March 9 – 12th
Thursday, March 9th, 6 pm, “Recovering Zelda”, Dr. Lisa Nanney, will explore Fitzgerald’s paintings, in the context of her novel “Save Me the Waltz” at the East Asheville Branch Library Community Room, 3 Avon Road, AVL 28805.
Most people know about Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald from the mythos surrounding her: Southern belle, Jazz Age icon, muse and model to her famous writer husband, tragic troubled beauty. But by moving beyond these popular culture legends to become an accomplished professional—novelist, journalist, ballet dancer, painter and illustrator—she appropriated and tried to gain control of her own mythos to recover and define herself.
Through her work, she attempted to achieve a degree of agency that the circumstances of her life—her Southern background, her marriage, and her illness—often denied her.
To explore how Zelda Fitzgerald turned a legendary life into a body of lasting work despite adversity, we’ll look directly at the works themselves. Reading excerpts from her one published novel, Save Me the Waltz, connecting them to images in her paintings and illustrations from the University of South Carolina Fitzgerald Collection, and viewing all these creations in light of her identity as a Southern woman and the controversies her artistic ambitions engendered in her time and in her marriage, we’ll try to recover the artist Zelda Fitzgerald from the legends of her created by her culture and in the works of her husband.
Lisa Nanney is a writer and editor living in Asheville, N.C. She has taught literature, American Studies, and Women’s Studies at University of North Carolina affiliates, University of Valencia, Spain, and Georgetown University in D.C. and, most recently, in Qatar. Her work focuses on modernist narrative form and its relationship to the visual arts. She has published essays and books on Zelda Fitzgerald’s novel Save Me the Waltz and on the novels and paintings of American political writer John Dos Passos. Her most recent book, John Dos Passos & Cinema (2019), explores that writer’s work about and for film. She is currently at work on a creative nonfiction book, about the South and the 1970s, which could possibly be complete by the end of this decade.
Friday, March 10th, 6pm, “Zelda’s Bed”, St. Paul author, Danny Klecko, will premiere his most recent book, “Zelda’s Bed,” which is focused on the 36-hours he spent in Montgomery, Alabama in August, 2022. Malaprop’s Bookstore will have books for sale. WEST ASHEVILLE Branch Library Community Room, 942 Haywood Road AVL 28806.
Klecko is a 40+ year master bread baker from St. Paul, Minnesota. He’s an award-winning author of four books, including “Hitman-Baker-Casketmaker: Aftermath of an American’s Clash with ICE,” a book of poetry where he writes about taking on ICE following the 2018 shuttering of St. Agnes Baking Company in St. Paul where he was CEO. The book won a Midwest Book Award.
“The Dead Fitzgeralds” is a work of creative nonfiction which focuses on the literary scene of St. Paul, how The Duchess (the late Poet Laureate of St. Paul, Carol Connolly) served as his mentor for many years and how he found his literary voice and his own “green light” through his study of Fitzgerald.
In 2023, Klecko will be leading an F. Scott Fitzgerald short story series for the St. Paul Public Library at various locations across the city. He’ll also begin work on the third book in his Fitzgerald trilogy called “Gatsby and the Homeless.”
Klecko lives with his wife in a mansion catty-corner from 599 Summit Avenue, the brownstone in which F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote “This Side of Paradise.”
Saturday, March 11th, 4pm, “Letting the Light In“, Lori Greenberg, founder of Aurora Studio will moderate a panel discussion on art as it relates to wellness. Panelists will share stories of personal growth through making art. East Asheville Branch Library Community Room, 3 Avon Road, AVL 28805.
Sunday, March 12th, 2pm, the weekend will close in the Fitzgerald Room of the Battery Park Book Exchange with Siberian System Tarot Readings by Danny Klecko. In the Fitzgerald Room of the Battery Park Book Exchange, Grove Arcade, 1 Page Ave, Suite 101, AVL 28801.
Klecko is a 40+ year master bread baker, and in the early 2000’s, he traveled across Russia for a variety of baking scopes. It was during that time he learned the Siberian System of tarot, which he believes is stronger and more intuitive than other tarot systems. The full explanation about how Klecko’s Siberian System works can be found in the epilogue to his latest book, “The Dead Fitzgeralds”.
POSTCARDS TO ZELDA – AVL 2022
Friday, March 4, 2022 from 5 – 8pm
Flapper by Cheryl Eugenia Barnes, Mountains by Elise Okrend, Phoenix by Joyce Thornburg and Zelda’s Flowers by Elise Okrend.
An exhibit of small works, created as postcard responses to the life and times of Zelda Fitzgerald.
