Two upcoming UNC Charlotte festivals will thrill kids of all ages. Things get kicked off with the Center City Literary Festival on Saturday, April 14, featuring daytime events for families and evening readings from renowned authors.
Later in the month on April 20 and 29, UNC Charlotte celebrates the North Carolina Science Festival with the ever-popular Star Party and the Science and Technology Expo. Check out all the details below.
With the recent opening of the LYNX Blue Line Extension, being connected to UNC Charlotte and Center City has never been easier – or smarter.
Center City Literary Festival – April 14
The 2018 Center City Literary Festival offers the public the opportunity to unite and share the joy of literature with this free event. Following in the footsteps of 2017’s popularity, this year’s event includes daytime and evening fun. During the day, the focus is on the kids with featured children’s authors and dynamic activities such as creation stations (coloring, crafting and character-building) and scavenger hunts.
In the evening, join award-winning authors for an opening reception, selected readings, audience discussion and book signings. Jill McCorkle, an acclaimed fiction writer who will be inducted into the North Carolina Literary Hall of Fame; poet Gary Jackson, winner of the Cave Canem Poetry Prize; Hannah Dela Cruz Abrams, prose writer and winner of a Whiting Award; Paula Martinac, UNC Charlotte creative writing instructor and Lambda Literary Award-winning fiction writer; and Siobhán Campbell, a poet and critic serving as the Spring 2018 Kingston Visiting Writer at UNC Charlotte; will be the featured authors for the evening program.
All activities will be held at UNC Charlotte Center City, 320 E. 9th Street. Events are free and open to the public; no reservation is required.
2018 Star Party and Science and Technology Expo – April 20 and 29
UNC Charlotte is once again playing a big part in the North Carolina Science Festival, a statewide public “celebration of science,” featuring almost 700 events that run throughout the month of April.
Along with the popular Science and Technology Expo, UNC Charlotte is featuring eight kid-friendly science and technology workshops.
The campus events include the cosmic Star Party starting at dusk on Friday, April 20, when the UNC Charlotte Observatory will offer a night of expertly guided stargazing. Several of the University’s larger telescopes will be used for viewing exciting celestial objects; the free event offers other astronomy-related activities and displays for the kids. Advanced registration is required.
The Science and Technology Expo is the largest N.C. Science Festival event and its grand finale, closing out the festival on Sunday, April 29. The expo includes robotics, rocketry, virtual people, live animals, lab experiments, explosive chemistry, exotic plants, fire engines, race cars, boats and an interactive artificial intelligence and lifelike machine or two.
Many of the 100-plus activities and events offer glimpses into some more-than-cool current research being conducted by UNC Charlotte science and technology departments and labs.
Among this year’s partnering organizations are STEM-oriented institutions such as Discovery Place, the N.C. Zoo, Carolina Raptor Center, Great Outdoors University (N.C. Wildlife Federation), Makerspace Charlotte, Charlotte IOT, NASCAR Hall of Fame, N.C. First and First Tech Challenge Robotics (100 Black Men of Charlotte). UNC Charlotte is sponsoring the events in association with the N.C. Science Festival.