Calendar of Events

Streamed live Wednesday, February 10, 12:00 pm
The Knoxville Symphony Orchestra presents the KSO Q Series for classical music Wednesdays! Join us via Livestream to experience the talents of the KSO Principal Woodwind Quintet and the KSO Principal String Quartet.

String Quartet in D Major (K499) – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
I. Allegretto
II. Menuetto
III. Adagio
IV. Allegro
Gordon Tsai and Edward Pulgar, violin; Kathryn Gawne, viola; Andy Bryenton, cello

Libertango – Astor Piazzolla / arr. Jeff Scott
Flight of the Bumble Bee – Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
Portraits of Josephine – Valerie Coleman
I. Ol’ St. Louis
II. Les Milandes
III. Paris 1925
IV. Thank You, Josephine (J’ai Deux Amours)
Maria Castillo, flute; Claire Chennette, oboe; Gary Sperl, clarinet; Jeffery Whaley, horn; Zach Millwood, bassoon

$20. https://buy.knoxvilletickets.com/online/seatSelect.asp?BOset::WSmap::seatmap::performance_ids=BAF50A21-C2E4-467D-816E-3D22EA24A655

The Knoxville Bar Association is pleased to announce that a PHONE-IN Legal Advice Clinic for Veterans will be held on February 10, 2021 from 12:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. in an effort to serve veterans without the potential hazards of an in-person clinic.

The Veterans’ Legal Advice Clinic is a joint project of the Knoxville Barristers, the Young Lawyers Division of the Knoxville Bar Association (KBA), KBA/Barristers Access to Justice Committees, Legal Aid of East Tennessee, Knox County Public Defender’s Community Law Office, the University of Tennessee College of Law, Lincoln Memorial University – Duncan School of Law, and the local VA office. This is a general advice clinic with a wide variety of legal issues, including family law, landlord/tenant, bankruptcy, criminal defense, consumer protection, contract disputes, child support, and personal injury, among other issues.

INSTRUCTIONS FOR REGISTERING – PREREGISTRATION IS REQUIRED – DEADLINE FOR REGISTRATION IS FEBRUARY 8

Contact Legal Aid of East Tennessee at (865) 637-0484 to request a preferred date to be contacted for clinic intake. Available intake dates are February 3, 4, 5, and 8. The deadline for registration is Monday, February 8.
https://www.knoxbar.org/index.cfm?pg=UpcomingLegalClinicsforPublic

At intake, staff will gather information, including information about the legal issue. This information will be provided to the assigned attorney, who will contact the veteran by telephone on Wednesday, February 10 between the hours of 12 p.m. and 2 p.m.

Attorneys will be available to provide consultations in legal issues such as:
· Landlord/tenant
· Veterans Benefits
· Bankruptcy
· Criminal defense
· Consumer protection
· Contract disputes
· Estate Planning
· Child support
· Personal injury
· General Legal Issues

“[B]e prostrate / be praise”: Writing the Self
Sacred & Profane

The Sundress Academy for the Arts is excited to present this generative workshop focusing on poetry of the self led by Leah Silvieus on February 10th, 2021 from 6-7:30PM EST. This event will be held over Zoom. Participants can access the event at www.tiny.utk.edu/sundress, with the password ‘safta.’ In this generative poetry workshop, which takes its title from a line in Eric Tran’s poem “How to Pray,” we will consider how what we might consider “sacred” and “profane” can provide entryways into thinking about our selves’ relationship to our identities, to other people, and to the divine or supernatural (however one conceives of them).

We will look toward contemporary poets such as Tran and others as guiding lights as we work through linked writing prompts that will navigate us through the generative space that opens up among the contending forces of the sacred/profane, belief/disbelief and religious texts/rituals and their subversions/re-imaginings.

Over the course of this workshop, we will think together through questions such as, “How do poets use the profane to access the sacred and vice-versa?” “What is the relationship between the two?” “How does poetry work to draw/re-draw or dissolve boundaries between them?” At the end of the workshop, participants will emerge with a vibrant first poem draft that travels the strange space between the sacred and profane in their own poetic imaginations.

While there is no fee for this workshop, those who are able and appreciative can make direct donations to the leader via Venmo (@Leah-Silvieus).