Zelda Fitzgerald was known for her wit, flare for fashion, unbridled desire to live her life on her terms during a time where society preferred women to be accessories. “Excuse me for being so intellectual. I know you would prefer something nice and feminine and affectionate.”― Zelda Fitzgerald, Dear Scott, Dearest Zelda: The Love Letters of F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald.
Zelda was a gifted writer, painter and dancer.
In the days when letters and postcards were the way one would correspond with friends, we have invited local artists to imagine that they received a postcard from Zelda and this show is their response. Some of those local artists include: Deanna Chilian, Rhonda Davis, Dawn Eareckson, Cheryl Eugenia Barnes, Annie Gustely, Elise Okrend Debbie Palminteri, Kyley Shurrona and Joyce Thornburg (at this writing).
For five years, Aurora Studio & Gallery has hosted special events highlighting this Fitzgerald as she represents the spirit of an artist. Like the artists who partake in Aurora Studio, her life was affected by trauma; mental health issues and hospitalizations. She persevered, chronicling her life through her art. She persevered until her untimely death on March 10, 1948 during the Highland Hospital Fire.
Aurora Studio & Gallery is a supportive art studio for artists who have been impacted by mental health needs, substance use or being unhoused. They are located in their new studio space in the Refinery AVL, 207 Coxe Avenue.
The show opens on Friday, March 4, 2022 from 5 – 8pm, and remains open through the month of March. THE PUBLIC IS INVITED.
Recordings from the 6th Annual Zelda Fitzgerald Week, March 8 – 13, 2021
THE MYTH OF THE SOUTHERN BELLE: Facts VS. Fiction of Zelda’s Formative Years.
Dr. Alaina Doten, Executive Director of the Scott & Zelda Fitzgerald Museum in Montgomery, Alabama (the Fitz) discussses Zelda Fitzgerald’s background and history in Alabama.
CLICK ON THE LINK BELOW TO VIEW RECORDING.
https://us02web.zoom.us/rec/share/wYgW3YuuvmfDYuMk-8Fawy6r6uszIE-l72DjlVA324ig6BShqc3MnjQ0Lr_efP_m.t9R-Eqh_hBjg-ckVirtual Tour: A Glimpse of Zelda: The Wife, Mother, Writer & Painter
The Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald Museum in Montgomery, Alabama (lovingly called “The Fitz”) is in the last house where Zelda, Scott and “Scottie” lived, as a family from 1931 to the Spring of 1932. Zelda wrote her only novel here SAVE ME THE WALTZ. Some of her original artwork and original furnishings are on display.
ASHEVILLE’S DOOMED DUO: F. SCOTT & ZELDA.
Tom Hearron chats about the literature and letters of both Zelda and F. Scott Fitzgerald.
CLICK ON THE LINK BELOW TO VIEW RECORDING.
THE SHADOW AND THE SUNLIGHT: MANAGING INTERNAL STRUGGLES WITH ART.
Evie Lindemann, ATR-BC, ATCS, LMFT. The Shadow and the Sunlight: Managing Internal Struggles with Art will offer an overview ofthe relationship between trauma, art and health, bridging the gaps often perceived by the general public. Using the collective stories from community members, artists with lived experience, Ms. Lindemann will invite the audience into a greater community dialogue which is hoped to inspire.
CLICK ON THE LINK BELOW TO VIEW RECORDING.
https://us02web.zoom.us/rec/share/5AKdoPUw1L7y7lRBXeMe4Ej4Ik5HkcEiaDg_gZyz65wz9xojOKnZVISBIF4r6tL1.1mNizSb8wq2MgMJ2
DISCOVER ZELDA’S ART WORK & THE ARTIST IN YOU! Create your own “Zelda Inspired” Art Deco Floral Arrangement painting.
Annie Gustely, M.Ed, instructs the basic principles of painting with gouache, a water based paint used by Zelda Fitzgerald for most of her paintings.
CLICK ON THE LINK BELOW TO VIEW RECORDING.
https://us02web.zoom.us/rec/share/FVBzuKor8cD8566RhpiRrlIAMdEHf9xh0kUboRrniv9jUT7JJEcwpY1xAR24m5pz.KGJdi6KMLpDwPVwl
UP CLOSE WITH ZELDA.
Join Zelda (actor Terry Darakjy) and Asheville Citizen Times reporter (actor Carol Anders) during an imaginary interview, in March of 1948, days before the tragic Highland Hospital fire, in which Zelda will lose her life. The interview explores the therapeutic sustenance Zelda receives from her paintings, and being recognized as an artist. This “interview” is based on historic research. CLICK ON THE LINK BELOW TO VIEW RECORDING.
Aurora Studio & Gallery 