So you got a telescope for the holidays?

…or maybe there’s a telescope gathering dust in the attic

…or are your just interested in astronomy?

Come to the Berea College Forestry Outreach Center on January 16 at 6PM and bring your telescope or binoculars! Jeff Hutton will be on hand to help you set-up and use your telescope or binoculars. Be sure to bring all the pieces and parts as well as the owner’s manual, if you have it.

Jeff has been building, fixing and using astronomical telescopes for nearly 50 years and will be happy to help you get the most enjoyment from yours.

Even if you don’t own a telescope, Jeff’s knowledge of astronomy is amazing to hear. Also, stay tuned for recurring astronomical events with Jeff here at the FOC in the near future!

Learn to create your own delicious fermented vegetables using little more than, salt, vegetables, and basic kitchen materials.

Fermentation is a healthy, enlivening practice that will help restore the balance of beneficial microbes in your gut and introduce you to a world of new flavors.

Join fermentation enthusiast Jereme Zimmerman for a hands-on discussion on how to properly prepare vegetables for fermentation. Participants will bring home their own healthy, probiotic sauerkraut and kimchi, along with knowledge on how to ferment myriad other vegetables.

Reservations are required, tickets are $20 per person.

Join us for our upcoming Dinner on the Grounds event with Jennifer Wells, Executive Director of the WV Healthy Kids and Families Coalition! Ms. Wells will present about healing and care in organizing and how that is especially important in rural, relational organizing that builds real power leading to change. As she explains, “I am aligning with and building this skill in my personal and professional work. I am influenced by my lived experience as a Black woman born in the South and living in Appalachia and as a social worker.” Lunch will be served at 11:45 and the presentation will begin at 12:00 on Thursday February 27.

Join us for an artist talk with Tia Blassingame on the new exhibit titled I Am/You Are. A little about Tia’s work below:

“I utilize printmaking in the book form to address issues of race and of racism in the United States. I am interested in how racism has warped our perception and has melted into our vocabulary, social structure, and our urban landscape. I grapple with such questions as who owns opinion and memory and who is authorized to bear witness?

Employing a mixture of poetry, typography, printmaking techniques like etching, screenprinting lithography, letterpress printing, and book arts endeavors including papermaking and bookbinding, I examine African American architectural, spatial and cultural history, racial prejudices and perception. As many of my pieces deal with historical racism, I employ period typefaces to create a look and ambience that transports the viewer to the appropriate era. Because of its tactile nature and deep impression on the page, letterpress printing invites the viewer to connect immediately and then dissect the text and images slowly.

Disturbing images and histories rendered using wooden or metal letters or an etching plate can be atmospheric and intriguing. Instead of repelling the viewer, artists’ books can allow for a nuanced discussion on issues of race to unfold with each page turn. The reader/viewer can locate themselves within the book as they create their own path to view and connect deeply with the the book, its text and prints, history itself.”