Leah Silvieus (she/her) is the author most recently of the poetry collection Arabilis and is the co-editor of The World I Leave You: Asian American Poets on Faith and Spirit. She holds an MFA from the University of Miami and has awards and fellowships from The National Book Critics Circle, Fulbright, and Kundiman. Her criticism has appeared in The Harvard Review, The Believer, and elsewhere. She is currently based in New Haven where she is studying literature and religion at Yale Divinity School and the Yale Institute of Sacred Music.

Feb 10, 5:30 PM
Criminalizing the Mountain South: Persistent Inequalities
The Black Lives Matter uprising and COVID-19 have laid bare the structural racism and political, economic, and health crises that shape American social life.

This interdisciplinary roundtable series aims to explore the politics of race, class, gender, sexuality, and criminalization as historically played out in the Appalachian South, which has been left out of larger discussions about mass incarceration and the carceral state. By bringing together regional and UT scholars, activists, and students we aim to provide a fuller picture of how residents of the southern mountains find themselves ensnared in the criminal justice system and how criminalization further fragments the basic fabric of our Appalachian communities.

Guest speakers:

Ash-Lee Woodard Henderson (Co-Executive Director, Highlander Research and Education Center)
Judah Schept (Assistant Professor, Justice Studies, Eastern Kentucky University)
Sylvia Ryerson (Artist, Journalist, PhD Student Yale University)
Funding by Haines Morris Endowment

https://calendar.utk.edu/event/criminalizing_the_mountain_south_persistent_inequalities#.YCFw-GhKjct

The Sacred, the Secular, and the Space In Between: African-American Vernacular Art from the Collection of Michael D. Hill

This exhibit showcases the work of self-taught African American artists who examine the intersections of spirituality and material culture. Guided by a compulsion, in some cases even what might be seen as a divine calling, to create, they produced paintings, sculpture, and utilitarian objects that are startlingly powerful in both their aesthetic forms and the life force they channel. Among the artists featured in this exhibit are Mose Tolliver, David Butler, Lonnie Holley, and Mary T. Smith. Their work may also be found in such prominent collections as the High Museum of Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

Guided gallery tours by Michael D. Hill will be held throughout the month. For more information, please contact Bryan Wilkerson at 865-354-3000 x4788 or by email at wilkersonbs@roanestate.edu.

O'Brien Art Gallery at Roane State Community College, OBrien Building room 276 Patton Lane Harriman, TN 37748
http://academics.roanestate.edu/art/gallery/

Southern Circuit Tour of Independent Filmmakers: 2020-21 Season

FREE screening available for 4 days including Q&A with filmmaker.

The Hawaiian island of Kauai is seen as a paradise of leisure and pristine natural beauty, but these escapist fantasies obscure the colonial displacement, hyper-exploitation of workers, and destructive environmental extraction that have actually shaped life on the island for the last 250 years.

Cane Fire critically examines the island’s history—and the various strategies by which Hollywood has represented it—through four generations of director Anthony Banua-Simon’s family, who first immigrated to Kauai from the Phillipines to work on the sugar plantations. Assembled from a diverse array of sources—from Banua-Simon’s observational footage, to amateur YouTube travelogues, to epic Hollywood dance sequences—Cane Fire offers a kaleidoscopic portrait of the economic and cultural forces that have cast indigenous and working-class residents as “extras” in their own story.

https://www.claytonartscenter.com/event/cane-fire-documentary/?instance_id=8707

This year's theme is "On the Bright Side". Open to women artists of any medium!

Oak Ridge Art Center, 201 Badger Avenue, Oak Ridge, TN 37830. Hours: Tu-F 9-5, Sa-M 1-4. Information: 865-482-1441, www.oakridgeartcenter.org

The online-only retrospective exhibition titled “STAYING CONNECTED: The Valentines of Jim Balderes, Jr.” will be available for viewing from Saturday February 6 through Sunday February 28, 2021 at the Greeneville Arts Council website greenevilleartscouncil.org under the Mason House Gallery Online: Current Exhibit section.

Balderes has been sharing valentines of his own creation with friends and family for nearly forty years. The first was produced in a darkroom during his senior year at Cornell University where he earned a BS degree in Design and Environmental Analysis. Since then he’s seen Valentine’s Day as a regular opportunity to reach out at a time of year when family, friends, neighbors, colleagues and former colleagues could all use a bit of “handmade” warmth and whimsy.

