Get jazzed up to celebrate a 1920s icon and her connection to our community.
The 10th Annual Zelda Fitzgerald Week, presented by boutique hotel Zelda Dearest, will honor the writer + artist while diving into the creative world of Fitzgerald and her contemporaries.
Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald embodied the Jazz Age zeitgeist and became a symbol both in her own right and through her fictional depictions in the novels of her husband, F. Scott Fitzgerald.
Her world wasn’t all liberality and leisure, though, and Fitzgerald struggled with mental health issues during much of her life. She and her family loved visiting Asheville throughout her childhood, but Fitzgerald’s connection to the city in her later life came mostly in the form of Highland Hospital. During one of her stays at Highland, a fire broke out in the main wing, and on the night of March 10, 1948, Fitzgerald was killed, along with eight other women.
From Monday, May 5 to Sunday, May 11, you can explore the life and work of a woman whose persona still enchants to this day.
Zelda’s Life in the South | Monday, May 5 | 6-8 p.m. | Zelda Dearest | Free | Scholar and Executive Director of The Scott & Zelda Fitzgerald Museum, Alaina Dotten, will host the evening of storytelling, sharing tales of Zelda’s adventures across the South during her rebellious youth years.
Unraveling Zelda’s True Asheville Story | Tuesday, May 6 | 6-8 p.m. | Zelda Dearest | Free | Author Maire Martello will defy and dissect the caricatures of Zelda that history has painted and dive deeply into overlooked stories of her life in Asheville.
Mission Pizza Romana Pop-Up | Thursday, May 8 | 6-8 p.m. | Zelda Dearest | $16 | It’s a red sauce soiree with four unique omakase-style slices to pique your culinary curiosity.
The Cost of Creativity | Friday, May 9 | 6-8 p.m. | Zelda Dearest | Free | Economist and former professor Jonathan Brown invites artists for a salon reflecting on the economic and emotional costs of a creative career.
A Literary Tribute to Zelda Fitzgerald | Saturday, May 10 | 3-5 p.m. | Zelda Dearest | Free | Local authors from the literary collective Punch Bucket Lit will provide live readings of Zelda’s lesser-known work, followed by a conversation carving out the vibrant voice of the often misunderstood author.
Reclaiming the Muse | Saturday, May 10 | 6-9 p.m. | Zelda Dearest | $25 | Movement, readings, and live jazz will create a theatrical performance paying homage to the literary heroine.
Wellness & Wonder: A Mother’s Day Celebration | Sunday, May 11 | 11 a.m.-2 p.m. | Zelda Dearest | Free | Evoke Vitality will lead a talk focused on self-care — then, treat mom to a massage from Massage on Wheels, a beverage, and light bites at the Wine + Roses Parlour Bar.
