What’s your fancy this week? Interior design using items found at the Habitat ReStore? Local music, a choral concert or a bit of local history? Our calendar this week has them all. Highlights include the annual Town Day Road Race and Davidson Town Day as well as a day of music to honor the memory of Davidson Professor Robert Whitton, all Saturday in downtown Davidson. Cornelius library has an open house Wednesday. And the annual Charlotte Asian Festival and Dragon Boat Races is Saturday on Lake Norman in Cornelius. Read on for a full list of the week’s events.

Also, see our movie listings at right for Our Town Cinemas, where it’s your last chance to see “The Lucky One” and “Hunger Games,” and “The Avengers” hits the screen. Read the full story

Edith Pearlman

Award-winning writer Edith Pearlman will give a public reading on Tuesday, April 17, at 7:30 p.m., in Davidson College’s Sloan Music Center, Tyler-Tallman Hall. Ms. Pearlman, who recently won the National Book Critics’ Circle Award for her collection stories “Binocular Vision” is also in the running for a Pulitzer Prize. Read the full story

Mike Strauss Band plays Friday at Birdsnest in fundraisers for Habitat for Humanity.

By BILL KISER
DavidsonNews.net

The return of the weekly run of the Davidson Farmer’s Market, a musical fundraiser for Habitat for Humanity, the annual egg hunt at Historic Rural Hill and a fishing tournament on Lake Norman are among the  activities around the area this Easter Weekend.

Read the full story

At 2011 Reptile Day, Stephen Hutchinson of Mecklenburg County Parks & Recreation showed a snake to a Reptile Day onlooker. This year's day is April 14. (David Boraks/DavidsonNews.net)

Davidson College’s calendar of public events for April offers a wide variety of education and entertainment, from lectures and art exhibits to plays and concerts. The popular annual hands-on Reptile Day is scheduled Saturday, April 14, and the following weekend (April 21) brings an Africana Festival.

Read on for a full schedule. Read the full story

Opening at Our Town Cinemas.

By BILL KISER
DavidsonNews.net

Lectures by a local author working to change perceptions of beauty, the editor of one of the world’s most influential newspapers, and an expert on Islam as both a religion and a culture highlight the weekend’s activities in and around Davidson. The Davidson Farmer’s Market hosts its final winter tailgate market Saturday before the start of the regular season. And “Stones in His Pockets” wraps up its run at Warehouse Performing Arts Center in Cornelius.

Meanwhile, “The Hunger Games” opens at area theaters, including Our Town Cinemas, where Thursday midnight shows are already sold out. On Friday, they’ll host an autograph session at 6 p.m. with area residents who snagged jobs as extras on the locally-filmed movie. Read the full story

Poet and literary critic Edward Hirsch gives the Conarroe Lecture at Davidson College Tuesday.

By BILL KISER
DavidsonNews.net

A major annual literary lecture featuring poet Edward Hirsch, a pair of art exhibits at Davidson College, lots of music, four Saturday road races and a St. Patrick’s Day event at the U.S. National Whitewater Center highlight a week of activities throughout the area. The end of the week also brings the annual Davidson Women’s Leadership Conference and the Angels of ’97 spaghetti dinner at North Meck High. Read the full story