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Carlton Chamblin will be presenting a brand new mixology class at the CLE this season.
The Center for Life Enrichment is gearing up for its 2022 Program Series, and director Fallon Hovis said there are diverse classes available for anyone and everyone.
With more than 100 different classes scheduled over six months, the CLE curriculum committee has chosen several different genres of classes from the arts to technology.
“We worked really hard to create a very diverse program,” Hovis said. “There is something in every category that appeals to everybody. There are some people that come here and just do our social and food events, some come to education lectures, but there is a big mix of everything here.”
Hovis said planning for this year’s program series started almost immediately after last year’s ended.
“As soon as our season ends, we start meetings to prepare for next year’s program,” Hovis said. “It takes a while to get everything together and confirm the speakers. We have different teams that tackle each individual category of classes. For example, one board member is an artist, so she takes care of all of the art classes. There’s a lot of work and time that goes into it, but once it’s done, then we watch it all unfold.”
This year’s program, according to Hovis, is enriching on all levels.
“Not to be cliche, but Center for Life Enrichment, is what it is,” Hovis said. “You can enrich your life with social events and you can enrich your life through your mind and educational lectures. There are also a lot of personal reasons to get people out and come to the social events. It is a great way to get out and meet people in the community. A lot of people are new to the area and this gives them a chance to make some friends and mingle with people that have the same interests as them.”
With the COVID-19 restrictions slowly fizzling away, Hovis said she is excited to have the program return to normalcy.
“I’m looking forward to seeing people get out,” Hovis said. “Last year, we still struggled with the Delta variant. Things were getting canceled and people were getting frustrated. So, this year, I hope to see everybody back to normal and not questioning whether they can or cannot come. I want to see everybody here, smiling and interacting with each other again. I think that is what we are all looking forward to.”
One event that Hovis said is going to stand out this year is the Art and Heart of Stories scheduled for June 23, from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m.
The presenter is Connie Regan-Blake, an internationally recognized storyteller. She has performed for a wide variety of audiences, including at the National Storytelling Festival, a premier event in Jonesborough, Tenn., every year for the last four decades. Regan-Blake’s performances include stories from the Southern Appalachian Mountains, world folktales, personal experience and true-life stories.
“Storytelling in Highlands is starting to get pretty popular,” Hovis said. “Connie is pretty well known and we hope to get a pretty good response to this event.”
Another notable event that will span over three lectures in August is The Outlier: The Unfinished Presidency of Jimmy Carter with Kai Bird presenting.
Bird is a Pulitzer-Prize winning historian and journalist. He serves as executive director and Distinguished Lecturer of CUNY Graduate Center’s Leon Levy Center of Biography. He presides over an annual conference of biographers on the art and craft of biography each May at CUNY Graduate Center.
“We feel like this lecture series is going to generate a pretty large audience,” Hovis said. “They are actually making a movie out of one of his biographies.”
One trip that is scheduled for Aug. 9, is an apiary tour and honey tasting with the Killer Bees Honey beekeeper.
Some tour highlights include discussing the life of a hive, its queen and the loyalty of her female subjects, inspect a hie up close and personal with the beekeeper in a protective suit, hold a frame full of bees and experience the thrill of seeing the queen, savor honey from the Killer Bees apiary, paired with different foods for a light lunch and champagne, learn how to evaluate the properties of fine artisanal honey varietals and pour a souvenir bottle of honey straight from the hives.
“This tour is going to be fun,” Hovis said. “People get to try on the beesuit and get hands on with the hives. Afterwards they are doing a honey tasting with champagne and lunch. It is just something really fun.”
Registration for the 2022 Program Series begins for Chancellor, Dean, Chairman and President memberships opened March 30. Registration for Patron and Benefactor memberships opens April 6. For Friend membership, registration opens on April 13 and for Family and Individual memberships, registration opens on April 20. Non-member registration opens on May 1.
For more information on the 2022 CLE Program Series, visit www.clehighlands.com.
- By Christopher Lugo