A trio of outstanding artists in their field will head the program at the AAUW (American Association of University Women) meeting on Monday, Jan. 28.

Lee Knight, folk musician extraordinaire, will open the program with a traditional mountain song.  Lee, who has recorded with Yo Yo Ma and the Kronos Quartet, is currently working on a book of ballads and folk songs. He appears regularly at the Asheville Mountain Dance and Folk Song Festival and the Lake Junaluska Folk Festival.

Following Lee’s performance, George Ellison, and his wife, artist Elizabeth Ellison, will discuss and display some of the artwork in George’s most recent work, “Permanent Camp: Poetry, Art and Music From the Smokies.”

Elizabeth is the book’s illustrator. George and Lee will also team up to perform portions of some of George’s poems that Lee has set to music.

George Ellison is a noted naturalist, writer and lecturer. “Permanent Camp: Poetry, Art and Music From the Smokies,” is a collection of poetry and prose celebrating living in and observing the natural world of the Smokies.

Each year George conducts natural and history workshops. His lecture sites have included the NC Arboretum, the University of Tennessee’s “Smoky Mountains Field School” and The Great Smoky Mountains Association. His wife, Elizabeth, is an award-winning watercolorist, papermaker and illustrator.

She frequently gathers and processes Appalachian plants to make the handmade papers she incorporates into her art. Her work is sold across the United States. George and Elizabeth have lived in the mountains near Bryson City since the 1970s.

AAUW (American Association of University Women) is a nationwide network of university women whose goal is to advance equity for women and girls through advocacy, education, philanthropy and research.

The Tryon Branch of AAUW will meet Monday, Jan. 28 at 1:30 p.m. at the Tryon Presbyterian Fellowship Hall, The meeting is open to the public. Refreshments will be served.

– article submitted by Audrey Ortiz