Emily Smith's onemanband Jewelry & Art Show

Emily Smith’s onemanband jewelry and art show

Emily Smith, a Free Weekly contributing writer, will be honored at an opening night reception from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday at Yoga Myst, 546 W. Center St. in the Quonset hut on the bike trail that also houses the Trailside Café. Smith will show

more than 20 paintings and several pieces from her onemanband jewelry line. The jewelry is made from 100 percent recycled materials such as woven silks, chains, semi-precious stones and metals and vintage charms and findings. She describes her necklaces as “Mr. T style multi-layered, charm necklaces.”

Smith’s abstract paintings are primarily acrylic and mixed media on canvas. She often incorporates her black and white photographs of old dolls into the work. Also on exhibit will be a 3-D series of acrylic on recycled corrugated tin sheets.

Yoga Myst is a new business in Fayetteville that provides an all-natural refresher for yoga studios. The company was founded in Seattle in 2006 and is owned by Choyia Doll Fraley.

Celebrate Arkansas Wine Country

The 26th annual Altus Grapefest is happening this weekend in the heart of Arkansas’ viticulture region. Festivities will take place in the Altus City Park on the downtown square and run from 5 to 11 p.m. Friday and 7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday. There will be grape stomps, wine and grape tastings, an amateur wine making competition, arts, crafts, rides, music and games.

There are four wineries in Altus: Chateau Aux Arc, Mount Bethal Winery, Post Familie Vineyards and Wiederkehr Wine Cellers. Another winery, Cowie Wine Cellars is located nearby in Paris and is home to the Arkansas Historic Wine Museum.

And yes, Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie once haunted Altus during the filming of “The Simple Life” TV series.

Here are the highlights:

On Friday the Cummins Prison Band and Richard Rauch and Route 4 will entertain and there will be a celebrity grape stomp, a Bacchus Look-Alike Contest, street dance and fireworks.

On Saturday, enjoy a sausage, biscuits and gravy breakfast from 7:30 to 9 a.m. Wine tastings will take place from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and if you want to get in on the grape stomping, you’ll have opportunities throughout the day at half-past the hour beginning at 9:30 a.m. with the last stomp at 3:30 p.m. There will be music and activities for kids and adults and at 11 a.m. there will be a grape pie-eating contest. The blessing of the vines will be at noon. And, what would a grape festival be without some polka? The Polkateers will perform at 9:30 a.m. and 11:15 a.m. Winners of the amateur winemaking contest will be announced at 4 p.m.

Altus is about an hour south of Fayetteville, just south of I-40. So make the trip, drink some Arkansas wines and become a locavore.

Christmas Fuller Project CD release party tonight

Get out tonight for a great Fayetteville pop band, Christmas Fuller Project, who will be holding a CD release party at George’s. The two-time NAMA nominees will be showcasing songs from their new “Green & Lonely” EP. The band, Tyler Ceola, Brandon George, Cameron Heger and Aaron Hopwood wrote and arranged all of the songs on the album, which was recorded and produced by Adam Putman at Fayetteville’s Insomniac Studios. Putman also contributed guitar, lap steel, percussion and vocals on the album. “We are extremely proud of how it turned out,” Heger said. CFP names Radiohead and Death Cab for Cutie among their influences. The album is available on iTunes and CDBaby.

Richard Massey reading at Nightbird

Richard Massey will read from his new book “Equals & Allies” at 10:30 a.m. Saturday, at Nightbird Books on Dickson Street. Massey, a native of Beaumont, Tex., set his rollicking tale in Columbus, Ohio. The action takes place during a frenzied local election pitting industry against the environment. On one side is Eva Havlicek, the clever graduate student from Prague. Hoping to secure victory for the green candidate, she and a band of upstart volunteers campaign in a gritty backwater district. Opposing her is the guileful Dean Bernadette, who peddles greed and racial poison.

In the midst of the political bout is Gene Brimhall, a rugged roofing contractor who must deal with sins from his past and the effect these might have on his contracting business, which is at the center of the conflict. As the election unfolds, the rival campaigns collide in what becomes a deadly struggle in the streets. Meanwhile, Brimhall reckons with his past, and with the help of an unexpected ally.

Though reared in southeast Texas, Massey has made it a point to enlarge his perspective. He’s lived in New England and Ohio and traveled to Europe. He’s hitchhiked across the United States twice. Massey’s travels and work history do much to inform his writing. He has worked a reporter for a decade, been a short-order cook, a bus boy, a chauffeur and a cab driver. He has a bachelor’s degree in history from Ohio State University and a master’s degree in journalism from Ole Miss. He lives in the Ozark Mountains in Northwest Arkansas. All of the books he sells at the reading will be signed, first edition copies.

Joining Massey at Nightbird Books the same day will be Laurna Joyce, who will be presenting the fourth novel from her Mahala series. The readings will be followed by coffee and pastries. Amylou Wilson