Internationally renowned folk singer-songwriter Dar Williams will visit the Asheville Jewish Community Center on Tuesday, July 8, to perform for the JCC’s Camp Ruach and work with campers in the JCC educational garden on a program about bee colony collapse.
Williams will perform a short concert at 12:15 p.m. in the JCC social hall for campers, camp counselors and JCC community members. Following the concert, she will get in the garden with campers, JCC youth director Seth Kellam and JCC garden specialist Jacqui Childs, to plant a bee-friendly flower garden and explain the importance of providing flowers for bee forage. Williams will be available for interviews until 3 p.m.
A longtime touring artist who has performed with such musicians as Joan Baez, the Indigo Girls, Mary Chapin Carpenter and Ani DiFranco, Williams has released more than 10 albums and written three books. For the last two summers, she has visited summer camps to perform and plant gardens, calling attention to Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), which according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture is a serious problem threatening the health of honey bees and the economic stability of commercial beekeeping and pollination operations in the United States.
More information about Williams’ “Give Bees a Chance” program can be found at campsandbeegardens.tumblr.com/.
Asheville has recently become a national center for honeybee activism. In 2012 the city was named the nation’s first Bee City USA. The nonprofit Center for Honeybee Research is based in Asheville.
Williams’ visit fits well into the “kehilah” (community) theme of Camp Ruach’s Week 4 session.
“Bee City USA’s mission is to raise pollinator consciousness in America, and we feel like some of the most influential people in changing how we think about our pollinators are children,” says Phyllis Stiles of Bee City USA. “ We are just overwhelmed that Dar Williams has used her celebrity to bring attention to the pollinators. [This event is] more than just talk and it is something the children will remember for the rest of their lives.”
