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Sleepy Fest at Down Yonder Farm on October 28

We are excited to have an area at Sleepy Fest this year, happening on October 28 at Down Yonder Farm in Hillsborough, NC. This is the 2nd Annual festival put on by Sleepy Cat Records! Get your tickets today! The Concern will be stationed in the Neptune Room along with an installation by Kathryn Desplanque and poetry readings curated by The Octopod (Dan Ruccia and Aimee Harrison) throughout the afternoon and evening. Come chill out inside between music acts outside.

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Zine Machine- Durham Printed Matter Festival on October 15

Coming up, The Concern Newsstand will have a table at Zine Machine at The Fruit in Durham (305 S. Dillard Street). Nancy Sampson, author of Antiracist Ancestors zine, will be taking over the tabling on this day. Come learn more about her project and buy/ see other zines from The Concern. Come by on Sunday, October 15, 11am-5pm!

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DuWell Zine Series Zine-Making Workshop at Duke University

Orvokki of the Concern will be teaching a zine making workshop at the Rubenstein Library at Duke on Friday, September 15 at 3pm. Duke students and staff can register on the DukeArts page.

A zine is a self-published, non-commercial magazine, typically devoted to unconventional subject matter. In this two-hour workshop, students will learn zines by making one. Using collage and drawing materials, participants will create pages for a zine on the topic of preserving one’s spirit. Participants will want to think about what keeps up their spirits when times are hard. Students will leave their creation to be printed and can pick their zine up at a later date. The spirit zine could inspire others to find ways to feel better.

As a special treat, a selection of wellness-themed zines will be pulled from the Sallie Bingham Center library collection for viewing during the class to give context and inspiration.

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End Paper: NCMA Art Book Fair Panel Discussion & Tabling

Coming up: End Paper, NCMA Art Book Fair.  The Concern will be tabling on Sunday, September 24 & Orvokki of The Concern will be part of a panel discussion on Friday, September 22, 6-7pm along with Bill Fick (Duke, Zine Machine, Super G Print Lab), Jenn G (Queen City Zine Fest) & Josh Hockensmith (UNC–Chapel Hill).  Kick off the first NCMA Art Book Fair with a panel discussion on the communities and contemporary culture of art books in North Carolina. Guest speakers describe their leadership and involvement in various organizations, events, and initiatives in the state.

Friday, September 22, 5–8 pm
East Building, SECU Auditorium and Lobby
Kick off the first NCMA Art Book Fair with a panel discussion on the communities and contemporary culture of art books in North Carolina. Grab a unique print at the Triangle Screen Printers Guild print jam, check out the interactive zine display, enjoy music with DJ Chocolate Rice, and meet and mingle with other printed matter enthusiasts.

Sunday, September 24, 10 am–4 pm
East Building; Plaza; and West Building, Museum Store
The final day of End Paper brings together professional book artists from across the state to share the artistry of their work, lead workshops and demonstrations, and participate in a juried competition with works selected being acquired by the NCMA Library.

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Artwork on the wall by Ippis Halme

Up through the end of October, drawings in permanent marker & colored pencil by Ippis Halme.

Ippis Halme is an artist based in Chapel Hill, mother of The Concern founder, Orvokki. Ippis is from Helsinki, Finland, went to art school at Middlezex Polytechnic in London in the late 1960’s/ early 1970’s. She studied ceramics in college but since then has mostly worked in drawing. She has shown previously at Myymälä2 in Helsinki, Gallery Ocho in Santa Barbara, CA, Auto. store in NYC, Lump in Raleigh, NC, My Room at Attic 506 and DeBerry Gallery at NC Botanical Gardens in Chapel HIll.

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THE COLORS ARE LIKE WORDS THAT ARE NOT WORDS BUT COLORS / Book Curation

Coming up: The Concern’s Orvokki Crosby curated a selection of books for perusal, linked thematically to Abby Donovan’s solo show THE COLORS ARE LIKE WORDS THAT ARE NOT WORDS BUT COLORS. Opening June 7, going through August 5 at the North Gallery of the Shirley Fiterman Art Center at BMCC (Borough of Manhattan Community College). Come hang out in the reading nook and take a look. The South Gallery will have a solo show by artist Midori Harima.