During a two-decade career in corporate interior design and project management in New York City, both his mailing list and the variety of media for the yearly missive grew – thanks, in part, to a few classes at the School of Visual Arts and the significant transformation in digital media during those years. The various media for his valentines have included drawing, painting, photography, sculpture and digital art. Some of the greeting cards (primarily postcards) involved the use of custom-made tools and materials such as rubber stamps, die-cuts, candies and even scratch-and-sniff stickers.

Coincidentally, this year’s mailing is Balderes’ fourteenth since moving to East Tennessee. It becomes more important to him each year to send a tangible, physical greeting card when social media and email messages seem to be a step too removed. “Not only am I proudly supporting the ever-important U.S. Postal Service, but people would have a really hard time sticking a Facebook, Instagram or Twitter post to the refrigerator,” says Balderes. Balderes with the valentines he sent in 2007, his first after moving to Greene County. “And especially now, as we continue to contend with a worldwide pandemic, ‘Staying Connected’ safely is paramount. It is with that sentiment in mind, and as an expression of unceasing appreciation for all of our healthcare workers, that I made this year’s valentine.”

For information on Greeneville Arts Council exhibits, please contact Til Green, director of exhibitions, at 423-329-5366 or tilgreen724@yahoo.com.

Planning for the fifth annual Tennessee Pirate Fest is underway. This family-fun event will come to life with new dates--the last two weekends in May, plus Memorial Day. The rustic outdoor event site is located in Harriman, about 30 miles west of Turkey Creek. All are invited to escape to the pirate haven of Barataria, south of New Orleans, circa 1814.

“Our storyline is based on The Buccaneer, a 1958 movie starring Yul Brynner,” said Barrie Paulson, VP/Director. “Pirate Captain Jean Lafitte, King of Barataria, is showing his French hospitality by hosting a grand festival, as he hatches a plan to survive the War of 1812. Come see British red coats, New Orleans socialites, and ‘good’ and bad pirates all in one place. Enjoy hours of family fun and Get Yer Pirate On!” Eight acres of interactive entertainment will include comedy, music, and dance stage shows; costumed street characters; craft, food, and beverage vendors; and a variety of games. Activities will include patron costume contests, gong shows, pirate school, and Trail of Doom. New this year--live mermaids for photo opportunities.

Auditions for local street characters will be held by video by on Saturday, February 6, from 2-5pm ET; or by appointment before 2/13. Adults with theatrical experience and a friendly outgoing personality are encouraged to audition. Talented mature teens will also be considered if they have reliable transportation or will be accompanied by a participating adult. The audition consists of speaking in a British, French, and/or pirate accent; singing a short song; and reading from scripts posted on the website. Wearing a costume to audition is optional. For those cast, video call backs are scheduled for February 13. Weekly Saturday rehearsals will be held online and in small groups from Feb 20-May 15. To apply, please visit the website www.TNPirateFest.com under the audition tab.

Most of the professional stage acts have been cast. But for future consideration, acts are encouraged to email their show details with a video link to DarkhorseLLC@comcast.net.

The Tennessee Pirate Fest is planned for May 22-23, 29-30-31, 2021, from 11a-6p ET, at 550 Fiske Road, Harriman, TN. Festival organizers are staying abreast of health regulations regarding Covid-19. Safety protocols, such as wearing masks, checking temperatures, social distancing, and regularly wiping down often touched surfaces will be in place. For more information, please visit www.TNPirateFest.com and sign up for updates. Like and follow them on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/Tennesseepiratefest/.

The McClung Museum of Natural History and Culture at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, is reopening to the public after a closure due to the pandemic, and visitors are invited to enjoy a new temporary exhibition, Women’s Work.

The museum will be open Wednesday through Saturday 9AM-5PM starting in June.

The exhibition, which is presented by First Horizon Foundation, features 28 paintings, ceramics, sculptures, and works on paper from the museum’s permanent collections and will provide a number of virtual programs for the campus and Knoxville communities. The exhibition is curated by Emma Grace Thompson, a UT alumna and former graduate assistant for the McClung Museum. It was born out of her research into the museum’s collections along with her interest in women’s history.

