will use Microsoft Teams for the virtual connection. Sign up to attend the workshop at workshop link

Eric Nelson’s most recent poetry collection, Horse Not Zebra, won both a Da Vinci Eye Award for cover art and an Honorable Mention in Poetry from the 2023 Eric Hoffer Book Awarda. His poems have appeared in many journals, including Poetry, The Sun, The Oxford American, and The Missouri Review. Among his awards are the 2014 Gival Press Poetry Book Award for Some Wonder; the 2004 X.J. Kennedy Poetry Award for Terrestrials, chosen by Maxine Kumin; the Arkansas Poetry Award for The Interpretation of Waking Life (1991); the Split Oak Press Chapbook Award for The Twins (2009); the Georgia Author of the Year Award (2005), and fellowships to the Hambidge Center for the Arts and the Virginia Center for Creative Arts. He taught writing and literature courses at Georgia Southern University for twenty-six years before retiring in 2015 and moving to Asheville, where he lives with his wife, Stephanie Tames, and teaches in the Great Smokies Writing Program. www.ericnelsonpoet.com.

Tuesday, September 19, 2023
Five Forks Library: Business Technology Trends
Sep 19 @ 1:00 pm – 3:00 pm
Five Forks Library
Collaboration Space

Technology is always changing, making it tough for small business owners to know what to adopt and what to avoid. Explore some of the latest tech-topics and how they apply to small businesses. Led by South Carolina Small Business Development Centers.

Part of the event series: Small Business Development Center Training

Lose Weight and Keep It Off
Sep 19 @ 6:00 pm – 7:00 pm
focus.upstate

Many programs say that they’ll help you lose weight but how many really teach you how to live healthier?

Healing Head To Toe isn’t about making you a lifetime client but instead a walking testimony to what happens when you take your life back.

Learn To
– Eliminate chronic illnesses
– Increase energy
– Decrease pain
– Live longer

PLUS an exclusive opportunity for a consultation to join the Healing Head To Toe community.

Secure your spot at the next session by registering using the link below:
https://book.stripe.com/dR6aFq58Y32RemAeUY

FREE to attend. No shows will be charged $25. A card must be on file to register. HSA and FSA are both accepted.

Waters and light refreshments will be provided.

Thursday, September 28, 2023
Thomas McAfee Grief Seminar
Sep 28 all-day
Brookwood Church

Sooner or later grief comes along and tags, “You’re it!” Sometimes “out of the blue” but at other times at the end of a long medical battle. Sometimes after expecting a “miracle” from either modern medicine or from God.

Grievers quickly discover that some family members, friends, colleagues, are anxious for them to “move on” and immigrate to “Over-It-Land!” Grievers often find themselves stuck in one of four boxes: Get Over It, Get Under It, Get Around It, but rarely Get Into It. There is life during grief AND after grief IF you pay attention to the boxes!

Join us to discuss grief with guest speaker Harold Ivan Smith, DMIN, FT.

Monday, October 2, 2023
Writing Workshop: Excavating Family History Through Poetry
Oct 2 @ 5:30 pm – 7:30 pm
online

For so many of us, our family story is what defines our lives—what we run from or toward in the decades after leaving home. In this course, we will dive into family narratives together. The events we hope to discuss can include those that seem to haunt family struggles: trauma, abuse, neglect. Yet those blessed with stable families have plenty of stories to tell, too—a glorious summer road trip that reveals the love between siblings, or a tender reckoning with a parent’s humanity. As guidance for methods of writing on experiences with family, we will read poetry of Ai, Aria Aber, Catullus, Victoria Chang, Lucille Clifton, Natalie Diaz, Tarfia Fiazullah, Joy Harjo, Robin Coste Lewis, Vi Khi Nao, Sylvia Plath, Carmen Giménez Smith, and others. In order to consider different approaches to the idea of “family histories,” the assigned work will roughly fall in one of the following topics: parents and guardians, siblings and those of our youth, ancestors, and continuing the cycle. These are delineated by the familial figures the authors address in their works, leading up to the writers’ own enactment of parenthood.

In each class, we will discuss the methods the authors have employed, and their methods of engagement with their creative production. In addition, we will consider the effects assigned texts have on you as a reader and, just as important, how you think the writer accomplishes these effects. You will create your own works with these methods in mind. Beyond merely creating new work, we will also revise with help from the discussions.

This four-part course will take place on Mondays, October 2, 9, 16, & 23 from 5:30 – 7:30 PM ET.