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artwork on the concern wall by rita kovtun

Now up on The Concern wall at Attic 506 in Chapel Hill, double exposure on 35mm film photo prints by Rita Kovtun. Rita Kovtun is a Russian-Ukrainian-American artist working with images, words, and sound. She is based in Asheville, NC (unceded Cherokee land). We sell a selection of Rita’s double exposure postcards and polaroid postcards in the shop.

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Catalog Era market, Sunday, March 5 at Cocoa Cinnamon in Durham

Sunday, March 5, 2023, 11am- 5pm at Cocoa Cinnamon, (420 West Geer Street, Durham)

The Concern will be selling only rare & vintage books & magazines from the 1960s- 1990s', items not previously available on the web store or in store. Come by!

Old school! Remember when vintage was vintage?! Join us for a curated market with vendors highlighting the best of the 1960’s through the 1990’s!!
Tons of clothing vendors, higher end MCM furniture, original art from the 50’s, 60’s, 70’s, vintage and pristine records, handmade artisan and estate jewelry, collectible glass and housewares, vintage books and magazines, and more.

@wonderpuff @pernos_eclectic_relics @flippermccoyvintage @shadowgraph.vintage @durhamfashion @discodesignsvintage @duck_lane_vintage  @heron_and_hellebore @oldcouchgirl @freekvintage @movingmamasvintage @spector_vintage @secondhand.news.durham @my_thrift_fix @valley_view_vintage @madeineverywear @bull_city_vintage_nc @dress_kit_vintage @theconcernnewsstand @rivtak @curafted @newexistencevintage @picnicwear @remko_nizbit 

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Sexy Trippy Holiday Market - Two Days, Two Cities

Back for our third year, the Sexy Trippy Holiday Art Market burns bright with booths by new friends, artists and olde-time favorites. For the first time ever we will be hosting two events. One will be in Chapel Hill on our rooftop (Sat 12/3) and the other will be held the following day at Lump in Raleigh (Sun 12/4). This year’s offerings represent a variety of limited edition and handmade products and artwork. Stuff your own stockings with fun stuff like realistic ceramic cigarettes, poetry books, goth-inspired jewelry, flint-knapped knives, painted clothing, cryptic t-shirts, and beautifully printed risographs and screenprints. We’ll have live music and hope to see a lot of friends.
Confirmed vendors for one or both days:
Poplars Pocket
Soft Landing
Rivtak
Amanda Barr
The Concern Newsstand
Jerstin Crosby
Edward Max Fendley
Tom Sowders
Tilly Castelli
Nina Oteria
Tiger Potion
Drawing Room
Trepet Books/ Goodtimes Press
Larissa Lynn Wood
Olivia Gone & Skully Gustafson
Kasey Artcrafts
No Masters
Dress Kit Vintage

Live Music on Saturday: Joseph Spearman
DJ on Sunday: Cambria Storms

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Attic 506 Rooftop Reading - November 19, 3pm

Please join us on Saturday, November 19, at 3pm for a Rooftop Reading curated by Mesha Maren. Mesha Maren will be reading from her latest novel 'Perpetual West', published this year by Algonquin Books. Signed copies will be available for purchase through The Concern Newsstand. The spaces at Attic 506 will be open that day 1-4pm.

Reading along with Mesha will be Tyree Daye, Ashleigh Bryant Phillips, Destiny Hemphill (bios below).

Mesha Maren is the author of the novels Sugar Run and Perpetual West (Algonquin Books). Her short stories and essays can be read in Tin House, The Oxford American, The Guardian, Crazyhorse, Triquarterly, The Southern Review, Ecotone and elsewhere. She was the 2018-2019 Kenan Visiting Writer at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and is currently an Assistant Professor of the Practice of English at Duke University.

Tyree Daye is a poet from Youngsville, North Carolina, and a Teaching Assistant Professor at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is the author of two poetry collections River Hymns, the 2017 APR/Honickman First Book Prize winner, and Cardinal (Copper Canyon, 2020). Daye is a Cave Canem fellow. Daye won the 2019 Palm Beach Poetry Festival Langston Hughes Fellowship and was a 2019 Kate Tufts finalist. Daye most recently was awarded a 2019 Diana and Simon Raab Writer-In-Residence at UC Santa Barbara and a 2019 Whiting Writers Award.

