Calendar of Events

The Clarence Brown Theatre will hold general auditions for “Mr. Burns, A Post-Electric Play,” “A Christmas Carol,” and “Titus Andronicus” on August 22nd and 23rd at the theatre. An information packet and application can be found on the web at http://clarencebrowntheatre.com/about-us/auditions/.

Applications are due by 10am Friday, August 21st.

In January, the CBT will be seeking actors of color for “A Lesson Before Dying” and “South Pacific.” For the specific dates for these auditions, please contact Shelly Payne at 974-6725.

With a dual mission to train the next generation of theatre artists and to provide top quality professional theatre, the Clarence Brown Theatre at the University of Tennessee Knoxville is one of only 12 academic LORT (League of Resident Theatre) institutions in the nation. Under the leadership of Producing Artistic Director Calvin MacLean and Managing Director David B. Byrd, the CBT season runs from August through May and features eight productions ranging from musicals to drama.

Clarence Brown Theatre / Carousel Theatre, 1714 Andy Holt Ave on the UT campus, Knoxville, TN 37996. For information: 865-974-5161, www.clarencebrowntheatre.com. For tickets: 865-974-5161, 865-656-4444, www.knoxvilletickets.com

Celebrate “Back to School” with the Knoxville Museum of Art Family Fun Day! This FREE family event will focus on school-related activities and projects. The day is packed with art-making stations, artist demonstrations, face painting, continuous entertainment on stage, magic shows, gallery tours, and live music. Snacks will be available for purchase from Dave’s Dogs. “David and the Dinosaurs” will be performing family favorites throughout the day. This event is free and open to the public.

Knoxville Museum of Art, 1050 World's Fair Park Dr, Knoxville, TN 37916. Hours: Tuesday-Saturday, 10AM-5PM, Sunday, 1-5PM. Information: 865-525-6101, www.knoxart.org

All games are at 5:00 PM & 7:00 PM at the Civic Coliseum.

August 22nd Hard Knox Brawlers vs Rome Regulators

http://www.hardknoxrollergirls.com/

Artistic Spectrum and Barnes & Noble Booksellers partner to present the Autism Family Fun & Safety Event. The event will be held from 10am-2pm at Barnes & Noble near Knoxville’s West Town Mall. Admission is free and open to the public. Families are welcome to drop in for as long as they wish.

Indoor activities include free art activities, free sensory-friendly dance & music mini-lessons, free autism safety information and autism ID kits, a book fair, and story time to kick off Barnes & Noble’s new partnership with Artistic Spectrum and Autism Site Knoxville (ASK) for a monthly autism-friendly story time.

Parents will also be able to meet Artistic Spectrum’s fine arts instructors for this fall’s Autism Arts Exploration series for children with autism spectrum disorders ages 5-13 and their siblings. Families can find out more about the new Autism Site Knoxville (ASK) project and get information about autism.

Outdoors, children can interact with community safety personnel and a firetruck from 11am-1pm so they can become more comfortable with safety vehicles. This is particularly important because children with autism are prone to wandering off or running away when they are in a stressful situation, which makes them four times more likely than their typical peers to suffer a fatal accident during childhood. Information about local special needs swimming programs will be available since children with autism spectrum disorders are seven times more likely than their typical peers to drown during childhood.

Artistic Spectrum: 865-816-9716, www.artisticspectrum.org

Guitarist Ry Cooder, country music songbird Sharon White, and country and bluegrass musician Ricky Skaggs are combining forces for the "Cooder-White-Skaggs" tour, their maiden voyage as a musical trio.

Tennessee Theatre, 604 S. Gay Street, Knoxville, TN 37902. For information/tickets: 865-684-1200, www.tennesseetheatre.com

Saturday, August 22nd at 2 pm Book signing with Ron Leadbetter author of Big Orange, Black Storm Clouds, and More

Union Ave Books, 517 Union Avenue, Knoxville, TN 37902. Information: 865-951-2180, www.unionavebooks.com

First Annual Urban Wilderness Bioblitz
August 22, 2015- 10 am till 6 pm

A BioBlitz is a short (usually one-day), intense team effort to discover as many different life forms as possible in one location. Teams of volunteer scientists, families, students, teachers, and other community members work together to find and identify as many species of plants, animals, microbes, fungi, and other organisms as they can. Discover Life in America (DLIA) has partnered with Legacy Parks, University of Tennessee, the City of Knoxville and the Aslan Foundation along with regional scientists to host a Bioblitz within Knoxville’s beautiful Urban Wilderness.

BioBlitzes are designed to increase the public's awareness of the variety of life in their immediate neighborhood and the services these various species provide to improve the quality of their lives. We usually hear the word "biodiversity" in regard to rainforests, with their vast number of species. Yet the diversity of life in our own backyards is phenomenal. BioBlitzes also help to:
- Engage students in community geography and citizen science
- Identify species that should be monitored and controlled
- Make recommendations towards public land management and conservation
- Generate data
- Highlight the positive impact of parks and open spaces on our lives
- And celebrate diversity with DLIA!