*

Diana Arterian is the author of the forthcoming poetry collection Agrippina the Younger (Northwestern University Press/Curbstone, 2025). Her first book, Playing Monster :: Seiche (1913 Press), received a starred review in Publishers Weekly and was a Poetry Foundation Staff Pick. A Poetry Editor at Noemi Press, Diana’s creative work has been recognized with fellowships from the Banff Centre, Caldera, Millay Arts, Vermont Studio Center, and Yaddo. Her poetry, nonfiction, criticism, co-translations, and conversations have been featured in BOMB, Brooklyn Rail, Denver Quarterly, Los Angeles Review of Books, NPR, The New York Times Book Review, and The Poetry Foundation website, among others. She curates and writes “The Annotated Nightstand” column at LitHub. Diana holds a PhD in Literature & Creative Writing from the University of Southern California, and she splits her time between Cambridge and Los Angeles.

Saturday, October 7, 2023
Conestee Nature Preserve
Oct 7 @ 9:30 am – 12:30 pm
The Preserve

The Upstate Pathfinders Volkssport Club is a not-for-profit club providing interesting walks available daily, at your pace, in many different Greenville locations. The Preserve is at 840 Mauldin Rd, Greenville. Our Conestee Preserve trail is NEW and shaded. After the efforts Gail L. did just to have the June walk, we have rerouted it using some newly marked trails as well as old ones. The October 7 walk features a 5K similar to previous routes and the 10k differs after leaving the 5K route. The walk passes thru the woods east of the Reedy River and circles back past East Lake and follows the river’s east bank back to the main trail. Then it continues to the overlook and crosses the Reedy again, the 10K splits and goes to the Conestee Dam before retracing to the white blaze trail. The 5K continues and passes along a creek before finishing. The 10k visits the “party” area then back on the green blaze dirt and yellow paved trail. Pets allowed on a leash. Note non paved trails/boardwalks are narrow.

Supporting the Preserve: We ask for a $3 donation to the not-for-profit Preserve by all attendees. This will further their efforts that have provided major changes in the last 18 months. You may also visit the Merch Store as we head to the finish.

Start Point: 840 Mauldin Rd, Greenville. Start in the pavilion area.

Friday, November 17, 2023
Pens and Pages Writing Workshop
Nov 17 @ 10:00 am – 11:30 am
Truphae

“Looking Back, Looking Forward” is perfect for the holiday time of year. This is the season when many of us consider the events of the past year and look forward to what a new year might bring. In this writing workshop, we will use this transitional time as a focus for creating a new piece of writing which will allow us to set 2023 aside and move forward toward 2024. For writers at all levels. The workshop is led by Rick Mulkey, author of six books and director of Creative Writing at Converse University. Hosted by Truphae and Converse Low Residency MFA in Creative Writing.

This event is FREE and open to the public – just bring pen and paper! Seating is limited to only 18. Please sign up on our website.

Tuesday, December 12, 2023
Pacolet Writers Critique Group
Dec 12 @ 6:00 pm – 7:30 pm
Pacolet Library

Writing is a solitary task and many writers benefit from having peers to get feedback and support. Join us for the monthly meeting of our writers group and the chance to meet other writers.

Wednesday, December 13, 2023
Cowpens Writers
Dec 13 @ 11:30 am – 12:30 pm
Cowpens Library

Writers of all genres, formats, and skill levels are welcome to attend the writing group. Those who attend may share and discuss their work with others, participate in writing exercises, and access helpful writing resources.

Virtual Writer’s Workshop Darren Todd
Dec 13 @ 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm
online

Darren Todd, will lead a virtual writing workshop titled “What if you fly? Weaving speculative elements into fiction.

The term speculative fiction has grown in usage, but what does it mean? Simply, it’s fiction that speculates or forecasts what might happen. The “if” in that scenario is up to the writer. Spec-fic (as it’s often called) isn’t beholden to a single genre. Certainly, dystopian novels fall under this category, but so could alternate history, science fiction, horror, or even drama. Many ideas can greatly benefit from introducing speculative elements, which give readers a heightened sense of curiosity, wonder, and even engages them to be a part of how the writer’s “what if” develops. Humans are natural problem solvers, and few things kick off that need to find answers like a solid “what if.”
For this workshop, we’ll delve into the rise of spec-fic, how it crosses genre, as well as flexing our speculative muscles with breakout exercises to be reviewed during the workshop.

This workshop is open to writers of all skill levels and is a fun way to find inspiration from a new prompt or revise current work. It is hosted by the Friends of Carl Sandburg at Connemara and will use Microsoft Teams for the virtual connection. Sign up to attend the workshop here!

Darren is a freelance book editor for Evolved Publications, and his short fiction has appeared in fifty publications over the years, including Chilling Tales for Dark NightsCosmic Horror Monthly, and The Stoneslide Corrective. His short story collection, The Ugly Mug and Other Stories, launched on Amazon and Audible in 2023.

While some of his works fall under the literary umbrella, he often returns to speculative and horror fiction. His style and preferences tend toward the psychological, as he enjoys stories that linger in the imagination long after he’s closed the book on them.

He lives in Hendersonville, NC with his son and girlfriend. See what he’s up to at darrentodd.net.