Oh rats, another lunar year’s gone by! A celebration welcoming the Year of the Rat at the college will feature a lion dance and more Saturday evening. Davidson United Methodist Church offers soul-strengthening sessions on its labyrinth Thursday to Sunday. Also this weekend there’s live music at Summit, a scout food drive, a history talk on post-war France, a planning workshop for Hwy. 73, an art workshop in Cornelius and both tennis and wrestling matches at the college.

Weekend of Jan. 31 – Feb. 3

EVENTS –

Summit Coffee will have live music this weekend on the upstairs stage, featuring open microphone time Thursday, the Mike Strauss Trio Friday and George Terry Saturday. Bands play from 8-11 p.m.

Rediscover an ancient spiritual tool – walk the labyrinth at Davidson United Methodist Church this weekend. A sacred walking path designed to encourage reflection and prayer, the labyrinth will be open to the public free of charge this weekend inside the church building. Special time will be set aside for couples Friday, 6:30 – 8:30 p.m. (for a charge of $5 per couple), and children, grades K-5, Saturday, 2-3:30 p.m. Open hours are Thursday 6:30 to 8:30 p.m., Friday 9 a.m. to noon, Saturday 6:30 to 8:30 p.m., Sunday, 9 a.m. to noon. A workshop about the history of the labyrinth will be held Saturday, 9 – noon, with time set aside to walk the labyrinth. Charge of $5 per person for the workshop events.

The Davidson-Concord/N.C. 73 Area Plan follow-up workshop will be held Thursday evening, 7 p.m., at the Huntersville Town Hall. Davidson, Cornelius and Huntersville are working with consulting firms to create a long range transportation and land-use plan for undeveloped areas near Davidson-Concord Road and NC 73. This is the latest in a series of public meetings. Please visit the planning department website for more information, or see our Wednesday news item, “Towns to show draft of N.C. 73 plan.”

Jim Miller, a visiting professor of history at Davidson College, will present a history forum “Alienation and Identity in Postwar France” Thursday at 7 p.m. in the Sprinke Room of the college union.

On Saturday from 4-7 p.m., Seaweed Designs Boutique & Gift Store at South Main Square has its monthly meet-the-artist event. Cathy MacQueen invites folks to drop in and meet Lake Norman mosaic artist Marcela Hosmann. The shop is at 416-C South Main St., in the old Ice House.

You may have noticed a special grocery bag left at your front door this week. It’s intended to collect donations for the annual Scouting for Food campaign, a local project for both cub scouts and girl scouts. Saturday morning, starting at about 9 a.m., scouts will be returning to their routes to collect donations of non-perishable food items, which should be placed in the grocery bag and placed by the front door, for delivery to the local Loaves & Fishes food pantries located at the Ada Jenkins Center and at the Huntersville United Methodist Church. Loaves & Fishes provides people in need with a full week’s supply of nutritious groceries. The local girl scout troop and cub scout Pack 58 compete with each other to see who can collect the most food. The Cub Scouts report that they have won the last two years!

According to Chinese astrology, those born under the sign of the Rat are “sociable, charming, strong-willed, and humorous.” Sounds like they’d enjoy the party planned Saturday for the Annual Lunar New Year celebration. The event, which starts at 6 p.m., is sponsored by the Asian Culture and Awareness Association at Davidson College, and will be held in the college union and feature food, bubble tea, lion dancing, music and a fashion show of traditional Asian clothing. Alas, due to the drought, there will be no fireworks to conclude this year’s celebration. The Year of the Rat officially begins on the next new moon, or Thursday, Feb. 7.

The Lake Norman Art League will present a workshop with New York City artist Scott Duce Saturday, titled “The Artist’s Challenge: Integrating Vision and Technique.” The event will be held from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. at the Christa Faut Gallery in Cornelius. Mr. Duce will speak about finding your voice in art and expressing it through technique. Free, though $15 donations accepted. For details or to download a registration form: click on www.lknart.org or call 704-237-1042. Sunday, Mr. Duce will return to the same gallery to offer critique sessions for artists at a fee of $25 per session.

Davidson United Methodist Church will continue the Men in Balance workshop Sunday at 10:45 a.m. in Room 215 of the Alexander Education Building. The weekly sessions, in a Sunday school format, are organized by the non-profit, non-denominational group which aims “to provide support for men seeking balance and integration in their occupational, spiritual and personal lives.” For details or to sign up, email Jerry Hancock at jerry@meninbalance.org. or visit www.meninbalance.org

SPORTS –

Sports at Davidson College this weekend features the men’s tennis team hosting Longwood starting at 3 p.m. Saturday. The team is coming off a 4-3 win Sunday against USC-Upstate and is gearing up for Sunday’s match against #15 rated Wake Forest. Also this weekend, Wildcat wrestlers facing conference rival Chattanooga Sunday starting at 1 p.m.

MARK YOUR CALENDAR!

• MONDAY, FEB. 4, 6:30-8 p.m., Davidson Parks & Recreation office, 416 Armour St. – Mother/daughter self-defense with Ken Nazemetz. For ages 11 and up. Details: use bar code 2113 at www.d-recs.org
• FRIDAY, FEB. 8, 8:30 a.m., Davidson Public Library – Downtown Davidson Inc. meeting.
• FRIDAY, FEB. 8, 7:15-10:30 p.m., Davidson IB Middle School – Contra Dance Carolina will host an evening of high-energy dancing with the band “Hot Flash” and caller Hank Morris. Cost is $7.
• FEB. 19, 7 p.m., Main Street Books, 126 S. Main St. – Main Street Readers book group, reading “Atonement.” Also, March 18, “Pavilion of Women.” Details: Debra Smithdeal, 704-892-6841.
• FEB. 22, 8-11 p.m., Chambers Building, Davidson College – Contra Dance Carolina will host the Green Ball, a dancing fundraiser for the Davidson Lands Conservancy. Tickets are $10 and lessons in contra dancing will begin at 7:30 p.m. The caller for the evening will be Diane Silver and the band will be Land of Sky.
• FEB. 26, 8 p.m., Duke Family Performance Hall, Davidson College – Pulitzer Prize-winning author Michael Chabon (photo) will give the annual Conarroe Lecture. Mr. Chabon will sign books after his talk. The event is free, but tickets are required and can be picked up at the college union ticket office from 10-4 weekdays, beginning Feb. 12.
• MARCH 3-4, Davidson College – Davidson Garden Club 24th annual Horticultural Symposium, “Herbaceous Havens: Creating Garden Sanctuaries.” Details, including a full schedule of events, at www.davidsonsymposium.org.

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