10 a.m. - 6 p.m., Saturday, August 22 meet at High Ground Park – It’s totally FREE and we invite everyone, students 10 years old or older- no experience necessary, to join us to celebrate the importance of biodiversity formally through the BioBlitz! Registration required. Call 865-430-4756 or e-mail heather@dlia.org

10:00 AM - 2:00 PM: 18th Century Food Preservation Techniques Workshop with Jim Buckenmyer
James White’s Fort will be offering another fun and informative hands on workshop. We will be exploring ways used to make your harvest last throughout the year. Participants will experience all aspects of preparing and preserving food in the same way the early settlers did. We will cover pickling, salting, drying, smoking and more. Jim is a longtime participant in the reenacting community with immense knowledge in late-18th and early-19th century culture. The cost is $20 per person, with money raised going toward educational programming at James White’s Fort. Space is limited to 20 people, so reserve yours now! For more information, call 865-525-6514 or email jameswhitefort@aol.com. The last day for registration will be Thursday, August 20.

James White's Fort, 205 E. Hill Ave, Knoxville, TN 37915. Information: 865-525-6514, www.jameswhitefort.org

Join us for the 5th Annual Wonders of Hummingbird Festival. Presented by the Knoxville Chapter of the Tennessee Ornithological Society and Ijams Nature Center, visitors will have the opportunity to see ruby-throated hummingbirds up-close at a banding demonstration by Mark Armstrong, a certified Master Bander.

Hummingbirds will be harmlessly captured, weighed, measured and banded before being sent on their way. Banding provides a way to document hummingbird movement during migration. August and September are busy migration months in Tennessee with thousands of hummingbirds moving south on their way to wintering grounds in Central America and southern Mexico.

The festival will also feature speakers on nature topics, wildlife educational demonstrations, guided walks and vendors selling food and drinks, plants, locally made arts and crafts, bird feeders and supplies, garden items and a “Bargain Barn” selling new and gently used merchandise with nature themes.

Speakers include:

David Pitts, Professor of Biology, UT Martin will talk about “The Hummingbirds that Nest in your Yard”.
Stephen Lyn Bales, Author & Ijams’ Senior Naturalist – Secrets of Backyard Birds
David Unger, Professor of Biology, Maryville College – Predators & Bears
Chris Ogle, TWRA –Golden Eagles in Tennessee
Lynne McCoy, a local wildlife rehabilitator
Dr. Louise Conrad: Ijams’ Veterinerian animals presentations
Speaker Bios: 2015_HF_Program_Poster_PRESS

Plus!

Hummingbird Banding from 8 am-12 noon
• Native plants and arts and crafts
• Food and drinks
• Guided nature walks

Additional parking with shuttle to Ijams Visitor Center.

Ijams Nature Center, 2915 Island Home Ave, Knoxville, TN 37920. Hours: Grounds and trails open during daylight hours. Call for Visitor Center hours. Information: 865-577-4717, www.ijams.org

On Saturday, August 22, beginning at 5pm, a musical roster comprising of nearly 20 acts will perform across three stages, including Market Square outdoor stage and other entertainment venues on the Square.

Presented by BLANK Newspaper and scruffycity.com, this year's iteration will benefit Knoxville-based nonprofit agency Positively Living and include comedians, improve artists, and burlesque presenters in addition to the music performances.

For a complete list of performers, venues, and details on purchasing wristbands or VIP package, visit http://blanknews.com/blankfest/.

Saturday, August 22
Paddle Race "Under the Lights"
First ever paddleboard night race in downtown Knoxville. Racing will start at dusk and all racers will be provided LED lighting.
Five mile and two mile courses. Food and beer provided with entry.
Pre race meal at 6:00PM, race begins at 8:45PM.
This should be great fun to watch! Proceeds to benefit Second Harvest Food Bank. For details on times, sponsorship requests and race details,see https://www.facebook.com/billylushboardshop.
register at paddleguru.com or contact info@blboards.com, 865 332 5874.

Award-winning poet Jane Hicks will lead a workshop titled "Working with Sound as a Facet of Revision" from 1 to 3:30 p.m., Saturday, Aug. 22 at Central United Methodist Church, 201 East Third Ave. The workshop is sponsored by the Knoxville Writers' Guild and costs $35 for KWG members and $40 for nonmembers.

Attendees can expect the workshop to focus on the use of sound as a revision tool and are encouraged to bring some of their own work.

"Participants should bring a poem or two that are not polished or in the early stages of revision. We will use those to work toward a more polished piece of writing," Hicks said.

General revision strategies will also be discussed by the East Tennessee native, whose first book, "Blood and Bone Remember: Poems from Appalachia," was published in 2005 by the Jesse Stuart Foundation. The book met with popular and critical acclaim, winning the Appalachian Writers Association Poetry Book of the Year prize. It was also nominated for the Weatherford Award given by the Appalachian Studies Association. Her poetry has frequently appeared in journals and literary magazines, notably "Wind, Now & Then," "Appalachian Journal," "Appalachian Heritage" and "Shenandoah." In addition to her success as a poet, she also is an accomplished quilter. Her "literary quilts" illustrate the works of playwright Jo Carson and novelists Sharyn McCrumb and Silas House. The art quilts have toured with these respective authors and were the subject of a feature in Blue Ridge Country Magazine in an issue devoted to arts in the region. Her latest book, "Driving with the Dead," was published by the University Press of Kentucky in 2014.
1 to 3:30 p.m., Saturday, Aug. 22 at Central United Methodist Church, 201 East Third Ave.
To register for the workshop, visit www.knoxvillewritersguild.org/events or send your check to KWG Workshops, P.O. Box 10326, Knoxville TN 37939-0326.