Appalachian State University

Faculty, staff and students at Appalachian State University take the opportunity each year during the week of Sept. 17 to engage our campus community in discussions about the U.S. Constitution, its history and its meaning in today’s world. This year’s discussions will focus on the Second Amendment. Join us for a series of conversations, panel discussions and lectures.

A digital display of constitution facts and student reflections will rotate on digital screens throughout the student union.

Bryan Stevenson, author of the Common Reading Program 2019-20 book selection “Just Mercy,” will speak and hold a book signing at Appalachian. The event is free and open to the public. “Just Mercy” details the injustices of a broken criminal justice system that punishes poor people, and Stevenson’s work to improve that system. The Common Reading Committee selected “Just Mercy” for its relevance to a wide range of academic disciplines and because Stevenson’s work has had a profound impact on our society.

Heather is a leading political strategist on progressive issues and electoral campaigns. “Heather Booth: Changing the World” highlights the legacy of Heather’s lifelong career in community and political organizing while inspiring and encouraging the activists of the future. Booth will conduct a Q&A session after the screening of the film.

The history of Moses Cone and his art collecting sisters, Claribel and Etta, have long been beloved by High Country locals and visitors alike. Appalachian State University invites the public to learn more of their story, as told by historian, Dr. Leonard Rogoff, in a lecture titled, “The Cones of Blowing Rock: Kultur in the High Country.”

A panel of legal experts, law enforcement, social justice educators and activists will discuss the Second Amendment. Topics will center around the politics and policies of gun rights and gun control.

Solar rooftops. Wind farms. Electric vehicles. Battery storage. Grid modernization. These are the clean energy topics that most North Carolina advocates, policymakers, utilities and consumers are focused on in 2019. What’s missing? The largest, least-cost and most impactful sector of our state’s clean energy economy: energy efficiency.

Thank you to the hundreds of donors and volunteers who made the 12th Annual Homecoming Blood Drive a success. 1120 pints of blood were collected. With your help, we can do even better this year.

Join author Rick Van Noy for an exploration of climate change stories from the South. Van Noy’s “Sudden Spring: Stories of Adaptation in a Climate-Changed South” is a portrait of what climate change looks like in specific Southern places to specific people. Combining stories from residents with local experts from geology, conservation and government, this book details who climate change affects, what it does and how communities are dealing with it.

Filmmaker Camden Watts explores the rise of craft beer in North Carolina and its positive impact on the agriculture, community and economy. Following the film, there will be a panel discussion including the filmmaker, local craft brewer Tim Herdklotz, Co-Founder of Booneshine Brewing Company and Dr. Cameron Lippard, Department Chair and Professor of Sociology, and Co-editor of “Untapped: Exploring the Cultural Dimensions of Craft Beer” (2017).

Artists William Paul Thomas and Antoine Williams will talk about their exhibition “Acting Hard,” a two person exhibition exploring representations of black masculinity. Thomas and Williams have art practices which are grounded in painting, but move through many different media–– assemblage and site specific art for Williams, video and social practice for Thomas.

Preservation Hall Jazz Band has held the torch of New Orleans music aloft for more than 50 years, all the while carrying it enthusiastically forward as a reminder that the history they were founded to preserve is a vibrantly living history.