Calendar of Events

Come join the Smoky Mountain Blues Society as they present some of the best known regional Blues Music artists performing on specialty cruises on the Tennessee River. From April through October, blues lovers will convene to celebrate this truly American art-form during a 3 hour Sunday afternoon cruise on the Star of Knoxville Tennessee Riverboat. The Riverboat is located just one-half mile east of Neyland Stadium at 300 Neyland Drive next to Calhoun's. It starts boarding at 3pm for a 4-7pm cruise each month.

6/26 - The Stella Vees

Tickets are available through the Tennessee Riverboat Company’s website (http://tnriverboat.com/blues-cruises-2/) and by calling (865) 525-7827. Tickets are just $16 in advance and $20 at the door. Each voyage will also have a limited food menu and full bar available. More information at www.smokymountainblues.org.

Book signing with Keith Stewart author of a books of essays, Bernadette Peters Hates Me - True Tales of a Delusional Man

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

The Smoky Mountain Blues Society CRUISE SERIES 4pm BLUES CRUISE aboard the The Star of Knoxville at the Tennessee Riverboat Company continues through the next six months with some wonderful national and local acts.

6/26 - The Stella Vees
7/17- Ori Naftaly with Southern Ave.
8/21- A Few Miles On
9/18 - Groove Junction
10/16 – The Blues Sessions featuring Jon Mason and Warren Pineda

Tickets are available at tnriverboat.com/blues-cruises-2/and by calling (865) 525-7827.

Tickets are just $16 in advance and $20 at the door. (Use your current SMBS Membership and receive a $3.00 discount on every ticket in your order). Boarding 3:00pm, Cruise 4:00-7:00pm. Each voyage will also have a limited food menu and full bar available. More information at www.smokymountainblues.org.

Dinosaurs at the Movies: Fact or Fiction?
Sunday, June 26th, 2:00-3:30pm
Free

Good science fiction always includes some science and a variable amount of fiction. Join us as Dr. Stephanie Drumheller-Horton, UT vertebrate paleontologist, critiques some famous film dinosaurs as part of programming related to new special exhibition Dinosaur Discoveries: Ancient Fossils, New Ideas. What about the speed of that T. rex? Were velociraptors really that smart? This entertaining presentation, designed for teens and adults, will separate the science from the fiction.
Contact: Debbie Woodiel at woodield@utk.edu

McClung Museum of Natural History and Culture, 1327 Circle Park Dr on the UT campus, Knoxville, TN 37996. Hours: Monday-Saturday, 9AM-5PM, Sunday, 1-5PM. Information: 865-974-2144, http://mcclungmuseum.utk.edu

Thousands of beautiful used books for sale!

• Saturday, June 25: Friends Members Only Day, 10 a.m.–6 p.m. (Join Friends or renew your membership now or at the door on the day of the sale!)
• Sunday, June 26: Open to the public, 10 a.m.–6 p.m.
• Monday, June 27: Open to the public, 10 a.m.–6 p.m.
• Tuesday, June 28: Bag Sale Day! Open to the public, 10 a.m.–3 p.m. (only $5 per bag of books)

At The Jacob Building at Chilhowee Park, 3301 East Magnolia Avenue, Knoxville, 37914 (easy access with ample free parking!). Sales support the Knox County Public Library. http://www.knoxfriends.org/book-sales/annual-used-book-sale/

To celebrate the 2016 Judged and Juried Fine Art Show at the Plateau Creative Arts Center (PCAC), the public is invited to the opening reception and awards presentation on Friday, June 24, at 5:00 p.m. at the PCAC. Sponsored by the First National Bank of Tennessee, the show’s winning entries will receive cash prizes, which will be presented at the reception. The Judged and Juried Fine Art Show will run through Tuesday, August 2.

Professional artist, Carol Grant Stevens, will be the Juror/Judge for the Art Guild’s Judged and Juried Fine Arts Show. Carol’s education, work experience, skills, and talents are firmly rooted in the visual arts. Carol graduated from the University of Wisconsin with a BSE degree in Art Education, and she also earned an MS degree from Silver Lake College. At Hartford Union High School, Carol was a Studio Art instructor and Humanities teacher and was chosen Teacher of the Year in 1996. She also wrote and audited Art curriculum for the State of Wisconsin. Carol has been a member and exhibitor in several professional art organizations. Carol and her husband Charlie are professional artists and have recently moved to Fairfield Glade.

View the Judged and Juried Fine Arts Show and enjoy the opening reception at the Art Guild’s Plateau Creative Arts Center, 451 Lakeview Drive (off Peavine Road).

27th Annual Kumba Festival "Still We Rise"! At Haley Heritage Square, Morningside Park, Downtown Market Square. The largest African American Cultural Arts Festival in East Tennessee. Featuring: African Marketplace, Kuumba Watoto Dance and Drum, and more!

June 23 - The festival will kick off with "Seeding the Garden of the Mind" in Haley Heritage Square, celebrating Kuumba Kamp participants and parents at 6:00 PM.

June 24 - 12 PM - the Kuumba Marketplace will open the day's event in Market Square with food and merchandise vendors from all over the country.
5 PM - OrisiRisi! African Folklore Duo will open the stage with storytelling and entertainment
6 PM - JUNKANU Parade with Stilt Walker, Kuumba Watoto Dance and Drum Company, and more (begins on Cumberland and Market St to the Market Square Stage).
6:30 PM - Kuumba Watoto Dance and Drum Village Extravaganza
8 PM - Live Concert with Ogya World Band from Chattanooga

June 25 at Morningside Park - 12-10 PM: African Market Place with traditional crafts, clothing and foods
5 PM - Gospel in the park with Sean Steward
6-7:30 PM - Kuumba Watoto Dance and Drum Village Extravaganza
8 PM - Live concert with Zock! Solid! featuring Zakyiah Modeste from NYC, NY

https://sites.google.com/site/kuumbafestival/

Kathy Holland
Holland enjoys drawing from the landscape (“the way fish like to swim”). The wildness and quasi-improvised, ad-hoc structure of gnarled vines, slugs' trails, wrinkled skin, rain on a windowpane, and vast flocks of birds in flight make her wonder. She finds beauty in the visual form of the “chaos” in chaos theory. The works in this show are restless explorations of scale, color, and combinations of media.