The McClung’s Jefferson Chapman Executive Director, Claudio Gómez, is excited that the exhibition will highlight the work that has been done during the museum’s closure: “The team of the McClung Museum has responded creatively to the COVID-19 crisis, and although the building is closed, our programs and activities have remained active to engage with the different communities that we expect to serve. I am proud of the work done by my team during these months, and I am sure that the steps we are implementing for a limited reopening in January will allow us to provide some of the on-site experiences that are deeply missed by many people.”

More about the exhibition: https://news.utk.edu/2021/02/01/mcclung-museum-reopen-public-womens-work-exhibition/

McClung Museum of Natural History and Culture, 1327 Circle Park Dr on the UT campus, Knoxville, TN 37996. Information: 865-974-2144

Rala is preparing for our February First Friday show, with featured artist Cynthia Markert. The opening reception will be from 6-8 on February 5th. All paintings are one of a kind and make the perfect gifts for Valentine's Day! Cynthia's work will remain on display from February 5th - March 31st.

Facebook Event: https://www.facebook.com/events/753165832032219
Artwork: https://shoprala.com/collections/cynthia-markert

Cynthia Markert's art-deco paintings of women have long been a staple in the Knoxville art scene and have become symbolic of the city's artistic community. A long-time Knoxvillian, Cynthia was a Studio Art major at the University of Tennessee with a minor in Women's Studies. Since then, she's created these gilded, glowing, and brooding works that Tennesseans have come to adore and collect. Cynthia began developing her iconic style by painting plywood panels on empty buildings around downtown in 1994. Back then downtown was, as Cynthia puts it, a "ghost town", so the boarded up buildings provided plenty of the wooden canvas that would become indicative of her work.

"I would go walking past these big gorgeous pieces of plywood nailed to doors and I would start to see a face or a body. On Saturday mornings I would fill a baggie with pencils or pastels and return to draw"

Fun Fact: Markert's work is included in the archives of the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington D.C.

Due to the ongoing pandemic and Knox County safety guidelines, we will be limiting customer capacity and requiring that masks be worn inside at all times. Rala: Regional and Local Artisans, 112 W. Jackson Ave, Knoxville, TN 37902. Information: 865-525-7888, https://shoprala.com. Instagram: @ShopRala

Photographer Thomas Whitehurst is the Art Guild’s Featured Artist for February, 2021 and he will be honored at the Fun and Wine Friday Reception on February 5th from 5:00 - 7:00 PM at the Plateau Creative Arts Center (PCAC), 451 Lakeview Drive in Fairfield Glade. Thomas’ photographs will be on display along with the monthly members’ gallery artwork exhibit. Over 50 of Mr. Whitehurst’s photographs will grace the walls of the small gallery and many will be available for purchase at 50% off the original price. The public is invited to come and enjoy a glass of wine or non-alcoholic beverage, meet Thomas and other artists, and view a wonderful variety of artwork.

Thomas loves being outside and taking photographs of “Nature’s beauty;” outdoor scapes and floral shots make up the majority of his subject matter. Thomas states, “We have so much beauty here in East Tennessee to enjoy, and through photography we can enjoy it over and over each day.” Thomas uses archival papers, mats, and pigment inks to produce his photographs. He prints his own photos (except the ones on metal) and does his own matting and framing. His printer has nine ink cartridges giving his photographs an excellent color gamut. Thomas prints on various types of media; standard photo paper as well as canvas, watercolor, and fine art papers. He does all of his photography using a full frame digital SLR camera and state of the art lens’ and processing software. With today’s photographic technologies and Thomas’s talents, he’s able to create artistic photographs that can be enjoyed by all for decades. Visit Thomas' web site: https://3-thomas-whitehurst.pixels.com/art

The Art Guild is open to the public Monday through Saturday during winter hours from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Browse through eye-catching displays of paintings (watercolor, oil, pastels, colored pencil, acrylic, mixed media), photography, pottery, jewelry, woodwork, and more! The artwork of Thomas Whitehurst is part of the Art Guild’s February gallery exhibit, which will be on display from February 5 – March 4. All artwork in the gallery is available for purchase. Unique gifts can also be found in the Art Guild’s new retail space, “Endless Possibilities, Fine Arts and Crafts.”

Hours: Mon-Sat 10 AM - 2 PM. Art Guild at Fairfield Glade at the Plateau Creative Arts Center, 451 Lakeview Drive, Fairfield Glade, TN 38558. Information: 931-707-7249, www.artguildfairfieldglade.net