Ashleigh Bryant Phillips is from rural Woodland, North Carolina. Hailed in The New Yorker as "elegant and mesmerizing" and "brimming with dark and romantic details," her debut collection, Sleepovers, won the C. Michael Curtis Short Story Book Prize. It was also longlisted for The Story Prize and is forthcoming in Italian in 2022. Ashleigh's stories have appeared in The Paris Review, The Oxford American and others. Her essays have appeared in Our State and Lit Hub. She teaches fiction at West Virginia Wesleyan College's low residency MFA and is a Southern editor for Joyland Magazine.

Destiny Hemphill (she/her) is a ritual worker and poet based in Durham, NC. A recipient of fellowships from Naropa University’s Summer Writing Program, Callaloo, Tin House, and Kenyon’s Writers Workshop, she is the author of the poetry chapbook Oracle: a Cosmology (Honeysuckle Press, 2018).

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Now in Durham: EUtopia Design pop up shop

Now in Durham: we have a selection of books of Baltic & otherwise European origin, now available for sale at EUtopia Design pop up shop (118 W. Parrish St) downtown. Please go check out this cool & unique shop specializing in Polish crystal, glassware & decorative objects opened by Marta Brassil. Open Tuesday thru Saturday 12-6pm.

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Xerox Collages by Shiv Mirabito

Xeroxed collages by Shiv Mirabito now up on the wall at our Attic 506 space. Shiv is a poet, publisher (Shivastan Press / Kathmandu- Woodstock) and owner of the Woodstock Shivastan Poetry Ashram Bookshop. From Shivastan Press we also carry his collection of poetry, Uncle Skallywag, Breathe by India Radfar and Welcome to Woodstock by Paul McMahon, all printed on handmade Lokta Paper.

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Poetry Reading & more on Friday, September 9 at Attic 506 in Chapel Hill

Please join us for the Second Friday artwalk in Chapel Hill on September 9, 6-9pm. There will be a one-off (spin off from The Concern Reading Series) poetry reading with Krysten Voelkner, Alexander Benedict and Muhammad Kasule, all students at UNC-CH, either in poetry studies or not. emilio Taiveaho Peláez will be introducing the poets.

Also, opening in the hallway will be a collection of photographs by Matthew Pardue (KY). These were taken in Los Angeles, pre-pandemic & never shown before.

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Drawings by Olivia Gone and Skully Gustafson up at The Concern/ Attic 506

Starting June 9, 2022, The Concern’s walls at Attic 506 in Chapel Hill will have some recent drawings by Olivia Gone and Skully Gustafson. Pieces are for sale. Olivia and Skully are both artists and the managers of Slug Space, the baby gallery at Attic 506. They are also together in the band, Wetness. Drawings will be up through the end of August.

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Two Day Pop Up + Reading at Horse & Buggy Press' PS118 Gallery in Durham

We are excited to have a two-day pop up in Durham on Friday, June 3 & Saturday, June 4, 12-6pm at Horse & Buggy Press’ PS118 Gallery Space in Durham (118 West Parrish Street. Downtown Durham).

The Concern will have a broad selection for sale + sale items.

On Saturday, June 4, Ann Humphreys will read from her new, self-published book ‘The Tao of Hoop’. Ann is a writer, hula hooper & Carrboro resident. The book--which is a mixture of memoir, philosophy and spiritual inquiry, with a dash of self-help thrown in--guides the reader along the path Humphreys took as a middle-aged newbie hooper, showing how the hula-hoop taught her the crucial life lesson of how to feel. Not which emotions are appropriate to feel at any given moment, but rather, how to embrace the embodied experience of all emotions--especially those we do not wish to feel--and be transformed by that embrace.

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The Concern Reading Series- June 10th

The Concern Reading Series will have its last iteration as such, on Friday, June 10, doors at 6pm, reading at 7pm with five writers: Michael Cavuto, Riley Ratcliff, Lauren Hunter, Travis Smith, Ryan Eckes. Thank you to Dylan Angell for organizing the line up and Orange County Arts Commission for the grant support on this project.