Steve Krauss: Recent Adventures in Portraiture
This exhibit shows Krauss’ recent adventures in the art of portraiture, emphasizing form, line, overall composition, color, and the application of paint. He tries to place his subjects in a contemporary setting that defines them in some way by their surroundings and activities. He is inspired by nineteenth century French artists such as Edouard Manet and Cezanne; German expressionists such as Max Beckmann; and the modern masters, Matisse and Picasso.

Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church, 2931 Kingston Pike, Knoxville, TN 37919. Gallery hours: M-Th 10-5, Su 10-1. Information: 865-523-4176, www.tvuuc.org

The 2017 nief-norf Summer Festival (nnSF) returns to Knoxville featuring concerts, lectures, and world premieres! The nief-norf Summer Festival (nnSF) is an interdisciplinary summer music festival, which brings together dozens of performers, composers, and scholars to collaborate on the performance, creation, and discussion of contemporary solo and chamber music. The nnSF is held in the beautiful facilities of the University of Tennessee’s Haslam Music Center (Knoxville, TN) and presents inspired and devoted performances of modern music, aiming to encourage both appreciation and support for live music and contemporary art.

Since its inception in the summer of 2011, the festival’s performance, composition, and research seminars have attracted undergraduates, graduates, and professionals from institutions across the United States and abroad. Each summer, these performance fellows present some of the most challenging and boundary-pushing contemporary music, including world premieres of works by composer fellows at the nief-norf Summer Festival. In addition to concerts and lectures at the University of Tennessee, the festival is excited to offer events at various locations throughout Knoxville.

Details TBA. For more information, please visit www.niefnorf.org or contact Andrew Bliss, nnSF Artistic Director, at contact@niefnorf.org.

Mac Goodwin has had a love of trees most of his life. He began photographing them at some point in the 1970s and continues doing so today. A collection of some of his photographs, Trees by Mac: 1970-2016, will be at The Birdhouse Bird Feeder Gallery at 4th and Gill in Knoxville. The work will be on exhibit for the month of June with a selection of landscape paintings by Dan DeRidder. The opening reception is on June 10th, 6-9 pm. The Bird Feeder Gallery is housed in the Birdhouse Community Center, Please check the website at birdhouseknoxville.com for open hours.

The Birdhouse Bird-Feeder Gallery/Cafe, 800 N 4th Avenue, Knoxville, TN 37917. Information: http://birdhouseknoxville.com, birdhouseknoxvillegallery@gmail.com

Knoxville Children’s Theatre will present “Charlie And the Chocolate Factory,” a live play for children and families, based on the classic novel by Roald Dahl. The play will be performed June 10 through 26, Thursdays and Fridays at 7 PM; Saturdays at 1 PM and 5 PM; Sundays at 3 PM.

Poor Charlie Bucket finds a Golden Ticket in his Wonka Chocolate Bar, sending him and his Grandpa on a magical tour of Willy Wonka’s renowned chocolate factory. One by one, the other children on the tour break the rules, but if Charlie survives the journey, he may find an even greater reward.

The play is performed by 24 talented young actors, from ages 8 to 16. Charlie Bucket will be played by Cody Chaffins, a KCT veteran who has given hilariously comic performances in The Wind In The Willows and Alice’s Rumpus In Wonderland over the past year. Callie Dowd will play the mad inventor Willy Wonka, and Keegan Stump performs the role of Grandpa Joe. The play is directed by recent West High graduate, A. J. Tierney, assisted by Caroline Dyer, a junior at South-Doyle High. Stage management duties are carried out by Kennis Van Dyke, a freshman at L&N STEM Academy. Emma Campbell, a freshman at Pellissippi State, is the staff’s Production Manager.

Knoxville Children's Theatre, 109 E. Churchwell Avenue, Knoxville, TN 37917. Information: 865-208-3677, www.childrenstheatreknoxville.com.

Encore Theatrical Company will present Stephen Sondheim and James Goldman’s “Follies” June 10-26. A true theatrical event, this legendary masterpiece is surreal, sophisticated, compelling, entertaining and epic in scope. The story takes place in 1971. The Weismann Theater, home to the Weismann Follies since 1918, is about to be torn down. Dimitri Weismann, the impresario who produced the shows, is giving a party on the stage of the theatre and has invited all the living performers, along with their husbands and wives, to celebrate the nostalgia of the occasion. During the course of the party, we meet them all, but the action chiefly involves two chorus girls from the 1941 Follies who were best friends and haven’t seen each other since. The reunion of ex-Follies performers in the crumbling theatre sets the stage for a parade of brilliant pastiche numbers written by Stephen Sondheim, including "Losing My Mind," "I'm Still Here," and "Broadway Baby."

Performances of “Follies” are at Walters State Community College, located at 500 S. Davy Crockett Parkway in Morristown. Evening performances are on June 10, 11, 17, 18, 24 and 25 at 8:00 p.m. with matinee performances on June 12, 19, 25, and 26 at 2:00 p.m. Tickets are on sale and can be purchased at www.etcplays.org or by calling 423-318-8331.