Calendar of Events

The Porch Sale is a great time to purchase handmade, one-of-a-kind arts and craft pieces, at a discount!

The Porch Sale provides our local artisans the opportunity to replenish their artwork for the remainder of the upcoming new year.

Appalachian Arts Craft Center: 2716 Andersonville Highway, Clinton, TN. Hours: M-Sa 10-6, Su 1-5. Information: 865-494-9854, www.appalachianarts.net

Oktoberfest is coming to the Renaissance in Farragut! Look for the big white tent October 1-3rd in front of Mind Yer Ps & Qs and bring the family.

Live Music every day on the outside stage
Inflatable slides for the kids
German Food
German Beer and more!
Help us to help Alzheimer's Tennessee. https://www.facebook.com/events/1036231060244569/

Greek Fest is more than just delicious Greek foods…it’s also an opportunity to share our Greek culture and Orthodox faith with you! From the syrupy baklava to the crisp Greek salad, the entire selection of delectable foods offered at Greek Fest give you a sampling of our culture and cuisine. Most items are made from scratch using our own church recipes and by many dedicated members of Saint George. Your favorites are back this year including savory souvlaki, lamb, pastichio, gyro, spanakopita, fresh Greek salad, sweet loukoumades, baklava sundaes and much more. The Taverna has a wide variety of Greek wines, and a Greek coffee is the perfect after dinner drink. Don’t forget to shop our sweet Greek pastries for baklava, koulourakia, kourambiedes, tsoureki and more! Credit cards will be accepted at most of the food booths.

Greek Fest was created to share our culture with you and there is much, much more to experience than just the cuisine. This is your chance to be GREEK for a day! The Greek culture begins with our Orthodox faith and the best place to learn a little more is through the Church Tours. Following a devastating fire that severely damaged the beautiful iconography and mosaics in our Church Sanctuary several years ago, our Church completed its renovation in June 2019. All of our St. George parishioners are blessed to be able to share our beautiful Church Sanctuary with our Greek Fest guests.

Admission to Greek Fest is $2.00 per adult. Weekend passes are $3.00. Children under 12 are free.
St. George Greek Orthodox Church, 4070 Kingston Pike

Fri & Sat 11 AM - 1 PM, Sun 11 AM - 6 PM
Visit www.greekfesttn.com for more information!

Fall is here and we are here for fall!
Join us this weekend for lots of deals and treats!
Make-n-take craft from 11am-2pm both days, free pumpkin treats and in-store deals you won't want to miss!
Check our instagram for updates and details!
https://www.instagram.com/backroads_market/

Backroads Market · 514 Walker St · Knoxville, TN 37919

The annual James Agee Conference for Arts and Literature at Pellissippi State Community College will be held as the James Agee Online Reading Series this fall, after having been canceled due to COVID-19 in 2020.

“By rethinking the conference as an online reading series that will be available on YouTube throughout the academic year, we can reach a wider audience,” said conference founder Charles Dodd White, an author and associate professor of English at Pellissippi State. “We are encouraging instructors to use it in their classrooms, but the entire series is free and open to the public as well.”

White, whose 2020 novel “How Fire Runs” won a 2021 Independent Publishers gold medal for Best Regional Fiction – South, created the James Agee Conference six years ago to give Pellissippi State students an opportunity to attend a scholarly conference while also celebrating the literature, culture and arts of Appalachia.

While the online reading series continues in the spirit of the James Agee Conference, White noted that an online reading series allows Pellissippi State to expand the featured writers beyond Appalachia to the general Southeast. Their readings will be recorded, not live, and will include the authors’ thoughts on writing and publishing in addition to sharing from their books.

The three authors on tap this fall include:

• Crystal Wilkinson, Kentucky’s Poet Laureate and the award-winning author of “Perfect Black,” “The Birds of Opulence,” “Water Street” and “Blackberries, Blackberries.” Her reading will premiere Sept. 30.
• Ravi Howard, author of two books of fiction, “Driving the King” and “Like Trees, Walking,” which won the Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence. His reading will premiere Oct. 30.
• Jim Minick, author of five books, including “The Blueberry Years: A Memoir of Farm and Family,” winner of the SIBA Best Nonfiction Book of the Year Award. His reading will premiere Nov. 30.

For more about each featured author and the link to their readings, please visit www.pstcc.edu/events/ageeconference/.

FOR RELEASE ON: September 10, 2021
Contact: Zachary Greene
Phone: 865-585-1710
Email: zachary.greene@lmunet.edu

The 4.5th annual Mountain Fiesta will run from Thursday, September 30 to Sunday, October 3. The Mountain Fiesta is a local festival that strives to harmonize community and celebrate Latin American and Appalachian culture within the Cumberland Gap region. The logo of The Mountain Fiesta represents the spirit of the event. Corn, being central to both cultures (think tortillas and cornbread), is the centerpiece of the logo. The cornhusks in the logo contain Appalachian quilt patterns and indigenous textile patterns from Latin America.

One of the highlights of this year’s festival is the MacArthur Award Winner Baldemar Velásquez. Baldemar was invited to attend, educate, and perform folk music that animated decades of work protecting farmers and farm workers. He is an organizer who was raised by migrant workers and eventually founded the Farm Labor Organizing Community (FLOC). He has dedicated his heart and soul to helping farmers and migrant farmworkers achieve fairer contracts and increased securities. He formed a band, the Aguila Negra Band (Black Eagle Band), and has used all the earnings produced by the sales to fund FLOC.

Thursday’s musical performances include a female songwriter round-robin led by Carla Gover and Paulina Vazquez followed by the lively sound of the CornMaiz String Band. The main event, which is the Saturday street festival most people are familiar with, will include food, family activities and games, art and cultural exhibits, musical performances, free professional dance classes, and vendors of all kinds. Saturday’s eight-hour lineup includes local artists Michael Jones, Daniel Chumley, Caleb Carney, and the charming Danielle Tennessee. Coming from out of town are Baldemar Velasquez and the Aguila Negra Band, Appalatin, Wayne Graham, Joe Troop (of the Grammy-nominated band Che Apalache), and Dale Ann Bradley (Grammy nominee and 5-time IBMA Female Vocalist of the Year) as the closing headline act. Sunday morning in Berkau Park there will be a bluegrass and gospel “superjam” where many of the festival musicians will come together for a casual, old-fashioned pickin’.

J. Frank White Academy’s Spanish teacher, Zachary Greene, has organized this event for five years now with many generations of students by his side. The current festival organizers express their gratitude for the students who came before them. This year’s student organizers are Caleb Carney, Amanda Kotlar, Lilly Stubblefield, Jaymin Huddleston, Tony Collingsworth, Jacob Yeary, Blake Stoner, Micah Harrington, Cameron Tomfohrde, Charley Leach, Ryan Saylor, and Samuel Tompkins. Special thanks to recent graduates Tanner Brush, Olivia Nichols, and Patrick Moore, who planned the 2020 Mountain Fiesta that was cancelled due to COVID-19.

If you would like more information about this topic, please call Zach Greene at 865-585-1710 or email zachary.greene@lmunet.edu
https://www.facebook.com/TheMountainFiestaCG/

I have lived overseas while in the Army and most recently 14 years in Las Vegas, Nevada. The last two years, my family has been getting acquainted with East Tennessee. Knoxville has been so welcoming, it is quickly becoming our home. Mostly, I paint in water based oils in a fairly realistic style. My subject matter is mostly landscapes, seascapes, animals & insects, and pets. I belong to Fountain City Art Guild, Tennessee Artist Association, and Tuesday Painters, a Plein Air Group. To see examples of my work, please see website: www.ArtisticEscape.studio

Smilin' Jack's is open Monday through Wednesday 11-4, and Thursday through Saturday 11-7.
4620 Mill Branch Lane, Knoxville, TN 37938 in Halls Crossroads

PASS OVER by Antoinette Nwandu

Pass Over made its Broadway premiere this August, and River & Rail is thrilled to bring this powerful, poignant story to Knoxville audiences. Pass Over takes as its inspiration the classic play, Waiting for Godot, and the biblical Exodus story. It follows two young Black men, Moses and Kitch, who talk shop, pass the time, and hope that maybe today will be different. As they dream of their promised land, a stranger wanders into their space and disrupts their plans. Evoking heartbreak, hope, and joy, Pass Over crafts everyday profanities into poetic and humorous riffs, illuminating the unquestionable human spirit of young men looking for a way out.

We are excited to announce our inaugural season of 'Pay-What-You-Wish'!: You pay what you wish for the ticket to the show you're about to see! Whether that's $3 or $40 - your ticket price is truly up to you - our philosophy is: a ticket price shouldn't be a barrier to seeing our shows!
(Suggested Ticket Price: $25 - any amount over $25 is a tax-deductible donation.)

PREVIEWS: SEP. 29-30 @ 8PM

PERFORMANCES:
OCT. 1 @ 8PM / OCT. 2 @ 8PM / OCT.3 @ 2PM
OCT 6. @8PM / OCT. 7 @ 8PM / OCT. 8 @ 8PM
OCT. 9 @ 8PM/ OCT. 10 @ 2PM

Content Warning: Please be advised that 'Pass Over' contains frequent and extreme profanity. 'Pass Over' is recommended for ages 15 and up. Children under 4 will not be admitted. If you have specific questions or concerns about the content of the production, please contact our staff, who will be happy to provide more information.

River & Rail Theatre, 111 State Street, Knoxville, TN 37902. Information: 865-407-0727, www.riverandrailtheatre.com

Pickup date of Friday, October 15
Shop for new plants in the online catalog September 25-October 8

Fall is always a wonderful time for planting as it gives your plants time to establish great root systems for the spring. Due to continued concerns about Covid-19, the University of Tennessee Arboretum Society’s Annual Fall Plant Sale will be online with the catalog open from September 25th to October 8th. The pickup date is Friday, October 15 from 9 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. at the UT Arboretum in Oak Ridge. Our plant sales are some of our biggest fundraisers of the year and help support the arboretum’s community education, trail improvements such as our Nature Book Trail, and children’s programs.

For two weeks, you can browse the selections of perennials, trees, and shrubs available from our vendors Tennessee Naturescapes, Riverdale Nursery, East Fork Nursery, and Erin’s Meadow Herb Farm. These vendors offer a wonderful selection of plants including unique conifers, both evergreen and native azaleas, hydrangeas, native shrubs, pollinator plants, and a wide variety of herbs to name just a few! Quantities are limited so we suggest early shopping! Beginning September 25th, log on to https://utas-plant-sale.square.site/ to shop and make payment. The catalog will open at 10 a.m. Saturday, September 25 and close at 5 p.m., Friday, October 8th. All payments must be made by credit card online in advance. No sales on the pickup day are possible.

On the check-out page you will be given the option to choose a pickup time on Friday, October 15th from 9 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. at the UT Arboretum, 901 S. Illinois Avenue in Oak Ridge. There are no Saturday pickups at the Fall Plant Sale. UT Arboretum Society members will have your plant orders ready for pick-up. This is a no contact pickup system. When you arrive at your scheduled time, you will come to designated pickup spots and your order will be loaded into your car.

This is an amazing opportunity that allows the public to shop for an extended period of time without gathering in large groups on one day. People will also have access to a wonderful selection of plants from four outstanding nurseries all at one online site.

To learn more about the Arboretum Society, go to www.utarboretumsociety.org. For more information on the plant sale, contact mcampani@utk.edu.

Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, 556 Parkway, Gatlinburg, TN 37738. Information: 865-436-5860, https://www.arrowmont.org/visit/galleries/exhibition-schedule/

Hosted by Schulz Bräu Brewing Company
Schulz Bräu's 6th Annual Oktoberfest will be from September 18th - October 3rd.

Saturday September 18th
5:00am Doors Open to ticket holders
5:30am Live Music by Sande & Mike of the Knoxville Polka Kings
6:00am Barrel Tapping
BUY TICKETS HERE: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/schulz-brau-brewings-6th-annual-oktoberfest-opening-ceremony-tickets-168739198485

9:00am Doors Open to the public
12:00pm UT vs TN Tech
3:30pm Live Music by Smoky Mountain Oompah Band
7:30pm Masskrugstemmen (Stein Hoisting Contest)
8:00pm Live Music by LynnMarie and The Nashville Polka Guys
Special Menu by Schulzes Schnitzel Kitchen

Sunday September 19th
10:30am Frühschoppen: Oktoberfest Brunch
11:00am Live Music by Concord Brass
4:25pm Titans vs Seahawks
5:00pm Live Music by LynnMarie and The Nashville Polka Guys
8:30pm Masskrugstemmen (Stein Hoisting Contest)
Special Menu by Schulzes Schnitzel Kitchen

Follow these links for each weeks schedule:
Week 1: https://www.facebook.com/events/512740219847677
Week 2: https://www.facebook.com/events/593098608527072
Week 3: https://www.facebook.com/events/206876131292806

Come enjoy authentic German lagers, Bavarian decor, and all the Polka you can stand for this festive time of the year. Dirndls and Lederhosen encouraged!

The play will be performed Thursdays at 7 PM, Fridays at 7 PM, Saturdays at 1 PM and 5 PM, and Sundays at 3 PM.

This production is designed for our youngest children and is a short production to allow for the attention span of our youngest musical lovers. (Ages 1+) This production’s run time is under an hour.

NOTE: We are currently asking all audience members to please wear a mask inside the theatre. Many of our participants are not old enough to be vaccinated. We appreciate your understanding.

Disney’s The Aristocats KIDS is a non-stop thrill ride of feline fun, complete with unbelievable twists and turns. In the heart of Paris, a kind and eccentric millionairess wills her entire estate to Duchess, her high-society cat, and her three little kittens. Laughs and adventure ensue as the greedy, bumbling butler pulls off the ultimate catnap caper. Now it is up to the rough-and-tumble alley cat, Thomas O’Malley, and his band of swingin’ jazz cats to save the day.

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